Short answer: a self-serve AI receptionist app costs about $25 to $500 a month for a small business, depending on call volume. Building your own on a voice-agent platform costs about $0.07 to $0.31 a minute plus your time. A human answering service costs roughly $165 to $2,100 a month for the same kind of volume. An in-house receptionist in the US costs about $3,200 a month in wages alone (BLS median), and only covers office hours.
Below are the real prices from 17 providers, taken from their own pricing pages on 6 November 2026, how the pricing models differ, and what a typical small business would actually pay.
Disclosure: I sell a done-for-you AI receptionist service for small businesses in the US and Canada, and I co-founded the platform it runs on. I've included my own price in the comparison, and it isn't the cheapest option. Prices change often, so check the linked pages before you buy.
The four options, side by side
| Option | Typical monthly cost | Answers 24/7 | Your time to set up |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-house receptionist | ~$3,200 in wages (US) / ~CAD $3,640 (Canada) | No | Hiring and training |
| Human answering service | $164–$2,100 | Yes | Low |
| AI receptionist app (self-serve) | $25–$500 | Yes | A few hours, then upkeep |
| Build your own (developer platform) | $0.07–$0.31 per minute + phone line | Yes | Days to weeks of developer time |
1. An in-house receptionist
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for receptionists at $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year (May 2025 data). For full-time hours that's about $3,170 a month before payroll taxes and benefits. In Canada, Job Bank's national median for receptionists is CAD $21.00 an hour, about CAD $3,640 a month for full-time hours.
A person is still the best option when the job involves judgement, in-person visitors or complex scheduling. But one person covers about 40 of the week's 168 hours, and calls also come in at lunch, after hours and while they're on the other line.
2. Human answering services
Live receptionists answer your calls remotely and charge by the minute or by the call:
| Provider | Starting plan | Example plan | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | $250/mo for 50 minutes | $720/mo for 200 minutes | Not listed |
| Smith.ai (human) | $300/mo for 30 calls | $810/mo for 90 calls | $11.50 to $8.50 per call |
| AnswerConnect | $350/mo for 200 minutes (+$49.99 setup) | $575/mo for 400 minutes | $2.50 to $1.85 per minute |
| PATLive | $99/mo for 50 minutes | $349/mo for 200 minutes | $2.99 to $1.49 per minute |
| Abby Connect | $164/mo for 50 minutes | $599/mo for 200 minutes | At your plan's per-minute rate |
Most have no setup fee and no long-term contract. The catch is that every minute is billed, so a few chatty callers can push you into overage fast. Some now offer cheaper AI answering inside the same plan; Abby, for example, counts an AI-answered call at half its usual minute rate.
3. Self-serve AI receptionist apps
These are products you sign up for and configure yourself: you add your business hours, services and FAQs, connect a calendar, and forward your phone line.
| Provider | Entry plan | Mid plan | Overage | How it counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | $24.95/mo, 30 calls | $159.95/mo, 300 calls | $1.50 to $0.70 per call | Calls (spam and calls under 15 seconds are free) |
| Dialzara | $29/mo, 60 minutes | $199/mo, 500 minutes | $0.48 to $0.35 per minute | Minutes |
| Rosie | $49/mo, 250 minutes | $149/mo, 1,000 minutes | Not shown | Minutes |
| Goodcall | $79/mo, 100 unique callers | $129/mo, 500 unique callers | 79¢ to 15¢ per extra caller | Unique callers, not minutes |
| My AI Front Desk | $99/mo ($79 billed annually), 200 minutes | $0.25 per minute | Minutes | |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Free, 25 calls | $150 / $270 / $500 a month for 75 / 150 / 300 calls | $3.00 to $2.10 per call | Calls |
Three things matter more than the headline price:
- What's being counted. Per minute, per call or per unique caller makes a big difference. If your callers ask long questions, a per-call plan is cheaper. If you get many repeat calls from the same people, a per-unique-caller plan is cheaper.
- The overage rate. A $29 plan that charges $0.48 a minute after 60 minutes can cost more than a $149 plan with 1,000 minutes included.
- Who does the work. These apps are self-serve: you write the answers, test the calls and keep the information current. Dialzara also sells a "Done for You" setup starting at $1,500.
