GPAtlas | Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

GPAtlas is a premium UK-based clinical learning platform founded and led by fully qualified, practising GPs, with vital frontline contributions from GP trainees. It transforms complex guidance into structured, high-quality tools to support healthcare professionals in primary care.

The platform is designed for the entire primary care team – including GPs, GP trainees, Clinical Pharmacists, Practice Nurses, FY2s, and medical students. It is also an invaluable resource for International Medical Graduates (IMGs), family medicine physicians, and doctors worldwide preparing for RCGP exams.

All topics are reviewed and updated by fully qualified, practising UK GPs, with valuable frontline contributions from GP trainees. To maintain the highest standards of clinical governance, our content pipeline is actively overseen by our dedicated Clinical Advisory Officer, ensuring all materials are regularly audited and updated to reflect current UK practice.

Content is reviewed periodically to reflect the latest NICE guidance and UK clinical practice. Topics undergo updates as required, with a visible "Last updated" sign added for full transparency.

GPAtlas is an independent medical education platform and learning tool created by practising UK GPs. Clinical learning you can trust - but never replacement of your own judgment. We do not accept advertising and are not affiliated with any pharmaceutical or commercial bodies. The content on this website is intended for healthcare professionals as an educational resource and must not replace clinical judgement or official national/local guidance. Users are responsible for verifying all information against current clinical standards.

Our audio summaries and podcasts are generated using advanced AI technology based on proprietary clinical scripts that are meticulously reviewed and kept up-to-date with current practice. While the voices are AI-generated to allow for rapid updates as guidelines change, the clinical logic is 100% human-verified by practicing UK GPs.

The Spotlight section highlights important healthcare news and updates from trusted UK sources (such as NICE, NHS, and others). Content is summarised by GPAtlas for quick understanding, and links may direct you to the original source for full details.

AKT Compass is our module for the MRCGP Applied Knowledge Test. It holds a 3,500+ question bank in both AKT item formats, three fixed mock exams, and the teaching behind every question: notes across 20 chapters written for this paper. Every question is anchored to a teaching point, so nothing in the teaching goes untested and no question leaves you with nowhere to read up.

Yes. Each mock is 160 questions in 160 minutes, which is the real paper's own format. There are three of them and each is a fixed set, so you can sit them at different points in your preparation and compare your scores. They carry real clinical photographs and data charts at the proportion the real exam carries them.

Yes. The real paper uses two item formats and so do we: single best answer, and multiple best answer, which gives you six options with two right answers. Both sit in the question bank and both appear in the mock exams.

Yes. Every note comes with a spoken walkthrough: the teaching explained aloud, section by section, so a note works on the commute as well as at the desk. It is not the page read out by a machine, it is the teaching talked through. The page follows along as it plays and highlights the section being explained, so you can read and listen together, or look away and keep your place.

They each get their own chapter and their own questions, not a footnote at the end of a clinical one. The RCGP blueprint is 80% clinical medicine, 10% evidence and data interpretation, 10% organisation and admin, so those two are 20% of the paper between them, and they are the most winnable marks on it.

Every teaching note carries a citation you can open and check for yourself, and the date we last reviewed it. We check every citation against the body that issued it, not against somebody's summary of it, and we keep them up to date as guidance changes.

You get both in the same module, so it is not a choice you have to make. The notes tell you what the guidance actually says, the numbers worth knowing and where candidates slip. The questions tell you whether it stuck. They are joined in both directions: every question points back to the teaching point it came from, and every teaching point has questions on it.

AKT Compass is the AKT module on its own: the question bank, the mock exams and the teaching notes. The clinical library (Ocean, Echo, Scope) and the CPD Hub come with GPAtlas Premium and Pro. If you want both, the Hero bundles put an exam module and all of GPAtlas Premium in one purchase: SCA Hero does that for the SCA, AKT Hero does the same for the AKT. Where a question has related reading in our clinical library, we link the article under the answer. The AKT tab on the plans page shows what is open to buy today.

Yes, it runs in your phone browser and there is nothing to install. The notes and single questions are made for a spare ten minutes between jobs. A mock exam runs for 160 minutes, so most people sit those at a desk.

