What Does an AI Receptionist Actually Cost?

A plain breakdown of what an AI receptionist costs — the free sample you get first, setup from $300, and monthly from $399 — without the vague “starting at $99” figure most sites lead with.

A small business owner answering a desk phone

Most people asking this question have already seen a “starting at $99/month” number somewhere and don’t quite trust it — reasonably, because across the AI receptionist category that number usually isn’t the whole number. Pricing in this space genuinely ranges anywhere from around $50/month bare-bones tools to $300+/month for full-service setups, and the gap between those is almost never explained on the pricing page.

Before any of that, there’s a free step. We build you a working sample agent for your business and you test it — ring it, try to trip it up, hear how it handles the kind of call you actually get. No card, no commitment, and nothing to cancel if you decide it isn’t for you. Most of the questions on this page answer themselves once you’ve heard it.

If you go ahead, setup starts at $300. It’s a one-time fee and it scales with how complex your systems are — a single line with straightforward call flows sits at the bottom of that range, while multiple numbers, unusual scheduling rules, or syncing into an existing CRM push it up. What it covers is the same either way: building and testing the agent against your real scenarios, not a generic script with your name dropped into it.

Then a monthly plan starting at $399. That covers hosting, monitoring, ongoing tweaks as you learn what callers actually ask, and a set number of included call minutes.

What pushes the monthly up: more than one phone number or agent, integrations beyond basic scheduling, and call volume past what’s included in the base plan — extra minutes are billed beyond that, priced to stay fair on both sides once you’re past the included volume.

What doesn’t change the price: which industry you’re in. The build takes roughly the same effort whether you’re a two-truck HVAC company or a twelve-chair salon — what changes is the script, not the work behind it.

The comparison that actually matters isn’t “AI agent vs. free” — it’s AI agent vs. either a missed call (and the job that went to whoever picked up first) or the hourly cost of a part-time hire to sit by the phone during the hours you’re not. Measured against either of those, most businesses know within the first month whether the math worked.

If you want the exact number for your call volume, that’s a five-minute conversation — or skip the conversation entirely and start with the free sample.