How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost? (2026 Pricing)
Written by Kamran, Founder, 3xRevenue. Last updated · 11 min read.
Most small businesses pay roughly $50 to $400 a month for an AI receptionist. That range comes from official pricing pages we checked on October 28, 2026. The lowest paid entry plan we found is $49 a month for 250 minutes.
Headline prices hide the real bill. Pricing pages list minutes, calls, "unique customers," credits, overages and add-ons. The cheapest plan for short calls is often the priciest for long ones.
New to the idea? Start with how an AI voice agent answers calls for a small business. Then pull three numbers from your phone logs and price your own bill in about 20 minutes.
What you actually pay for with an AI receptionist
You pay for three things: a plan fee, usage and add-ons.
- The plan fee. The monthly subscription.
- Usage. Minutes, calls or callers above what the plan includes.
- Setup and add-ons. Onboarding, calendar or CRM integrations, texting, extra phone numbers.
An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers your business line in natural language. It answers common questions, books appointments and passes urgent calls to a person. Our glossary entry on what a voice agent is covers the basics.
A phone call is often your highest-intent lead. Someone who calls is usually ready to book, and an unanswered caller may try the next business. The plan fee only makes sense next to the value of those calls.
What four AI receptionist vendors charge in 2026
Four real vendors charge $49 to $150 a month for their paid entry plans. We checked each official pricing page on October 28, 2026, and each uses a different billing unit. Features differ between plans, so this is not a ranking.
| Vendor | How it bills | Entry plan | What the entry plan includes | Extra usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Per call | Free; Pro from $150/mo | Free: 25 calls. Pro: 75 calls ($2.00 per call) | Free: $3.00 per call. Pro: $2.17 to $2.50 per call |
| Goodcall | Per unique caller | $79/mo Starter | 100 unique customers a month | $0.79 per extra unique customer on Starter |
| Rosie | Per minute (bundles) | $49/mo Professional | 250 minutes a month | Not listed on the page |
| My AI Front Desk | Per minute (credits) | $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually | 200 voice minutes plus SMS and chat allowances | $0.25 per voice minute |
Source: each vendor's official pricing page, checked October 28, 2026.
Get an AI receptionist set up for your calls
A few details from those pages change the math:
- Smith.ai filters known spam calls before the AI answers, and they do not count toward your quota. Larger Pro tiers drop the per-call rate to $1.80 and $1.67. Enterprise starts at $500 a month.
- Goodcall says it never meters minutes. A repeat caller in the same month counts once. Growth is $129 for 500 unique customers and Scale is $299 for 2,000.
- Rosie offers Scale at $149 for 1,000 minutes and Growth at $299 for 2,000 minutes. Annual billing comes with "2 months free." Website texting is a $50 a month add-on.
- My AI Front Desk bills overages in credits worth one cent each, at 25 credits per voice minute.
Prices change often. Always confirm on the vendor's page before you sign.
Work out your own monthly AI receptionist bill
You can price your own bill in seven steps from your call log. Steps 1 to 4 give the plan cost; steps 5 to 7 check extras and results.
1. Pull 30 days of call data
Export your call log from your phone system or carrier. You need total inbound calls, average call length in minutes, and distinct numbers that called.
Example: A dental office logs 420 calls, an average of 2.5 minutes, from 310 distinct numbers.
Quick check: If your system cannot show call length, time 20 calls by hand over a week. Use the average.
2. Count the calls you miss today
Count unanswered calls, calls sent to voicemail and calls under 10 seconds (often hang-ups). Note when they happen: lunch, after 5 p.m., weekends.
Example: 70 of the 420 calls went unanswered, and 45 of those came after hours.
Quick check: Call your own number at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on a weekday. What does the caller hear?
3. Match your call pattern to a pricing model
Your average call length decides which billing unit is cheapest.
Example: Short calls like "are you open?" burn few minutes, so a per-minute bundle stays cheap. Long intake calls, like insurance details, favor per-call or per-caller plans.
Quick check: Multiply calls by average minutes. If the total fits inside a minute bundle, start there.
4. Price your volume on two or three plans
The cheapest plan flips as call length grows. The table below shows one business at three call lengths, using the published prices above. It assumes 200 calls a month from 150 unique callers.
| Plan (published price) | 1-min average (200 min) | 3-min average (600 min) | 6-min average (1,200 min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie, minute bundles | $49 (Professional) | $149 (Scale) | $299 (Growth) |
| My AI Front Desk, $99 + $0.25/min over 200 | $99 | $199 | $349 |
| Goodcall, per unique caller | $118.50 (Starter + 50 extra callers) | $118.50 | $118.50 |
| Smith.ai Pro, per call (150-call tier + 50 extra) | about $385 | about $385 | about $385 |
Source: our estimates from each vendor's published rates on October 28, 2026, excluding taxes and add-ons. The Smith.ai figure assumes the 150-call tier at $1.80 per call ($270) plus 50 calls at the $2.30 overage rate. Goodcall Growth at $129 would also cover this volume.
At one minute per call, minute bundles are cheapest. At six minutes, a per-caller plan costs less than half as much.
5. Add setup and the extras you will actually use
List the integrations you need: calendar booking, CRM updates, text follow-ups, call transfer to your cell. Then check which plan tier includes them. Goodcall, for example, allows 1 external tool on Starter, 5 on Growth and 15 on Scale.
Example: A plan that is $30 cheaper but lacks calendar booking can cost more in staff time.
