AI Receptionist Cost in 2026: Real Prices, Cost per Call and Custom Builds
AI receptionist cost in 2026: verified prices from 7 vendors, the true cost per call, hidden fees, and how AI compares with staff and answering services.
Short answer: AI receptionist cost in 2026 runs from free and $24.95 a month up to about $500 a month for subscription plans, which works out to roughly $0.45 to $2.00 per three minute call. A custom AI receptionist costs $10,000 to $30,000 to build plus about 8 to 25 US cents per minute. A live answering service costs $3.45 to $5.00 per minute.
In this guide
The AI receptionist cost you see on a pricing page is rarely the number you pay. Vendors charge per minute, per call, per unique caller or per agent, with different allowances and overage rates, so the cheapest headline price can be the most expensive bill. This guide puts seven products on the same footing, converts each to a cost per call, and sets them against a human receptionist, a live answering service and a custom build. An AI receptionist here means a voice AI system that answers your phone, handles common questions, books appointments, takes messages and transfers urgent calls. If you are choosing a product rather than a budget, read our guide to the best AI receptionists for small business alongside this one. If you need one built around your own systems, that is what our voice AI development team does.
AI receptionist pricing in 2026: subscription plans verified
Subscription AI receptionist pricing starts at $24.95 a month for 30 calls and reaches $299 to $500 a month for higher volume plans. We checked every price below on the vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Several popular cost guides still quote older figures, so check again before you buy.
| Product | Billing unit | Published monthly plans | Beyond the allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | Per call | $24.95 for 30 calls; $59.95 for 90; $159.95 for 300; $299 for 600; 20% less billed annually | $1.50 to $0.70 per call |
| Dialzara | Per minute | $29 for 60 minutes; $99 for 220; $199 for 500; $349 for 1,000; no setup fee | $0.48 to $0.35 per minute |
| Rosie | Per minute | $49 for 250 minutes; $149 for 1,000; $299 for 2,000; two months free billed annually | Not published |
| Goodcall | Per agent, by unique callers | $79 for 100 unique customers; $129 for 250; $249 for 500; unlimited minutes; 15% less billed annually | $0.50 per extra unique customer |
| My AI Front Desk | Per minute | $99 for 200 minutes, or $79 a month billed annually | $0.25 per minute |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Per call | Free for 25 calls; Pro from $150 for 75 calls ($2.00 a call, falling to $1.67 at 300); Enterprise from $500 for 300 calls ($1.60 a call at 500) | $3.00 per call on the free plan; $2.10 to $2.50 on paid plans |
| Ruby (live human receptionists, for comparison) | Per minute | $250 for 50 minutes; $395 for 100; $720 for 200; $1,725 for 500; no setup fees | Not published; larger users contact sales |
Prices in US dollars as of October 2026 from the linked vendor pages, before taxes and add ons. Vrisic has no commercial relationship with any of these vendors.
Three things stand out. Smith.ai filters calls from known spam numbers before they count toward your quota and lets you exclude up to 10% of calls a month as spam, which matters on per call plans. Goodcall counts unique callers rather than calls or minutes, so repeat callers are effectively free. And Rosie does not publish an overage rate, so ask before you exceed your allowance.
What does an AI receptionist cost per call?
An AI receptionist costs about $0.45 to $2.00 per three minute call on a fully used subscription plan, $0.24 to $0.75 per call in usage on a custom build, and $10 or more per call through a live answering service. Cost per call is the one number that makes every pricing model comparable, and none of the top ranking cost guides we reviewed calculates it for every product.
| Option | Plan used | Cost per 3 minute call | How we worked it out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | Scale, 1,000 minutes | $0.45 | $149 divided by 1,000 minutes, times 3 |
| Upfirst | Scale, 600 calls | $0.50 | $299 divided by 600 calls |
| Goodcall | Growth, 250 unique callers | About $0.40 to $0.52 | $129 per 250 callers; lower if callers ring more than once |
| Dialzara | Business Elite, 1,000 minutes | $1.05 | $349 divided by 1,000 minutes, times 3 |
| My AI Front Desk | 200 minutes | $1.49 | $99 divided by 200 minutes, times 3 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Pro or Enterprise | $1.60 to $2.00 | Published per call rate; call length does not matter |
| Custom build, usage only | Our typical estimate | $0.24 to $0.75 | 8 to 25 US cents per minute; build cost extra |
| Custom build, including build | $20,000 build spread over 36 months, 1,000 calls a month | About $0.80 to $1.31 | $556 a month of build plus usage |
| Ruby live receptionists | 200 to 500 minutes | $10.35 to $10.80 | $3.45 to $3.60 per minute, times 3 |
| US receptionist on staff | 25 calls a working day | About $8.70 | Loaded cost of about $54,300 a year over 6,250 calls |
The pattern is simple. Per minute plans reward short calls and per call plans reward long ones. If your average call is under two minutes, Rosie or Dialzara style pricing usually wins; if calls run five minutes or more, a per call or per caller plan often costs less. The staff figure is deliberately unfair to the human, since a receptionist does far more than answer phones, but it shows why overflow and after hours calls are where AI pays back fastest.
