A live-human answering service costs $25 to $2,100 a month, and an AI receptionist costs $49 to $299 a month. The spread inside each range is almost entirely about included volume, not quality. Every figure on this page was read from the vendor's own public pricing page on August 31, 2026, no ranges borrowed from other listicles, and nothing quoted that the vendor does not publish.
Every published price, on one axis
Most pages ranking for this search are published by one of these companies and quote mostly themselves. This table is the whole market we could verify, live-human and AI together, sorted by entry price. "Entry" is the cheapest plan the vendor publishes; it is usually not the plan you will end up on.
| Vendor | Type | Entry | Mid tier | Top published | Priced by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ReceptionHQ | Live human | $25/mo + $1.99 per call | $39/mo, 15 calls | $49/mo (MyAssistant) | Call |
| AnswerFirst | Live human | $30/mo + $1.60-$1.95 per min | Usage-based, no tiers | Usage-based, no tiers | Minute |
| PATLive | Live human | $49/mo, no included minutes | $349/mo, 200 min (~80 calls) | $1,499/mo, 1,000 min | Minute bundle |
| Rosie | AI | $49/mo (Professional) | $149/mo (Scale) | $299/mo (Growth) | Flat monthly |
| Goodcall | AI | $79/mo per agent (Starter) | $129/mo (Growth) | $249/mo (Scale) | Flat, per agent |
| Ruby | Live human | $250/mo, 50 min | $720/mo, 200 min | $1,725/mo, 500 min | Minute bundle |
| Smith.ai | Human + AI | $300/mo, 30 calls | $810/mo, 90 calls | $2,100/mo, 300 calls | Call bundle |
| PxlPeak | AI, done-for-you | From $997/mo | , | , | Flat monthly |
Two things stand out immediately. The AI plans are flat , Rosie and Goodcall do not meter minutes at all, while every live human service meters something. And the cheapest human entry prices buy almost nothing: ReceptionHQ's $25 includes no calls, PATLive's $49 includes no minutes, and AnswerFirst's $30 is a base fee before any usage.
What one answered call actually costs
This is the comparison the pricing pages are built to prevent. Taking a small business at roughly 80 answered calls a month and applying each vendor's published rates:
| Vendor and plan | Monthly at ~80 calls | Per answered call |
|---|---|---|
| Rosie Professional (AI) | $49 | $0.61 |
| Goodcall Starter (AI) | $79 | $0.99 |
| ReceptionHQ pay-as-you-go | $25 + (80 × $1.99) = $184 | $2.30 |
| PATLive 200-minute tier | $349 | $4.36 |
| AnswerFirst usage-based | $30 + (200 min × $1.60-$1.95) = $350-$420 | $4.38-$5.25 |
| Ruby 200-minute tier | $720 | $9.00 |
| Smith.ai 90-call tier | $810 | $9.00 |
| PxlPeak done-for-you | From $997 | From $12.46 |
The monthly prices are the vendors'. The per-call column is our arithmetic, not theirs. Where a vendor publishes calls directly (ReceptionHQ, Smith.ai) we used that. PATLive publishes both minutes and its own call estimates: 200 minutes is "about 80 calls" on its pricing page, a consistent 2.5 minutes per call across every tier, so we used PATLive's own yardstick. Ruby and AnswerFirst publish minutes but not call counts, so their rows apply that same 2.5-minute figure; it is PATLive's number, not Ruby's or AnswerFirst's, and a longer average call would make both look worse. Rosie and Goodcall are flat, so their per-call figure simply falls as volume rises.
The volume where the cheaper option flips
AI is not always cheaper, and the crossover is lower than most comparisons admit. ReceptionHQ's pay-as-you-go plan is $25 a month plus $1.99 per call answered. Rosie's flat AI plan is $49 a month. Setting those equal:
- $25 + ($1.99 × calls) = $49 → calls = 12.1
So below roughly 12 answered calls a month, a pay-as-you-go human service is genuinely cheaper than the cheapest flat AI plan, and you get a human. Above it, the flat plans pull away quickly, because they do not meter. At 200 calls a month the same two options are $423 and $49. That single calculation, from two published rates, is the honest answer to "should I just get an AI one" for a very quiet phone line.
The costs that are not on the pricing page
Three categories account for nearly every gap we found between a published price and a real invoice.
Overage, which is where minute bundles earn their margin
PATLive's additional minutes run from $2.99 on the $49 plan down to $1.69 on the $1,499 plan , the cheaper your plan, the more each extra minute costs, which is the opposite of intuition. Smith.ai charges $11.50 per extra call on the $300 plan, falling to $8.50 on the $2,100 plan. Underbuying a tier is more expensive than overbuying one.
