What an AI Receptionist Costs a Small Business, Honestly
Quotes in this category run from $49 to $2,100 a month. The number that decides your bill is not the brand, it's the billing unit: minutes, calls, or flat monthly.
A search for “AI receptionist cost for small business” gives you prices from $49 to $2,100 a month. Both ends are real. They are not selling you the same billing unit.
Some services charge for minutes. Some charge for calls. Others charge a flat monthly fee, then put the meter somewhere else. Compare the unit first. The headline price comes after that.
Every price below was checked at the company’s own pricing page in September 2026.
Per-minute plans charge for every minute the caller stays on the line
Ruby, which staffs its service with people rather than software, publishes four plans:
- Starter: $250 per month for 50 minutes
- Professional: $395 per month for 100 minutes
- Small Business: $720 per month for 200 minutes
- Growth: $1,725 per month for 500 minutes
The Starter plan works out to $5.00 per minute. The Growth plan works out to $3.45 per minute.
Ruby calls this a “transparent, inclusive pricing model.” The pricing page says there are no separate activation, onboarding, setup, or customization fees.
The part that catches plumbing shops is the minute allowance. Fifty minutes is not fifty calls. One real plumbing call might include the problem, the service address, access details, availability, and scheduling. That call uses minutes whether it becomes a job or not.
A large share of what rings a plumbing shop’s phone is not a job. Wrong numbers, robocalls, sales calls, suppliers, and customers calling a second time about a job already on the books all take time. On a per-minute or per-call plan, you can be billed for those calls. On a flat monthly fee, you cannot. That difference does not show up in a pricing table, and it is worth knowing how many of your missed calls are just spam before you count every incoming call as a sales opportunity.
Per-call plans make call length predictable, but overages still matter
Smith.ai publishes three plans:
- Starter: $300 per month for 30 calls, then $11.50 per call
- Basic: $810 per month for 90 calls, then $10.50 per call
- Pro: $2,100 per month for 300 calls, then $8.50 per call
The benefit is simple. A short call and a long call use the same unit. The caller’s talk time stops changing the price.
The overage rate is the number to read. A $300 headline price sounds different once your shop takes more than 30 calls. Thirty included calls is roughly one call a day. The next call costs $11.50.
Smith.ai also states that its plans have no setup fees, are month to month, include a 30-day money-back guarantee, and get a 10% discount when you subscribe for 12 months.
Ask what counts as a call before you compare this model with a minute allowance. A wrong number may still be a call. A robocall may still be a call. A customer calling back about an existing appointment may still be a call.
Flat monthly pricing moves the question to a different meter
Goodcall publishes flat monthly plans with unlimited minutes:
- Starter: $79 per month, or $66 per month billed annually
- Growth: $129 per month, or $108 per month billed annually
- Scale: $249 per month, or $208 per month billed annually
- Enterprise: custom
The plans are priced by unique customers per month. Each plan has an overage of $0.50 for every additional unique customer beyond its allowance.
“Unlimited minutes” is real. The meter moved somewhere else. There is almost always a meter. Find it before you sign.
Rosie publishes another version of flat monthly pricing:
- Professional: $49 per month for 250 minutes
- Scale: $149 per month for 1,000 minutes
- Growth: $299 per month for 2,000 minutes
Rosie also lists website texting for $50 per month, with 25 conversations included and $1 for each additional conversation. The pricing page does not publish an overage rate for the three main plans. That is information by itself. Ask for the rate in writing.
Your normal month and your busiest month produce different answers
Ask two questions before you compare any quote.
What will this cost in a normal month? What will it cost in my busiest month?
A per-minute plan gets more expensive when more callers need help. That is often the exact month you wanted to be busy. The same problem appears with per-call billing once you cross the included limit, but at least you can calculate it from the published overage rate.
A Ruby Starter plan includes 50 minutes. A Smith.ai Starter plan includes 30 calls. Those are not comparable allowances. One long plumbing call can eat several minutes, while a per-call plan counts the call without charging for its length.
Run your own call volume through each quote. Count the calls that are not jobs. Add the overage. Then set that number against how much missed calls are costing you, because that is the other half of the decision.
A receptionist’s wage is not the same as the cost of a receptionist
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly wage for receptionists at $18.27 in May 2025, and median pay at $38,010 per year.
That is wage only. The real cost of an employee is higher once you add payroll taxes, workers compensation, benefits, a desk, a phone, and the hours spent training someone. Do not treat $18.27 as the complete comparison.
One person also covers roughly a business day. That does not cover nights, weekends, or holidays. The comparison depends on the hours and the calls you need covered, and the real math on a receptionist versus an answering service goes through it properly.
Five questions belong in every pricing call
Ask these before you sign:
- What is the billing unit: minutes, calls, unique customers, or a flat monthly fee?
- What is the overage rate, and will you put it in writing?
- What counts as a billable call or customer? Ask specifically about wrong numbers, robocalls, sales calls, suppliers, and repeat callers.
- Is there a setup, activation, onboarding, or customization fee?
- What is the contract term? Ask whether the service is month to month and what changes if you commit to 12 months.
For the wider checklist, read what to look for in a plumbing answering service. Price is only one question. The service still has to answer, schedule, and handle the calls your shop actually gets, which is where most of these services fall down for plumbers.
Where Plumber Secretary lands
Plumber Secretary charges a flat monthly fee. No per-minute charge, no per-call charge.
- Starter: $95 per month
- Growth: $295 per month
- Pro: $495 per month
Billed yearly, that is two months free, which works out to $79, $246, and $412 per month.
Bella answers, schedules, and follows up around the clock. Plumber Secretary is built as the AI receptionist for plumbers, not a general small-business tool with plumbing bolted on. You can hear her yourself at (669) 284-5564.
Whatever you end up choosing, do the arithmetic on your own call log before the headline price talks you into anything.
