How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost? Real Numbers for Small Businesses

Roughly $28 to $166 a month for about 100 calls, in US dollars, with no setup fee. That is the range across the five AI receptionists we review, on their published October 2026 prices, for a business taking about 100 three-minute calls a month. A full-time receptionist costs an employer roughly $4,500 a month, and a human answering service several hundred dollars for the same calls.

What you pay depends less on the receptionist itself than on what it comes with: an add-on to job software you already pay for, a ready-made service with its own plan, a module in a bigger platform, or a tool you build yourself.

100 calls at three minutes each, a US local number, regular prices without introductory discounts. Plan details, rates, and the workings for each figure are in our AI voice agent pricing comparison.

Read the right-hand column with the middle one in mind. The Jobber and HighLevel figures include the software itself, a field service system and a CRM and marketing platform, so if you already pay for them, the AI receptionist adds only $29 or a few cents a minute. The ElevenAgents figure is the lowest because you do the building and run your own phone line.

Staff cost: the Bureau of Labor Statistics median receptionist wage of $38,010 a year (May 2025), grossed up for benefits, which make up 30% of private industry compensation (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026). That works out to roughly $54,300 a year. Your area and your benefits will differ: work out your own figure with our receptionist cost calculator, which starts from the lower benefit costs at employers with fewer than 50 workers, about $4,300 a month. Answering service: PATLive's 300-minute live answering plan, checked October 19, 2026.

The numbers make the AI look like a bargain, and per call it is. But it is not doing the same job. A receptionist greets people, handles paperwork, and makes judgment calls an AI does not. Where the AI earns its keep is the hours and moments a person is not there: evenings, weekends, lunch, and the second call while the first is still on the line. For a business with no front desk, it is coverage you never had. More on choosing between them in our comparison of AI vs human answering services.

None of the five publishes a setup fee. What you pay with is time, and that varies more than the monthly price:

From our hands-on trials and each vendor's documentation, October 2026.

If you would rather not do it yourself, agencies and freelancers will set one up, mostly on HighLevel and ElevenAgents. They quote by project, so there is no standard price; check what the vendor includes free before paying. Whoever sets it up, the work that matters is the same: accurate answers about your business, clear rules for when it hands a caller to a person, and a round of test calls with the hard questions.

• Busy months. Allowances run out, and overage is billed per conversation, credit, or minute. Jobber lets you pause instead of paying overage; check what your choice does.
• Long calls. On per-minute and per-credit billing, a ten-minute booking call costs five times a two-minute question. Per-conversation billing, like Jobber's, does not care about length.
• The phone line and texts. Some plans include them; others add a few dollars a month plus a cent or so a minute, and texting from a US number needs carrier registration.
• Introductory prices ending. Several vendors discount the first months. Budget on the regular price.
• Premium voices. On per-minute plans, a top-tier voice can cost three times a standard one.

The full list, with each vendor's rules, is in the hidden costs section of our AI voice agent pricing comparison.

Compare the monthly cost with what the calls it saves are worth. Three numbers from your own business do it:

Example figures only. Use your own: your phone system's missed-call log is the best source for step 1.

Be honest with step 1. Count only calls that went unanswered and did not call back, not every call you get. If your missed calls are rare or low value, a cheaper option or simply a better voicemail may be enough. If they are frequent and valuable, the price differences between products matter less than picking the one that books reliably into the system you already use. To run these numbers with your own figures, use the missed call cost calculator; for how often businesses actually miss calls, see our missed call statistics.

Which one fits how you work matters as much as the price: see the best AI voice agents for small business.

The bottom line: an AI receptionist costs a small business roughly $28 to $166 a month for about 100 calls, with no setup fee, against roughly $4,500 a month for a full-time receptionist and several hundred dollars for a human answering service. The cheapest options ask the most setup time, the built-in ones cost least if you already run the software, and the real test is whether it answers enough calls you would otherwise miss. For vendor-by-vendor rates, see the AI voice agent pricing comparison.