Quick check: Ask each vendor in writing about setup fees and minimum terms. Smith.ai, for instance, lists month-to-month billing with 30 days' notice to cancel.
6. Compare against a human and against doing nothing
A human receptionist costs about $3,168 a month in wages alone, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The median receptionist pay is $38,010 a year, or $18.27 an hour, as of May 2025.
That is before payroll taxes, benefits and paid time off. One person also covers one shift, not nights and weekends.
To see which of your tasks are ready for AI, take our free AI readiness quiz. Torn between AI, a live answering service and a staff member? Our breakdown of AI receptionist vs answering service walks through that decision.
Quick check: "Doing nothing" is not free. Put a dollar value on the calls from step 2 before you call the plan too expensive.
7. Run a two-week test on real calls
Start with after-hours and overflow calls only. Keep your team answering during the day. Review every transcript in week one.
Example: Route calls to the AI after 5 p.m. and when the line rings more than four times.
Quick check: After two weeks, count booked appointments, wrong answers and callers who asked for a human.
Example: the math for a home services company with 200 calls
In this example, an AI receptionist could recover about $2,100 a month for roughly $119 to $385 in fees. The company is hypothetical. Every number below is for illustration, not data from a real client.
| Input | Example value |
|---|---|
| Inbound calls per month | 200 |
| Average call length | 3 minutes |
| Unique callers | 150 |
| Calls missed today | 40 |
| Share of missed calls that are new job requests | 30% (12 calls) |
| Share of those you would book if answered | 50% (6 jobs) |
| Average job value | $350 |
Source: hypothetical example for illustration, not client data.
Revenue at risk each month: 6 jobs × $350 = $2,100.
AI receptionist cost at this volume (from the table above): roughly $119 to $385 a month, depending on the plan.
Net, if the AI books those 6 jobs: about $1,715 to $1,981 a month. That is before setup time and before any jobs the AI fails to book.
If only 2 of the 12 calls turn into jobs, you recover $700 a month. That still covers most plans in the table.
If your average job is $90, the math gets tight. Pick a cheaper plan or limit the AI to after-hours calls.
To see where else calls and leads slip away, take our free revenue leak quiz.
Testing an AI receptionist in your first 30 days
Thirty days is enough to price, set up and test an AI receptionist on real calls:
- ☐ Days 1 to 3: Export 30 days of call logs. Write down total calls, average minutes and unique callers.
- ☐ Days 4 to 5: Count missed calls by time of day.
- ☐ Day 6: Estimate the value of one booked job and your booking rate.
- ☐ Day 7: Price your volume on two plans with different billing models.
- ☐ Days 8 to 10: Write your top 20 caller questions and the answers you want given.
- ☐ Days 11 to 12: Connect your calendar and set rules for transferring urgent calls.
- ☐ Days 13 to 26: Run the AI on after-hours and overflow calls. Read every transcript in the first week.
- ☐ Days 27 to 28: Count bookings, errors and transfer requests.
- ☐ Days 29 to 30: Decide to expand, change plans or stop.
Mistakes that raise your AI receptionist bill
Most overspending comes from choosing on headline price alone:
- Comparing headline prices only. A $49 plan and a $79 plan can swap places once you add your real minutes or callers.
- Ignoring call length. Per-minute plans get expensive fast if your calls run long.
- Forgetting what counts as usage. Ask whether spam calls, test calls, transfers and voicemails count against your plan.
- Skipping the script. The AI only knows what you tell it. Vague answers about pricing or service areas lead to wrong bookings.
- Going live on every call at once. Start with after-hours and overflow. Expand only after you have read real transcripts.
- Not putting a value on missed calls. Without that number, any plan looks expensive and you cannot judge the return.
FAQ
How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?
Entry plans range from free (25 calls on Smith.ai) to about $150 a month. That is from the official pages we checked in October 2026. With 200 calls a month, most small businesses pay roughly $50 to $400, depending on call length and billing model.
Is per-minute or per-call pricing better?
Per-minute pricing is usually cheaper when calls are short, around one to two minutes. Per-call or per-unique-caller pricing usually wins when calls run five minutes or longer. Run your own volume through both before you choose.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring a receptionist?
On direct cost, yes: the BLS median receptionist wage is $38,010 a year before benefits. The plans in this guide cost a few hundred dollars a month at most. A person still handles complex, sensitive or high-value calls better, so many businesses use both.
Are there hidden fees?
The common extras are usage overages, add-ons and integrations limited to higher tiers. Rosie, for example, lists website texting at $50 a month. Ask each vendor in writing about setup fees, minimum terms and what counts as a billable call.
Can an AI receptionist book appointments and transfer calls?
Most can book into a connected calendar and transfer urgent calls to a person. The features vary by plan tier. Confirm which integrations your tier includes before you sign.
How long does setup take?
Basic setup takes minutes, according to some vendors. A useful setup takes a few days of your time. You need to write and test your real questions, booking rules and transfer paths.
Is an AI receptionist worth the monthly fee?
It is usually worth testing if the calls you miss today are worth more than the plan. Most plans cost less than a few days of a staff member's wages each month. But the cheapest plan on paper may not be cheapest for you.
Match the billing model to your call length and price two or three plans. Test on after-hours calls before you trust it with your whole line.
If your calls are rare and low value, voicemail and a fast callback may be enough.
Get an AI receptionist built around your calls
We build voice agents that answer in your words, book into your calendar and pass hot leads to your team. See how we set up AI voice agents for small businesses, starting from your call logs, not a template.