AI receptionist cost small business at 150 calls a month, about 450 minutes, runs from $79 with Goodcall to $270 with Smith.ai AI. A human receptionist for the same volume runs from $1,440 to $1,725 a month. The gap is wide, but the headline price is not the bill. How a vendor counts your calls decides what you pay.
AI receptionist cost small business at 150 calls a month
At 150 calls and 450 minutes, the AI receptionist cost for a small business is $79 to $270 a month on the plans we checked. Goodcall sits at the low end at $79. Smith.ai AI sits at $270 for 150 calls. That range covers two very different ways of counting. Goodcall counts people, not minutes. Smith.ai AI counts calls. A human receptionist for the same 150 calls runs from $1,440 to $1,725 a month, so even the dearer AI plan costs far less than a person on staff. The saving is real, but only if you pick the counting method that fits your call pattern.
What 100 calls a month costs
At 100 calls, AI receptionist cost for a small business runs from $79 to $212.50 a month. Goodcall is $79 for up to 100 unique callers. Smith.ai AI is $212.50 at 100 calls, because its Pro plan covers 75 calls for $150 and the next 25 calls cost $2.50 each. A human receptionist for 100 calls runs from $720 to $915 a month. So at low volume the gap between the two AI plans is wider in percentage terms than at higher volume, and the cheapest plan is the one that matches how your customers call.
If most of your 100 calls come from the same 40 people, Goodcall wins by a lot, because repeat callers cost nothing extra. If all 100 calls come from new people, Goodcall still costs $79, because you are still inside the 100 caller cap. Smith.ai AI costs the same $212.50 either way at that volume, because it counts calls. That difference is the whole story of this market. Two plans can both be called an AI receptionist and still bill you in ways that have little in common.
The billing unit trap that confuses buyers
The billing unit trap is the main reason buyers feel misled. Vendors sell three different units, and they all sound like the same thing until the bill arrives. Per minute means you pay for talk time. Per call means you pay for each answered call, however long or short it runs. Per caller means you pay for each different person who calls in the month, however many times they ring. A plan that looks cheap on one unit can be pricey on another, and a plan that looks pricey can be cheap if your calls fit its unit.
Per minute
Per minute plans charge for the time spent talking. Short calls are cheap and long calls cost more. This suits a business with lots of quick calls, such as confirming a time or checking stock. It punishes long calls, such as a new customer asking detailed questions about a quote. If your average call runs over four minutes, run the maths on a per minute plan before you trust its headline rate. A low rate per minute still adds up when calls run long.
Per call
Per call plans charge the same amount for a 30 second call and a 10 minute call. That suits a business where calls are long and detailed, such as a law firm taking intake or a clinic booking a first visit. It punishes short calls. If half your calls last under a minute, you pay the full call price for each one. Smith.ai AI works this way. At 150 calls it costs $270, which is $1.80 a call. At 100 calls it costs $212.50, which is $2.13 a call, because you pay overage on top of the 75 call bundle.
Per caller
Per caller plans charge for each different person. Goodcall works this way. Its Starter plan is $79 a month for 100 unique callers, with extra callers at 79 cents each. Growth is $129 for 500 callers, and Scale is $299 for 2,000 callers. Repeat callers are free, and long calls cost nothing extra. That suits a business with a loyal base that rings often, such as a salon, a vet, or a trades firm with repeat clients. It suits a business with many new callers less well, because each new caller counts, even if the call lasts 20 seconds.
The headline rate is not the all-in rate
Headline rates for AI voice calls often quote $0.05 a minute. The all-in cost, once you add speech recognition, the language model, voice synthesis, and the phone line, runs from $0.09 to $0.36 a minute for a typical small business month. That is the range from the pricing work behind this post, and it matches what independent cost guides found in November 2026. The headline rate is only one part of the stack. If a vendor quotes $0.05 a minute and nothing else, ask what is left out.
Ask about four add-ons before you sign up. First, the phone number and call minutes from the carrier. Second, set-up or training fees for a custom voice or script. Third, charges for human handover, when a live agent takes over a call. Fourth, charges for extra features such as call recording, transcripts, or booking links. Some plans include these in the monthly price. Some charge per use. The plan with the higher monthly price can be the cheaper plan once add-ons are counted.
AI receptionist cost small business: a side by side table
The table below uses the figures from the sections above, at monthly billing, with prices read in November 2026. Check the current plan on each vendor page before you buy.
| Plan | At 100 calls | At 150 calls, 450 minutes | How it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall Starter | $79 | $79 | Per unique caller, 100 included |
| Smith.ai AI Pro | $212.50 | $270 | Per call, 75 included, then $2.50 a call |
| Human receptionist | $720 to $915 | $1,440 to $1,725 | Staff time, not calls |
What the human comparison leaves out
A human receptionist costs more, but the comparison is not only about money. A person can read a tense caller, calm a complaint, and make a judgment call that no script covers. An AI receptionist answers at 2am, never takes a sick day, and picks up the second call while the first is still going. For most small firms, the smart split is AI for routine calls and a person for the calls that need care. Smith.ai sells that split openly, with AI first and human handover on some plans. Goodcall sends a transcript and a summary so a person can follow up fast.
How to test a plan for two weeks
Do not sign a long contract on day one. Run a two week test with real calls and a clear scorecard. Pick five things to measure: how many calls were answered, how many bookings were made, how many callers asked for a person, how many transcripts had errors, and how many callers hung up early. Ask your team to read ten transcripts a day and mark anything wrong. A plan that looks fine in a demo can fail on your real callers, your accents, and your street names.
For a wider view of what AI can take off your plate, read our guide to AI customer service tools for small businesses that actually help. If you want the wider cost picture across software, not just phones, see how much small business software costs in 2026. And if you plan to hand more admin work to AI, our post on how to automate a small business with AI in 2026 shows where to start and where to stop.
Questions to ask before you pay
- What unit do you bill, per minute, per call, or per caller, and what is included in the base price?
- What happens when I go over the cap, and what does each extra unit cost?
- Can the AI book into my calendar and send a text confirmation to the caller?
- What does a caller hear when the AI cannot help, and how fast do I get the message?
- Can I cancel month to month, or am I tied in for a year?
- Where are call recordings kept, and for how long?
Ask for the answers in writing. A sales call promise that is not in the plan page or the contract is hard to rely on later. Check the vendor pages for the current terms: Goodcall pricing and Smith.ai. If a price on a vendor page differs from the figures in this post, trust the vendor page, because prices change and this post is a snapshot from November 2026.
The bottom line on AI receptionist cost for a small business
AI receptionist cost small business at 150 calls is $79 to $270 a month, against $1,440 to $1,725 for a person. At 100 calls it is $79 to $212.50, against $720 to $915 for a person. The saving is clear. The choice is not. Pick the billing unit that fits your callers, add up the extras, and test the plan on real calls for two weeks. That is how you get the low price and the good service at the same time.