How much does an AI receptionist cost in 2026?

The short version

The headline price on a pricing page tells you very little. A $29 plan with 60 minutes and a $99 plan with 220 minutes can cost exactly the same once your phone rings normally. So we priced every service on the same month: 200 minutes, which is about 80 calls at two and a half minutes each, a realistic month for a small business that gets a few calls a day.

On that month, the cheapest ready-made receptionists land between $49 and $60 (Rosie, Phonely, Upfirst), the all-in-one plans around $99 (My AI Front Desk, CloudTalk, Dialzara), and the specialists or human-backed services from $160 to $720. Here is the full table, with prices checked on each brand's own pricing page.

Prices checked November 11, 2026 on each brand's pricing page. Per-call and per-caller prices converted at 2.5 minutes a call.

Four ways AI receptionists bill you

Before comparing numbers, know which meter is running. It changes which service is cheap for you.

• Minute bundles. You buy a block of talk time (Rosie, Dialzara, CloudTalk, Phonely, My AI Front Desk). Good when calls are short. Watch the overage rate: it ranges from $0.25 a minute (My AI Front Desk) to $0.50 (CloudTalk).
• Per call. You pay per answered call (Upfirst, Smith.ai). Good when calls run long. Upfirst says spam and calls under 15 seconds are free, which matters on a public number.
• Per unique customer. Goodcall bills each phone number once a month, however long or often they call. Great for shops where people call back three times about the same job.
• Pay as you go. Retell AI charges $0.07 to $0.31 a minute with no monthly fee, but you build the agent yourself.

The costs that are not in the headline

Three things moved our numbers more than the sticker price:

• Plan jumps. Rosie has no per-minute overage: go past 250 minutes and it moves you to the next plan ($149). No surprise bill per minute, but a step.
• Fees. CloudTalk states an 11% compliance and administrative fee on the subscription for US and Canada customers, on top of taxes.
• Features locked to higher plans. Calendar booking costs $149 on Rosie and $99 on Dialzara, while Upfirst includes it at $24.95. If you need booking, compare the plan that has it, not the cheapest one.

On the plus side, we found no setup fees on the self-serve plans we read, and most offer 20% (Upfirst, My AI Front Desk) to 33% (Phonely) off for annual billing.

How to estimate your own month

1. Count last month's incoming calls (your phone carrier's call log works). Include the ones you missed.
2. Guess an average length. Booking calls run 2 to 4 minutes; quotes and intake calls 4 to 8.
3. Multiply. 120 calls × 3 minutes = 360 minutes.
4. Price that number on the two or three plans that fit, including overage. Our comparison tool shows the 200-minute figure side by side; scale it up or down from there.

If you only want after-hours and overflow calls answered, the volume is often a third of your total, which changes everything: a $29 to $49 plan may be plenty.

What about a human receptionist?

Ruby, the live-receptionist service we use as a benchmark, charges $720 a month for 200 receptionist minutes. RingCentral, on its own blog, puts an in-house receptionist at $35,000 to $40,000 a year in salary alone. An AI receptionist will not replace a great front-desk person who also greets patients and handles paperwork, but for answering, routing and booking, the price gap is wide. We compare both in AI receptionist vs human receptionist.

Three real months, priced

Averages hide the fun part, so here are three businesses we see a lot, priced on the plans as they stood on November 11, 2026. Taxes and add-ons left out.

• The quiet month: 40 calls, about 100 minutes. A bookkeeper or a small studio. Upfirst Starter covers 30 calls, then $1.50 each: $39.95. Rosie Professional is $49 with room to spare. RingCentral AIR standalone is $49 for exactly 100 minutes. Retell AI would be around $15 at its default estimate, if you are happy to build the agent.
• The busy shop: 120 calls, about 360 minutes. A salon or a repair shop. Upfirst Premium (90 calls) plus 30 extra calls at $1 comes to $89.95. Phonely Starter plus 160 extra minutes at $0.35 is about $106. Rosie has to jump to Scale, $149, but that buys 1,000 minutes and calendar booking. If those 120 calls come from 90 different people, Goodcall Starter still fits at $79, because repeat callers count once.
• The practice: 300 calls, about 1,200 minutes. A clinic or a law office with long intake calls. Upfirst Pro covers 300 calls for $159.95, however long they run. Rosie Growth is $299 for 2,000 minutes. CloudTalk's 1,000-minute bundle plus 200 minutes at $0.50 lands near $399 before its 11% fee.

Notice how the ranking flips. Per-call pricing wins when calls run long; minute bundles win when they are short and frequent. That is the whole game.

Monthly or annual?

Annual billing saves real money: 20% on Upfirst and My AI Front Desk ($79 instead of $99), two months free on Rosie, about a third on Phonely. Our advice is boring but it works: pay monthly for the first two or three months, read your transcripts, see your true volume, then switch to annual on the plan you actually use. Locking in a year on day one is how people end up paying for 1,000 minutes they never touch. Ready to price your own month? Our comparison tool puts three services side by side, and the cheapest AI receptionist ranking sorts them by what a normal month costs.

Our picks

From our main ranking and the comparison tool, prices checked November 11, 2026:

FAQ

How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?

Between $0 and $449 a month for the entry plans we checked on November 11, 2026. For a 200-minute month, most ready-made services cost $49 to $100.

Is there a free AI receptionist?

Smith.ai has a free plan with 25 calls a month. Others offer trials: Upfirst 14 days or 100 calls, CloudTalk 14 days with 50 minutes, Rosie, Dialzara and My AI Front Desk 7 days. See free AI receptionist options.

Are AI receptionists cheaper than answering services?

Yes, usually by a wide margin. Ruby's live receptionists cost $720 for 200 minutes; the AI plans we compared cost $49 to $163 for the same month.

How much does an AI receptionist cost per call?

On the plans we checked November 11, 2026: about 83 cents a call on Upfirst Starter ($24.95 for 30 calls), 53 cents on Upfirst Pro ($159.95 for 300), $2 on Smith.ai Pro and $1.67 on Smith.ai Enterprise. Minute-based plans work out to roughly 50 cents to $1.25 a call at two and a half minutes each.

Is per-call or per-minute pricing cheaper?

Per-call is cheaper when your calls run long (intake, quotes, legal or medical questions). Per-minute bundles are cheaper for short, frequent calls such as bookings and opening hours.

Do AI receptionists charge setup fees?

None of the self-serve plans we read list a setup fee. Managed options cost more, for example Dialzara's Done for You! from $1,500 a month.

Written by Dana Whitfield, editor, phone and front-desk software at Best AI Receptionist. Some links are affiliate links: if you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes our scores. Disclosure · How we score.

Keep reading: AI vs human receptionist · Is it worth it? · How to choose