How much does an AI receptionist cost?

AI receptionist cost at 100, 300, 600 and 1,000 calls a month

The table below models one scenario: inbound calls averaging 3 minutes each, at four monthly volumes. We use each vendor's published rates and note where a volume exceeds the plan allowance. Prices are per month.

How to read this:

• Retell AI publishes a $0.07–$0.31 per minute range depending on the voice, model and telephony you choose, so we show the spread.
• Vapi's $0.05 per minute is hosting only. Model, voice and telephony bill on top, so treat it as a floor, not a total.
• Goodcall bills unique callers, not calls. We assumed every call is a different caller, which is the worst case.
• Smith.ai's Pro covers about 75 calls at $2.00 per call and Enterprise about 300 at $1.67 per call; we model calls beyond those counts at the same rate.
• Rosie and Ruby do not publish overage rates on the pages we read, so volumes past the top allowance show as "over plan."
• Ruby is a live human receptionist service, included as a price ceiling.

Quote-only vendors like Arini and Avoca publish no rates, so they cannot appear in the table. Slang.ai charges $399 per location for restaurants, and the source text does not state whether that is monthly or annual.

The four billing units, and who uses each

AI receptionist pricing looks chaotic until you sort it by billing unit. There are four.

Per call. You pay for each answered call. Smith.ai charges $2.00 per call on Pro ($150/month) and $1.67 on Enterprise ($500/month), with a free plan covering 25 calls a month and $3.00 per call after that. Upfirst bundles calls into plans — 30 calls for $24.95/month, up to 600 for $299/month — then charges $0.70 to $1.50 per additional call depending on tier. Per-call is easy to forecast if your call count is stable.

Per minute. You pay for talk time. Dialzara includes 60 to 1,000 minutes per plan ($29–$349/month), then bills $0.35–$0.48 per minute of overage. Retell AI is pure usage at $0.07–$0.31 per minute. Bland AI starts at $0.14 per minute with no platform fee. Vapi charges $0.05 per minute for hosting, with model, voice and transport stacked on top. Per-minute rewards short calls and punishes chatty ones.

Per unique caller. Only Goodcall uses this. One phone number counts once a month no matter how many times it calls: 100 callers on Starter ($79/month), 500 on Growth ($129), 2,000 on Scale ($299). Extra callers cost 79¢, 26¢ or 15¢ each. Spam and wrong numbers do not count. If your customers call repeatedly, this is the cheapest model on the list.

Flat monthly with minute buckets. Rosie ($49–$299/month for 250–2,000 minutes), My AI Front Desk ($99/month for 200 voice minutes plus chat and SMS), and Ruby ($250–$1,725/month for live receptionist minutes) all work this way (Rosie pricing). Predictable, but you need to know the overage policy before you sign.

How does AI receptionist cost compare with a human receptionist?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median receptionist pay at $18.27 per hour, or $38,010 per year. That is wage only — it excludes benefits, payroll tax, training, turnover and coverage gaps.

A full-time receptionist covers one phone line, roughly 40 hours a week, during business hours. An AI receptionist answers every line, 24/7, including weekends.

Put the table above against the BLS number:

• $38,010 a year works out to about $3,167 a month in wages.
• The most expensive AI option in our table at 1,000 calls a month is Smith.ai Enterprise at $1,669 — about half the wage figure.
• The cheapest published option at that volume is Vapi's hosting fee at $150, before model and telephony costs (Vapi pricing).
• Ruby's live human service at $720–$1,725 a month sits between the two, because you share receptionists with other businesses instead of employing one (Ruby pricing).

BLS also projects receptionist employment to decline 2% between 2025 and 2035, noting that organizations continue to automate or consolidate administrative functions. Customer service representatives, at $21.53 per hour or $44,770 a year, face a projected 5% decline for the same reason.

The wage comparison is real but incomplete. A human handles walk-ins, mail, office tasks and judgment calls an AI cannot. The honest framing: an AI receptionist replaces the phone-answering slice of the role, at roughly 5–50% of the wage cost, depending on volume and vendor.

What costs do vendors leave out of the headline price?

The monthly plan is rarely the whole bill. From the pricing pages we read:

• Overage. Dialzara bills up to $0.48 per minute past your bucket. My AI Front Desk bills $0.25 per minute in overage credits. Upfirst charges $0.70–$1.50 per extra call. Rosie and Ruby do not publish overage rates at all — ask before signing.
• Live-agent add-ons. Smith.ai's AI-initiated escalation is free, but choosing live agent involvement for verification or scheduling is a per-call add-on.
• Number and telephony fees. Bland AI bills telephony separately from its per-minute AI rate, on your own carrier or its Twilio pass-through. Retell AI charges $0.10 per outbound call for branded caller ID and $8 per month per additional concurrent call.
• Test-run top-ups. Goodcall meters AI test runs against a plan allowance and tops up $5 at a time — an extra cost beyond the subscription (Goodcall pricing).
• Platform fees. Bland AI's Build plan adds $299 a month on top of usage (Bland AI pricing). Vapi's Pro package costs 10% of the hosting fee with a $999 monthly minimum.
• Compliance add-ons. Vapi charges $2,000 for HIPAA. Upfirst only offers BAAs on Custom plans.
• Extra agents and seats. Upfirst charges $9.95 a month per additional AI agent.
• Per-location pricing. Slang.ai's $399 is per location, which multiplies fast for restaurant groups.

None of these are hidden so much as unheadlined. Add them to your model before comparing vendors, and run your own numbers through our AI call center savings calculator.

Which pricing model fits your call pattern?

Match the billing unit to how your phone actually rings.

Steady, predictable volume. Flat monthly plans win. Goodcall, Rosie, and My AI Front Desk give you a fixed bill; you just need the overage policy in writing.

Spiky or seasonal volume. Per-call or per-minute pricing flexes with you. Smith.ai and Upfirst bill what you use; Retell AI and Bland AI scale to zero on quiet months.

Repeat callers. Goodcall's per-unique-caller model means your regulars never cost you twice in a month.

Long calls. Avoid per-minute. A 10-minute support call costs $4.80 in Dialzara overage but counts as one call at Smith.ai or Upfirst.

Regulated industry. Budget for compliance. Goodcall states SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance on its pages. Retell AI lists HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001. Bland AI lists seven certifications including HIPAA and PCI DSS (self-attested). Vapi and Upfirst gate HIPAA behind paid tiers.

No engineering team. Skip the per-minute platforms. Retell AI, Bland AI and Vapi are developer tools — setup is on you. Smith.ai, Goodcall, Rosie, Upfirst and Dialzara are built for business-owner setup.

If you are weighing AI against a traditional answering service, read our AI receptionist vs answering service comparison. Before committing, run structured test calls — our guide on how to test an AI receptionist covers the process. Or get matched with vendors that fit your volume.