4. Building your own
Developers build voice agents on platforms that charge by the minute, then connect a phone number, calendar and CRM themselves:
| Platform | Published price |
|---|---|
| Vapi | $0.05/min platform fee plus model costs; Vapi's own estimate for 1,000 minutes is $82–$129 a month |
| Retell AI | $0.07–$0.31/min all-in depending on the AI model and voice, plus about $0.015/min for US phone lines |
| Bland AI | $0.14/min with no platform fee, or $0.12/min plus $299/month |
| Synthflow | No public price (annual contracts only) |
The minutes are cheap. The hours are not: designing the conversation, handling interruptions, connecting the calendar and testing edge cases usually takes days or weeks, and then someone has to maintain it. I've written about what a voice agent actually costs per minute, and there's a voice-agent cost calculator if you want to run the numbers.
A worked example: 200 calls a month
Take a plumbing company or dental office getting 200 calls a month, averaging 3 minutes (600 minutes). Here's roughly what each option would cost, using the published prices above:
| Option | Monthly cost | Plan that fits |
|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai human receptionists | ~$1,965 | Basic (90 calls) + 110 extra calls at $10.50 |
| AnswerConnect | ~$945 | Standard (400 min) + 200 extra minutes at $1.85 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | ~$385 | Pro 150 calls ($270) + 50 calls at $2.30 |
| Dialzara | ~$239 | Plus (500 min) + 100 minutes at $0.40 |
| My AI Front Desk | ~$199 | 200 min ($99) + 400 minutes at $0.25 |
| Upfirst | ~$160 | Pro (300 calls) |
| Rosie | ~$149 | Scale (1,000 min) |
| Goodcall | ~$129 | Growth (500 unique callers) |
| Build your own on Retell | ~$50–$195, plus developer time | 600 min at $0.07–$0.31 + phone line |
| My done-for-you service | ~$440–$580, plus setup | $297 care plan + SpaceBrain from $99 + call minutes |
The pattern is clear: AI answering costs a fraction of human answering. In this example the AI apps come to $129–$385 a month against $945–$1,965 for human services, and the self-serve apps are the cheapest way to start.
Where the real costs hide
- Your time. A self-serve app is only as good as the information you give it. Expect a few hours to set up and an hour or two a month reviewing calls and updating answers. Skip that and it gives callers out-of-date prices.
- Phone numbers and text messages. Phone numbers usually cost extra. In the US, sending business texts (such as a missed-call text back) needs A2P 10DLC registration through your provider, which adds fees and can take days to approve.
- Integrations. Booking into your calendar, saving callers to a CRM and alerting you to urgent calls is where cheap plans often stop. Check exactly which calendars and tools a plan connects to.
- Live transfer. Not every AI receptionist can put a caller through to you live. Some (including the platform I use) take the details and alert you instantly instead. Ask before you buy if live transfer matters to you.
- Compliance. Recording laws differ by state and province, and US healthcare practices may need a HIPAA business associate agreement. Most low-cost apps don't offer one.
How to choose
- Low volume, and you're comfortable setting it up yourself: start with a self-serve AI app on a monthly plan. Pick the one whose counting method suits your calls.
- You want a human voice on every call and can afford it: a human answering service, or one with AI answering for overflow.
- You have developers and unusual requirements: build on a platform like Vapi or Retell.
- You'd rather not set it up yourself, and you want booking, a CRM and follow-up texts in one place: a done-for-you service. That's what I offer, with pages for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, dental, med spas, law firms and real estate.
Whichever you choose, start by working out what missed calls cost you today. The calculator on my AI receptionist page does that with your own numbers.
Questions people ask
How much does an AI receptionist cost per month? For a small business, self-serve AI receptionist apps cost about $25 to $500 a month, depending on call volume and plan. Done-for-you services cost more because someone sets up and manages it for you.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than an answering service? Usually much cheaper. In the worked example above, 200 calls a month cost about $129 to $385 with AI apps, against about $945 to $1,965 with human answering services.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring a receptionist? Yes, for answering calls. A US receptionist's median wage is about $3,170 a month before taxes and benefits, for office hours only. AI answering covers all hours for a small fraction of that, but it doesn't replace a person for in-person work or complex judgement.
Are these prices in US or Canadian dollars? The providers above are US companies and their pages show US dollar prices; Canadian businesses usually pay in USD. Only some pages state the currency explicitly.
Do I pay per call or per minute? It depends on the provider: Upfirst and Smith.ai count calls, Dialzara, Rosie and My AI Front Desk count minutes, and Goodcall counts unique callers. Compare using your own average call length.
Sources: each provider's pricing page linked above, fetched 6 November 2026. Wages: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Receptionists (May 2025 data) and Job Bank Canada, Receptionist NOC 14101. Worked-example totals are my own arithmetic from published rates; they exclude taxes, phone numbers and any setup fees.