AI receptionist cost: what AI receptionists and answering services charge
How AI receptionists and human answering services are priced, what a full-time receptionist costs, the fees that catch people out and how to estimate your own monthly minutes.
Last updated October 22, 2026
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Paid AI receptionist plans we checked on October 22, 2026 start at $49 to $150 a month, priced by minutes, calls or unique callers; one vendor also offers a free 25-call tier. Human answering services we checked start at $164 to $300 a month for far fewer minutes or calls. Perimattic AI Receptionist has no published price.
How do AI receptionists charge?
AI receptionist vendors use a handful of pricing models, and many combine more than one:
- Flat monthly fee with included minutes. You pay a set amount for a bucket of call minutes and a per-minute rate beyond it.
- Per call. Each answered call counts once, however long it lasts. Some vendors let you exclude spam calls.
- Per unique caller. Each phone number counts once a month, however many times it calls.
- Pay as you go. A per-minute rate with no bucket, sometimes drawn from prepaid credits.
- Per seat or per location. Some business phone and contact-center products charge per user or location, with AI answering as an add-on.
On top of that, look for setup or onboarding fees, overage rates, annual-billing discounts and minimum terms. The table below shows real published plans, each taken from the vendor’s own pricing page and checked October 22, 2026. Prices change often, so check the vendor’s page before you buy.
| Vendor (pricing page) | Pricing model | Published entry plan | Beyond the allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | Monthly plan with included minutes | $49 a month for 250 minutes; $149 for 1,000; $299 for 2,000 | Overage rate not stated on the page |
| My AI Front Desk | Monthly plan with included minutes | $99 a month ($79 billed annually) for 200 minutes | $0.25 a minute, from credits |
| Goodcall | Per unique caller per month | $79 a month for 100 unique customers; $129 for 500; $299 for 2,000 | 79¢, 26¢ or 15¢ per extra customer, by plan |
| Smith.ai (AI-first plans) | Per call | Free for 25 calls; Pro $150 a month for 75 calls ($2.00 a call) | $2.50 a call on the 75-call Pro tier |
Read these as market examples, not recommendations. The plans count different things, so a $49 plan and a $150 plan may cost the same for your call pattern, or very different amounts.
How much does an answering service cost?
A human answering service or virtual receptionist service pays a person to take each call, so plans include far fewer minutes or calls for the money. The common models are a monthly bucket of minutes, a monthly bucket of calls, or a blended allowance that covers both human and AI answering.
| Vendor (pricing page) | Pricing model | Published plans | Notes from the page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | Monthly plan with included minutes | $250 for 50 minutes; $395 for 100; $720 for 200; $1,725 for 500 | Overage rate not shown; says no setup or activation fees |
| Abby Connect | Monthly plan with included “Abby Minutes” | $164 for 50; $329 for 100; $599 for 200; $1,380 for 500 | No setup fee; AI-answered time uses half the minutes of human-answered time; overage billed at your plan’s rate |
| Smith.ai (live-staffed plans) | Per call | $300 for 30 calls; $810 for 90; $2,100 for 300 | Overage $11.50, $10.50 or $8.50 a call, by plan |
Worked out per unit, Ruby’s $720 plan comes to $3.60 per included minute, while Rosie’s $49 AI plan comes to about $0.20 per included minute. That gap is the main reason businesses look at AI answering, but price per minute is not the whole story: a person handles unusual and sensitive calls better. See AI receptionist vs answering service.
What does an in-house receptionist cost?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median wage for receptionists of $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, in May 2025, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $13.83 an hour and the highest 10 percent more than $24.01 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program).
Wages are not the whole cost. In June 2026, wages and salaries made up 70.0 percent of private-industry employer compensation costs and benefits the other 30.0 percent (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation). If a receptionist’s benefits followed that average, a $38,010 salary would mean roughly $54,300 a year in total compensation, or about $4,525 a month. That is an illustration, not a quote: your benefits, taxes and location will differ.
Coverage matters too. A full-time receptionist working 40 hours covers under a quarter of the 168 hours in a week, and handles one call at a time. Many businesses keep their receptionist and use a service only for overflow and after-hours calls.
What drives the monthly cost up or down?
| Cost driver | Why it matters | How to keep it in check |
|---|---|---|
| Call volume | More calls means more minutes, calls or callers counted | Send only overflow and after-hours calls to the service if your team can take the rest |
| Average call length | Matters on per-minute plans, not on per-call plans | Pick per-call pricing if your calls run long; per-minute if they are short |
| Hours covered | Round-the-clock human coverage costs more to staff | AI covers nights cheaply; a hybrid can keep people on daytime calls |
| Call complexity | Complex calls take longer and need more transfers | Script the common calls and transfer the rest |
| Spam and wrong numbers | May be counted as usage | Ask how spam is filtered and whether it is billed |
| Texting | Text-back and SMS add-ons may be priced separately | Check message allowances and registration fees |
| Contract terms | Annual billing can lower the price but locks you in | Start monthly until you know your volume |
How do you estimate your own monthly minutes?
- Pull a month of call logs from your phone system or carrier: total calls, missed calls and average call length.
- Decide which calls go to the service: all calls, only after-hours calls, or only calls your team misses.
- Multiply those calls by your average length. For example, 300 calls a month at 3 minutes each is 900 minutes.
- Add 20 to 30 percent as headroom for busy months, so overage does not surprise you.
- Price it on each model: minutes for per-minute plans, calls for per-call plans, distinct numbers for per-caller plans.
Then weigh that against what missed calls cost you now. The free missed-call revenue calculator estimates the revenue at risk from unanswered calls using your own numbers.
General guidance, not a quote. Vendor prices are taken from each vendor’s own pricing page and BLS figures from bls.gov, all checked October 22, 2026. Vendor names are used only to show published prices; check each vendor’s current terms before you buy.
What will Perimattic AI Receptionist cost?
Perimattic AI Receptionist has no published price yet. It is planned to answer every call 24/7, book appointments in your calendar, ask your intake questions, text back callers it could not reach, transfer urgent calls and send a summary and transcript of every call. Pricing will be announced before launch.
Status: Perimattic AI Receptionist is in development; none of this is available to use yet. Sign up to hear about pricing first.
Before you choose a call-answering option
AI receptionist cost, answered
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than an answering service?
On the published plans we checked, usually yes per minute or per call, because a human service pays a person for every minute on the line. But compare like for like: how each plan counts usage, what happens to calls the AI cannot handle, overage rates and any setup fees. Your own call volume decides the real number.
How much does Perimattic AI Receptionist cost?
There is no published price. Perimattic AI Receptionist is in development and nothing is live or for sale yet. Pricing will be announced before launch; people who sign up will hear first.
How do I work out how many minutes I need?
Count the calls you would send to the service in a typical month and multiply by your average call length, then add a margin for busy months. Your phone system or carrier call log usually shows both. If a plan counts calls instead of minutes, use the call count directly.
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