Get your real cost per call, free Send us one month of call logs (volume, length, time of day) and we will model your bill on five subscription plans and a custom build, side by side, within 2 business days.
What does the same call volume cost on each plan?
At 1,000 minutes a month, about 330 calls of three minutes or 15 calls a working day, subscription AI receptionists cost roughly $130 to $565 a month, while a live answering service would cost several thousand dollars.
| Product | Estimated monthly cost at 1,000 minutes | Assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | $129 to $174 | Growth plan; 250 to about 340 unique callers |
| Rosie | $149 | Scale plan covers 1,000 minutes |
| Upfirst | About $182 | Pro plan, 300 calls plus 30 extra at $0.75 |
| My AI Front Desk | About $299 | $99 plus 800 extra minutes at $0.25 |
| Dialzara | $349 | Business Elite plan covers 1,000 minutes |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | About $565 | Enterprise plan at 300 calls plus 30 extra calls at $2.17 |
| Custom build, usage only | $80 to $250 | Our typical estimate of 8 to 25 US cents per minute; build and support extra |
| Ruby live receptionists | About $3,450 | Largest listed rate of $3.45 per minute; Ruby quotes above 500 minutes on request |
These are our calculations from published list prices. Real bills depend on call length, repeat callers and add ons, so model your busiest month, not an average one.
What does one minute of AI phone time really cost to run?
The raw technology behind one minute of AI phone conversation costs roughly 7 to 31 US cents on developer platforms in 2026, which is why subscription plans can charge 15 to 50 cents a minute and still make a margin. Knowing the layers helps you judge any quote, including ours.
| Layer | Example provider | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Phone line | Twilio, US | $0.0085 per minute inbound on a local number plus $1.15 a month; toll free $0.022 per minute plus $2.15 a month |
| Speech to text | Deepgram Nova 3 streaming | $0.0048 per minute promotional, $0.0077 standard, pay as you go |
| All in voice agent API | Deepgram Voice Agent API | $0.075 per minute, standard tier |
| Voice agent platform | Retell AI | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on model and voice; $0.055 of that is the platform |
| Voice agent platform | Vapi | $0.05 per minute platform fee, with speech, model and voice providers passed through at cost |
The biggest swing is the language model and the voice. A small, fast model with a standard voice keeps a minute under 10 cents; a premium realtime model with a premium voice can triple that. For a receptionist that answers opening hours and books appointments, the cheaper end is usually fine. Our review of the best AI voice agent platforms compares these developer tools in more depth.
AI receptionist vs human receptionist vs answering service
An AI receptionist is the cheapest way to answer every call around the clock, a live answering service is the safest for sensitive or complex calls, and a human receptionist is the only option that also runs the front desk. Most businesses end up mixing two of them.
| Option | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Where it wins | Where it loses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription AI receptionist | None to little | $24.95 to $500+ a month | Price, 24/7 cover, setup in a day | Limited integrations and custom rules |
| Custom AI receptionist | $10,000 to $30,000 (£8,000 to £24,000; AED 37,000 to AED 110,000) | Usage at cost plus optional support | Deep booking or records integration, high volume, Arabic and English, data residency | Upfront cost; overkill for one small office |
| Live answering service | None | $3.45 to $5.00 a minute at Ruby’s list prices | Empathy, judgement, unusual calls | Cost at volume; scripts still limit what agents can do |
| Human receptionist | Hiring and training | About $54,300 a year in the US, loaded | In person service and many tasks beyond the phone | Covers about 40 of 168 hours a week |
A common and sensible pattern is a human at the front desk during the day, with an AI receptionist taking overflow, lunch breaks, evenings and weekends.
How much does a human receptionist cost in 2026?
