AI Receptionist Cost (2026): the real numbers.

Between $29 and $999 per month.

Most small-business AI receptionists cost $29 to $999 per month, depending on whether you want per-minute usage, a flat-rate plan with included interactions, or a hybrid with human backup.

Plans that look cheap usually hit you with per-minute overages and thin feature sets. Flat-rate plans like BizRnR Spark ($99/mo, 100 interactions included) are priced above the commodity band for a reason — they include the full lead pipeline (booking, SMS follow-up, CRM) rather than just answering the phone.

Three pricing models.

Every provider uses one (or a blend):

1. Per-minute: $0.05 to $0.40 per minute of call. Works for developer platforms (Bland, Retell, Vapi). Predictable only if you know your call volume; a bad month can run wild.
2. Tiered minutes: Base plan includes X minutes or Y calls, overage billed per unit. Most mid-market tools use this (Rosie, Goodcall, Smith.ai, Ruby).
3. Flat-rate with included interactions: One monthly fee with generous included interactions and low overage rates. BizRnR Spark ($99/mo, 100 interactions, $0.20 overage) and Ignite ($999/mo, 2,000 interactions, $0.10 overage) are in this tier. Easier to budget than per-minute billing.

For most service-based small businesses with 100+ calls a month, flat-rate plans with included interactions end up cheapest once you factor overage.

11 providers, one table.

Competitor pricing from public pages as of April 2026. “Partial” = included minutes up to a fair-use cap. See every head-to-head at /vs.

75–95% cheaper. Three times the hours.

A full-time human receptionist costs roughly $2,900 to $4,100 per month all-in (salary, benefits, payroll tax, office space, equipment). They work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. After hours they don’t answer. On sick days they don’t answer.

An AI receptionist at the flat-rate tier costs $99 to $999 per month. It answers calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at the same quality every time. It does not take PTO. It does not call in sick.

Cost delta is 75–95% cheaper for AI — and the coverage is 3× as many hours. For most small businesses under 20 employees, AI is the right default.

What the fine print says.

Pays for itself in the first week.

• If you close 25% of inbound calls and your average deal is $450, one captured call equals $112.50 in expected revenue.
• BizRnR customers see an average $428 revenue per captured caller.
• At $99/mo Spark, you only need to capture 1 extra call a month to break even.
• The average small business loses $126,000 a year to unanswered calls. Catching even 10% of that is a 20× return on the subscription.

Use our Missed-Call ROI Calculator to plug in your own numbers.

See it on your own calls.

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Related reading

• Best AI Receptionist for Small Business
• AI Receptionist vs. Answering Service
• Cost of missed calls
• Missed-Call ROI Calculator
• Ultimate Guide to AI Voice Agents