Per-action add-ons
Smith.ai publishes these individually: $1.50 to book an appointment, $1.00 for a call on a dedicated Spanish-language line, $0.50 per call for each CRM beyond the first, $0.25 per extra transfer attempt, $10/month for outbound business caller ID and $15/month per additional transfer destination. Lead qualification is free. ReceptionHQ prices its extras the same way: IVR from $10/month, voicemail-to-email from $5/month, call diversion from $20/month. A booked appointment is usually the thing you actually wanted, so price the add-on into the plan, not next to it.
Per-agent and per-seat multipliers
Goodcall's $79, $129 and $249 tiers are per agent, and each tier also caps unique customers per month: 100, 250 and 500 respectively, at $0.50 per customer beyond the cap. Paying annually takes 15% off, to $66, $108 and $208. Rosie's annual billing gives two months free, and its website texting add-on is a separate $50/month for 25 conversations plus $1 each thereafter.
Which one actually fits
Choose pay-as-you-go human if your phone is quiet
Under about a dozen calls a month, ReceptionHQ at $25 + $1.99 per call or AnswerFirst at $30 + $1.60-$1.95 per minute costs less than any flat AI plan and puts a person on the line. There is no clever argument against this; the arithmetic above is the whole case.
Choose flat-rate AI if your phone is busy and the questions repeat
Rosie at $49/month and Goodcall at $79/month per agent stop metering entirely. If your calls are mostly hours, availability, quotes and booking, the same six questions all day, the per-call cost collapses as volume rises and the answers do not vary. This is the majority case for small service businesses.
Choose a minute bundle if calls are long and consequential
Ruby at $250-$1,725/month and Smith.ai at $300-$2,100/month are expensive per call and they are meant to be. They buy a trained human holding a real conversation, following your script, on calls where getting it wrong costs more than the call. Law firms and medical practices are on these plans for a reason.
PxlPeak, done-for-you, and when not to pick us
We build the agent on your number, write and test the triage rules with you, wire the integrations your deployment needs, and keep tuning it after launch, from $997/month. If you want to judge it the way this article judges everyone else, don't read our claims: see how the voice receptionist works and listen to it yourself.
When we are the wrong choice: if $997/month is a stretch for your call volume, a $49 Rosie plan or a $79 Goodcall seat recovers most of the missed-call value for a fraction of the price. Genuinely, start there and upgrade when the phone outgrows it. We are the right choice when the cost of you personally configuring, testing and maintaining a voice agent exceeds the fee, which in practice means businesses where the owner's hours are the scarcest thing in the building.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an answering service cost per month?
As of August 31, 2026, published monthly prices run from $25/month (ReceptionHQ pay-as-you-go, plus $1.99 per call answered) and $30/month (AnswerFirst, plus $1.60-$1.95 per minute) at the low end, through $49-$349/month for PATLive's live-agent tiers, to $250-$1,725/month for Ruby and $300-$2,100/month for Smith.ai. AI receptionists are flatter and cheaper: Rosie is $49-$299/month and Goodcall is $79-$249/month per agent.
What does one answered call actually cost?
At roughly 80 calls a month, our arithmetic from published rates puts AI receptionists at about $0.61-$0.99 per call (Rosie Professional, Goodcall Starter) and live-human services at about $2.30-$9.00 per call (ReceptionHQ pay-as-you-go through Ruby and Smith.ai). The monthly sticker price hides this, because the cheap human plans include very few minutes.
Is an AI answering service cheaper than a human one?
Above roughly a dozen calls a month, yes, and the gap widens fast. Below that it flips: ReceptionHQ's $25/month pay-as-you-go plus $1.99 per call stays cheaper than a $49/month flat AI plan until about 12 calls a month, by our calculation from both published rates. Very low call volume is the one case where pay-as-you-go humans genuinely win on price.
What is the difference between an answering service and a virtual receptionist?
In practice the terms are used interchangeably by vendors, but the pricing differs. Services marketed as answering services usually take a message and relay it, and are priced per minute or per call. Services marketed as virtual receptionists, Ruby and ReceptionHQ's higher tiers, transfer calls, follow scripts and update your CRM, and are priced in minute bundles that cost substantially more.
What costs are not on the pricing page?
Three recurring ones. Overage: PATLive's additional minutes run $1.69-$2.99 depending on tier, and Smith.ai's overage calls run $8.50-$11.50. Per-action add-ons: Smith.ai charges $1.50 to book an appointment, $1.00 for a dedicated Spanish line and $0.50 per call for each extra CRM. And per-seat or per-agent multipliers: Goodcall's published prices are per agent, not per business.
Where to go from here
If you want a named recommendation rather than a range, the best answering service for small business ranks fifteen of them by what one answered call actually costs. If you have settled on AI and want the vendor-by-vendor detail, our AI receptionist guide for small business covers the same market by feature rather than by price. For a specific trade, the HVAC comparison adds dispatch-software integration, and the restaurant guide covers ordering and reservations. If you want the platform-level economics instead, what the underlying per-minute infrastructure costs before anyone's margin, the voice agent pricing guide breaks that down. Or see what we charge.