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What an AI receptionist costs a small business

Packaged AI receptionists start at $29 to $150 a month. At 100 calls most cost $79 to $213 (Oct 2026); DIY voice agents cost less but need building.

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A packaged AI receptionist costs a small business about $79 to $213 a month at 100 calls, based on the pricing pages of Smith.ai, Goodcall, Dialzara and My AI Front Desk as of October 2026. Entry plans start at $29 a month (Dialzara, 60 minutes), and the bill grows with calls, minutes or callers depending on how each vendor counts. Building your own voice agent on Retell or Vapi costs roughly $0.09 to $0.14 a minute in usage, so about $27 to $41 for the same 100 calls, but you do the setup.

We haven’t used any of these products. Every price below comes from each company’s own pricing page, read on October 28, 2026, in US dollars, before tax. Where we estimate a monthly bill, the call length is our assumption, and we show the arithmetic.

How do AI receptionists charge?

The four packaged products we checked use four different meters, which is why their headline prices are hard to compare:

  • Per call: Smith.ai counts “real calls.” Spam calls from known spammers are filtered before the AI answers and don’t count, and you can remove up to 10% of calls a billing cycle for selected spam.
  • Per unique caller: Goodcall counts unique customers a month and says “We never meter minutes.” Repeat calls from the same person don’t add to the count.
  • Per minute: Dialzara and My AI Front Desk include a bucket of minutes and charge per minute beyond it.
  • Per minute, in parts (DIY): Retell and Vapi bill the voice platform, the AI model, the voice and the phone line separately, per minute.

So the cheapest product depends on your calls. Many short calls from different people favor per-minute plans. Long calls from repeat customers favor Goodcall’s per-caller count.

How much do packaged AI receptionists cost per month?

Product and plan Monthly price Included Beyond the allowance Billing
Smith.ai Free $0 25 calls $3.00 a call Month to month
Smith.ai Pro $150 75 calls ($2.00 a call) $2.50 a call Month to month
Smith.ai Enterprise $500 300 calls ($1.67 a call) $2.17 a call Month to month
Goodcall Starter $79 100 unique customers (about 150 calls) 79¢ per customer Monthly price shown
Goodcall Growth $129 500 unique customers (about 750 calls) 26¢ per customer Monthly price shown
Goodcall Scale $299 2,000 unique customers (about 3,000 calls) 15¢ per customer Monthly price shown
Dialzara Business Lite $29 60 minutes $0.48 a minute Monthly, no setup fees
Dialzara Business Pro $99 220 minutes $0.45 a minute Monthly, no setup fees
Dialzara Business Plus $199 500 minutes $0.40 a minute Monthly, no setup fees
Dialzara Business Elite $349 1,000 minutes $0.35 a minute Monthly, no setup fees
My AI Front Desk Business-in-a-Box $99 monthly, or $79 a month billed annually 200 voice minutes $0.25 a minute (25 credits) Monthly or annual

A few details from the same pages:

  • Smith.ai also lists bigger Pro tiers (150 calls at $1.80 a call, 300 at $1.67) and Enterprise tiers (500 calls at $1.60, 1,000+ custom). It calls the service “month-to-month” with no long-term contract, but cancellation needs “30 days’ notice.” It mentions a 6-month plan with rollover calls but doesn’t publish its price.
  • Goodcall says “Every plan includes a local number.” You can start with a free demo agent and pay once you connect a number.
  • Dialzara offers a 7-day free trial on its inbound voice plans. Its “Done for You” service starts at “$1,500+ per month,” quoted on request.
  • My AI Front Desk offers a 7-day free trial. Annual billing takes 20% off. Each plan includes 1,000 overage credits a month (a credit is $0.01), which expire monthly. Extra credits cost $10 per 1,000 on auto-reload and don’t expire.

What does a DIY voice agent cost per minute?

Platforms such as Retell and Vapi let you build your own phone agent and pay per minute. They are developer tools: you write the prompts, connect a phone number and set up call transfers yourself.

Platform Platform fee Example all-in rate Phone line Free credit Concurrent calls
Retell (pay as you go) $0.055 a minute (Retell Voice Infra) $0.11 a minute in Retell’s own example, before telephony $0.015 a minute; Retell numbers $2.00 a month $10 20 free, then $8 per extra line a month
Vapi (no success package) $0.05 a minute (Vapi hosting, prepaid) $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes in Vapi’s calculator, before carrier fees Twilio inbound $0.008 a minute, charged by the provider $5 4; extra lines $10 a month

Retell breaks its example down as $0.04 a minute for the AI model, $0.055 for Retell Voice Infra and $0.015 for the voice, with $0 telephony, for $0.11 a minute. Retell quotes “$0.07-$0.31 / min” overall, depending on the model and voice you pick. ElevenLabs voices on Retell run $0.04 to $0.10 a minute against $0.015 for its standard voices. Retell also says “No platform fees, no feature gating.”

Vapi passes model costs through “at cost” with “no markup.” Its calculator for 1,000 minutes shows $50 hosting, $10 speech-to-text, $8 to $45 for the AI model and $15 to $24 for the voice. Its Core plan is $29 a month and raises concurrent calls from 4 to 10.

The low concurrency on Vapi’s free tier matters for a receptionist: with 4 lines, a fifth caller at the same moment won’t get through.

