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AI answering service cost in 2026
The headline price on an AI answering service tells you little. What you actually pay depends on how the vendor counts usage (minutes, calls, unique callers, or nothing at all) and what happens when you go over. Here's what the services we track charge, how billing works, and what a typical month comes to.
Prices checked October 27, 2026 on each vendor's official pricing page. Vendors change pricing without notice, and taxes, phone-number fees and add-ons aren't included unless noted. Some links are affiliate links. See our disclosure.
The short answer
- Entry plans for AI receptionists we track run from $0 (Smith.ai's free plan, 25 calls) to $199 (NextPhone, unlimited inbound calls).
- Most small businesses taking about 100 calls a month would pay roughly $70 to $215 at list price, depending on the service.
- Overage rates are where bills jump: from $0.15 per extra unique caller up to $3.00 per extra call.
- Live human receptionists cost much more for the same usage. Ruby's plans run from $250/month for 50 receptionist minutes to $1,725 for 500.
Entry prices for every service we track
| Service | Type | Billed by | Entry price | Entry plan includes | Over the limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI + human backup | calls | $0/mo Free plan: 25 calls/mo; Pro from $150/mo | 25 calls/mo (Free); 75 calls/mo (Pro) | $3.00/call on Free; $2.17–$2.50/call on Pro |
| Upfirst | AI | calls | $24.95/mo $20/mo billed annually | 30 calls/mo | $1.50/call on Starter, down to $0.70/call on Scale |
| Dialzara | AI | minutes | $29/mo Local number $3/mo extra | 60 minutes/mo | $0.48/min on Lite down to $0.35/min on Elite |
| Allo (AI Receptionist add-on) | Phone system + AI add-on | per agent | $42/mo Derived: Solo seat $10 + AI Receptionist $32 (both billed yearly) | Not stated for the AI Receptionist | Not stated |
| Rosie | AI | minutes | $49/mo Annual billing: 2 months free | 250 minutes/mo | Not stated in the pricing page text we could read |
| Goodcall | AI | unique callers | $79/mo | 100 unique customers/mo | $0.79 per extra unique customer on Starter, $0.26 on Growth, $0.15 on Scale |
| My AI Front Desk | AI | minutes | $99/mo $79/mo billed annually | 200 voice minutes/mo | 25 credits ($0.25) per extra voice minute, drawn first from a 1,000-credit monthly pool; auto-reload $10 per 1,000 credits |
| NextPhone | AI | flat | $199/mo About $166/mo billed annually | Unlimited inbound calls | None (flat rate) |
| Ruby (live receptionists) | Live human | minutes | $250/mo Live receptionist minute plans from $250/mo (50 minutes) | 50 receptionist minutes/mo | Not stated in page text |
Allo's entry price is our sum of two items it bills yearly: a $10 phone seat plus the $32 AI Receptionist. Full plan tiers are on our pricing page.
The five ways vendors bill
Per minute. Rosie, Dialzara and My AI Front Desk. Long calls cost more. Dialzara bills to the second (Dialzara pricing). Good if your calls are short.
Per call. Upfirst and Smith.ai. A 10-minute call costs the same as a 1-minute call. Upfirst doesn't bill spam, calls under 15 seconds or silent calls. Smith.ai filters known spammers before answering and lets you remove up to 10% of calls per cycle as spam (Smith.ai pricing).
Per unique caller. Goodcall. Repeat calls from the same number in a month count once, and spam or wrong numbers aren't counted. Good for long calls and repeat customers.
Flat rate. NextPhone charges $199/month with unlimited inbound calls. No overage, but it's the highest entry price among the AI-only services here.
Per seat. Allo prices the AI Receptionist as an add-on to its business phone system, billed per user.
What a month actually costs
We ran three call volumes through each service's plans at list price. We assumed a 3-minute average call, that every caller is a different person, and picked the cheapest plan including published overage.
| Service | 30 calls / mo | 100 calls / mo | 300 calls / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | $15.00 | $212.50 | $500.00 |
| Upfirst | $24.95 | $69.95 | $159.95 |
| Dialzara | $43.40 | $135.00 | $349.00 |
| Rosie | $49.00 | $149.00 | $149.00 |
| Goodcall | $79.00 | $79.00 | $129.00 |
| My AI Front Desk | $99.00 | $114.00 | $264.00 |
| NextPhone | $199.00 | $199.00 | $199.00 |
| Ruby (live receptionists) | $395.00 | $1,725.00 | Over 500 min: talk to sales |
How the cheapest options shift:
- 30 calls: Smith.ai's free plan (25 calls, plus 5 at $3.00) and Upfirst Starter are lowest.
