Pricing comparison · checked October 2026
AI receptionist pricing compared (October 2026)
What small-business AI receptionists and live answering services actually charge, from their own pricing pages — with the math shown, and honest notes on when another service is the better buy.
The short answer
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
As of October 2026, AI receptionist services for small businesses publish entry plans from $24.95 to $150 a month, usually covering 30 to 250 calls, minutes or callers; on plans sold by the minute that works out to about $0.20 to $0.50 per included minute. Live answering services, where a person picks up, have entry plans from $65 to $329 a month and cost about $2.30 to $5.00 per minute. Daber AI costs $3 for the first 14 days (a real number and 30 call minutes), then $49 a month for 3.5 hours of calls ($0.23 a minute), with extra time at $14 an hour billed per second. Which is cheapest for you depends on your monthly minutes, so the table shows every vendor's own published price, its source, and the arithmetic.
Published prices, side by side
Entry plan = each vendor's cheapest paid plan, monthly billing, USD before tax. Click a column heading to sort.
| Type | Included | Overage | Setup fee | Free trial | Source | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | AI | $24.95/mo · 30 calls | 30 calls | $0.83/call | $1.50/call | None | 14 days, no card | upfirst.ai |
| Dialzara | AI | $29/mo · Lite | 60 min | $0.48/min | $0.48/min | None | 7 days | dialzara.com/pricing |
| Daber AI | AI | $49/mo · Starter | 210 min (3.5 h) | $0.23/min | $0.23/min ($14/h), billed per second | None | $3 for 14 days (30 min, real number); building and browser testing free | daber.ai/#pricing |
| Rosie | AI | $49/mo · Professional | 250 min | $0.20/min | No overage fee — going over moves you to the next plan | None stated | 7 days | heyrosie.com/pricingheyrosie.com/legal/terms |
| Posh | Live (human) | $65/mo · Chïc | None — every minute billed | $2.30/min + $65 base | $2.30/min | Not published | Not published | posh.com/pricing |
| Goodcall | AI | $79/mo · Starter | 100 unique callers (minutes unlimited) | $0.79/caller | $0.50 per extra unique caller; minutes unlimited | Not published | 14 days | goodcall.com/pricing |
| My AI Front Desk | AI | $99/mo · Business-in-a-Box | 200 min | $0.50/min | $0.25/min (25 credits); 1,000 credits ($10) included monthly | None stated | Not published | myaifrontdesk.com/pricing |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI | $150/mo · Pro | 75 calls | $2.00/call | Free plan: $3.00 per extra call; paid-plan overage not published | None stated | Free plan, 25 calls/month | smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist |
| Ruby | Live (human) | $250/mo · 50 minutes | 50 min | $5.00/min | Not published | None (no activation, onboarding or setup fees) | No free trial; 21-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers | ruby.com/plans-and-pricingruby.com/faqs |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | Live (human) | $300/mo · Starter | 30 calls | $10.00/call | $11.50/call | None | Not published | smith.ai/pricing/receptionists |
| Abby Connect | AI + live agents | $329/mo · Essential (human) | 100 min | $3.29/min | Not published | None | Free trial on every plan | abby.com/pricing |
Formula. Effective rate = entry price ÷ units included in it. It is only comparable between plans sold in the same unit: a per-call or per-caller price can't be turned into a per-minute one without knowing how long your calls are — the cost calculator does that with your own numbers.
"Not published" means we could not find the figure on the vendor's own site. Third-party estimates are left out on purpose.
Competitor prices change often. Each row links to the page the figure came from; if it has moved, the vendor's page is right and this one is out of date — tell us at hello@daber.ai and we'll fix it.
Daber AI's plans in the same terms
Every plan includes the AI agent, a phone number, WhatsApp and website chat. No setup fee, no contract. Call time is billed per second.
| Plan | Price | Included | Price ÷ minutes | Extra time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $49/mo | 210 min (3.5 h) | $0.233/min | $14/h = $0.233/min |
| Growth | $149/mo | 720 min (12 h) | $0.207/min | $12/h = $0.200/min |
| Scale | $499/mo | 2,940 min (49 h) | $0.170/min | $10/h = $0.167/min |
- $3 to go live for 14 days, and the launch plan pauses the line when its 30 minutes are used — it never runs up a bill.
- Extra time costs $0.23 a minute on Starter ($0.20 on Growth), billed per second: going ten minutes over costs ten minutes, not a plan upgrade.
