By Brandon Aubey
If you have started shopping for an AI receptionist, you have probably noticed the prices make no sense next to each other. One company says $39 a month. Another says $2,100. They both claim to answer your phone.
They are not lying. They are selling different things and billing on different units. Here is how the pricing actually works, so you can compare like for like.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Most AI receptionists cost between $39 and $299 a month, and human-backed receptionist services start around $300 a month. The number that matters is not the headline price. It is what happens when you go past what the plan includes.
Here is what three well-known providers publish on their own pricing pages, as of September 2026:
| Provider | Entry price | What that includes | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| RingCentral AI Receptionist | $49/mo standalone, or $39/mo as a RingEX add-on | 100 minutes | $0.50 per minute, billed in 30-second increments |
| Rosie | $49/mo | 250 minutes | $149/mo for 1,000 minutes, $299/mo for 2,000 |
| Smith.ai | $300/mo | 30 calls | $11.50 per call over 30, plus $1.50 per appointment booked |
Three different units: minutes, minutes, and calls. That is the whole reason the prices look incomparable.
Why is the price range so wide?
Because providers bill on three different units, and each one hides a different risk.
Per minute. Cheapest to start, hardest to predict. RingCentral’s entry plan includes 100 minutes. If your callers talk for three minutes each, that is roughly 33 calls before overage starts at $0.50 a minute. A busy month can cost multiples of the sticker price.
Per call. Predictable per conversation, expensive per month. Smith.ai’s $300 plan covers 30 calls. That is about one call a working day, and booking the appointment is a separate $1.50.
Flat monthly. You pay the same whether you get 5 conversations or 500. No overage math, no surprise invoice.
Before you compare any two quotes, work out roughly how many calls you miss in a month and how long a typical one runs. Without those two numbers, every price on this page is meaningless.
What does a $97 a month AI receptionist actually do?
Our Essentials plan is $97 a month. We text back when you miss a call. No chat. No voice AI. Front Desk AI at $197 books from texts and chat. Front Desk Complete at $497 answers the phone day and night.
We are being specific about “by text” on purpose, because it is the real difference between this and the voice products in the table above.
Is a text-back system as good as one that answers the phone out loud?
It depends entirely on whether your customers text.
A voice receptionist picks up and holds a spoken conversation. That is the right tool if your callers are older, if the job is an emergency, or if people expect a human voice before they will trust you with the work.
A text-back system does not pick up. It catches the call you already missed and turns it into a text conversation. That is the right tool if your customers are comfortable texting, and if your actual problem is not “nobody answers” but “nobody follows up after the call goes to voicemail.”
Most home service owners we talk to have the second problem, not the first. That is why our entry plan solves it for $97. We text back. No chat. No voice AI.
If you do want the phone answered out loud, that is part of Dead River Complete, our flagship.
Is there a free AI receptionist?
Not in any meaningful ongoing sense. Some providers offer a free trial or a small free tier, but every AI receptionist that answers real customer calls at volume charges for it, because voice minutes and AI processing cost the provider money.
You do already have a free option, and you are using it: voicemail. The question is not whether voicemail is free. It is whether the jobs that go unbooked because someone did not leave a message cost you more than $97 a month.
What is cheaper than RingCentral?
On sticker price, a flat monthly plan is usually cheaper than RingCentral’s entry tier once you pass about 100 minutes of calls.
RingCentral’s AI Receptionist starts at $49 a month standalone with 100 minutes, then charges $0.50 per minute. A flat plan like ours stays at $97 whether you get 10 missed calls or 200. If you are consistently under 100 minutes a month, RingCentral’s add-on tier at $39 a month is genuinely cheaper on paper, and you should take it.
That is the honest comparison. Run your own minutes before you switch.
Is an AI receptionist worth it?
It is worth it if one recovered job pays for more than a year of the subscription, which is true for most home service trades.
Do this arithmetic with your own numbers rather than ours:
- What is your average job worth? Call it J.
- How many calls do you miss in a month? Call it M.
- What share of those would have booked if someone had responded? Call it R.
Your monthly upside is J multiplied by M multiplied by R. Compare that to the monthly price. For a trade where a single job is worth several hundred dollars, recovering even one call a month clears a $97 plan several times over.
We are deliberately not putting industry-average numbers in those slots. Every stat you have seen quoted about missed calls comes from a vendor selling the fix, and your business is not the average anyway.
How do I choose one?
Answer these four questions in order, and the choice usually makes itself.
- Voice or text? If your customers will not text, you need a voice product and the flat text-back plans are not for you.
- What is your call volume? Under 100 minutes a month, per-minute pricing wins. Over that, flat pricing usually wins.
- Does it book, or just take a message? Taking a message moves the work back to you. Booking into your calendar is the part that saves time. Check whether booking costs extra.
- Who sets it up? A cheap tool you never finish configuring costs more than a slightly pricier one that someone sets up for you.
If you want the whole thing handled rather than assembled, that is what we do. You can read more about how we set this up on our AI receptionist page, or start Essentials at $97 a month, month to month, and cancel whenever you like.
Every price on this page came from the provider’s own published pricing page in September 2026. Check them before you buy, because they change.
Prices and plans mentioned in older articles may have changed. See current pricing.