AI receptionist or answering service? Count customers, not calls

Per customer, an AI receptionist costs the least of the three ways to answer a small business’s phone, an answering service costs several times more, and a receptionist on staff costs the most. The monthly bill leaves out the work each one hands back to you: the callback after a service takes a message, the call that rings after the receptionist goes home. Count that work, and the cheapest setup is a mix: keep the person you already have, and put an AI on the calls they can’t pick up.

In this article: what each costs · the cost per customer · what each leaves you · when a person is worth it · if you miss only a few calls · questions people ask · where to start

How much does an AI receptionist cost compared with an answering service?

At published prices, an AI receptionist costs from nothing to $270 a month for up to 150 calls, a human answering service $250 to $2,100, and a receptionist on staff about $4,118 a month including the cost of employing them. Each one bills by a different unit:

Option	Published price	What you pay for
Jodie, AI	$49, $99 or $199 a month	A flat fee, unlimited minutes
Smith.ai AI, AI	Free for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call; $150 for 75 calls; $270 for 150	The call
Smith.ai receptionists, people	$300 for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300	The call, $8.50 to $11.50 for each one over
Ruby, people	$250 for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500	The minute
A receptionist on staff	$38,010 a year median pay (BLS), about $4,118 a month all in	The hour, whether the phone rings or not

Prices are as published on October 21, 2026. The receptionist’s monthly figure is the arithmetic behind our ROI calculator: pay plus 30% for the cost of employing someone, divided by twelve.

Compare what a plan does at the end of the call before you compare what it costs. Jodie’s $49 plan answers calls and takes messages; booking appointments and transferring calls start on its $99 plan.

What does each one cost per customer?

In an example month of 100 calls, 60 of them from customers, an AI receptionist costs $1.65 to $3.75 per customer, an answering service $15.25, and a receptionist on staff $68.63. Divide by customers, not calls. A month of calls includes spam, wrong numbers, vendors and people confirming a time. A per-call plan bills each of those like a new customer.

The example month is 100 calls of three minutes each, 60 of them from customers, at the prices above:

An example month	AI	Answering service	A hire
The plan	Jodie’s $99 plan, or Smith.ai’s free tier past 25 calls	Smith.ai’s 90-call plan, plus 10 calls over	Median pay plus 30%
The month	$99 to $225	$915	$4,118
Per customer	$1.65 to $3.75	$15.25	$68.63
Hours it answers	All 168 in a week	All 168 in a week	About 40

Halve the customers and every per-customer figure doubles. The ranking holds until about 540 calls a month, where an answering service costs as much as a receptionist on staff.

What does each one leave for you to do?

An answering service that takes messages leaves you a callback for every customer, an AI leaves you the calls that need judgment, and a receptionist on staff sends the calls they can’t pick up to voicemail. Count that work in the cost.

The answering service. In the example month, 60 messages are 60 callbacks. At five minutes each, that is five hours of your time, or $119 at a receptionist’s rate of $23.76 an hour all in. That takes the example month’s answering service from $15.25 to $17.23 per customer. A customer who waits hours for your callback has had those hours to call someone else, the way a slow reply loses a website inquiry. Some services book into your calendar instead: Ruby lists scheduling among the features in every plan. Ask whether yours books or takes a message, because a message means you still call the customer back.

The AI. An AI receptionist hands you the calls it should not finish: a complaint, a price that depends on the job, a caller who asks for a person. Some callers hang up as soon as they hear an AI voice, so the article on AI receptionists puts the AI on the calls nobody picks up instead of on every call.

The receptionist. A receptionist answers about 40 of the week’s 168 hours. The calls after closing, at lunch and while they are on another line go to voicemail. A receptionist is also the only one of the three who greets the people who walk in, chases an invoice and knows your regulars by name.

When is an answering service or a hire worth it?

An answering service is worth it when your callers need a human voice, and a hire is worth it when the front desk is a full job beyond the phone. Pay for a person on the line when a caller has an emergency or is upset, and a wrong word would lose you the client.

For the phone alone, a hire costs more than an answering service up to about 540 calls a month. Smith.ai’s 300-call plan costs $2,100 plus $8.50 for each call over, so it reaches $4,118 a month, the cost of a receptionist at median pay, at about 540 calls. Below that, a hire has to earn its cost with the work beyond the phone.

My rule for a business that already has someone at the front desk: keep the person you have, and put the AI on the calls they can’t pick up. Your regulars keep the voice they know, and the calls after hours and on the second line reach an AI instead of voicemail. At published prices, that costs less than the cheapest answering-service plan.

What if you only miss a few calls?

If you miss only a few calls a week, voicemail or a missed-call text-back covers them. Compare them with an AI on the missed calls:

Option	Wins when	Stops working when
Voicemail	Callers leave a message and wait for you to call back	Callers hang up instead, and you never learn what they wanted
A missed-call text-back	You miss a few calls a week and can answer texts between jobs	The texts come in faster than you can answer them
An AI on the missed calls	You miss calls every day, or after hours	Most of your calls need a person

The article on AI receptionists covers when a text-back is enough and when to move to an AI.

Frequently asked questions

How much do people charge for AI receptionists?

AI receptionists cost from nothing to a few hundred dollars a month at published prices. Smith.ai’s AI plan is free for 25 calls a month and $3.00 a call after that, or $150 a month for 75 calls. Jodie charges a flat $49, $99 or $199 a month with unlimited minutes. Compare what each plan does at the end of the call: Jodie’s $49 plan takes messages, and booking starts at $99.

What is the average cost of an answering service?

A human answering service costs $250 to $2,100 a month on the published plans of Ruby and Smith.ai. Ruby charges $250 for 50 minutes up to $1,725 for 500, which is $3.45 to $5.00 a minute. Smith.ai charges $300 for 30 calls up to $2,100 for 300, which is $7 to $10 a call.

What is the cheapest AI answering service?

Of the plans checked for this article, Smith.ai’s AI plan is the cheapest below 42 calls a month: free for 25 calls, then $3.00 for each call after that. From 42 calls, Jodie’s flat $49 plan costs less. Jodie’s $49 plan takes messages; booking starts at $99.

Where do you start?

Start with last month’s call log. Count the calls, how many came from customers, how many you missed and when, then put your numbers in place of the example month’s. If most missed calls come in after hours or while you are on another line, keep the person and put the AI on those calls. If you miss only a few a week, start with a text-back.

If you want a second opinion, tell us how many calls you get a month, how many you miss and when, and who answers the phone now. We will tell you what each option costs you per customer.