Which online doctor service is best in Australia?
A quick note before the answer: we're NewDoc, this is our guide, and every claim links to its source so you can check our working. With that said, here is where the facts land as at 8 August 2026. Of the 14 services compared, NewDoc is the only one that bulk-bills every consultation it offers for all eligible Medicare cardholders, puts a fellowship-qualified GP on every call, and includes your script, certificate, referral, or care plan in the same $0 visit. That is why it ranks first here. And where another service genuinely suits you better, for overnight care, home visits, or medication delivery, we name it below.
Who wrote this: NewDoc. We're one of the services compared, so treat this as our considered view, not an independent review. What keeps it honest: every figure about a competitor was checked on that provider's own website on 8 August 2026, and every row links its source, so nothing here asks you to take our word for it.
How the ranking works
"Best" means nothing unless we say best at what. So before any ranking, here are the five things we measured, in order of how much they matter. We chose them because they are the questions people actually ask before booking an online doctor, and because each one can be checked on a provider's own website rather than argued about.
- What a consultation costs you with Medicare. The price an eligible Medicare cardholder actually pays, using the provider's lowest publicly listed option.
- When bulk billing really applies. The fine print behind the $0: which hours, which types of visit, and which patients. A $0 headline with narrow fine print ranks below a $0 with none.
- Who treats you. The minimum qualification you can expect on the call: fellowship-qualified specialist GPs, AHPRA-registered doctors, or a mix that includes other practitioner types.
- What one visit includes. Whether your script, certificate, referral, or care plan comes included in the consultation, or each one is billed as a separate product.
- Hours and same-day access. When they're open, and whether you can usually be seen the same day.
Two things we deliberately leave out. We don't rank the clinical quality of individual doctors, because that can't be judged fairly from public information, so we compare regulated qualifications instead. And we don't count user reviews, because we can't verify them. Everything here is as at 8 August 2026. When a provider changes its pricing or rules, we update the page at the next check, and the ranking follows the facts, even when that stops flattering us.
The comparison at a glance
| Service | Medicare consult cost | Bulk-billed? | Practitioners |
|---|---|---|---|
| NewDoc | $0 (Medicare) | Yes | Fellowship-qualified specialist GPs only |
| Hola Health | Bulk-billed overnight only (11 pm to 6:45 am, urgent care and script refills); private from $45 otherwise | Overnight only (11 pm to 6:45 am daily, urgent care and script refills); other consultations and service types are private per their site | AHPRA-registered doctors and practitioners (their wording: 'online doctors or practitioners') |
| InstantScripts | Private fee | No for consultations; their FAQ notes Medicare-funded mental health care plans for eligible patients | AHPRA-registered doctors |
| InstantConsult | Private fee | Patients under 12 months only | AHPRA-registered Australian doctors |
| Doctors on Demand | Private fee | No | AHPRA-registered doctors (3+ years registration) |
| hub.health | Private fee | No | Australian-based doctors and nurse practitioners |
| Mosh | Private fee | Generally private-pay; the mental health section advertises a bulk-billed practitioner consult to obtain a Mental Health Care Plan | AHPRA-registered doctors and nurse practitioners |
| EUCA MD | Private fee | No | AHPRA-registered Australian doctors (doctor-led; nurse practitioners not mentioned) |
| Teldoc | Private fee from $49 (bulk-billed for select groups only) | Select groups only (homelessness, under-12-months, sexual health / STI, pregnancy with Medicare or concession card); mental health items bulk-billed for patients experiencing homelessness only | Fellowship-qualified specialist GPs (AHPRA-registered) |
| Qoctor | Private fee (not bulk-billed) | No | AHPRA-registered doctors (GP/FRACGP status not publicly specified) |
| 13SICK (National Home Doctor) | $0 after-hours for eligible patients (13SICK criteria apply) | After-hours, and only for Medicare patients who also meet 13SICK's criteria (eg. a recent visit to a 13SICK-serviced clinic, an urgent problem, ATSI background, homelessness, or a sexual/mental health or COVID booking) | Registered Australian doctors (GP/FRACGP status not publicly specified) |
| Medmate | Private fee | No (a previously advertised bulk-billed mental health consult was not found on the pages sampled this round) | AHPRA-registered doctors and nurse practitioners |
| HealthEngine | Set by the clinic you book (HealthEngine is a booking platform, not a provider) | Depends on the clinic; HealthEngine offers a bulk-billing filter | Independent clinics (nearly 30,000 practitioners across 10,000+ practices) |
| Abby Health | $0 (Medicare) for most consults; non-Medicare/private consults from $27, other services from $9.95 | Yes, most GP and nurse-practitioner consults for eligible Medicare cardholders (services outside bulk billing from $9.95; non-Medicare/private consults from $27 per Abby's site) | AHPRA-registered GPs and nurse practitioners |
Cells are each provider's own published claim as at 8 August 2026, and each provider name links the page its row was verified against. Per-product prices and fuller notes are on the full comparison page.
