Voice & SMS

AI receptionist cost in 2026: what seven providers charge, priced on the same month of calls

By Babar Lal  ·   ·  10 min read

An HVAC owner opens four pricing pages. One says $49 a month. One says $79. One says $150. One says $720. They look easy to compare until you read the small print.

The $49 plan counts minutes. The $79 plan counts callers. The $150 plan counts calls. The $720 plan is human receptionists, also counted in minutes. None of the four tells you what your month will cost.

So I took the published prices from seven providers in October 2026 and priced the same month of calls on each one.

Four pricing pages that cannot be compared, against one month of calls priced the same way. On the left, 49 dollars for 250 minutes, 79 dollars for 100 callers, 150 dollars for 75 calls and 720 dollars for 200 minutes, each in a different unit. On the right, the same 150 calls of 3 minutes each priced on every plan, from about 119 dollars on an AI plan to about 1,725 dollars on a human service.

The short answer

For a business taking about 150 calls a month, AI receptionist plans came to about $119 to $338 a month in October 2026. A human answering service for the same calls costs several times more. The plan that looks cheapest is often not, because each provider counts something different.

QuestionShort answer
Cheapest published planDialzara from $29 a month and Rosie from $49, in October 2026
Typical monthAbout $119 to $338 on AI plans for 150 calls of 3 minutes each
Human service, same callsAbout $1,440 on Smith.ai's human plans and $1,725 on Ruby
Build your ownAbout $0.13 a minute to run on Retell, plus the work to build and maintain it
What to do firstCount last month's calls and time ten of them

The four ways AI receptionists charge

Per minute. You buy a bundle of minutes. Rosie, My AI Front Desk and Ruby work this way. Long calls eat the bundle fast.

Per call. You buy a bundle of calls, whatever their length. Smith.ai works this way. Long calls cost the same as short ones.

Per caller. You pay for each different person who calls in a month, however often they ring. Goodcall works this way, and says it has no per-minute charges.

Build your own. You pay a voice platform such as Retell by the minute, with no bundle. It is the cheapest to run and the most work to set up.

Four ways AI receptionists charge. Per minute, as Rosie, My AI Front Desk and Ruby do, which is good when calls are short and bad when they run long. Per call, as Smith.ai does, good for long calls and bad for lots of quick ones. Per caller, as Goodcall does, good when the same people call often. Build your own on a platform like Retell, the cheapest per minute but you build and maintain it. Time ten real calls before you choose.

Published prices, October 2026

Every price below comes from the provider's own page in October 2026. Prices change, so check before you buy.

ProviderTypePublished plansBilled byWorth knowing
RosieAI$49 for 250 minutes; $149 for 1,000; $299 for 2,000MinuteBooking straight into your calendar and live transfers start on the $149 plan; overage rate not shown
GoodcallAI$79 for 100 callers, then 79¢ each; $129 for 500, then 26¢; $299 for 2,000, then 15¢Unique callerNo per-minute charges
My AI Front DeskAI$99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for 200 minutes; then about $0.25 a minuteMinuteOverage is sold as credits
DialzaraAIFrom $29 a month, no setup fee or contractNot shown on the home pagePlan details are on its pricing page or from sales
Smith.ai AIAI with human backupFree for 25 calls; $150 for 75 calls, then $2.50 a call; $500 for 300, then $2.17CallA live agent can join for a per-call add-on; the price is not listed
Smith.ai humanHuman$300 for 30 calls, then $11.50 a call; $810 for 90, then $10.50; $2,100 for 300, then $8.50CallReal people on every call
RubyHuman$250 for 50 minutes; $395 for 100; $720 for 200; $1,725 for 500MinuteSays AI features come at no extra cost; overage rate not shown
Retell (build your own)AI platform$0.055 a minute for the platform, $0.015 for the voice, $0.015 for calls, plus the AI model; $2 a month per numberMinuteYou, or someone you pay, builds and runs it

For scale, a full-time receptionist earns a median of $18.27 an hour, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for May 2025. That is about $3,170 a month before taxes and benefits.

