How much does an AI receptionist cost? Real prices vs answering services and in-house staff

Short answer: an AI receptionist costs about $25 to $350 a month for a small business. That works out to roughly $0.50 to $2.50 per answered call. A live answering service costs $4.45 to $11.50 per call. An in-house receptionist costs about $4,500 a month once you add benefits, and covers business hours only.

The sticker price is the least useful number on a pricing page. What you pay depends on how the vendor counts: minutes, calls, unique callers or credits. It also depends on which fees sit outside the plan. This guide prices the same month of calls across 15 options so you can compare like for like.

We build custom AI receptionists for small businesses. We earn nothing from any vendor named here, and we list the downsides of our own option too.

The three ways to answer your phone

Many businesses end up mixing them: AI answers first, and a person takes the calls the AI flags as urgent or unusual.

What you'd pay for the same month of calls

To compare fairly, we priced one realistic month: 150 calls, averaging 3 minutes each (450 minutes). That's about seven calls a working day, typical for a small law office, dental practice or two-truck contractor. We picked the cheapest plan that covers it, with overage where the vendor publishes it.

Two things stand out. AI costs about $0.55 to $2.55 a call at this volume, against $4.45 to $11.50 for live answering. And the spread inside each group is wide, so the billing model matters as much as the type.

The in-house figure uses the BLS median receptionist wage of $38,010 a year (May 2025). We multiplied it by 1.43 for benefits, from BLS employer compensation costs (benefits are 30% of total pay, June 2026). The result is about $54,400 a year, before recruiting, desk space and cover for breaks and time off.

What it costs over a year

The same 150 calls a month, over twelve months:

When does it pay for itself?

Divide the monthly cost by what one new customer or client is worth to you:

New customers needed per month = monthly cost ÷ value of one new customer

For example, if one new client is worth $500 to you, a $150 AI plan pays for itself with one extra client every three months. A $1,440 live plan needs about three a month. If you're missing calls today, the first number is usually easy to beat.

Per minute, per call or per caller: which billing model is cheaper?

The right model depends on how long your calls run.

• Per minute (Ruby, PATLive, Davinci, Rosie, Dialzara) is cheapest when calls are short: a quick "are you open Saturday?" costs cents. It punishes long calls, like a new client explaining a legal problem or a homeowner describing an AC noise.
• Per call (Smith.ai, Upfirst, Moneypenny AI) is cheapest when calls are long. A 9-minute intake costs the same as a 30-second one. It punishes lots of short calls and wrong numbers, unless the vendor excludes them.
• Per unique caller (Goodcall) is cheapest when the same people call back several times, like patients confirming and rescheduling.
• Flat monthly with credits (My AI Front Desk) is easy to budget until texts and extra minutes start using credits.

A quick test: divide last month's total call minutes by the number of calls. Under 2 minutes on average, look at per-minute plans. Over 4 minutes, look at per-call plans.

The fees that don't show on the plan card

These come from vendor pricing pages and from what owners complain about in reviews.

• Spam and hang-ups. Robocalls and short hang-ups can use up a minutes plan. Ruby reviewers complain about this most. Some vendors exclude them: Upfirst doesn't bill spam, robocalls or calls under 15 seconds. Smith.ai doesn't count known spammers and lets you remove up to 10% of calls as spam. AnswerConnect doesn't charge for the first 30 calls under 30 seconds each month, then rounds every call up to the next minute. Ask every vendor how a 10-second hang-up is billed.
• Per-call add-ons. Smith.ai's live plans add $1.50 per booked appointment, $0.50 per text or Slack message, $1.00 for its Spanish line and $0.50 per conflict check. If half your 150 calls book an appointment, add about $112 a month.
• Setup and porting. Davinci charges $95 to set up and $75 to port a number. PATLive charges $50 one time for business texting approval. Most AI vendors have no setup fee.
• Overage cliffs. Going 50 calls past a plan can cost more than moving up a tier. Smith.ai's live Starter plan charges $11.50 per extra call, and Upfirst's Starter charges $1.50.
• Texting and chat. Rosie's website texting is $50 a month for 25 conversations, then $1 each. Dialzara's chatbot is free for the first 100 sessions, then $0.15 each.
• AI-to-human handoff. Hybrid services can bill a transfer to a live person separately. Smith.ai lists the handoff but we could not confirm its fee, so ask for it in writing.