The GPAtlas AI Suite runs on a monthly credit allowance. Every paid plan that includes the AI tools carries its own monthly allowance, refreshed automatically on the monthly anniversary of the subscription. How big it is depends on the plan, and the figure for yours is shown in your account. The allowance is used for Ask Expert answers and for generating Portfolio & Appraisal drafts, around 1 credit per generation. Atlas Search (a keyword search across our clinical topics) and Admin Copilot are unlimited for subscribers and use none of it, subject to fair use. If you hold two qualifying plans at once, one allowance applies, the larger of them, not the sum. Exam-only plans such as standalone AceTheSCA carry no allowance.

Yes. For every subscription that carries a monthly AI allowance, including GPAtlas Premium, GPAtlas Pro, SCA Hero, AKT Hero and GP Superhero, Admin Copilot drafts (referrals, Advice & Guidance requests, scan requests, clinical notes, patient SMS and more) are unlimited and do not use your monthly credits, subject to a fair-use allowance of 500 drafts per month that resets on your subscription's monthly renewal date. On the free trial, Admin Copilot is half price, so one credit covers two drafts.

No. Atlas Search is a free, embedded search that helps you find the most relevant GPAtlas clinical topics by keyword. It does not consume any of your AI credits.

No. Your monthly allowance refreshes in full on each anniversary date, and unused monthly credits do not carry over. If you regularly need more, you can purchase additional top-up credits (see below).

Yes. If you need more than your monthly allowance, you can purchase top-up credit packs at any time. Top-up credits do not expire while you have an active subscription, and they apply across all the AI tools. If your subscription ends, any remaining top-up and monthly credits are preserved but become frozen until you resubscribe – at which point your top-up credits are restored in full.

Yes. New users who verify their email receive free trial credits to explore the AI Suite. These are a one-time allowance to help you experience the tools before subscribing – they are not refreshed each month.

Yes. Patient SMS messages, and every other Admin Copilot draft, are included for every subscription that carries a monthly AI allowance: Admin Copilot is unlimited and does not consume credits, subject to the fair-use allowance of 500 drafts per month. On the free trial, Admin Copilot is half price, so one credit covers two drafts.

Once your available credits reach zero, credit-based generations (Ask Expert answers and Portfolio & Appraisal drafts) are paused until your monthly allowance next refreshes, or until you purchase a top-up pack. Atlas Search stays free for everyone, and on a subscription that carries an AI allowance Admin Copilot keeps working, because it never draws on your credit balance. On the free trial, Admin Copilot does use credits, so it pauses at zero as well. Your access to the wider GPAtlas platform (articles, audio, infographics, CPD Hub) is also unaffected.

Yes. New members can try GPAtlas Premium free for 7 days from the plans page. A payment card is needed to start it and nothing is charged during the trial; on day 7 it converts to the plan you chose, at the price shown to you before you enter your card, unless you cancel first from your account page (nothing is charged if you do). The trial is once per person and covers Premium only: the clinical library, the CPD tools and the AI tools, with Admin Copilot unlimited and a small one-time allowance of AI credits on top of any free credits you already hold. The exam modules and the consultation simulator are separate products.

Yes. A 25% discount is available for FY2 doctors and medical students working in primary care. This discount applies exclusively to our annual subscription plans. Eligibility must be verified confidentially. Misuse (e.g. false claims or account sharing) will lead to immediate account termination, as stated in our Terms of Use and Sale.

If you have failed the SCA or AKT exam two or more times, your next attempt should not cost you more. Apply with your result letters (scores can be blanked out, we only count attempts). A person reviews them within 48 hours and deletes them the moment a decision is made. If approved, you choose GPAtlas Premium, AceTheSCA or AKT Compass and take a full month free. If you carry on, the plan continues at 30% off for the next 12 months; cancel before the month ends and you pay nothing. One free month per person, because learning should never be a barrier. Apply on the hardship access page. Applications are handled discreetly and evaluated case-by-case. See our Terms of Use and Sale for full details.

Yes. Training Programme Directors, GP trainers and educational supervisors get 50% off the exam plans: AceTheSCA, AKT Compass, SCA Hero and AKT Hero, and the half price stays for as long as you subscribe. Applying takes two minutes on the educators page: your role and where you teach. Proof is optional, and a person reviews it within 48 hours. Want to explore first? Ask us for a free month of GPAtlas Premium. Just contact us and mention you train GP registrars.

