Receptionist cost calculator
What does it cost to have your phone answered? Three options, your numbers, the arithmetic in plain view.
The short answer
How much does a receptionist cost compared with an answering service or an AI receptionist?
An in-house receptionist is paid for every hour of coverage, busy or not: at the US median wage of $17.90 an hour (BLS, May 2024) plus about 43% in benefits, 40 hours a week comes to roughly $4,437 a month. A live answering service bills the minutes its receptionists spend on your calls — published entry rates run about $3.29 a minute at the median. An AI receptionist bills call minutes too, at a fraction of that, and answers around the clock. Enter your own volume below to see all three.
900 call minutes a month
In-house receptionist
$16.64 per call
$4,991 per month
= 45 h × 4.33 wk × $17.90 × (1 + 43%)
Live answering service
$9.87 per call
$2,961 per month
= 300 calls × 3 min × $3.29
Daber AI — Growth plan
$0.62 per call
$185 per month
= $149 + 180 min × $12 ÷ 60
$3 for 14 days with a real number and 30 call minutes; building and browser testing are free.
The formulas
- In-house = coverage hours per week × 52 ÷ 12 × hourly wage × (1 + benefits %).
- Live answering service = calls × average minutes × rate per minute.
- Daber AI = for each plan, monthly price + (minutes beyond the plan's included minutes × its hourly rate ÷ 60); the cheapest plan is shown. Billed per second.
What the numbers leave out
A receptionist on payroll also greets visitors and does other work; this counts only the cost of coverage. Live services sell monthly bundles and some bill extra fees, so a real bill is rarely exactly minutes × rate. An AI receptionist answers 24/7 regardless of the coverage hours you enter; it transfers to your staff when a caller needs a person, and it is not a person itself.
Where the defaults come from
- Wage: US median hourly wage for receptionists, May 2024 — $17.90, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/receptionists.htm
- Benefits: benefits as a share of wages (30% of compensation ÷ 70%), private industry, June 2026 — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
- Live answering rate: the median of the entry-plan per-minute rates published by live services in our pricing comparison (Posh $2.30, Abby Connect $3.29, Ruby $5.00; October 2026). →
Frequently asked
How much does an in-house receptionist cost per month?
At the US median wage of $17.90 an hour (BLS, May 2024), a 40-hour week is about $3,103 a month in wages. Benefits add roughly 43% on top for a private employer (BLS, June 2026), before recruiting, training and cover for sick days.
How much does a live answering service cost per minute?
Entry plans published by the live services in our comparison work out to Posh $2.30, Abby Connect $3.29, Ruby $5.00 a minute (October 2026). Some bill per call instead, which suits long calls.
Why does the AI line ignore coverage hours?
Because an AI receptionist answers every call at any hour and bills only the minutes it spends on calls. Coverage hours drive the in-house cost, where you pay for the time whether the phone rings or not.