Sesame connects people with medical professionals for telehealth or in-person appointments, often offering same-day availability. Sesame Care doesn’t accept insurance, but its direct relationship with doctors helps to lower patient fees. We recommend Sesame Care for people without health insurance and those seeking affordable online therapy. We’ll give you a rundown of Sesame Care’s services and show you how it compares to other online therapy platforms.
Sesame overview
Insights from our testers
Signing up with Sesame Care is surprisingly simple and our tester likes that it’s easy to browse available therapists in her state without having to go through complicated sign-ups or questionnaires. “I like that I can choose which therapist to book with and when,” she says, “especially when I have a busy schedule to work around.” We also appreciate the clear, upfront pricing—something not all telehealth platforms offer. “Whether I’m using insurance or not,” our tester says, “I’ve often had to go through multiple steps to hunt down the cost per session so that I can decide whether the therapist fits my budget.” With Sesame Care, that’s not the case. You can find out how much you’ll have to pay upfront, then book an appointment and see a therapist—typically all within a week or less.
Sesame Care is versatile, housing 40 telehealth specialties, many offering same-day appointments.
Sesame offers both medical and mental health care. Its medical offerings include medication management and appointments for urgent care, women’s health, pediatrics, dermatology, erectile dysfunction, weight loss, infections, allergies, and more. Its mental health offerings include the following options:
- Individual therapy and couples therapy: Sesame Care offers online video therapy sessions with licensed mental health care providers to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more, which is why we featured it on our review of the best online therapy for anxiety. Patients can book online couples therapy or individual therapy, often with same-day teletherapy appointments available. Therapist specialties—such as cognitive behavioral therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a form of talk therapy that helps patients become aware of and change negative thinking patterns and behaviors. CBT) or psychodynamic therapy A type of talk therapy centered on understanding the root causes of thought and behavioral patterns to create positive changes. —will vary depending on the availability of providers in your area.
- Psychiatry: Sesame Care can connect you with psychiatrists for online or in-person visits. Its board-certified psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, or physician assistants can evaluate mental health, diagnose conditions, and prescribe or refill medications as medically necessary. If Sesame doesn’t have what you’re looking for, explore our picks for this year’s top telehealth psychiatrists.
- Medication management. You can get new prescriptions or refills through Sesame Care if your health care provider deems it medically necessary. Sesame providers can prescribe hundreds of medications for conditions such as anxiety, depression, diabetes, hypertension, migraines, and much more. Sesame Care cannot prescribe controlled substances (opioids, stimulants, hallucinogens, depressants, and anabolic steroids) as defined by the Controlled Substances Act.
You can book a video appointment with a doctor or specialist to get medication prescriptions or refills through Sesame Care. Same-day appointments are often available. Your doctor will discuss symptoms with you to create a treatment plan. If a prescription is approved, you can choose between direct home delivery, which takes two to three days, or same-day pharmacy pickup.
Unlike other online therapy platforms we’ve reviewed, like BetterHelp and Brightside, Sesame has minimal bonus features. For some users, this could be a benefit. “You don’t have to engage with the app all the time, and it’s just like booking any other appointment,” our tester says. “You book the appointment, you attend the appointment, and you can rebook if you need to.” Users will often still get resources directly from their therapist, like worksheets, meditation exercises, and suggested reading.
Sesame Care now offers a provider messaging feature for those who want more support between sessions, allowing you to reach out directly to your provider post-appointment. It does cost extra, and many competitors offer free messaging. We contacted customer service to ask them how to use this service. They shared the following steps:
- Complete your visit with your Sesame mental health care provider.
- Accept the email invitation to pay for the messaging service. Prices start at $19 for four days of messaging.
- Once you accept the invitation and pay for messaging, you can access unlimited messaging with your provider for four days (96 hours).
- Your provider will receive a notification as soon as you send a new message.
- Access and reply to messages via your Sesame Care account.
What other users are saying
In our February 2024 survey of 100 Sesame Care online therapy users, 80 percent of respondents somewhat or completely agreed that Sesame’s customer service resolved their issue in a timely manner. Our experience with Sesame’s customer service was adequate but not excellent. The website claims to provide customer service via telephone from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, but we couldn’t reach a representative when we called on a Friday afternoon and again on a Monday morning. Instead, we asked a question via their online chat option and received an email response within 24 hours.
Our testing experience
Collectively, the Handbook Team has put in more than 10,000 hours of research, testing, and evaluation to review different online therapy and psychiatry platforms, down to the fine print. We write our reviews to guide you in finding a provider who can best fit your mental health care needs.
Our Handbook Team has consulted with more than 60 mental health experts in total. We ask for details on when online therapy can be beneficial and when online mental health care is not appropriate. For example, we learned that in the case of someone suffering from agoraphobia, experts told us that in-person sessions can be more meaningful to the individual’s progress compared to avoiding exposure therapy by exclusively attending online appointments. Our challenge is to test and evaluate the features and experience of the platforms rather than the care from individual providers.
How we tested Sesame Care
Fill out the intake assessment.
Subscribe as a new user and invite their teen to join the platform.
Get matched with a therapist.
Go through steps to change therapists.
Schedule and attend four weeks of appointments.
Contact customer support with questions.
Explore other platform features, including digital journals and worksheets.
Review billing policies and cancel subscription.
Our Handbook Team explored the Sesame Care platform and attended online therapy sessions for four weeks. We instruct testers to try the platform through the lens of a real user, paying attention to how easy or difficult it was to find a therapist they could talk to. They log their experience in a diary and share their findings when testing is concluded. We used these findings and our research into online therapy to write this Sesame Care review.