Yes, and both of you benefit. Share your personal link from the Refer a colleague page in your account: your colleague gets 15% off the first payment of their first subscription, applied automatically at their checkout with nothing to type. Once they make their first payment, you earn bonus AI credits, and as more of your colleagues subscribe you unlock a free month of your plan, then a free year, with no upper limit. Every reward is checked and switched on personally by our founder. One thing we promise your colleagues: we never tell you who subscribed, only that someone did. Full details are on the referral page and in our Terms of Use and Sale.

GPAtlas uses a smart, module-specific CPD tracking system designed to minimise admin. Each module tracks engagement differently and awards credits accordingly:

• Ocean (Clinical Articles): Credits are awarded only when you actively click to confirm completion of individual sections or the full article. Each article has a maximum CPD cap based on the time to read and reflect on its clinical content – about one credit per hour of learning, following RCGP guidance – with exam-preparation (AKT/SCA) and reference sections excluded. The cap is divided across the article's sections, so completing more earns more, up to the maximum. No passive reading earns credits.

• Echo Audio Summaries: Credits are awarded automatically once you listen to ≥85% of an audio summary. Credits are calculated as: listening time (minutes) ÷ 60 (e.g. a 5-minute summary ≈ 0.08 credits).

• Echo Deep Dive Podcasts: Credits are awarded automatically once you listen to ≥60% of a podcast. Credits are calculated as: listening time (minutes) ÷ 60 (e.g. a 30-minute podcast = 0.50 credits).

• Scope Infographics: Credits are awarded automatically when you scroll through ≥85% of an infographic. Each infographic earns a fixed 0.25 credits, regardless of length.

CPD credit for Ocean articles is awarded only when you actively confirm completion – either by clicking "Mark Section Complete" on individual sections, or "Complete Full Article" to log all sections at once. Simply reading or scrolling does not award credit.

Each article has a maximum CPD cap reflecting the estimated time to read and reflect on its clinical content (about one credit per hour, in line with RCGP guidance; exam-preparation and reference sections don't count towards it). This cap is divided across the article's sections – so completing more sections earns more credit, up to the maximum. Section completions within the same 24-hour window are grouped into a single CPD record; completions on subsequent days generate separate records.

Credits for audio content are duration-based: listening time (minutes) ÷ 60 = CPD credits. This means a 1-hour listen = 1.0 credit, with shorter content proportionally less.

• Audio Summaries require ≥85% playback to qualify – reflecting the focused, clinically dense nature of the content.
• Deep Dive Podcasts require ≥60% playback – reflecting the longer, discussion-based format.

Both types track completion automatically – no buttons to click. Credits are calculated from the actual audio duration.

Each Scope infographic earns a fixed 0.25 CPD credits, awarded automatically once you scroll through ≥85% of the infographic. No button click required.

Yes. Across all modules, re-engaging with the same content on a different day creates a new CPD record with a new timestamp and new credits – for Ocean articles, Echo audio summaries, Echo podcasts, and Scope infographics alike. There is no annual cap on how many times the same content can earn credits across separate sessions.

CPD logging is session-based with a 24-hour grouping window. Sections completed within the same 24-hour period are grouped into a single CPD record. If you complete more sections on a different day, a new record is created for that session. Nothing is ever overwritten – all records are preserved in your history with their original timestamps.

The underlying CPD record – including credits earned, completion timestamps, and sections completed – is permanent and non-editable once logged, beyond the short undo window. This ensures an accurate and trustworthy audit trail.

However, you have two personalisation options in your CPD Hub:

• Delete an activity: Removes it from your Hub view and excludes it from your certificate totals. The underlying engagement data is retained internally for audit and certificate integrity purposes.
• Edit the display title: Use the ✏️ button on any activity to personalise its label. This changes how it appears in your CPD Hub and on downloaded PDFs – your credits, completion data, and certificate validity are entirely unaffected. The original title can be restored at any time.

⚠️ Important – your responsibility: Custom display titles are for your personal organisation only. You are solely responsible for ensuring any title you apply accurately reflects the underlying activity. GPAtlas does not verify user-edited titles. Using a misleading title – for example, relabelling a clinical topic as safeguarding, prescribing, or any other unrelated subject – in CPD submissions to your appraiser or the GMC may amount to a professional conduct issue. See Terms of Use §10.7 for the full responsibility and indemnity terms.

