What does an AI receptionist cost per month?

Ask five AI receptionist companies what they cost and you get five prices, counted in three different ways. One charges by the minute, one by the call, one by the caller. That makes the number on the front page hard to compare, and it's why two businesses can pay very different amounts for the same calls. The plans we checked run up to $500 a month. Cally24 is $99 a month with 240 minutes, with every feature on one plan.

A human answering service costs more. Ruby, for example, lists $395 a month for 100 minutes with live receptionists.

All prices below were checked October 25, 2026 on each company's public pricing page (links in the table). Prices change, so check before you buy.

Three ways they charge

Per minute. You pay for the time the AI is on the phone with your caller. Cally24, Rosie and Dialzara work this way.

Per call. Every answered call costs the same, whether it lasts 30 seconds or 10 minutes. Smith.ai works this way.

Per caller. You pay for each different person who calls in a month. Goodcall works this way.

Which one is cheapest depends on the calls you get. Calls like "When can you come?" are short, so on a per-minute plan they use only a little of your plan. On a per-call plan, that same quick question costs as much as a long conversation with a new customer.

Public prices we checked

Each company lists these plans on its own pricing page:

What 100 minutes a month gets you

Entry prices only tell half the story, so it helps to price one real-looking month. Say your calls average 3 minutes. That's about 33 calls from 33 different callers. This is an example month, only to show the math:

Some of these cost less than Cally24 for this month, and the right column shows why. A low price often leaves out booking, and on Dialzara it leaves out Spanish too. Cally24 books callers into your calendar on its one plan. Per-call prices also climb fast when your calls are short, which Cally24 vs Smith.ai works out month by month.

Costs and limits to ask about

Before you sign up anywhere, check what you'd really get on the plan you'd buy.

• Booking only on bigger plans. Rosie books into your calendar from its $149 Scale plan. Its $49 plan doesn't include calendar booking.
• Spanish only on bigger plans. Dialzara lists English and Spanish, and calendar sync, from its $99 Business Pro plan.
• Extra use. Ask what each minute, call or caller costs after your plan runs out. Not every pricing page shows it.
• Setup fees. Cally24 has none.
• Contracts. Look for month to month. Cally24 is month to month, and you can cancel anytime.
• Phone number. With Cally24 you keep yours and forward the calls you don't answer.

How to guess your minutes

You can work out your own month in about five minutes with the phone you already have.

1. Open your phone's call history for last month.
2. Count the calls from customers. Skip spam.
3. Guess the average length. Most "When can you come?" calls are short.
4. Multiply calls by minutes.

Say you count 40 customer calls and most took about 2 minutes. That's 80 minutes, which fits in Cally24's 240 minutes, enough for about 120 calls like these. You can see your minutes in the dashboard, and in a busy month extra minutes are $0.29 each, so Cally keeps answering.

Is it worth it?

The fair way to judge any price is to compare it with what missed calls cost you today. Our missed call cost calculator does the math with your own numbers.

See Cally24 pricing, compare it with a human receptionist, or hear your own receptionist first, built from your website in 30 seconds.

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