The same month, priced on every plan

Here is one example month: 150 calls, each about 3 minutes, so 450 minutes. Those numbers are my assumptions. I picked the cheapest published plan that covers the month on each provider. For Goodcall I counted every call as a different caller, which is the worst case.

Provider and planHow the sum worksMonthPer call
Retell, built yourself450 minutes x about $0.13, plus a $2 numberAbout $61, plus the buildAbout $0.40
Goodcall Starter$79 for 100 callers, plus 50 x 79¢$118.50About $0.79
Rosie Scale$149 covers up to 1,000 minutes$149About $0.99
My AI Front Desk$99 for 200 minutes, plus 250 x about $0.25About $161.50About $1.08
Smith.ai AI Pro$150 for 75 calls, plus 75 x $2.50$337.50$2.25
Smith.ai human Basic$810 for 90 calls, plus 60 x $10.50$1,440$9.60
Ruby, 500 minutes$1,725 covers 450 minutes$1,725$11.50
Bar chart of one example month, 150 calls of 3 minutes each, priced on published October 2026 plans. Retell built yourself about 61 dollars plus the build, Goodcall 118.50 dollars, Rosie 149 dollars, My AI Front Desk about 161.50 dollars, Smith.ai AI 337.50 dollars, Smith.ai human 1,440 dollars and Ruby 1,725 dollars. The call count and length are marked as assumed.

These are not like-for-like products. Smith.ai's AI plan can hand a call to a human. Ruby is people on every call. Rosie only books straight into your calendar on its $149 plan and up. Compare what each one does with the call, not just the price.

Change one assumption and the order moves. Make every call 8 minutes and the per-minute plans climb fast, while Smith.ai's per-call price stays the same.

The costs that are not on the pricing page

Overage. Rosie and Ruby do not show what an extra minute costs on their pricing pages. Ask before you sign, because a busy month is when you need the cover most.

Features on the higher plan. Booking into your calendar, warm transfers and CRM links often sit one plan up. Price the plan that does the job, not the cheapest one.

Live backup. Smith.ai lists a human add-on per call but not its price. If you want a person on the hard calls, get that number in writing.

Setup and trials. One accountant on AccountingWEB in February 2026 was quoted £200 for a one-month trial. Another member asked why a trial should cost anything at all.

Yearly billing. My AI Front Desk drops from $99 to $79 a month if you pay yearly. Rosie gives two months free. Both lock you in. Run it monthly until you know it works.

Your time. Someone has to write the call script, connect the calendar, test it with real calls and fix it when it gets something wrong. On a build, add hosting, monitoring and extra capacity. Retell, for example, charges $8 a month per extra concurrent call beyond 20.

What it costs to build your own

Retell's pricing page shows the parts. In October 2026, its voice platform was $0.055 a minute. A standard voice was $0.015. Calls over its Twilio connection were $0.015. The AI model on top ranged from $0.0016 a minute for GPT 5 nano to $0.08 for Claude 4.5 Sonnet. GPT 4.1 was $0.045.

With GPT 4.1, that adds up to about $0.13 a minute. A phone number is $2 a month. New accounts get $10 of free credit.

What one minute of a self-built AI receptionist costs on Retell's October 2026 pricing. Voice platform 0.055 dollars, AI model GPT 4.1 0.045 dollars, voice 0.015 dollars and calls 0.015 dollars, about 0.13 dollars a minute in total, plus 2 dollars a month per phone number. Not on the meter: writing the script, connecting the calendar and CRM, testing, and fixing it when it gets something wrong.

The meter is cheap. The work is not. You need the call script, the calendar and CRM connections, the rules for when to hand off to a person, and someone watching the call logs each week. That is the part we build. Our guide to AI receptionists for trades and clinics covers what a good build handles and where it needs a human.