Compare Sesame with other online therapy platforms
| Monthly cost | Varies by location and therapist | $95–$349 | $260–$360* | $30 average copay per session; varies by provider | $276–$436☨* |
| Accepts insurance | No | Yes, not including Medicaid | No | Yes | Yes, not including Medicaid or Medicare |
| Prescribes medication | Yes, except for controlled substances | Yes, except for controlled substances | No | Yes, psychiatric | Yes, psychiatric, except for controlled substances |
| Services | Online therapy, psychiatry, health care | Online therapy, psychiatry | Online therapy | Psychiatry | Online therapy, psychiatry |
Sesame cost and payment options
It’s free to browse through Sesame Care’s providers, see their ratings and reviews, and check their availability. You can book one-off appointments and pay as you go or sign up for a Sesame Plus monthly membership for discounted services.
Sesame Care prices vary by provider and location, but direct payments to doctors generally mean lower costs for you. The cost per session varies widely by provider. In general, our research shows you can expect to pay more for a psychiatry visit with a medical doctor (MD) than for therapy with a licensed professional counselor (LPC) or licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). In many cases, searching for a psychiatry consult on Sesame will match you with a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) instead of an MD. Both PMHNPs and MDs can make diagnoses and prescribe medication, but a PMHNP may be more affordable. What really stands out about Sesame Care’s pricing is its transparency. You can see upfront pricing for all providers, making it easy to choose someone who matches your budget.
From our tester
“I like that Sesame shows its provider’s prices so I can choose a therapist that works with my financial situation and mental health needs. I wouldn’t mind paying more if the therapist is specially trained in treating my area of concern.”
Sesame accepts Visa, Discover, American Express, and MasterCard. Payments must be made online using your card information. Sesame doesn’t accept insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare, but you can pay for Sesame services using HSA, HRA, FSA, or other health account funds.
Sesame uses a third-party platform, Stripe, for secure payments. Its services are trusted by big names like Google, Amazon, and Instacart. Stripe stores your payment information on secure servers that are accessible only to Stripe.
To save 20 percent off on your first visit, enter your email under “Sign up to save 20% on your first visit” on Sesame’s home page.
Sesame Plus membership
Sesame Plus is an optional membership that costs $10.99 per month or $99 per year. Sesame Plus offers these benefits:
- One free lab or blood test per year ($65 value).
- $10 discount on all telehealth and in-person primary care visits.
- $10 discount on in-person dentist or specialist visits.
- $10 discount on prescriptions.
Sesame’s site shares concrete examples of how Sesame Plus discounts might play out: $10 off a prescription refill, $10 off an in-person doctor visit, and $10 off a video therapy session .
It’s important to note that, while the Sesame Plus membership offers a discount on some in-person sessions, most providers on Sesame offer telehealth only. It is possible to find in-person visits (type “in-person” into the search bar for the type of appointment you’re seeking, as in “in-person therapy.”), but we found these types of appointments to be limited. Also, you may pay a little more per session to see a provider in person (as is the case with this provider). A Sesame Plus discount could help make up for this difference, but only if you are visiting Sesame providers more than once per month.
Insurance options
Sesame Care doesn’t accept insurance but keeps costs low through its direct-to-doctor payment model. We found some therapy appointments with LCSWs and LPCs for as low as $67 per visit, but these rates vary based on your location. For people without insurance, it’s worthwhile to compare the cost of Sesame providers to the cost of in-person providers in your area.
In a mental health emergency
Online therapists may not be the most appropriate resource to help in a mental health crisis. If you or someone you know is a danger to themselves or others around them, it is an emergency, and cannot wait for an online therapist’s response.
Don’t wait. You can find help immediately by:
- Visiting urgent care
- Calling or texting 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
- Chatting online at 988lifeline.org
- Calling the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 or text your zip code to 435748
All the above options will connect you with trained professionals who can provide crisis support. You can find even more resources, including international options, on our helpline directory page.
Our final verdict
Sesame Care is an affordable, user-friendly telehealth option, especially for those without insurance. With same-day appointments, upfront pricing, and more than 40 medical specialties available, it caters to a variety of health care needs. If you prefer a therapy platform that accepts insurance, we tested and reviewed online therapy that takes insurance.
Legal filings
At the time of writing this article, we didn’t see relevant legal filings against Sesame Care. However, Sesame Care and Costco announced a new partnership in September 2023, and Costco is facing a class-action lawsuit related to health data privacy. Consider keeping an eye on Sesame’s data privacy policies as this new partnership unfolds.
Here’s the timeline of events:
- September 2023: Sesame Care and Costco announce a new partnership; Costco members will receive discount pricing on Sesame Care services. According to the Sesame website, Costco Members will receive Sesame’s lowest rates in all fifty states, including virtual primary care visits for $29 and virtual mental health therapy for $79.
- November 2023: A class-action lawsuit in Seattle claims Costco let tech giants such as Meta access patient health data through embedded tracking tools.
Frequently asked questions
We recommend Sesame Care for people without insurance and those seeking affordable telehealth services, including therapy, prescription refills, urgent care, and over 40 other medical specialties. Sesame stands out for its flexibility, often offering same-day appointments. You can book one-off appointments at a low cost or opt for a monthly membership that offers discounts.
The cost of Sesame Care telehealth appointments varies by location and provider. An optional Sesame Plus membership is $10.99 per month and offers discounts on both virtual and in-person visits.
No, Sesame Care does not accept insurance at this time. That said, patients can pay for Sesame services using HSA, HRA, FSA, or other health account funds.