After logging an activity in the Ocean articles, you have a short 5-second undo window. If used, the entry is removed. After this window closes, the record becomes permanent. Note: this only applies to manually logged Ocean sections; audio and visual modules are tracked automatically.

Each certificate carries a unique CPD Certificate ID (e.g. GPAtlas-AH-2026-000083). This ID is shown on every report you generate from your CPD Hub. Appraisers or third parties can independently verify any certificate online at gpatlas.co.uk/cpd/verify – just enter the Certificate ID to confirm authenticity. All certificates are stored securely in your CPD Hub where you can download or export them at any time.

Yes. GPAtlas CPD records are designed to support reflective learning and can be used alongside appraisal platforms. We have an integration that uses FourteenFish's official Partner API, allowing you to link your account instantly from your CPD Hub.

Important: Users remain responsible for exporting or documenting their CPD in line with their appraisal requirements. You can add or edit your reflections directly within FourteenFish after exporting, but GPAtlas does not modify portfolio entries after submission.

GPAtlas is designed to prioritise meaningful learning over passive activity. While many elements of CPD tracking are automated, certain content requires simple user confirmation to ensure that recorded activity reflects genuine engagement with clinical material.

The AI Suite is a set of clinical and administrative tools designed to support your day-to-day work and learning in UK primary care. It provides ✨ AI-generated educational support for healthcare professionals. Always verify information against current guidance and local policy. The Suite includes four tools:

• 🪄 Atlas Search – search across GPAtlas content by keyword to discover the most relevant topics for your learning.
• 💡 Ask Expert – ask any clinical question and receive a fast, evidence-based answer with citations from trusted UK sources.
• 📋 Admin Copilot – generate referrals, Advice & Guidance (A&G) requests, scan requests, patient SMS messages with safety-net advice, and clinical notes, plus professionally rewrite any draft or admin task. Outputs are ready to paste into EMIS, SystmOne, or NHS mail.
• ✍️ Portfolio & Appraisal Hub – a supportive coaching tool that helps you draft and polish high-quality reflective portfolio entries for the RCGP Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA) and appraisal.

Yes. Admin Copilot includes a "My Practices" glossary (for signed-in users). You can save the practices you work at – the full practice name, the abbreviations or shorthand you type for each, and any writing preferences – so your drafts come out using the right names and details without you spelling them out every time. You stay in control: add, edit, or remove a saved practice whenever you like. As with everything in the AI Suite, never include patient-identifiable information.

The AI Suite is built for GPs and GP trainees and is open to UK clinicians across the primary care team. The Portfolio & Appraisal Hub specifically supports log entries for the RCGP Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA) and ongoing appraisal.

Ask Expert has been developed and tested for use with UK clinical questions. It helps you find relevant guidance quickly by returning sourced, cited summaries aligned with current UK clinical guidance, with citations so you can check the guidance yourself. It is built to help you locate guidance – not to give clinical advice, recommendations, or suggestions.

However, AI can make mistakes. All AI Suite outputs are for educational support only and are not medical advice, diagnosis, or a substitute for your own professional judgement. You must always verify any information against current national guidance, the BNF, and your local policy before acting on it. You remain fully responsible for all clinical decisions and patient care.

So do we. We don’t just claim quality. We publish the real figures behind every answer: the median number of sources behind an answer, the share drawn from trusted UK guideline sources, live citation checks, and our regulatory testing. See it all on our Ask Expert Evidence Standard page.

Yes. GPAtlas Ask Expert and GPAtlas Whisper are registered with the MHRA as Class I medical devices (UK MDR 2002) and carry the UKCA mark. Ask Expert surfaces trusted UK guidance for you to apply; Whisper helps structure your consultation notes. In both, you always hold the clinical decision and remain responsible for reviewing every output. Registration with the MHRA is not approval or endorsement by the MHRA.