What owners and the industry are saying

I only list pages I could open. Reddit would not open for me. Vendors are labelled.

WhereWhoWhat they saidWhat it tells you
AccountingWEB, Feb 2026An accounting practice owner, then other membersQuoted £200 for a month's trial; one reply said an AI support agent "dropped the call" three timesAsk about trial fees, and test it on real calls first
Dentaltown, Apr 2025Mike Derlatka, AI vendorWorks today for after-hours, overflow and basic intake; needs real practice system integrationStart narrow; the integration is part of the cost
RevUp Dental, Apr 2025Nick Fotache, dental marketer and criticCalls AI receptionists a grift; says patients got frustrated repeating names and birthdatesA cheap agent that annoys callers is not cheap
Goodcall pricingAI receptionist vendorBills by the customers the agent helps, "not by how long calls run"Billing units are a selling point; compare on your own calls

When it is not worth it

A few calls a week. If you can answer them yourself, or call back within the hour, a plan costs more than the calls it saves. A missed call text back may be enough.

Calls that are really sales meetings. If most callers want a detailed quote from you, an agent can take details and book a time, but it cannot close the job.

Nowhere to book into. If you have no shared calendar or job system, the agent can only take messages. Fix that first. Our post on automatic appointment booking covers it.

Not timing your calls. Picking a per-minute plan for long intake calls, or a per-call plan for lots of ten-second "are you open?" calls, wastes money every month.

What we build, and when we say no

If your calls are simple and your volume is low, one of the plans above will do. Start monthly, test it on real calls and keep it if it books jobs. You do not need us for that.

We build voice agents for businesses that have outgrown an off-the-shelf plan. They answer from your real prices and policies, book into your calendar or job system, send emergencies straight to a person, and log every call to your CRM. Our AI automation service covers the agent, and our workflow automation service connects it to your tools. You can call our live demo to hear one before you decide.

We say no when the call volume does not cover the build, or when a plan from the table already does the job. New to all this? Our plain-English answers to 24 questions about AI automation is the place to start.

Questions people ask

How much does an AI receptionist cost per month? Published plans started at $29 to $79 a month in October 2026. On our example month of 150 calls at 3 minutes each, AI plans came to about $119 to $338. Human answering services came to about $1,440 to $1,725 for the same calls.

Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human answering service? Usually, per call. In October 2026, Smith.ai's human plans charged $8.50 to $11.50 for each call over the plan, while AI plans worked out at well under $3 a call. A human still handles angry callers, emergencies and unusual requests better, so many businesses use AI first and a person as backup.

Is it better to pay per minute or per call? It depends on how long your calls run. Short calls, like booking and opening hours, are cheap per minute. Long calls, like quotes and intake, are cheaper per call or per caller. Time ten of your real calls before you choose a plan.

What hidden costs should I ask about? Ask for the overage rate, which features sit on the higher plans, what a transfer to a live person costs, whether there is a setup or paid trial fee, and what the annual price locks you into. Also ask who sets up the calendar and CRM connections, and who fixes the script when it gets something wrong.

How much does it cost to build your own AI receptionist? The running cost is low. Retell's pricing page listed about $0.13 a minute in October 2026 for a typical setup with GPT 4.1 and its telephony, plus $2 a month per phone number. The real cost is building, testing and maintaining it, which is why most small businesses buy a plan or pay someone to build it.

When is an AI receptionist not worth the money? When you get only a few calls a week and can answer them yourself, when most calls are complex sales conversations that need you, or when you have no calendar or job system for it to book into. A missed call text back may be enough at that stage.

Find out what your calls would cost on each plan.

Bring last month's call log to the free audit. We count the calls, time a sample, price your month on the plans above and tell you whether a plan, a missed call text back or a build is the right step. If a $49 plan will do, we say so.

Book the free audit →

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