AI receptionist pricing in 2026: 24 vendors compared

AI phone receptionist prices

These products answer your business calls with AI out of the box: you add your business details and forward your number. The table lists each vendor's cheapest paid plan at its monthly price (the yearly-billing price is noted where the page shows one), sorted from lowest to highest, with Frontivo.io's own plans last.

Numa and Dialpad also sell AI call answering but publish no price for it (Numa asks for a demo; Dialpad's AI Agents are custom-priced), so they are not in the table.

Quo, Nextiva, RingCentral and Allo are business phone systems with an AI receptionist added; the AI price sits on top of, or next to, a phone plan. The others are standalone receptionists that work with the number you already have.

Developer voice AI platform prices

Voice AI platforms are toolkits for building your own phone agent. They suit developers and agencies: you design the conversation, connect the phone line and pay for usage. The per-minute rate is usually only part of the cost.

Building on a platform can cost less per minute than a finished receptionist, but you take on the setup, testing and upkeep of the agent, the calendar and CRM connections, and the phone number. What is an AI voice agent? explains the difference.

Human answering service prices

Human answering services and virtual receptionists charge for an operator's time, so the monthly plans include far fewer minutes or calls. Here are the entry plans of six of them, sorted by price.

A person brings judgement that software does not, which matters for sensitive or unusual calls. The trade-off is cost per call and coverage: virtual receptionist pricing works through the numbers, and AI receptionist vs answering service compares what each does.

What about website chat?

Many businesses also want the same assistant on their website. Tidio's Lyro AI chat agent is an add-on from $32.50 a month billed yearly for 50 AI conversations, on top of a Tidio plan (Starter $24.17 a month billed yearly), and Tidio has a free plan with 50 lifetime Lyro conversations. Among the phone receptionists above, some include a website chatbot and some sell it separately.

Frontivo.io's Starter plan ($299) answers phone, website chat and voice, and text in one inbox, and Website Chat Only is $149 a month for 300 conversations.

How to compare prices that use different units

The headline price only tells you what the smallest plan costs. To compare fairly, turn your own call volume into each vendor's unit.

1. 1Count a typical month. Note your inbound calls, including missed ones, and their average length. For example, 100 calls at about 3 minutes is about 300 minutes.
2. 2Convert to each unit. Per-minute plans need about 300 minutes, per-call plans 100 calls, and per-customer plans count each caller once, however often they call.
3. 3Add overage. If your month is above a plan's allowance, add the extra usage at its published rate, or price the next plan up.
4. 4Add what sits on top. A phone plan the AI requires, phone number fees, model or voice costs on developer platforms, setup fees and transfer charges.
5. 5Check the terms. Contract length, whether the trial needs a card, and whether prices are billed monthly or only quoted yearly.

The AI receptionist cost guide covers the hidden costs to ask about, and our comparison pages compare Frontivo.io feature by feature with eight of these vendors.

Prices and features change; check each vendor's site. Trademarks belong to their owners. Competitor details come from each vendor's public website on the date shown and are provided for general comparison only. Frontivo.io is not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies.