AI Receptionist Cost: What You Pay and How to Compare Plans

AI receptionist services price their work in a few different ways, and the model matters as much as the number. A low headline price with a high overage rate can cost more than a bigger plan if your call volume spikes.

Here are the models you will run into most often:

• Flat monthly plan with included minutes: you pay one price per month for a set pool of talk time, then a per-minute rate for anything past it.
• Per-call pricing: you pay a set rate for each call handled, which makes cost per interaction predictable regardless of how long a call runs.
• Per-minute pricing: you pay only for actual talk time, which suits low-volume businesses but can climb fast with chatty callers.
• Tiered plans: larger minute allowances come with a lower per-minute overage rate, so growing businesses often save by moving up a tier.

AllDayDesk offers three flat monthly plans — Solo, Starter, and Pro — each built around a monthly allowance of included minutes, with a per-minute rate for time beyond the allowance. Current prices and allowance sizes are shown on the pricing section of this site and are kept separate from this guide so they stay up to date.

Human services price differently. Ruby, a live virtual receptionist provider, advertises plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026. Smith.ai prices its human receptionist service per call, with the total depending on the needs you select — and Smith.ai also sells a separate AI receptionist product with on-demand escalation to its live agents. These are starting points only; included allowances, overage rates, hours, and contract terms vary, so always check a current quote.

Neither model is automatically the better deal. Compare total monthly cost at your actual call volume, and how much judgment each call needs, before choosing.

• AllDayDesk Solo: a flat monthly plan with an included monthly minute allowance; current price and allowance are on the pricing section of this site.
• AllDayDesk Starter: a larger included minute allowance than Solo, at a higher monthly price.
• AllDayDesk Pro: the largest included minute allowance of the three tiers, at the highest monthly price.
• Human services: Ruby advertises plans starting at $245 per month; Smith.ai prices its human receptionist service per call based on your selected needs.

You can estimate your bill in about ten minutes with numbers you already have. The goal is to match your real call volume to a plan tier instead of guessing.

Follow these steps:

• Count your calls: check your phone bill or call log for a typical month, and note how many calls you actually answer versus let ring out.
• Estimate average call length: pull a few examples from your call log and average them; a scheduling call with questions can run longer than a quick hours-and-directions call.
• Multiply calls by average minutes to get monthly talk time, then add a buffer of 20 to 30 percent for busy months.
• Compare that total to plan allowances: if you land near 500 minutes, a 600-minute plan usually beats paying overages on a 200-minute plan.
• Check the overage rate: a slightly bigger plan with a lower per-minute rate often costs less overall than a small plan plus overages.

The monthly price is rarely the whole picture. Before choosing any AI receptionist service, ask these questions so your first bill has no surprises:

• What is the per-minute or per-call overage rate once my allowance runs out?
• Do minutes used on setup calls, test calls, or long caller questions count against my allowance?
• Is there a setup fee, a contract term, or a cancellation charge?
• Are features like appointment booking, message taking, and call transfers included, or priced separately?
• What happens when the service cannot answer a question — does it take a message for me to follow up?

AllDayDesk answers business calls around the clock using the business information you save — your services, pricing you choose to share, and your availability. Setup starts by entering your business or website, checking the details it pulls, and hearing a personalized sample of how your receptionist will sound. You keep your existing public phone number by forwarding calls to the service; the forwarding steps depend on your phone carrier.

Every plan includes a dashboard where you can read call transcripts, summaries, and any bookings or messages. New appointments go on the built-in AllDayDesk calendar by default once you have configured your services and availability, and an optional Google Calendar connection is available in Settings after you connect and authorize your Google account. When the receptionist does not know an answer, a price, or an opening, it takes a message instead of guessing. Existing appointment changes come to you as requests — you confirm them, not the AI.

One note on forwarding: Google Voice numbers are not supported for forwarding to automated systems, so if you use Google Voice you will need a different phone line or carrier setup. Carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Comcast Business document forwarding steps in their own guides, and our carrier guides walk through the exact steps.

• Around-the-clock call answering based on your saved business information.
• A dashboard with call transcripts, summaries, bookings, and messages.
• Built-in calendar booking by default, plus an optional Google Calendar connection in Settings.
• Message taking whenever an answer, price, or opening is unknown.
• You keep your existing public number by forwarding calls from your carrier.

The cheapest option depends on what you need the receptionist to do. An in-house receptionist does far more than answer phones — greeting visitors, handling mail, and general office tasks — so a phone service is not a full replacement for that role. But if your main need is answering calls and booking appointments outside business hours, the comparison narrows to cost per handled call.

A balanced way to decide:

• Choose AI if most calls are routine — hours, directions, pricing you have published, and booking — and you want coverage around the clock at a flat monthly rate.
• Choose a human service if callers frequently need judgment, empathy, or complex intake that software handles poorly, and you are comfortable with per-call or higher monthly pricing.
• Consider a hybrid: some providers, like Smith.ai's AI product, offer escalation from AI to live agents, though that is their feature and pricing differs from a pure AI plan.
• Run the math both ways: estimate your monthly minutes, price them on an AI plan, then request a quote from one or two human services and compare total monthly cost for the same call volume.