- Built from your website or from a chat with Claude or ChatGPT — no forms to fill in, no developer.
- The same agent answers your phone, WhatsApp and website chat on every plan.
How to choose
Count minutes, not just calls
Take last month's call log: calls × average length = minutes. Per-call plans favour long calls, per-minute plans favour short ones, and per-caller plans favour a few people who call often. The same business can be cheapest on a different vendor depending on which of the three it is.
Check what happens when you go over
The entry price matters less than the overage. Some services charge per extra minute or call, one moves you to its next plan, and one sends callers to voicemail when the minutes run out unless auto-recharge is on. Price a busy month, not an average one.
Decide whether a person must answer
An AI receptionist answers, books and transfers to your staff; it is not a person. If every caller needs a human — sensitive intake, complex judgment calls — a live service is the right category even at several dollars a minute.
Hear it before you pay
Most services offer a trial. Test with your real questions, a noisy line and a caller who changes their mind halfway — that tells you more than any price table.
When another option is the better buy
We sell Daber AI, so here is where it isn't the obvious pick, with the numbers.
- Very few calls: Smith.ai AI Receptionist's Free plan covers 25 calls a month for $0. Below that volume nothing paid, including Daber AI, costs less.
- The lowest entry price: Upfirst starts at $24.95 for 30 calls and Dialzara at $29 for 60 minutes — both under Daber AI's $49. If that is all the volume you have, they cost less.
- More minutes for $49: Rosie's Professional plan includes 250 minutes; Daber AI's $49 Starter includes 210. Between those two numbers, Rosie costs less.
- Long calls from a small group of callers: Goodcall's minutes are unlimited within 100 unique callers for $79. Past about 339 minutes a month, that costs less than Daber AI's Starter.
- A person on every call: Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists, Ruby, Posh, Abby Connect sell human receptionists. Daber AI doesn't — its agent transfers callers to your own staff when they need a person.
Put in your own numbers
The cost calculator compares an in-house receptionist (BLS median wage, editable), a per-minute live answering service and the Daber AI plan that fits your volume. For reference, one full-time receptionist at the US median wage plus benefits costs about $4,437 a month.
Calculate your monthly cost →Detailed comparisons
Questions
How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?
As of October 2026, published entry plans run from $24.95 to $150 a month, and one vendor has a free 25-call plan. On plans sold by the minute, that is about $0.20 to $0.50 per included minute. Daber AI is $3 for the first 14 days, then $49 a month for 3.5 hours of calls.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human receptionist?
For most small businesses, yes, by a wide margin. A full-time receptionist at the US median wage of $17.90 an hour (BLS, May 2024) plus typical benefits costs about $4,437 a month, and live answering services charge about $2.30 to $5.00 per minute. AI entry plans cost $24.95 to $150 a month. A person still does things an AI receptionist does not, so compare what you need, not only the price.
Which AI receptionist is the cheapest?
It depends on your volume. By entry price, Smith.ai's free plan (25 calls) and Upfirst ($24.95 for 30 calls) are the lowest we found. By price per included minute on an entry plan sold in minutes, Rosie's $49 plan with 250 minutes is the lowest. At a few hundred minutes a month, the overage rate decides it — the calculator works it out for your numbers.
How much does Daber AI cost?
$3 for 14 days with a real number and 30 call minutes, then Starter $49/month for 3.5 hours, Growth $149/month for 12 hours, Scale $499/month for 49 hours. Extra time is $14/hour on Starter, billed per second. Building and testing an agent in your browser is free, there is no setup fee, and you can cancel anytime.
Do AI receptionists charge per call or per minute?
Both, and a third way. Some sell bundles of minutes, some bundles of calls, and one counts unique callers with unlimited minutes. Per-call pricing is better for long calls, per-minute for short ones. Check what counts: one vendor doesn't bill calls under 15 seconds or spam, another lets you remove spam from the bill.
Are there setup fees?
None of the AI services in this comparison lists a setup fee, and Daber AI has none. For a few vendors a setup fee isn't mentioned either way; those rows say "not published" rather than assume.
Where do these prices come from?
From each vendor's own pricing page, checked in October 2026, linked in every row. The effective rate is entry price ÷ units included. We don't use third-party estimates; when a vendor doesn't publish a figure, the table says so.
Hear your receptionist before you compare anything else
Paste your website and talk to an AI receptionist drafted from it, in your browser, in about 20 seconds. Building and testing your own agent is free; you pay $3 when you put it on a real phone line.
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