How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost?

What does one call cost on each plan?

Divide the monthly price by the calls you expect, because plans that look expensive can be cheaper per call. The figures below come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked in November 2026. The per-call numbers are our arithmetic from those published prices.

These are two different services, so the gap is not a like-for-like comparison. Goodcall's page prices an AI phone agent by unique customer. Smith.ai's page describes plans with live staffing and offers AI-first, hybrid and human-first handling options, and it does not list a separate AI-only price. We have not tried either product. Smith.ai also lists a 30-day money-back guarantee, no setup fees, month-to-month terms and a 10% discount for a 12-month commitment.

When does a bigger plan become cheaper?

Move up a plan when your volume passes the break-even point, which you can work out in a minute. Using the published prices:

• Goodcall Starter to Growth. Starter costs USD 79 plus USD 0.79 for each customer above 100. That equals Growth's USD 129 at about 163 customers, so above roughly 164 unique customers a month Growth is cheaper.
• Goodcall Growth to Scale. Growth costs USD 129 plus USD 0.26 per customer above 500, which reaches Scale's USD 299 at about 1,154 customers.
• Smith.ai Starter to Basic. Starter at 60 calls costs 300 + 30 x 11.50 = USD 645. At 75 calls it costs USD 817.50, more than Basic's USD 810, so Basic wins above about 74 calls.
• Smith.ai Basic to Pro. Basic at 150 calls costs 810 + 60 x 10.50 = USD 1,440. It passes Pro's USD 2,100 at about 213 calls.

A worked example: 300 customers calling in a month, about 450 calls. On Goodcall, Starter would cost 79 + 200 x 0.79 = USD 237, but Growth costs USD 129, so Growth is the right plan, at about USD 0.29 a call. The small plan was the expensive choice.

What the monthly price leaves out

The sticker price is only part of the cost. Count these before you compare:

• Setup hours. Writing the call script, loading your services and prices, connecting the calendar and testing takes a few days of part-time effort. At EUR 20 an hour, 15 hours is EUR 300 of your time, once.
• Review time. Someone must read summaries and transcripts every week for the first month. Half an hour a week is about EUR 40 a month.
• Integration costs. Sending call summaries into your CRM usually needs an automation platform. Zapier's Professional plan is listed at USD 19.99 a month billed annually for 750 tasks.
• Overage. Both products charge extra beyond the plan. A busy month after an advert or a heatwave can double the bill, so ask what happens at twice the volume.
• The definition of a customer or call. Does a spam call count? Does a transfer to you count twice? Does a caller who rings three times count once?
• Data retention. Goodcall's page lists call history of 30 days on Starter, 90 days on Growth and unlimited on Scale, so the cheaper plans keep less.

This arithmetic uses invented figures for your own time. Replace them with yours.

Is there a free one?

None of the phone products we looked at lists a free plan. Tidio's pricing page lists a free chat plan with 50 conversations, but that is website chat, not a phone line. Treat any claim of a free AI receptionist with caution until you have read what the free tier covers, how long it runs and what it does with recordings.

Some field-service and booking software now bundles a receptionist as an add-on. Jobber is one search term people use here, but we could not confirm its price from its own pages, so check with the vendor. If you already use such a platform, ask what the add-on costs per call before you buy a separate service.

Building your own: the cost you cannot see

A do-it-yourself receptionist needs a phone number, speech recognition, a language model, a voice, calendar access and call transfer. We have found no published all-in prices for that stack, and the biggest cost is time: building it, testing calls, fixing accents, handling dropouts and maintaining it when a component changes. Unless you have a developer and an unusual need, buy the call handling and build only the connections after the call.

Questions to ask before you pay

• What counts as one call, or one customer, and how are transfers and spam treated?
• What happens at twice my expected volume?
• How long are recordings and transcripts kept, and can I delete them?
• Will you sign a data processing agreement?
• Can I leave after a month, and what happens to my phone number?

Next steps

Pull a month of call logs, count calls and unique callers, and run the break-even arithmetic above. Then check whether the value of the calls you miss justifies the monthly cost, using the method in our guide to AI receptionist for small business. Firms handling confidential matters should read AI receptionist for law firms first, and if you want help comparing options, see our AI automation service.