What 12 answering services charge, from their own price lists
Every price below was copied from the company’s own pricing page, word for word, and is re-checked against a stored copy of that page each time this page is built. Where a company does not publish a price, it says so here instead of a guess.
37 priced plans · 12 companies · checked 2026-10-02
The short answer
- AI receptionists that publish a price charge $24.95–$500 a month. Per included minute that is $0.15–$0.50; per included call, $0.50–$2.76.
- Live answering services, where a person picks up, charge $165–$2,100 a month: $1.97–$5.00 per included minute, $7.00–$10.00 per included call.
- At the median, a minute answered by a person costs about 9 times a minute answered by AI.
- Prices were read from each company’s own pricing page on 2026-10-02. Companies that do not publish a price are listed as such, not estimated.
AI receptionists
The call is answered by software. Most plans include a set number of minutes or calls a month and charge for each one over.
| Service | Plan | Price, as published | Included | Works out to | Over the limit | Paid yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dialzara read | Business Lite # | $29/month | Up to 60 minutes of talk time included | $0.48/minute ($29 ÷ 60) | Overage: $0.48/min | |
| Business Pro # | $99/month | Up to 220 minutes of talk time included | $0.45/minute ($99 ÷ 220) | Overage: $0.45/min | ||
| Business Plus # | $199/month | Up to 500 minutes of talk time included | $0.40/minute ($199 ÷ 500) | Overage: $0.40/min | ||
| Business Elite # | $349/month | Up to 1000 minutes of talk time included | $0.35/minute ($349 ÷ 1,000) | Overage: $0.35/min | ||
| Rosie read | Professional # | $49 | 250 minutes per month | $0.20/minute ($49 ÷ 250) | ||
| Scale # | $149 | 1,000 minutes per month | $0.15/minute ($149 ÷ 1,000) | |||
| Growth # | $299 | 2,000 minutes per month | $0.15/minute ($299 ÷ 2,000) | |||
| My AI Front Desk read | Business-in-a-Box # | $99/mo | 200 voice minutes / month | $0.50/minute ($99 ÷ 200) | $79/mo billed annually | |
| Upfirst read | Starter # | $24.95/ month | 30 calls | $0.83/call ($24.95 ÷ 30) | $1.50 per additional call | $20 / month |
| Premium # | $59.95/ month | 90 calls | $0.67/call ($59.95 ÷ 90) | $1 per additional call | $48 / month | |
| Pro # | $159.95/ month | 300 calls | $0.53/call ($159.95 ÷ 300) | $.75 per additional call | $128 / month | |
| Scale # | $299/ month | 600 calls | $0.50/call ($299 ÷ 600) | $.70 per additional call | $240 / month | |
| Goodcall read | Starter # | $79 | 100 unique customers monthly | $0.79/unique caller ($79 ÷ 100) | $0.50/customer after 100 | $66 |
| Growth # | $129 | 250 unique customers monthly | $0.52/unique caller ($129 ÷ 250) | $0.50/customer after 250 | $108 | |
| Scale # | $249 | 500 unique customers monthly | $0.50/unique caller ($249 ÷ 500) | $0.50/customer after 500 | $208 | |
| Moneypenny AI Answering read | 25 calls # | $69/mo | 25 calls | $2.76/call ($69 ÷ 25) | Extra calls $2.49 | |
| 50 calls # | $99/mo | 50 calls | $1.98/call ($99 ÷ 50) | Extra calls $2.39 | ||
| 100 calls # | $199/mo | 100 calls | $1.99/call ($199 ÷ 100) | Extra calls $2.19 | ||
| 250 calls # | $435/mo | 250 calls | $1.74/call ($435 ÷ 250) | Extra calls $1.89 | ||
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist read | Free # | $0mo | 25 calls/mo ($3.00/call after that) | — | ||
| Pro # | $150/mo | $2.00/call (~2–3 calls/day) | $2.00/call (stated) | |||
| Enterprise # | $500/mo | $1.67/call (~10 calls/day) | $1.67/call (stated) |
- Dialzara: “7-day free trial”
- Rosie: “7-day free trial” · “2 months free”
- My AI Front Desk: “Start 7-day free trial”
- Upfirst: “Full access to every feature in your selected plan for 14 days”
- Goodcall: “per agent”
- Moneypenny AI Answering: “No contract”
Live answering services
A person answers. The same billing shapes, at a different price per minute.
