Why this page exists
Almost nobody in this industry publishes prices. The standard play is a form, then a discovery call, then a quote that depends on how the call went. We publish everything we charge, so it costs us nothing to also publish what the market charges - and it saves you the two weeks of sales calls it would otherwise take to build this table yourself.
Every competitor number on this page comes from that company's own public pricing page, and the date we last checked is printed below the table. If a number has changed since, the link is right there.
The three pricing models you'll run into
Per-call pricing charges you for each conversation regardless of length - Smith.ai works this way, at roughly $10 to $11.50 per call depending on plan. It's predictable per conversation but expensive at volume, and a 30-second wrong number can cost the same as a booked job.
Per-minute human pricing charges for staffed receptionist time - Ruby works this way, at roughly $3.45 to $5.00 per minute depending on plan. You get a real person on every call, and you pay real-person rates for every minute, including the routine ones.
Flat monthly with included AI minutes is how most AI-first services price, including us. The software answers every call, a bucket of minutes is included, and overage minutes cost cents rather than dollars because no human is on the line. This is why AI receptionists undercut human services by 5-10x per conversation - not because the companies are more generous, but because the marginal cost of an answered call is genuinely lower.
What we charge
These are our five tiers, complete. They are the same numbers on our pricing page, where each tier's full feature list lives.
| Tier | Monthly | Setup | Included | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $197 | $450 | 200 minutes | $0.50/min |
| Front Desk After Hours | $397 | $750 | 500 minutes | $0.45/min |
| Full Reception | $797 | $1,950 | 1,200 minutes | $0.40/min |
| Revenue Engine | $1,497 | $4,500 | 2,500 minutes | $0.35/min |
| Enterprise / Regulated | $2,500+ | $9,500+ | Contracted | $0.28/min |
A $350 21-day paid pilot is available on any tier, credited in full against your setup fee if you continue.
What the human-staffed services charge
For comparison, here are the two best-known virtual receptionist services in the US, from their own published pricing pages. Both are legitimate businesses that answer with real people - that is exactly what their pricing reflects.
| Service | Entry plan | What's included | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai | $300/mo | 30 calls | $10.00/call, $11.50/call overage |
| Smith.ai (Pro) | $2,100/mo | 300 calls | $7.00/call, $8.50/call overage |
| Ruby | $250/mo | 50 receptionist minutes | $5.00/min |
| Ruby (Professional) | $1,725/mo | 500 receptionist minutes | $3.45/min |
Verified against smith.ai/pricing and ruby.com/plans-and-pricing on August 31, 2026. Smith.ai lists the same plan prices for its AI-first and human-first options; add-ons like appointment booking run $0.25-$1.50 per call extra.
The costs that don't show up on pricing pages
Setup is the honest one to talk about first: ours runs $450 to $9,500+ depending on tier, because a good agent is built from how you actually answer your phone - your services, your prices, your booking rules, your handoff paths. Services with no setup fee are not doing that work; you are getting a generic script with your business name in it. Neither approach is wrong, but they are not the same product.
Overage is where cheap plans get expensive. A $95-$300 entry plan with a small included bucket can double when a busy month lands. Do the math on your real call volume, not the plan's marketing number: multiply your monthly calls by your average call length, and price the plan at that usage.
Tuning is the cost almost nobody mentions. An AI agent is at its worst in week one and improves as real calls get reviewed and corrected. We include monthly call review in every tier because an untended agent quietly gets things wrong - if a service hands you an agent and disappears, the price was lower for a reason.
So what should you actually pay?
If your calls mostly arrive after hours and voicemail is losing them, entry-level AI plans - ours is $197 a month - are the cheapest fix that actually books appointments rather than taking messages.
If you want every inbound call answered around the clock with real booking, budget $400 to $800 a month for AI, or $700 to $2,000+ a month for equivalent human coverage.
And if your call volume is a handful a week, the honest answer is that you may not need any of this - a better voicemail greeting and a same-day callback habit are free. We tell people that on sales calls, and it belongs on this page too.
Common questions
Why do AI receptionists cost so much less than human answering services?
Because the marginal cost of a call is software time, not staffed time. A human service pays a trained receptionist for every minute of every call and prices accordingly - roughly $3.45-$5 per minute at Ruby. An AI agent's per-minute cost is a fraction of that, which is why overage minutes cost cents instead of dollars.
Are there long contracts?
Ours run 3 to 6 months minimum on the standard tiers, then month-to-month; 12+ months on the large tiers. Every term we require is published on the pricing page. Read any provider's minimum term before signing - it varies widely across the industry.
What does setup actually pay for?
Building the agent from your real calls: what you say, what you ask, what you quote, what you refuse, where you transfer. Then connecting your calendar and CRM, testing against real recordings, and tuning before it takes a live call. A no-setup-fee service is skipping most of that list.