Therapy CPT Codes and Documentation Reference (2026)
Two things every outpatient mental-health practice has to get right: the CPT code that matches what actually happened in the session, and the note format that holds up under an insurance audit. This reference consolidates both, plus the time-and-error economics of superbills.
This is a standalone reference compiled from our practice-management and billing coverage. The CPT codes below are objective published standards (American Medical Association); the superbill and documentation figures are synthesized from aggregated practitioner reports. Methodology and sourcing are documented below; our full framework is at /method/.
Common psychotherapy CPT codes
These are the procedural codes that tell a payer what kind of session occurred. They are the same whether you bill insurance directly or generate a superbill for the client to submit. Match the code to actual session duration, not to what reimburses better.
| CPT code | Service | Session length |
|---|---|---|
| 90791 | Initial diagnostic evaluation (clinical, no medical) | per session |
| 90792 | Initial diagnostic evaluation with medical component (psychiatry) | per session |
| 90832 | Individual psychotherapy | 30 minutes |
| 90834 | Individual psychotherapy (most common) | 45 minutes |
| 90837 | Individual psychotherapy | 60 minutes |
| 90847 | Family or couples therapy (patient present) | per session |
| 90839 | Crisis psychotherapy | 60 minutes |
| 90840 | Crisis psychotherapy, each additional | 30 minutes |
Superbill economics
A superbill is the itemized receipt an out-of-network client submits to their insurer for reimbursement. The cost of producing one depends entirely on whether it is done by hand or generated by the practice management software:
| Method | Time per superbill | Claim outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Manual (spreadsheet or template) | 8 to 12 minutes | Roughly 1 in 8 claims denied on CPT or ICD-10 error |
| EHR-generated (auto-populated from the session record) | about 90 seconds | Far lower error rate (codes pulled from the record) |
The practical threshold from aggregated practitioner reports: above roughly 5 superbills a month, the time savings and error reduction of software-generated superbills outweigh the subscription cost.
Note formats: SOAP vs DAP vs BIRP
The three established progress-note formats differ in structure, writing speed, and how explicitly they connect intervention to outcome. This comparison is a structural synthesis, not a per-format stopwatch figure (aggregated owner reports put total documentation time in the 13 to 15 minute range per session on the leading platforms, with format being a smaller factor than platform and clinician habit).
| Format | Structure | Relative speed | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAP | Data, Assessment, Plan | Leanest and fastest | High-volume caseloads; easy to write, easy to write badly |
| SOAP | Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan | Middle | Medical-adjacent settings and cross-discipline care teams |
| BIRP | Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan | Slowest | Keeping clinical thinking in the note; forces intervention-to-outcome linkage |
Methodology and sources
- CPT codes: published procedural-terminology standards (American Medical Association). These are objective and not subject to synthesis.
- Superbill and documentation-time figures: aggregated practitioner reports (G2 and Capterra verified-account reviews at 6+ months of ownership) and our practice-management coverage.
- Note-format structure: standard clinical-documentation definitions, synthesized with practitioner-reported tradeoffs.
This reference is informational and not legal, billing, or clinical advice; confirm current codes and payer requirements against the AMA CPT code set and your payers. Figures are refreshed on our re-audit cycle; the "as of" date is authoritative for the figures shown.
How to cite this data
If you reference this, please attribute it to "PracticeVerdict, Therapy CPT Codes and Documentation Reference (2026)" with a link to this page. The underlying analysis is linked below.
The underlying articles
- What is a Superbill, the full breakdown of superbill structure, codes, and reimbursement
- DAP Notes, format and worked examples
- BIRP Notes, format and worked examples
- SimplePractice vs TherapyNotes, where documentation workflow lives in practice
Published: May 28, 2026
Last updated: May 28, 2026
Next scheduled re-audit: November 28, 2026
We re-audit all products covered on a 6-month cycle as new owner reports and source data emerge. Email to flag inaccuracies. Corrections are logged publicly on the corrections page.