Contracts and cancelling

Spanish-language answering

Plan by plan: what you get and the catch

Live and hybrid services

• Ruby: $250 for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500. No setup fee. The catch: per-minute billing, and reviewers complain that spam and hang-ups use up minutes. Ruby lists robocall filtering, but we couldn't confirm how filtered calls are billed.
• Smith.ai live receptionists: $300 for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300; $8.50 to $11.50 per extra call. Spam isn't billed. The catch: per-call add-ons for booking, texting, Spanish and conflict checks.
• AnswerConnect: $350 for 200 minutes plus $49.99 setup, $395 for 300 with no setup, $575 for 400; $1.85 to $2.50 per extra minute. People only, no AI. The catch: every call is rounded up to the next minute, after the first 30 short calls each month.
• Abby Connect: $165 for 50 minutes up to $1,380 for 500; AI minutes count as half. No setup fee. The catch: overage is billed at your plan's minute rate, which isn't shown in dollars.
• PATLive: $99 for 50 minutes, or $49 plus $2.99 a minute pay-as-you-go. Spanish included; says it doesn't use AI. The catch: a $50 one-time fee for business texting approval.
• Moneypenny: live $165 for 50 minutes, then $2.28 a minute; AI $69 for 25 calls, then $2.49 each, with human escalation. The catch: bilingual and CRM integrations are listed for live plans only.
• Davinci Virtual: $129 for 50 minutes up to $319 for 100 premium minutes; billed per second. The catch: $95 setup and $75 to port a number; scheduling is on Premium only.

AI receptionists

• Smith.ai AI Receptionist: free for 25 calls; Pro $150 for 75; Enterprise $500 for 300. Known spammers aren't counted, and you can remove up to 10% of calls as spam. The catch: the fee to hand a call to a live person isn't published.
• Upfirst: $24.95 for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300, $299 for 600. Spam, robocalls and calls under 15 seconds aren't billed. Integrates with Clio and offers a BAA on its Custom plan. The catch: most other CRMs connect through Zapier.
• Goodcall: priced per unique caller: $79 for 100, $129 for 500, $299 for 2,000. The catch: a caller who rings three times counts once, which helps; a business with many one-time callers gets less from it.
• Rosie: $49 for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000, $299 for 2,000. The catch: booking and warm transfer start on the $149 plan, and website texting is $50 extra.
• Dialzara: $29 for 60 minutes up to $349 for 1,000. Spanish and the SMS agent included, no setup fee. The catch: integrations aren't named on the pricing page.
• My AI Front Desk: $99 a month ($79 billed yearly) for 200 minutes; extra minutes about $0.25 through credits. The catch: texts also use credits, so a busy month costs more than the sticker.

What does it cost to build your own AI receptionist?

A custom agent runs on a voice platform and pays per minute for the phone line, speech recognition, the AI model and the voice. From the platforms' published component prices, that comes to about:

Usage is cheap. The cost is in the build: writing the call flows, connecting your calendar and software, testing edge cases and keeping it working. A custom build makes sense when an off-the-shelf receptionist can't do one thing you need. Examples are booking into your practice software, checking a conflict list or triaging emergencies your way. If a $100 plan already does the job, buy the plan.

Will callers hang up on an AI?

Fewer than most owners expect, if two things are true. A 2026 Five9 survey of 3,000 consumers found 80% are willing to try AI and 71% want to be told when they're talking to it. Trust that AI will solve their problem was 55% when there was a clear path to a person, and 26% without one.

So say it's an AI at the start, and give callers a way to reach a person for anything urgent. Voicemail is the real comparison. In Moneypenny's small business call report, 69% of callers who reached voicemail hung up without leaving a message. That study is from 2016 and was commissioned by an answering service, so treat it as a rough guide.

What it costs in your industry

The same service costs very different amounts depending on how your calls run.

Law firms: long intake calls

New-client calls often run 8 minutes or more, so per-call pricing wins. Take 100 calls a month at 8 minutes (800 minutes). Ruby's largest published plan covers 500 minutes for $1,725, before overage. Smith.ai's AI Pro costs about $212 ($150 + 25 calls at $2.50), and its live Basic plan about $915. Smith.ai and Upfirst both list Clio integrations. Smith.ai's live plans charge $0.50 per conflict check. See what law firms automate.

Dental and medical offices: many short booking calls

Most calls are booking, confirming and rescheduling, often under 2 minutes, so per-minute or per-caller plans are cheapest. Goodcall counts each patient once however often they call. Get a signed BAA before any patient calls go through a service: Upfirst offers one on its Custom plan, and AnswerConnect sells HIPAA compliance as a $40 add-on. Weave, common in dental, starts from $199 a month but doesn't publish its AI price. See what dental practices automate.

