Guide · checked October 3, 2026
What an AI receptionistactually costs.
Entry plans from the AI receptionist vendors we checked cost $49 to $150 a month, and one offers a free tier for 25 calls. Live answering services start around $250 to $300 a month. The headline price matters less than how each one counts your calls.
Published prices
Entry plans, side by side
Monthly billing, from each company's own pricing page on October 3, 2026.
| Service | Who answers | Entry plan | What's metered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tylum Voice | Intelligent receptionist | $49/mo, 300 minutes (about 16¢ a minute) | Minutes; $0.20 each over |
| Rosie | AI | $49/mo, 250 minutes | Minutes |
| Goodcall | AI | $79/mo per agent, 100 unique callers | Unique callers; $0.50 each over |
| My AI Front Desk | AI | $99/mo, 200 minutes | Minutes, then prepaid credits |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI, with live escalation | Free for 25 calls; Pro from $150/mo for 75 | Calls |
| Ruby | People | $250/mo, 50 minutes ($5.00 a minute) | Minutes, rounded up per call |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | People | $300/mo, 30 calls | Calls; $11.50 each over |
Annual-billing discounts are left out. Names are trademarks of their owners; Tylum is not affiliated with them. For a closer look at two of these, see Smith.ai vs Ruby vs Tylum Voice.
Pricing models
Three ways you get billed
A monthly pool of minutes, with extra time billed by the minute. Short calls are cheap. Check the rounding: some services round every call up to a full minute and count hold time and after-call notes.
A monthly quota of calls, and every answered call uses one, however long. Long intake calls are good value; a two-second hang-up costs the same as a ten-minute consultation unless the service exempts it.
Some services count unique phone numbers rather than calls, or charge per agent. Repeat callers are cheap, but a second line or location may mean a second agent.
Comparing them fairly
Turn every price into one number
Take your typical call length from your phone bill, then convert:
price per minute = price per call ÷ average minutes per call
monthly cost = plan price + (usage over the allowance × overage rate) + add-ons
Example: at three minutes a call, a $2.50 call works out to about $0.83 a minute. Tylum's extra minutes are $0.20. If your calls run ten minutes, the same call is $0.25 a minute, and per-call pricing starts to look better. Run the numbers for your own office rather than trusting anyone's average, ours included.
Before you sign, ask
- What does a minute or a call cost once I'm over the allowance?
- How are calls rounded, and do hold time or notes count?
- Do spam, wrong numbers and my own test calls count?
- Are booking, Spanish, recordings or integrations extra?
- Is there a setup fee, a per-seat fee, or a required annual term?
- How much notice do I give to cancel?
- Can I hear it answer before I pay?
Questions
AI receptionist pricing, briefly
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Entry plans from the AI receptionist vendors we checked on October 3, 2026 cost $49 to $150 a month when billed monthly, and Smith.ai also offers a free plan for 25 calls. Live human answering services cost more: their entry plans start around $250 to $300 a month.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than an answering service?
Usually, by a wide margin. At 100 calls a month averaging three minutes, Tylum Basic is $49 and Smith.ai's AI Pro is $150 for the first 75 calls plus overage, while the human services we checked cost from about $720 to $1,725. You trade that for a person on every call.
What hidden costs should I look for?
Check the overage rate, how calls are rounded, whether spam and test calls count, setup or onboarding fees, per-seat or per-agent pricing, paid add-ons for booking, Spanish or integrations, and whether the advertised price needs an annual commitment.
Per call or per minute: which is better?
All else equal, short calls favor per-minute billing and long calls favor per-call billing. Divide your typical call length into the price to compare: a $2.50 call is about $0.83 a minute if your calls run three minutes, against Tylum's $0.20 a minute.
How much does Tylum Voice cost?
Tylum Voice is $49 a month with 300 minutes of calls (about 16 cents a minute), or $129 a month with 1,000 minutes, Google/Outlook calendar sync and warm transfers (about 13 cents a minute). Both plans book appointments. Extra minutes are $0.20 each, there is no contract, and there's a 14-day free trial.