The short answer
An AI receptionist is worth it when calls come in while you can’t answer (during appointments, on site, after hours) and one new client is worth a lot. It isn’t worth it if you already answer nearly every call, or if your callers need real judgment on the first call.
Plans run from about $25 to $300 a month, billed per call, per minute or per caller.1 A human answering service costs more: Ruby starts at $250 for 50 minutes a month.2 The real question is simple arithmetic: what one recovered client is worth to you, against the monthly fee.
What does an AI receptionist actually do?
It answers your line in a natural voice, using what you’ve taught it: your website, your services, your hours, your answers to common questions. Depending on the plan, it can take a message, book a time on your calendar, transfer the caller to you, and send you a summary and transcript of every call.
Most can answer every call, only the ones you miss, or only after hours,3 so your staff can still pick up first.
Owners who like it describe the relief plainly: “It handles missed calls professionally, gathers useful information, and helps turn calls into actual booked jobs without me constantly babysitting the phone.”4
How many calls are you really missing?
Check your own phone log before you believe anyone’s statistic. The numbers that get passed around are shaky.
- “62% of calls go unanswered” comes from a 2016 study of 85 businesses by a marketing agency, and it counts calls sent to voicemail as unanswered. It found 37.8% of calls were answered live.5
- A larger, newer dataset: across 70 million calls, Invoca found 56% were answered by a person.6 Invoca sells call software, and its customers are mostly businesses running ads.
- “85% of callers won’t call back” and “80% won’t leave a voicemail” can’t be traced to any study. In one 2025 survey of 1,000 US consumers, 42% said they leave a voicemail.7
So look at your last month: calls missed, voicemails left, and calls that came outside business hours. That’s your number.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Headline prices are hard to compare, because vendors bill on different units. Here’s what each publishes.
| Vendor | Published price |
|---|---|
| Upfirst | From $24.95 a month for 30 calls, then $1.50 a call. No contract.8 |
| Rosie | $49 a month for 250 minutes. Calendar booking and call transfers start on the $149 plan.9 |
| Goodcall | $79, $129 or $299 a month, priced by unique callers.10 |
| Frontdesk | $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for 200 voice minutes.11 |
| RingCentral | From $49 a month on its own for 100 minutes, or $39 added to a RingEX phone plan from $30.12 |
| Smith.ai | AI plans from $150 a month for 75 calls. Human receptionists from $300 for 30 calls.13 |
Prices change often, so follow the links. Ask what counts as a billable call: some vendors don’t charge for spam or very short calls, and others do.
Is it worth it for your business?
It tends to pay off when:
- Calls come in while you’re with a client, on a job, or after hours.
- One new client is worth far more than the monthly fee.
- Most first calls ask the same few questions: price range, availability, next steps.
It tends not to when you already answer almost every call, when callers need judgment right away, or when your phone line itself is unreliable. The failures are real too. One owner reported that “the AI and the person will be talking over each other. Customers generally get confused and frustrated.”14 A caller on Hacker News fired a plumber for a five-figure job “because his AI receptionist couldn’t understand my address.”15
Will your callers hate talking to a machine?
Some will. In a 2024 survey, only 33% of people said they were comfortable talking to AI on a voice call, and 85% said an easy way to reach a person was very important.16 For high-ticket buyers, 83% said it matters that a brand’s AI clearly identifies itself.17
So set it up to say what it is, keep the script short, and make it easy to reach you. Used for overflow and after hours, it’s competing with voicemail, not with you.
Is it legal to record calls and use AI on your line?
General information, not legal advice.
- Recording. Federal law allows recording when one party consents,18 but some states, Florida among them, require everyone on the call to consent.19 Most AI receptionists record and transcribe by default, and vendors usually make the notice your responsibility. Turn on a “this call may be recorded” greeting.
- Answering versus calling out. The FCC’s 2024 ruling says AI voices count as “artificial” under the TCPA, which covers calls you make.20 Answering someone who called you is different. If the AI will call or text people back, check consent rules first.
- Clinics and med spas. A vendor that handles patient information for a HIPAA-covered practice needs a written business associate agreement.21 Ask whether the vendor will sign one, and on which plan.
- Law firms. ABA Formal Opinion 512 says confidentiality extends to prospective clients, and that lawyers must supervise the AI tools they use.22 An intake call is a prospective client.
What should you ask before you sign up?
- What counts as a billable call, and what does it cost when I go over?
- Is booking, or transferring to me, included in this plan?
- What does it do when it doesn’t know the answer? Ask for a demo and ask it something it hasn’t been taught.
- How does it hand a caller to a person, and does that cost extra?
- Which calendar and CRM does it connect to directly, not just through a third-party tool?
- Do I get a recording, a transcript and a summary of every call, and how long are they kept?
- Do you train your AI on my calls?
- Will you sign a BAA, if I need one?
- Can I test it before real callers hear it?
- If I cancel, how do I get my number back? One owner said that after cancelling, callers were still told there was “a problem with your … subscription.”23
How we help
An AI receptionist works best when it isn’t on its own: when it knows your services, books into your real calendar, puts every call in your CRM, and texts you when someone needs you. That’s the follow-up we build, connected to your website and your client portal, and we keep checking it after it goes live.
If you’re weighing up phones against everything else, start with how fast to reply to a new inquiry.