AI receptionist pricing index 2026: what 100, 200 and 500 calls cost

Published plans, read October 2026

This is each vendor's entry and a mid plan as listed on its own pricing page on 2026-10-15. 'Effective cost' is the plan price divided by the included minutes or calls (Lead Friendly analysis of the vendor pages in the sources, read 2026-10-15). Vendors change prices often, so verify on their sites.

Upfirst and Aira publish identical prices on their pricing pages; we have not verified any relationship between them. Quo's Sona credits are on top of Quo phone seats, which the page lists from $19 per user per month.

Methodology

Lead Friendly analysis of the vendor pages in the sources, read 2026-10-15. We assumed an average call of 3 minutes for minute-billed plans, so 100, 200 and 500 calls are 300, 600 and 1,500 minutes. We chose 3 minutes as a round planning figure, not a measured average; your calls may be shorter or longer.

For each vendor and volume we took the cheapest published plan: monthly cost = plan price + overage rate x units above the plan's included units, with no overage if the plan covers the volume. We tested every published plan on the vendor's ladder and kept the lowest result.

Per-call plans use the vendor's published per-call rates directly. Smith.ai lists a per-call price for 75, 150, 300 and 500 call tiers; for tiers it shows only as a per-call rate, we multiplied that rate by the tier's calls. Where a vendor does not publish an overage rate (Rosie, Ruby), we only allowed plans that include the full volume.

Goodcall bills per unique customer. We used its own approximation of about 1.5 calls per customer (100 customers is about 150 calls on its page), so 100 calls is about 67 customers. That ratio is Goodcall's, not ours.

Not included: phone number or seat fees, taxes, add-ons, annual-billing discounts, call-length rounding rules, and what each service does beyond answering (booking, CRM, live agents). Lead Friendly is excluded from the computed table by design; see /pricing for our plans.

Computed monthly cost at 100, 200 and 500 calls

Lead Friendly analysis of the vendor pages in the sources, read 2026-10-15, using the formula above. Smith.ai's 500-call figure uses its Enterprise tier rate and is as of October 2026.

Cost per 100 calls, by vendor

How wide is the spread?

The cheap end is not an apples-to-apples win. Quo's figure excludes Quo's phone seats, and Smith.ai's AI plans include lead qualification and routing features on its page. Compare what each plan does, not only the line item.

Who does not publish a usable price

• Nextiva: its page says AI plans start from $99 a month but does not say what that covers, or list included minutes, calls or overage.
• Allo: lists the AI Receptionist at $32 per agent per month billed yearly, but no included minutes or calls, and the monthly-billing price is not stated.
• Rosie and Ruby publish plan sizes but not overage rates, so we could only price volumes a plan fully covers.
• Enterprise and 'custom' tiers at several vendors are not published, so none of those are in the numbers.

Where Lead Friendly fits

We left our own numbers out of the computed table so everything in it is checkable against a third-party page. Our plans and the free trial, which needs no credit card, are on /pricing, and our AI receptionist cost guide covers what is bundled. Upfirst, Aira and Quo are cheaper per call than most at low volume, and are a reasonable choice if you only need answering and message-taking. Read our free-plan guide before you start any trial.