A full time human receptionist costs a median $38,010 a year in US wages, an average £25,549 a year in the UK and an average AED 3,272 a month in the UAE, before employer costs. One person also covers only about 40 of the 168 hours in a week.
| Country | Published pay figure | Employer costs on top | Rough yearly cost of one full time hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Median $38,010 a year ($18.27 an hour), May 2025, BLS | Benefits are 30.0% of private sector compensation (BLS, June 2026) | About $54,300 |
| United Kingdom | Average £25,549 a year, Indeed, September 2026; National Living Wage £12.71 an hour from April 2026 | Employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year; at least 3% workplace pension | About £29,200 |
| United Arab Emirates | Average AED 3,272 a month, Indeed, July 2026 | End of service gratuity of 21 days’ basic pay per year for the first five years, plus visa and medical insurance | About AED 41,500 plus visa and insurance |
The US figure grosses up the BLS median using the BLS finding that wages are 70.0% of employer costs. The UK figure adds employer National Insurance and a minimum pension contribution to the Indeed average. The UAE figure adds gratuity to a year of the Indeed average. All three are our estimates for comparison, not payroll advice.
The fair comparison is not AI against one receptionist. It is AI against the hours your phone goes unanswered today: lunch, busy periods, evenings and weekends.
How much does a custom AI receptionist cost to build?
A custom AI receptionist costs $10,000 to $30,000 to build for a single line, and $30,000 to $75,000 when it connects deeply to booking, CRM or records systems. These are our typical ranges for voice AI work.
| Build | USD | GBP | AED | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single line receptionist | $10,000 to $30,000 | £8,000 to £24,000 | AED 37,000 to AED 110,000 | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Integrated voice agent | $30,000 to $75,000 | £24,000 to £60,000 | AED 110,000 to AED 275,000 | 6 to 12 weeks |
| Contact centre voice platform | From $75,000 | From £60,000 | From AED 275,000 | 3 to 6 months |
Typical ranges; you get one fixed price in writing after a free scoping call. Speech, model, voice and telephony usage is billed at cost; our typical estimate is 8 to 25 US cents per minute. Managed support plans start at $1,500 per month (about £1,200 or AED 5,500).
The build pays for call flow design, integration with your calendar, CRM or practice system, a phone number through a carrier such as Twilio, a speech pipeline with providers such as Deepgram and ElevenLabs, testing on recorded sample calls, and launch on your own cloud account. You own the code and the call data. A custom build makes sense when a subscription cannot book directly into your system, when you run several sites with different rules, when callers need Arabic and English, or when recordings must stay in one country. Sometimes the cheaper middle path is a small AI integration project that connects a subscription product to your booking system instead of replacing it.
Hear your own receptionist before you commit Our AI Pilot builds a working receptionist on your real call scripts and booking rules in 10 business days for $1,500, credited in full if you go ahead within 60 days.
Which hidden costs raise AI receptionist pricing?
The monthly plan price is rarely the whole bill. These are the charges that most often push the real AI receptionist cost above the headline figure.
- Overage rates. A cheap plan with a small allowance and high overage can cost more than the next plan up. Dialzara’s entry plan charges $0.48 a minute beyond 60 minutes, and Smith.ai charges $3.00 a call beyond 25 on its free plan.
- Spam and wrong numbers. Ask whether robocalls, hang ups and wrong numbers count. Smith.ai excludes known spam; many plans do not say.
- Transfers. When the AI transfers a call to you, the connected minutes may keep counting against your allowance.
- Add ons. Texting, website chat and extra numbers are often separate. Rosie charges $50 a month for website texting with 25 conversations, then $1 per conversation.
- Integrations. Calendar and CRM connections may sit on higher tiers. A practice management or field service system that no plan supports means custom work.
- Compliance. HIPAA business associate agreements, recording controls and data location options are often limited to top tiers.
- Annual billing. Discounts of 15% to 20% for annual billing lock you in; check cancellation terms before you take them.
- Your own time. Someone must write the answers, test calls and review transcripts weekly in the first month. Budget 5 to 10 hours.
Three worked examples: which option costs least?
These are example scenarios built from the published prices above and our own price sheet. They are illustrations, not client results.
Example 1: a two dentist practice in Texas
The practice misses calls at lunch, after 5pm and when both front desk staff are with patients. The AI handles about 900 minutes a month of overflow and after hours calls, answers insurance and opening hours questions and takes booking requests.
- Subscription: about $149 to $349 a month, or $1,800 to $4,200 a year
- Custom single line build: $10,000 to $30,000 plus $72 to $225 a month in usage
- Extra part time receptionist for 20 hours a week: roughly $19,000 a year in wages at the BLS median hourly rate
Verdict: a subscription wins unless the practice needs bookings written straight into its practice management system and no plan supports it. Our healthcare AI page covers the HIPAA points.