If you’d rather work out AI model costs per conversation yourself, our AI token cost calculator covers the models these platforms resell.

Worked example: 100, 500 and 2,000 calls a month

None of the vendors publish an average call length, so we assume 3 minutes per call and, for Goodcall, its own ratio of about 1.5 calls per unique customer. Change the call length and the per-minute plans move with it; the per-call and per-caller plans don’t.

100 calls (300 minutes, about 67 unique callers):

  • Smith.ai Pro: $150 + (100 − 75) × $2.50 = $212.50. The Free plan would be 75 × $3.00 = $225.
  • Goodcall Starter: 67 customers fits in 100, so $79.
  • Dialzara Business Pro: $99 + (300 − 220) × $0.45 = $99 + $36 = $135.
  • My AI Front Desk, monthly billing: $99 + (300 − 200) × $0.25 = $124, or less if the included 1,000 credits ($10) apply.
  • Retell: 300 × ($0.11 + $0.015) + $2 number = $37.50 + $2 = $39.50.
  • Vapi: 300 × ($0.082 to $0.129, plus $0.008 Twilio) = $27 to $41, plus the number.

500 calls (1,500 minutes, about 333 unique callers):

  • Smith.ai Enterprise at the 500-call tier: 500 × $1.60 = $800 (the page lists the per-call rate; we multiplied).
  • Goodcall Growth: 333 customers fits in 500, so $129.
  • Dialzara Business Elite: $349 + 500 × $0.35 = $524.
  • My AI Front Desk: $99 + 1,300 × $0.25 = $424.
  • Retell: 1,500 × $0.125 + $2 = $189.50.
  • Vapi: 1,500 × $0.090 to $0.137 = $135 to $206.

2,000 calls (6,000 minutes, about 1,333 unique callers):

  • Smith.ai: custom pricing above 1,000 calls.
  • Goodcall Scale: 1,333 customers fits in 2,000, so $299.
  • Dialzara Business Elite: $349 + 5,000 × $0.35 = $2,099, or ask about Done for You.
  • My AI Front Desk: $99 + 5,800 × $0.25 = $1,549, or ask about Partner/Enterprise, which lists overage “as low as” $0.07 a minute.
  • Retell: 6,000 × $0.125 + $2 = $752.
  • Vapi: 6,000 × $0.090 to $0.137 = $540 to $822.

On these assumptions Goodcall is cheapest at every volume, because its meter ignores minutes and repeat calls. That advantage shrinks if most callers ring once and never again, because then unique customers approach the number of calls: 2,000 calls from 2,000 different people still fit Scale at $299, but 3,000 would add 1,000 × 15¢ = $150, for $449.

What about human handoff?

A receptionist that can’t pass a caller to a person is a voicemail with extra steps. What each page says:

  • Smith.ai: its FAQ says a call can go to “a live North America-based receptionist — any time, day or night.” It doesn’t list a separate price for that or say whether handoff calls count toward your quota.
  • Goodcall: you can “choose who receives transfers,” but the page doesn’t say which plans include it.
  • Dialzara: “Blind & warm transfer to your team” is listed on Business Elite and Done for You. Lower plans list “call routing.”
  • My AI Front Desk: call transfer is an agent action, with 2 included on Business-in-a-Box.
  • Retell and Vapi: transfers are something you build into the agent. The phone minutes after a transfer are billed by the carrier.

What to watch for

  • Overage math. The cheap entry plans are small: Dialzara Lite is 60 minutes, or about 20 three-minute calls. Busy months bill at $0.35 to $0.48 a minute on Dialzara and $0.25 on My AI Front Desk.
  • Notice periods. Smith.ai is month to month but asks for 30 days’ notice to cancel. My AI Front Desk’s discount needs annual billing.
  • Spam. Smith.ai filters known spammers and lets you remove up to 10% of calls a cycle. The other packaged pages we read don’t describe spam credits.
  • Concurrent calls. Vapi’s free tier handles 4 calls at once and Retell’s 20. Extra lines are $10 and $8 a month.
  • Phone numbers. Goodcall includes a local number. Retell charges $2.00 a month for its numbers. Vapi doesn’t price numbers on its page; carriers bill separately. Dialzara’s pricing page doesn’t list one.
  • Setup work. None of the packaged pages list a setup fee. DIY platforms charge nothing to start but need your time or a developer’s.
  • Prices change. Retell’s model list and rates in particular change often. Check the page before you commit.

Which should a small business choose?

  • Repeat callers, longer calls (salons, clinics, home services with regulars): Goodcall’s per-caller pricing, from $79 a month for 100 unique customers.
  • Low call volume, short calls: Dialzara Business Lite at $29 for 60 minutes, or Business Pro at $99 for 220 minutes.
  • You want a human backup at all hours: Smith.ai, which offers transfer to live receptionists. Expect about $2 a call or more.
  • You have a developer and high volume: a DIY agent on Retell or Vapi at roughly $0.09 to $0.14 a minute in usage. Budget the build and upkeep separately.
  • You also want texts and a website chatbot in one bill: My AI Front Desk bundles 400 SMS and 100 chatbot conversations a month into its $79 to $99 plan; Dialzara sells them as add-ons.

For more on the voices these services use, see our AI voice hub and the ElevenLabs page. For hooking a receptionist into a CRM or calendar, see automation tools.

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