AI receptionist cost usually breaks down into a monthly plan with included call minutes, plus a per-minute rate above that. Here's the AI voice agent pricing across the main tools, and how it compares to a human service.
| Tool | Entry plan | Included minutes | Overage / rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dialzara | $29/mo (Lite) | 60 min | $0.48/min on Lite |
| Synthflow | Pay-as-you-go (no subscription) | None — per minute | ~$0.16/min + $1.50/mo per number |
| Rosie | $49/mo (Professional) | 250 min (messages only; booking from $149 Scale) | Auto-upgrades to next tier |
| My AI Front Desk | $20/mo (Basic); $99/mo (Business-in-a-Box) | 200 voice min on the $99 plan | $0.25/min |
| CloudTalk (AI Receptionist) | €349/mo shown for 1,000 min; a FAQ still cites $99/200 min | 1,000 (AI Specialist tier) | ~€0.15/min above 10,000 min; entry pricing inconsistent — confirm with sales |
| Smith.ai | AI Receptionist ~$95/mo; human plans ~$292/mo | ~60 calls at entry | ~$1.60–2.40/call; +$1.50/call to book |
Pricing last checked September 2026 — vendors change plans and included-minute blocks often. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's own site before buying.
Take your missed or after-hours call count per month, multiply by an average handle time of 2–3 minutes, and check which plan's included block covers that. If you're well over a block every month, a usage-based tool or a higher tier is usually cheaper than paying overage. Note that a couple of vendors (Rosie, some Synthflow configs) auto-escalate you to the next tier on overage rather than charging per minute — a busy month can jump your bill.
| AI receptionist | Hybrid (AI + human) | Human answering service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | ~$20–$99 (plan) or per-minute | ~$95 (AI) to ~$290+ (human plans) | ~$200–$2,000 |
| Cost per call | Cents | ~$1.60–$3 | ~$1.50–$3 |
| Answers 24/7 instantly | Yes | Yes | Usually, with hold times |
For ranked picks at each price point, see best AI receptionist and best AI answering service.
Synthflow — pay-as-you-go, so you only pay for the minutes you use.
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Plan-based entry tiers are about $20 to $99 per month with a block of call minutes (roughly 60–250 at entry). Above the block you pay roughly $0.25 to $0.48 per minute, or the plan auto-upgrades. Usage-only platforms (Synthflow) bill about $0.16 per minute with no subscription.
Yes, substantially. A human answering service typically runs $200 to $2,000 per month for comparable call volume; a pure-AI receptionist covers the same routine calls for a fraction of that. Smith.ai’s AI-only Receptionist starts near $95 per month; its human-agent plans start near $292 per month.
Call volume (more minutes), outbound calling, deep integrations, multiple phone numbers or locations, and a human backstop. Heavy customisation via a builder like Synthflow adds setup time rather than licence cost.
We build each comparison from three things: the vendor’s own documentation and pricing pages, independent third-party testing and benchmarks (cited below where they exist), and published hands-on reviews. Where a capability is only claimed by the vendor and not independently verified, we say so in the text. We do not run our own call-quality lab, so latency and naturalness figures on this site are attributed to the third-party study that produced them.
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Sources checked