| Service | Plan | Price, as published | Included | Works out to | Over the limit | Paid yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moneypenny People Answering read | 50 minutes # | $165/mo | 50 minutes | $3.30/minute ($165 ÷ 50) | Extra minutes $2.28 | |
| 100 minutes # | $265/mo | 100 minutes | $2.65/minute ($265 ÷ 100) | Extra minutes $2.12 | ||
| 200 minutes # | $422/mo | 200 minutes | $2.11/minute ($422 ÷ 200) | Extra minutes $1.91 | ||
| 500 minutes # | $985/mo | 500 minutes | $1.97/minute ($985 ÷ 500) | Extra minutes $1.67 | ||
| Ruby read | 50 minutes # | $250 /month | 50 minutes per month | $5.00/minute ($250 ÷ 50) | ||
| 100 minutes # | $395 /month | 100 minutes per month | $3.95/minute ($395 ÷ 100) | |||
| 200 minutes # | $720 /month | 200 minutes per month | $3.60/minute ($720 ÷ 200) | |||
| 500 minutes # | $1,725 /month | 500 minutes per month | $3.45/minute ($1,725 ÷ 500) | |||
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists read | Starter # | $300 / month | 30 calls | $10.00/call ($300 ÷ 30) | Overage: $11.50/call over 30 | |
| Basic # | $810 / month | 90 calls | $9.00/call ($810 ÷ 90) | Overage: $10.50/call over 90 | ||
| Pro # | $2,100 / month | 300 calls | $7.00/call ($2,100 ÷ 300) | Overage: $8.50/call over 300 |
- Moneypenny People Answering: “No contract”
AI and live on the same plan
One allowance, answered by either. The vendor sets how the two count against it.
| Service | Plan | Price, as published | Included | Works out to | Over the limit | Paid yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abby Connect read | 50 minutes # | $165 per month | 50 Abby Minutes | $3.30/minute ($165 ÷ 50) | ||
| 100 minutes # | $329 per month | 100 Abby Minutes | $3.29/minute ($329 ÷ 100) | |||
| 200 minutes # | $599 per month | 200 Abby Minutes | $3.00/minute ($599 ÷ 200) | |||
| 500 minutes # | $1,380 per month | 500 Abby Minutes | $2.76/minute ($1,380 ÷ 500) |
- Abby Connect: “Free Trial On Every Plan” · “Double your Abby minutes when you choose AI”
No full price list published
- Nextiva XBert AI: “XBert AI plans from $99/mo”, with no plan details on the page (read ).
- Synthflow: “Enterprise contracts start at $30,000 annually.” (read ).
- AnswerConnect: no price on its pricing page (read ).
Where HeyFirstcall fits
HeyFirstcall does not publish a price list, and is not in the tables above for that reason. Each line is set up around the business — the work it takes, which calls go straight to a person, the hours it covers — so the price follows a short look at the call volume rather than a tier. How that works. You can hear it before any of that: the demo line, (314) 784-8835, answers at any hour.
How this was put together
Each price was read from the company’s own pricing page on 2026-10-02 and copied exactly. A stored copy of every page is kept, and the build fails if any price, inclusion, overage or yearly price on this page is not on that copy word for word. Only plans for answering calls are listed: chat bundles, per-seat phone systems, outbound calling, text-message and chatbot products sold on the same pages are left out. “Works out to” divides the monthly price by what the plan includes, in the unit the company uses — minutes, calls or unique callers — and those units are never converted into one another. Prices change: each company’s name links to its current page. The figures behind the call-handling claims across this site are on the statistics page.
Changes
- : First edition: 12 companies, every price read from the company's own pricing page.
Frequently asked
How much does a virtual receptionist cost?
Among the companies that publish prices, AI receptionists cost $24.95 to $500 a month and live answering services cost $165 to $2,100 a month, as of 2026-10-02.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a live answering service?
Per included minute, AI plans work out to $0.15 to $0.50 and live plans to $1.97 to $5.00. At the median a live minute costs about 9 times an AI minute.
How are answering services billed?
By the minute (Dialzara, Rosie, My AI Front Desk, Abby Connect, Moneypenny, Ruby), by the call (Upfirst, Moneypenny, Smith.ai), or by unique caller (Goodcall). Under per-minute billing a long call costs more; under per-call billing a short call costs the same as a long one.
Citing this page
Free to use, including commercially, with credit. Copy whichever you need.
Plain text
HeyFirstcall, “Virtual Receptionist Pricing: 12 Companies Compared”, checked 2026-10-02. https://heyfirstcall.com/virtual-receptionist-pricingHTML
<a href="https://heyfirstcall.com/virtual-receptionist-pricing">Virtual Receptionist Pricing: 12 Companies Compared</a> — HeyFirstcall