AI receptionist cost in 2026: what you will actually pay

AI receptionist cost on the paid plans listed below starts at $49 a month. What you actually pay depends on what the vendor counts: minutes, answered calls, or unique callers. Then add any setup fee and the overage rate once you pass what the plan includes.

How AI receptionist pricing works

Plans are built from a few parts. Which ones a vendor uses decides how your bill moves when the phone gets busy.

• Flat monthly with included minutes. You pay a set price and get a bucket of talk time. Quiet months cost the same as normal ones.
• Per minute. Every minute the AI spends on the phone is billed. Cheap when calls are short, expensive when callers ramble.
• Per call. You pay for each answered call regardless of length. Long calls are cheaper to you, short ones cost more per minute.
• Per AI agent. The price is multiplied by how many AI agents you run. This is different from team seats, which are the logins your staff use to see calls, and plans often cap those separately.
• Per unique caller. You pay for each different person who calls in a month. Someone who calls three times counts once, so your call count alone cannot price this model.
• Setup fee. A one time charge for writing your call script, connecting your calendar and testing.
• Overage. The rate once you pass what the plan includes. This is the number that decides your bill in a busy month.

Call length is what moves the bill. Take 200 calls a month on a plan that includes 1,000 minutes. If they are 2 minute calls about hours and availability, that is 400 minutes and you never touch overage. If they are 8 minute new client consults, that is 1,600 minutes, 600 over the plan. On a per call plan the same two months would cost the same, because length does not count.

What three vendors list on their pricing pages

These are from each vendor's own pricing page as of October 2026. Prices change, so check before you buy.

Smith.ai's AI receptionist pricing page lists a free plan with 25 calls and $3 for each call after that, and a Pro plan at $150 a month for 75 calls and $2.50 for each extra call, and says the service is month to month with no long term contract. Rosie's pricing page lists $49 a month for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000 and $299 for 2,000, with a 7 day free trial and two months free if you pay annually. Rosie's plan cards show no per minute rate past your minutes, so read the answer to its pricing FAQ, "What happens if I go over my minutes?", and get it in writing. Goodcall's pricing page lists unlimited minutes at $79, $129 or $249 a month per agent on monthly billing, or $66, $108 and $208 a month billed annually. Each plan caps unique customers each month (100, 250 or 500) and charges $0.50 for each customer past it. The team member count (3, 9 or 50) is a separate limit from the agent price.

Calls, minutes and unique customers do not convert cleanly, so the only fair comparison is to run your own numbers through each one.

Compare what each tier does, too, not only the price. On Rosie's page, the $49 Professional plan sends callers a booking link, while calendar booking and live call transfers are listed starting with the $149 Scale plan. If you need the AI to book jobs or hand a caller to your team, price the tier that actually does that.

Hidden costs to ask about before you sign

These are the questions that decide what you pay in month three.

1. Setup. Is there a one time fee, and what does it cover? Ask whether it includes writing the call script or only turning the account on.
2. Overage rate. What is the per minute or per call price past the plan, and does the plan stop answering or keep billing when you go over?
3. Minimum term. Is it month to month, or does the better price require a 6 or 12 month commitment?
4. Annual versus monthly billing. Ask whether the quoted price assumes you pay a year up front. Goodcall and Rosie both list a lower effective monthly price on annual billing, so check which number you were given.
5. Number porting. Can you keep your existing business number, and is there a charge to move it?
6. Integrations. Does booking into your calendar or writing leads into your CRM cost extra, or need a separate tool?
7. Who writes the call script. Some vendors hand you a blank builder, others write your intake questions with you.
8. Spam and wrong numbers. Are robocalls and misdials billed like real calls?

AI receptionist cost at three call volumes

Here is the math on our own plan, so you can see how an included minutes model behaves. The GateKeeperAI AI receptionist starts at $200 a month for a business, includes 500 talk minutes, and charges $0.35 a minute after that. Setup starts at $250 and is quoted exactly on the setup call. The example assumes calls average 3 minutes, which is a planning assumption, not a measured figure. Your own call logs will tell you your real average.

At 100 calls, 100 times 3 minutes is 300 minutes, which fits inside the 500 included, so the month costs $200. At 250 calls you use 750 minutes. That is 250 over, and 250 times $0.35 is $87.50, for a total of $287.50. At 400 calls you use 1,200 minutes, 700 over, and 700 times $0.35 is $245, for $445.

In the first year, add setup. The lightest month times 12 is $200 times 12, or $2,400, plus setup from $250, so from $2,650. The plan includes the full CRM, so leads the AI takes land in a pipeline. The plan comparison on our pricing page shows what each tier includes.

How it compares to a part time receptionist

The Bureau of Labor Statistics receptionist profile puts the median hourly wage for receptionists at $18.27 in May 2025, or $38,010 a year. A part time receptionist at that median for 20 hours a week earns about $365.40 a week. Over 52 weeks that is $19,000.80, or about $1,583.40 a month.

That figure is wages only. It leaves out payroll taxes, any benefits, and the time it takes to hire and train someone, so the true cost to you is higher. We did not put a number on those extras because they vary too much by business and state.

On wages alone, the 250 call month above costs $287.50 on the AI plan against about $1,583.40 for the part time hire. But the two are not doing the same job. A person at a desk can greet walk in customers, calm an upset caller, handle a strange request, and do the filing between calls. 20 hours a week also leaves most of the week, including nights and weekends, with nobody answering.

Treat it as coverage, not replacement. Put the AI on the calls nobody can get to: after hours, weekends, and the moments the office line is already busy. Keep your people for the work that needs a person. The AI takes the caller's details and books or transfers, and your team picks it up from there.

When an AI receptionist is the wrong buy

A few cases where something else fits better:

• You get a handful of calls a week. A flat AI plan will cost more per call than it is worth. A CRM that rings calls through to your phone and writes each one up as a lead may be enough.
• Your callers need a human voice. If most calls are upset customers or delicate conversations, a live answering service staffed by people is a better fit, even at a higher price per call.
• You need someone on site. An AI cannot sign for a delivery or greet a patient at the front desk.
• You will not keep the script current. The AI answers from what you give it, so stale prices and hours mean stale answers.

If the first case is you, the GateKeeperAI CRM starts at $40 a month with a business number that rings through to your phone, call recording and transcription, and the call written up as a lead. It comes with a 14 day free trial, and you can add the AI later on the same account.

How to work out your own number

1. Pull last month's call log from your phone carrier and count answered and missed calls. Our guide to estimating what missed calls cost a plumbing or HVAC business walks through that count.
2. Estimate the average call length. Your carrier log usually shows it.
3. Multiply calls by length to get monthly minutes, then run that through each vendor's included amount and overage rate.
4. Add the setup fee spread over twelve months.
5. Compare the total to the margin, after direct job costs, on the jobs the extra coverage would realistically recover. For a home services business, use your own job margins and a cautious guess at how many after hours callers would have booked. That is your calculation to make, not a promised result.