- 100 calls: Upfirst Premium ($59.95 for 90 calls, plus 10 at $1.00) and Goodcall Starter lead.
- 300 calls: Goodcall Growth and Rosie Scale (1,000 minutes covers 900) lead. NextPhone's flat rate becomes competitive.
Longer calls change the order. At 6 minutes a call, per-call and per-caller plans pull ahead of per-minute ones. We couldn't include Allo (included usage not stated). Ruby's figure assumes its receptionist minutes match your call minutes. Ruby doesn't publish a rate for minutes beyond the plan. Try your own numbers in the cost estimator.
Costs that aren't in the headline price
- Phone numbers. Dialzara charges $3/month for a local number and $5 for toll-free. Goodcall includes a local number. Upfirst offers free call forwarding and free porting help (Upfirst pricing).
- Extra locations. Upfirst charges $9.95/month per extra agent or location.
- Add-ons. Rosie's website texting add-on is $50/month; its web chat is free.
- Credits. My AI Front Desk bills extra minutes in credits. Its monthly pool credits expire, while purchased credits don't (My AI Front Desk pricing).
- Feature gates. Entry plans sometimes leave out the features you want. Rosie's calendar booking and live transfers start on Scale ($149). Dialzara's warm transfers and calendar sync start on Pro ($99).
- Running out. Dialzara sends callers to voicemail at a zero balance unless auto-recharge is on or you've bought extra minutes (Dialzara pricing FAQ).
Ways to pay less
- Annual billing. Upfirst and My AI Front Desk show about 20% off, NextPhone about 17%, and Rosie two months free.
- Right-size your plan. Paying overage at a low tier often costs more than the next plan up. Goodcall says it will tell you when a bigger plan would be cheaper (Goodcall pricing).
- Answer only overflow or after-hours calls. Upfirst lets you choose every call, overflow only, or after-hours only, which cuts billed calls.
Services we left out
Some platforms aren't built for a small business to buy and switch on:
- Synthflow: an enterprise voice AI platform with contracts starting at $30,000 a year (Synthflow pricing).
- Bland: a developer platform at $0.14/min (Start), or $0.12/min plus $299/month (Build). You build the receptionist yourself, and booking and warm transfers are Enterprise-only (Bland pricing).
How to choose by cost
- Pull last month's call log. Count the calls and the average length, and how many were repeat callers or spam.
- Match the billing model to your calls. Short calls favor per-minute. Long calls favor per-call or per-caller. High or spiky volume favors flat rate.
- Price your busiest month, not your average.
- Check which plan has the features you need, then price that plan.
- Add the extras: phone numbers, locations, add-ons.
- Compare with what you lose. Use the missed-call calculator to see what unanswered calls cost you.
FAQ
How much does an AI answering service cost per month? Entry plans we track range from $0 to $199 a month. At about 100 calls a month, most land between $70 and $215 at list price.
Is there a free AI answering service? Smith.ai's AI Receptionist has a free plan with 25 calls a month, then $3.00 per call. Several others offer free trials: Upfirst 14 days, and Rosie, Dialzara and NextPhone 7 days.
Is per-minute or per-call billing cheaper? It depends on call length. With short calls, per-minute usually wins. With calls over about 5 minutes, per-call or per-caller billing usually costs less.
Are AI receptionists cheaper than live answering services? Yes, by a wide margin at the same usage. At 100 three-minute calls a month, Ruby's 500-minute plan is $1,725, against $69.95 to $212.50 for the AI services in our table. Ruby also sells live website chat from $143/month for 10 chats, or $115 when added to a receptionist plan. Smith.ai's live receptionist plans are a separate product we don't track.
Do prices include a phone number? It varies. Goodcall includes one. Dialzara charges $3/month for local. NextPhone lets you get a new number or keep your own (NextPhone pricing). Ask any vendor about number fees before signing up.
See also: the cheapest AI receptionist by call volume, side-by-side comparisons and guides by trade.