Blog Pricing
How much does an answering service cost?
Real published prices for human and AI answering, what after-hours coverage costs, and the fees that decide the bill. Checked September 2026.
Answering services are priced three different ways, and the number on the pricing page rarely matches the bill. This guide uses prices the companies publish on their own websites, checked in September 2026, so you can compare like with like and see where the real cost hides.
The short answer
For a small business taking a few calls a day, the published starting points look like this:
| Option | How it's billed | Published starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Human receptionists (Ruby) | Per receptionist minute | $250 a month for 50 minutes |
| Human receptionists (Smith.ai) | Per call | $300 a month for 30 calls |
| AI receptionist (Smith.ai) | Per call | Free for 25 calls, then $150 a month for 75 calls |
| In-house receptionist | Hourly wage | $18.27 an hour median pay (BLS, May 2025), before taxes and benefits |
Starting prices only show where the ladder begins. What you actually pay depends on how many calls you get, how long they run, and what happens to the calls above your plan.
Per-minute plans
Ruby, one of the best-known US virtual receptionist companies, sells blocks of receptionist minutes. Its published plans:
| Plan | Monthly price | Minutes | Works out to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $250 | 50 | $5.00 a minute |
| Basic | $395 | 100 | $3.95 a minute |
| Standard | $720 | 200 | $3.60 a minute |
| Professional | $1,725 | 500 | $3.45 a minute |
Ruby says every plan includes 24/7 live answering, including after hours, weekends and holidays, and that it charges no fees for setup or for coverage at particular times. Larger plans go through its sales team.
Per-minute billing rewards short calls and punishes long ones, like a customer talking through a catering order or a tenant describing a leak. Before you sign, estimate your average call length honestly. A plan that looks like 100 calls is only 100 calls if each one lasts a minute.
Per-call plans
Smith.ai bills per call instead. Its published plans for human virtual receptionists:
| Plan | Monthly price | Calls | Each extra call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $300 | 30 | $11.50 |
| Basic | $810 | 90 | $10.50 |
| Pro | $2,100 | 300 | $8.50 |
Per-call pricing is easier to predict when call length varies, and pricier when most calls are quick questions like "are you open Sunday?" Read the overage column carefully. It's the price you pay in your busiest month, which is exactly the month you're least likely to be watching the bill.
What AI answering costs
AI answering is usually cheaper per call because nobody is on the line. Smith.ai's own AI receptionist plans make a useful comparison with its human ones:
- Free: 25 calls a month, then $3.00 a call.
- Pro: $150 a month for 75 calls ($2.00 a call).
- Enterprise: $500 a month for 300 calls ($1.67 a call).
Price per call is only half the comparison. The other half is what the AI actually finishes. An AI receptionist that takes a message has done the same job as voicemail, just faster. An AI phone agent that places the order in your POS or books the room in your PMS has done the job itself. When you compare quotes, compare the outcome of a call, not just its price.
Pulse is quoted in writing before you sign, after you've heard it answer on your own real data. We don't publish a rate card. Ask us for a quote.
After-hours answering service cost
A lot of people search specifically for after-hours pricing, expecting nights and weekends to cost extra. With the providers above, they don't. Ruby includes 24/7 coverage in every plan, and Smith.ai's AI receptionist answers around the clock.
If you only need nights and weekends, the cost question becomes volume, not hours. After-hours calls are fewer, but they tend to be longer and more urgent, which matters under per-minute billing. A property manager's 11 PM call about a leak is not a sixty-second call. We wrote a separate guide to after-hours answering for property managers.
What an in-house receptionist costs
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for receptionists at $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, as of May 2025. That's wages alone. Payroll taxes, paid time off and benefits come on top, and one person covers one shift, answering one call at a time.
A receptionist also does much more than answer the phone. They greet people, handle paperwork and solve problems nobody wrote down. So the fair comparison isn't receptionist versus service. It's how many of the calls that interrupt that person could be handled without pulling them away from the person standing in front of them.
The fees that decide the real bill
- Overage rates. The price per call or minute above your plan, often higher than the calls inside it.
- Rounding. Ask how a 61-second call is billed on a per-minute plan.
- What counts as a call. Spam, wrong numbers and hang-ups: billed or not?
- Setup and onboarding. Ruby says it charges none. Always ask in writing.
- Contract length. Monthly or annual, and what it costs to leave.
- Messages or outcomes. Whether the service can finish a booking or order, or only takes a message you then have to return.
A worked example
Here is one scenario, with the assumptions written down so you can swap in your own. A business gets 300 calls a month, and the average call lasts two minutes, so 600 minutes in total.
- Per minute (Ruby): 600 minutes is more than the 500-minute Professional plan at $1,725, so the real price depends on the larger plan Ruby quotes for your volume.
- Per call, human (Smith.ai): 300 calls fits the Pro plan exactly, at $2,100 a month.
- Per call, AI (Smith.ai): 300 calls matches the Enterprise tier listed at $500 a month.
Then do the calculation that matters more than any of those: how many of the calls you get today go unanswered, and what they would have been worth. Our missed call calculator does that arithmetic with your own numbers.
Questions people ask
How much does an answering service cost per month?
Published plans for human answering start around $250 to $300 a month for a small allowance of minutes or calls. AI answering starts lower. Your real cost depends on call volume, call length and overage rates.
Is an AI answering service cheaper than a human one?
Per call, usually. Smith.ai's own AI receptionist plans cost a fraction of its human plans for the same number of calls. Compare what each option actually finishes, not only the price.
Do answering services charge more for after-hours calls?
The providers we checked, Ruby and Smith.ai, include 24/7 coverage in their plans. Always confirm in writing before you sign.
Is it cheaper to hire a receptionist?
A receptionist costs more but does far more than answer the phone. BLS median pay for receptionists was $18.27 an hour in May 2025, before payroll taxes and benefits.
Prices checked on September 29, 2026 from Ruby's plans and pricing page and Smith.ai's receptionist and AI receptionist pricing pages. Wage figure from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Prices change, so check each vendor's page before you buy. Ruby and Smith.ai are trademarks of their owners, and Pulse AI is not affiliated with either.