Start with the money, and the fine print behind $0
Five services besides NewDoc advertise bulk billing. The fine print is where they part ways. 13SICK bulk-bills only after hours, and only if you meet one of its own criteria, such as a recent visit to a clinic it services. Hola Health bulk-bills only between 11 pm and 6:45 am, and only for urgent care and script refills. Teldoc bulk-bills select groups, such as babies under 12 months and patients experiencing homelessness. InstantConsult bulk-bills only babies under 12 months. Abby Health is the broadest of the five: it bulk-bills most consultations for eligible Medicare cardholders through a mix of GPs and nurse practitioners, with some services priced from $9.95 and private consultations from $27.
With NewDoc there are two conditions, and only two: hold a valid Medicare card that makes you eligible, and book within opening hours, which are generally 8 am to 11 pm most days. Do that, and every consultation it offers is bulk billed, whatever kind of visit it is: $0 out of pocket. If you don't have Medicare, you pay a private fee, and your script and any referral are still included. On the two criteria that matter most, that is the cleanest offer on the table.
Who actually treats you
Every service compared uses AHPRA-registered practitioners. That is the legal baseline, and it matters. The difference is what each service promises above it. NewDoc and Teldoc both state they use fellowship-qualified GPs only (FRACGP or FACRRM), which is the specialist qualification for general practice. Several services describe AHPRA-registered doctors without spelling out training. Hola Health says "online doctors or practitioners", and hub.health, Medmate, Mosh, and Abby Health use both doctors and nurse practitioners. None of this says any individual practitioner will treat you poorly. It simply tells you whether a specialist GP is guaranteed on your call, or possible.
What one visit actually includes
This is where per-product pricing quietly adds up. On a per-product service, each document has its own price tag: a script is $18.90 to $35, a certificate $14.90 to $24.95, a referral $24 to $45. That looks cheap until you need more than one thing. Say you need an antidepressant repeat, a mental health care plan, and a psychology referral in the same visit. At NewDoc, that is one bulk-billed consultation covering all three: $0 if you're Medicare eligible. Assemble the same visit per product elsewhere and each item stacks its own fee.
To be fair, it cuts the other way too. If you need exactly one inexpensive document and you don't have Medicare, a per-product service can genuinely be cheaper, for example a $14.90 certificate at Hola Health against NewDoc's private consultation fee.
Access, and when another service fits you better
NewDoc is not open around the clock, and we won't pretend otherwise. Hours are generally 8 am to 11 pm most days. If you need care outside that window, or something NewDoc simply doesn't offer, here is who can genuinely help:
- Overnight (11 pm to 8 am): Doctors on Demand runs 24/7 with private consults from $62.95 to $92.95. InstantConsult runs 6 am to midnight at $45. Hola Health is open around the clock and bulk-bills urgent care and script refills between 11 pm and 6:45 am. 13SICK bulk-bills after-hours telehealth and home visits if you meet its criteria.
- A doctor at your door: 13SICK is the only service here that does home visits. NewDoc is telehealth only.
- Medication delivered with the consult: Medmate pairs its consults with its own pharmacy delivery, and Hola Health lists chemist delivery from $5.99. NewDoc sends an eScript to your phone instead, which you can fill at any Australian pharmacy.
- Structured men's-health programs: Mosh runs subscription treatment programs (hair loss, ED, weight) rather than open GP visits.
- Finding a local in-person clinic: HealthEngine is a booking marketplace for local practices rather than a doctor service itself.
The verdict
Put the five criteria together and one profile stands alone: every consultation bulk billed for every eligible Medicare cardholder with no extra hoops, a fellowship-qualified specialist GP on every call, every in-visit document included at $0, and same-day access across a 15-hour daily window. As at 8 August 2026, only NewDoc offers that whole combination, and that is the entire argument: not that we win everything, but that nobody else puts all of it together. The closest are Abby Health, with broad bulk billing through a mixed practitioner pool and some paid services, and 13SICK, bulk billed but after-hours only and with its own eligibility rules.
If one of the exceptions above sounds like your situation, use the service that fits it. Otherwise, check our working on the full 14-service comparison (every row links its source), then see exactly what NewDoc charges.
Last reviewed 8 August 2026. Editorial policy