Home services: emergencies after hours

Calls spike in heat waves and cold snaps, and the ones that matter come at night. Booking into your field software and paging the on-call tech matter more than the price per call. See our HVAC answering service guide for those comparisons.

Which one should you choose?

How to compare quotes in 15 minutes

1. Pull last month's call log: number of calls, total minutes, and how many came after hours.
2. Work out your average call length (minutes ÷ calls).
3. Price that exact month on each shortlisted vendor's plan, including overage.
4. Add the per-booking, texting, bilingual and handoff fees you'll actually use.
5. Ask each vendor in writing how spam, hang-ups and transfers are billed.
6. Call each one's demo line as a difficult customer would, and listen for where it gets stuck.

FAQ

• What is the cheapest AI receptionist?

  Among the services we priced, Upfirst starts at $24.95 a month for 30 calls and Dialzara at $29 for 60 minutes. Smith.ai has a free AI plan with 25 calls a month. The cheapest plan is not the cheapest month if you go over its limit, so price your real call volume.

• Is there a free AI receptionist?

  Smith.ai's AI Receptionist has a free tier with 25 calls a month. Most others offer a 7- to 14-day trial instead.

• How much is an after-hours answering service?

  It costs the same as daytime with most providers, because you pay per minute or per call. If 40% of your 150 calls come after hours, that's about 60 calls: roughly $50–$140 a month with AI, or $270–$690 with a live service, before plan minimums.

• Why does Ruby charge for spam calls and hang-ups?

  Ruby bills receptionist minutes, and a call that's answered uses minutes even if the caller hangs up. Ruby lists robocall filtering on its pricing page, but we couldn't confirm how filtered calls are billed. Ask before you sign.

• How much does Smith.ai really cost with add-ons?

  For 150 calls on the live plan, about $1,440 before add-ons. If half the calls book an appointment and you use texting, expect $1,550 to $1,630. The AI plan is about $337.50 for the same calls.

• Is an AI receptionist worth it for a small business?

  If you miss calls today, almost always: one recovered job or client usually pays for months of service. If every call is complex and emotional, a live service or your own staff will serve callers better.

• Is $199 a month reasonable for an AI receptionist?

  For 150 calls a month, the AI plans we priced ran $79 to $380. $199 is in the middle: Dialzara's 500-minute plan costs that. It's reasonable if it covers your real volume without overage and includes the booking and texting you need.

• Can I cancel an answering service anytime?

  Most AI plans and several live services, including AnswerConnect and PATLive, have no contract. Davinci and Moneypenny need 30 days' notice, and Smith.ai's AI plan does too. See the contracts table above.

• Can an AI receptionist be HIPAA compliant?

  Only with a signed business associate agreement (BAA). Upfirst offers one on its Custom plan, and AnswerConnect sells HIPAA compliance as a $40 add-on. Ask any vendor for the BAA before patients call.

• How much is a Spanish-speaking answering service?

  It's included at PATLive, Abby Connect, Dialzara and Rosie. Smith.ai's live receptionists charge $1 extra per Spanish call, and AnswerConnect charges $30 for the add-on.

• What does a virtual receptionist cost per month?

  For a small business, a live virtual receptionist runs about $165 to $1,725 a month depending on minutes, and an AI receptionist about $25 to $350. Price your own call volume using the table above.

Not sure which fits your calls? Our Automation Audit looks at your call log and tells you which option costs least for your volume. That includes when an off-the-shelf plan is the better answer. You can also see how an AI receptionist works.

Sources

Prices come from each vendor's pricing page as linked in the tables, checked October 16, 2026. AnswerConnect's figures come from its plans and pricing guide, which also lists Spanish answering and call transcriptions as $30 add-ons. Wage data: BLS Occupational Outlook, receptionists and BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. Caller research: Five9 2026 CX report coverage, Moneypenny call report (2016).

About the authors

Fred Alakbarov is Lorryn's expert architect: he designs the automations and agent systems with clients, from the process audit to the architecture. He has more than 20 years of experience in network and cloud engineering, DevOps and cybersecurity, working for Fortune 500 companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has built and automated corporate platforms used by thousands to tens of thousands of people.

Julia Ja owns Lorryn and runs its operations, marketing and bookkeeping, and manages the engineers who deliver client work. She has more than 10 years of experience in QA and CRM engineering automation, and more than 5 years leading engineering teams that integrate and automate cloud systems.