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How much is Headway's marketplace fee, and when does it start?
It is $9.99 per session, the same for every health plan, deducted from your regular payout. It starts state by state from November 2026 and reaches every state by the end of 2026.
- Headway says the fee follows your primary practice state, and you get at least 7 days' notice by email and a banner in your account before it starts for you. [1]
- It applies only to marketplace clients who book with you on or after your state's start date, and Headway says it is never applied retroactively. [1]
- Headway says it is not a change to your contracted rate and does not change what clients pay. It covers insurance and private pay sessions alike, and there is no separate bill. [1]
Which clients carry the fee, and which do not?
The fee depends on how a client first found you on Headway, and that stays the same for every session after. Clients Headway sends you carry it; clients you bring yourself do not.
| How the client reached you | Fee? |
|---|---|
| Headway's marketplace matching, a Headway ad or Headway's booking team | Yes, every session |
| A connected partner, including health plans and health systems | Yes, every session |
| Headway's AI integrations, such as ChatGPT | Yes, every session |
| Your direct link, wherever you share it (Psychology Today, your website, your email signature) | No |
| A client you add yourself with Add Client or your calendar | No |
| A client who comes straight to your profile from a search engine (not an ad), or by searching your name on Headway | No |
| A client you started seeing before the fee started in your state | No |
| Cancellations and no-shows | No, and any cancellation fee you charge is paid to you in full |
Headway lists each of these sources and exemptions on its help center, and says a client's source is set separately for each provider. [1]
What does the fee cost in a year?
The yearly cost is $9.99 times the sessions you hold with marketplace clients. One weekly client at 40 sessions a year is $399.60; ten weekly clients is $3,996.
| Marketplace clients | Held sessions a year | Fees a year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 client, every two weeks | 20 | $199.80 |
| 1 client, weekly | 40 | $399.60 |
| 1 client, weekly, every week of the year | 52 | $519.48 |
| 3 clients, weekly | 120 | $1,198.80 |
| 5 clients, weekly | 200 | $1,998.00 |
| 10 clients, weekly | 400 | $3,996.00 |
Because the fee is flat, it takes a bigger share of lower-paid sessions. On a session that pays you $60 it is 16.7%; at $90 it is 11.1%; at $120 it is 8.3%. These rates are examples for the arithmetic, not Headway's rates.
Use the calculator below with your own numbers, including what a session pays you.
Calculate your yearly fee
Count only clients who found you through Headway's marketplace on or after your state's start date.
- Per client, per year
- $399.60
- All marketplace clients, per year
- $1,198.80
$9.99 × 40 sessions × 3 clients = $1,198.80 a year
At $100.00 a session, the fee is 10.0% of what each marketplace session pays you.
Cancellations and no-shows are not charged. Clients you add yourself, clients who book through your direct link, and clients you saw before your state's start date carry no fee. Fee terms from Headway's help center, checked October 17, 2026.
How does the fee compare with what Headway already keeps?
The fee is on top of the share Headway already keeps. Headway says it keeps a small percentage of each session payment, but it does not publish how much.
Headway says it negotiates rates with health plans, then decides how much it keeps on each session, if anything. It says the amount varies by health plan and billing code, and that when a plan pays lower rates it does not always earn money on a session. [2]
We found no Headway page that states the percentage it keeps.
Is Headway still worth it with the fee?
It depends on how many of your clients come from Headway's marketplace. If most of your caseload comes through your own direct link, the fee may barely touch you; if Headway fills your calendar, it adds up.
Alma, the usual comparison, charges a membership of $95 a month billed annually ($1,140 a year), or $125 a month billed monthly. [4]
By our arithmetic, three weekly Headway marketplace clients at 40 sessions each come to $1,198.80 a year in fees, a little more than Alma's annual membership. The two are not a straight swap: Alma charges its membership whatever your caseload, Headway charges nothing on clients you bring yourself, and session rates differ by platform, plan and state.
Can you turn the marketplace off?
Yes. Turning off your marketplace appearance stops new marketplace clients and new fees, and your direct link keeps working.
Headway's help center describes the marketplace setting, and its Fall 2026 updates page describes the per-plan setting. [1][3]
A Headway spokesperson told Behavioral Health Business there is no penalty for opting out of the marketplace. Single source[7]
Find the setting. In Sigmund, go to Settings, open New Clients Settings and turn your marketplace appearance on or off. In a group practice, the practice admin manages this.
Know what it does not undo. Clients who booked through the marketplace on or after your start date stay marketplace clients, and their sessions still carry the fee.
Consider it plan by plan. Headway also lets you turn new clients on or off for each health plan you are credentialed with, so you can close a lower-paying plan to new marketplace clients and keep others open.
Send your own referrals through your direct link. It is in your Headway profile settings. A client's source is set by how they first found you, so this keeps clients you find yourself fee-free.
How do you see which clients carry the fee?
Each client's page in Headway shows how they found you, with any session fees under Pricing. Your Payments tab shows the fee on upcoming and past payments.
- In a group practice, the fee follows each provider's primary practice state, so until every state is live a multi-state group sees it for some clinicians and not others. [1]
- For supervised and transferred clients, the supervising provider's intake and each session after a transfer include the fee, charged once per appointment. The practice payments report has a column showing when it was deducted. [1]
Why are therapists objecting to the fee?
The main objection is that the fee repeats on every session for the length of care, instead of being charged once to find a client. Headway says the fee pays for growing the marketplace.
A Change.org petition started on October 1, 2026 asks Headway to pause the rollout and replace the recurring charge with a one-time client acquisition fee. Therapists in the r/therapists discussion made the same point. Reported[5][6]
Headway says the fee supports marketplace improvements, marketing, health system partnerships and support. [1]
A Headway spokesperson told Behavioral Health Business the company had invested $150 million in its marketplace and patient app that year and has 90,000 providers on the platform. These are Headway's own figures. Single source[7]
Sources (7)
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Every source behind this guide, with the label we gave it and the date we read it.
Verified Official and primary sources
- [1]Headway Help Center, Understanding the marketplace service fee. The fee, its start dates, which clients carry it, the marketplace setting and group practices. Read October 17, 2026.
- [2]Headway Help Center, Rates and agreements. How Headway sets rates and keeps a share of each session payment. Read October 17, 2026.
- [3]Headway, Fall 2026 platform updates. Turning new clients on or off for each health plan. Read October 17, 2026.
- [4]Alma Help Center, Request Changes to Your Alma Membership. Alma membership prices: $1,140 a year billed annually, or $125 a month. Read October 17, 2026.
Reported Practitioner and press reports
- [5]Change.org, Urge Headway to adopt a fair fee structure for marketplace referrals (created October 1, 2026). The petition's request for a one-time fee instead of a recurring one. Read October 17, 2026.
- [6]Therapist Daily Brief, Headway Will Charge Therapists $9.99 a Session for Clients It Sends Them (October 1, 2026). A summary of the r/therapists discussion of the fee. Read October 17, 2026.
Single source One report each
- [7]Behavioral Health Business, Ashleigh Hollowell, Headway Faces Backlash After Unveiling New Opt-In Patient Marketplace With $10 Per-Session Fee (October 2, 2026). A Headway spokesperson on opting out, its marketplace spending and provider count. Read October 17, 2026.