Whisper listens to a consultation and drafts a structured note for you to review, edit and approve: nothing enters the patient record without you. You tell the patient first and proceed only with their agreement, and you should never state the patient’s name or address during a recording; the note never needs them. The audio is never kept. It reaches us in pieces while you are still consulting, so there is no wait when you stop, and it is deleted as soon as your note is saved. Only the transcript and the drafted note are saved to your account, and you can delete any consultation at any time. Where code suggestions appear alongside a note, they are looked up from the NHS England Terminology Server using the note’s own wording: they are suggestions, not exhaustive, and coding remains your responsibility. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

No. You must never enter patient-identifiable information into any AI Suite tool – including names, dates of birth, NHS numbers, addresses, or any combination of details that could identify a patient. The tools are designed to be used with anonymised clinical scenarios only. You are responsible for ensuring no identifiable patient data is entered.

The Portfolio & Appraisal Hub is a supportive coaching tool that helps you turn a real reflection into a well-structured WPBA or appraisal entry. We strongly encourage you to use "Think Together" – a guided coaching conversation – to develop your reflection. To support genuine reflection over automated output, you cannot generate a polished log entry until you have engaged with the coaching conversation at least twice. The more detail you provide about what happened, what you decided, how it felt, and what you learned, the better the draft we can help you produce.

The AI supports your reflection – it does not replace it. Entries must be based on real cases or events you have personally been involved in, must contain no patient-identifiable information, and remain your professional responsibility. We have rigorously tested the Hub to reduce inaccuracies, but AI can still make mistakes – you must review and verify every entry yourself against current guidance and local policy before using it. All generated content is provided as fully editable and copyable blocks.

Declaring AI use: When you use an AI-assisted entry in your portfolio (for example, in FourteenFish), you are responsible for declaring the use of AI in line with your educational supervisor's and the RCGP's expectations. The Portfolio & Appraisal Hub does not transmit entries to FourteenFish automatically – you copy the content into your portfolio yourself.

Ask Expert and the Portfolio & Appraisal Hub keep a history of your interactions so you can revisit them, and you can permanently delete these from within the platform at any time. Admin Copilot does not show you a browsable history. For full details of what we store and how to exercise your data rights, please see our Privacy & Cookie Policy.

Yes. Every Ask Expert answer has a "+ CPD" button. One click logs that question to your CPD Hub as a self-directed learning activity, where you can add a short reflection and include it in your CPD certificate or FourteenFish export. As with all CPD on GPAtlas, you remain responsible for ensuring your reflection accurately reflects your own learning.

Yes – and we'd genuinely welcome it. Every Ask Expert, Admin Copilot, and Portfolio & Appraisal Hub output has 👍 / 👎 buttons. Your feedback – especially anything that wasn't quite right – goes straight to our team and helps us keep improving the tools. You can also reach us any time at [email protected].

Yes. GPAtlas supports users with dyslexia and dyspraxia through our Dyslexia Tool, which includes customisable fonts, size, and spacing.

No. We do not use your personal or identifiable data to train AI models. See our Privacy & Cookie Policy for full details.

No. GPAtlas is an independent educational platform. Content – including all AI Suite outputs – is not a substitute for official national guidance (such as NICE/SIGN), BNF information, local protocols, or your own clinical judgment.

Certain features (such as Spotlight) may include summaries of publicly available healthcare news and updates; however, users should always refer to original sources for full and current information.

While we strive for absolute accuracy, medical guidelines evolve rapidly. Ocean articles on GPAtlas represent our most up-to-date clinical content.

Audio summaries (Echo), podcasts, and visual infographics (Scope) are derived from these articles and may not immediately reflect recent updates. For the latest guidance, always refer to the Ocean articles and verify with national guidance. If you notice any content that may require updating, please let us know.

No. While we offer high-quality support tools, we cannot guarantee any user will pass the AKT, SCA, or any other exam.

No. Every exam resource on GPAtlas is written by us. The AceTheSCA cases are fictional and created solely for educational simulation, and the AKT Compass questions are written against published UK guidance, never recalled from a real paper. The teaching notes behind those questions are not fiction: each one carries a citation you can open and check against the body that issued it. We do not use recalled exam material, and GPAtlas is not affiliated with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) or the General Medical Council (GMC).

No. We never sell your data. We only share it with essential service providers (e.g., payment processors or email platforms) under strict confidentiality agreements. See our Privacy & Cookie Policy for more.

You have full rights under UK GDPR, including access, deletion, and restriction of processing. Visit Section 6 of our Privacy & Cookie Policy for details on how to exercise your rights.

Email our support team at [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp +44 7884 099940. Our response hours are Monday–Friday, 9 AM–6 PM (UK time).