Example 2: a UK heating and plumbing firm with 24 hour emergency calls
A firm with 14 engineers takes about 3,000 minutes of calls a month, including boiler breakdowns at night. It wants the AI to judge urgency, read approved safety advice, book jobs into its field service software and wake the on call engineer for emergencies.
- Subscription on a per minute plan: about $1,050 a month (about £840) on Dialzara’s Business Elite plan at its overage rate, if a plan can follow the booking and escalation rules
- Custom single line build: about £18,000, plus roughly £190 to £600 a month in usage, so £20,300 to £25,200 in year one
- Human night and weekend cover: about 3.4 full time staff for 128 hours a week, roughly £100,000 a year at the loaded cost above
Verdict: a subscription is cheaper in year one, a custom build is cheaper from year two, and both are far cheaper than night staff. The deciding factor is whether a plan can follow the firm’s emergency rules. More on this sector is on our home services AI page.
Example 3: a five branch clinic group in Dubai
A clinic group receives about 15,000 minutes of calls a month in Arabic and English. It wants one number that books into its clinic system, answers questions about doctors and insurance, and keeps call data in the UAE.
- Integrated voice agent build: about AED 220,000 ($60,000)
- Running: AED 4,400 to AED 13,800 a month in usage plus AED 5,500 a month support, so year one is about AED 339,000 to AED 452,000
- Five front desk staff at the Indeed UAE average: about AED 207,500 a year before visa and insurance
Verdict: in the UAE, where receptionist pay is lower, AI rarely wins on replacing staff. It wins on answering overflow and after hours calls in both languages and freeing front desk teams for patients in the clinic. Build the business case on missed bookings, not salaries; our AI ROI calculator helps with that.
AI receptionist cost in the US vs UK vs UAE
Subscription prices are set in US dollars almost everywhere, but the savings against staff and the compliance work differ by country.
United States
The US has the most subscription products and the highest receptionist wages of the three, so the savings case is strongest. Check state call recording consent rules, since states such as California require every party to agree. Outbound calls must follow the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and healthcare providers need a HIPAA business associate agreement.
United Kingdom
Most products bill UK customers in dollars, so exchange rates move your bill. Callers must be told when calls are recorded and why, under UK GDPR. With the National Living Wage at £12.71 an hour and employer National Insurance at 15%, evening and weekend cover is expensive to staff, which favours AI. Our guide to choosing an AI development company in the UK covers local buying questions.
United Arab Emirates
UAE businesses usually need Arabic and English on the same line, often in the same sentence. That, plus data residency under Federal Decree Law No. 45 of 2021 or DIFC and ADGM rules, is why UAE clinics and service firms more often choose a custom build hosted in Azure UAE North or the AWS Middle East (UAE) region. Our UAE AI development guide explains the local rules.
When you should not pay for an AI receptionist
Skip an AI receptionist if you receive fewer than five calls a day and already answer almost all of them, or if most calls need judgement that no script can capture. In those cases voicemail with fast call backs, or a few hours of a live answering service, costs less. Do not commission a custom build for a single office with a standard online calendar; a $50 to $150 plan will do the job. And if your callers are mostly elderly or distressed, test carefully with real calls before switching anyone off. For a wider view of when to buy software and when to build it, see our guide on build vs buy for AI software.
How Vrisic can help
We build custom AI receptionists and voice agents for businesses that have outgrown subscription plans, or need integrations, languages or data controls those plans do not offer. We are a remote team working US, UK and UAE hours, we build on your cloud account, and you own the code. If a subscription product fits your calls, we will tell you on the scoping call and save you the build cost.
The low risk way to start is our AI Pilot: $1,500 (£1,200, AED 5,500), a working receptionist on your own scripts in 10 business days, fully credited if you go ahead within 60 days. You can also message us on WhatsApp at +91 63777 67206 or send us your call volumes.
Sources
- Upfirst pricing, as of October 2026
- Dialzara pricing, as of October 2026
- Rosie pricing, as of October 2026
- Goodcall pricing, as of October 2026
- My AI Front Desk pricing, as of October 2026
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist pricing, as of October 2026
- Ruby pricing, as of October 2026
- Twilio US voice pricing, as of October 2026
- Deepgram pricing, as of October 2026
- Retell AI pricing, as of October 2026
- Vapi pricing, as of October 2026
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Receptionists, May 2025 wage data
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026
- Indeed UK, receptionist salaries, updated September 2026
- GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, April 2026
- GOV.UK, rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
- Indeed UAE, receptionist salaries, updated July 2026
- UAE Government portal, end of service benefits in the private sector