Best AI receptionist software: 11 picks priced

The price gap is bigger than the feature gap. At 300 calls a month, the same job costs about $129 on Goodcall and $500 on Smith.ai, because each vendor bills a different unit: per call, per caller, per minute or per conversation. Every price below comes from the vendor's own page, checked October 23, 2026, on monthly billing. New to the idea? Start with what an AI receptionist is.

Best AI receptionist: the quick picks

The best AI receptionist depends on how your calls look, so match the billing unit to your callers before you compare features.

• Most businesses: Upfirst. The cheapest per-call plans here, with short calls and spam free, and the lowest bill of the ready-made apps at 100 calls a month.
• The same customers call back: Goodcall. One caller counts once a month, however many times they call, and minutes are never metered.
• Long calls, small budget: Rosie. 1,000 minutes for $149 is the biggest minute bundle per dollar here.
• You want a person behind the AI: Smith.ai, the only one here with live receptionists on call behind the AI.
• You already pay RingCentral or Nextiva: add their AI receptionist and keep one bill, but watch the overage rates.
• You have a developer: Retell or Vapi, at about $0.08 to $0.15 a minute plus the build.

Not sure you need one yet? Read AI receptionists for small business.

AI receptionist pricing at 100, 300 and 1,000 calls a month

AI receptionist pricing at 300 calls a month runs from about $129 on Goodcall to $500 on Smith.ai, on each vendor's own list prices. The table uses the cheapest plan-plus-overage mix for each volume, monthly billing, and a 3-minute average call for the vendors that bill by the minute.

Goodcall assumes every call is a new caller, its worst case. Rosie doesn't publish an overage rate, so 1,000 calls (3,000 minutes) goes past its 2,000-minute plan. Nextiva also needs a Nextiva phone plan. Retell uses its estimator's default of $0.15 a minute at 1,000 minutes plus a $2 number, and leaves out the build.

Per-call billing wins when calls run long, because a 6-minute call costs the same as a 1-minute one. Per-minute billing wins when most calls are quick questions. For the full cost breakdown, including what it costs to run your own, see AI receptionist cost.

The best AI receptionist software, reviewed

The best AI receptionist software for value is Upfirst, for repeat callers Goodcall, and for human backup Smith.ai. Rosie, My AI Front Desk, RingCentral, Nextiva and Dialpad each win in a narrower case, with a real drawback to weigh.

Upfirst AI receptionist

Upfirst AI receptionist plans cost $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300 and $299 for 600 on monthly billing, with overage from $1.50 down to $0.70 a call (Upfirst pricing). Annual billing saves 20%.

Advantage: the fairest billing rules here. Spam, calls under 15 seconds and calls where the caller never speaks aren't billed. Every plan books into Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity or Square, and you can forward your line or port your number free.

Drawback: white-glove onboarding and custom integrations start at Pro ($159.95). On the cheaper plans, anything beyond Zapier is yours to set up.

Source: Upfirst pricing page, October 23, 2026.

Goodcall pricing

Goodcall pricing is $79 a month for 100 unique customers, $129 for 500 and $299 for 2,000, with extra customers at 79¢, 26¢ or 15¢ (Goodcall pricing). A customer is one phone number, once a month.

Advantage: Goodcall never meters minutes, and a client who calls four times in a month counts once. It books to Google Calendar, texts the details, and connects to HighLevel and Zapier.

Drawback: the starter plan allows one connected tool and one team member, with 30 days of call history. Contract terms and supported languages aren't listed on the pricing page.

Rosie AI receptionist

Rosie AI receptionist plans cost $49 a month for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000 and $299 for 2,000, with two months free on annual billing (Rosie pricing).

Advantage: the most minutes per dollar of the ready-made receptionists here, plus iOS and Android apps and a free website chat widget. The $149 Scale plan adds calendar booking and live transfers.

Drawback: calendar booking isn't on the $49 plan, which only texts callers a booking link. Rosie's pricing page doesn't list an overage rate, so ask before you pass your minutes.

Smith AI receptionist

The Smith.ai AI receptionist has a free plan with 25 calls a month, then Pro at $150 for 75 calls, $270 for 150 or $500 for 300, and Enterprise from $500 (Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing). It's month to month with 30 days' notice to cancel.

Source: Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing page, October 23, 2026.

Advantage: a live, North America-based receptionist can take over a call the AI can't handle, and booking works on every plan, including Free. It speaks English and Spanish.

Drawback: it's the most expensive per call at every volume we priced, and the live-agent add-on is billed per call with no price listed. Every answered call counts unless it's filtered spam.

My AI Front Desk: an AI receptionist app with outbound calls

My AI Front Desk costs $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for 200 voice minutes, then $0.25 a minute (My AI Front Desk pricing). A pool of 1,000 credits each month covers about the first 40 extra minutes.

Advantage: it does more than answer. It includes 400 texts a month, outbound calls and a built-in CRM, with Zapier and an API. If your AI makes sales calls, read the TCPA rules for sales calls first (this isn't legal advice), and see AI cold calling.

Drawback: one plan only, and no permanent free plan. The site doesn't name its calendar providers or languages.

RingCentral AI Receptionist

RingCentral AI Receptionist costs $49 a month on its own or $39 as an add-on to RingEX, each with 100 minutes, then $0.50 a minute billed in 30-second steps (RingCentral AIR pricing).

Advantage: six languages, and callers can switch mid-call. It routes by name, location or keyword, books appointments and hands off with a call summary. It works with Salesforce, HubSpot and Zoho (AIR product page).

Drawback: $0.50 a minute is the steepest per-minute overage here. At 300 calls a month, it costs more than three times Goodcall.

Nextiva AI receptionist

Nextiva's AI receptionist, XBert, costs $99 a month for 100 interactions, then $1.50 a conversation, added to a Nextiva plan (Nextiva XBert). A call counts once it passes 30 seconds.

Advantage: the best integration list of the phone-system options. Google Calendar, Calendly, Cal.com and Zoho are live, and Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and GoHighLevel connect on request in 2 to 4 days at no cost. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Drawback: you need a Nextiva phone plan, and $1.50 a conversation adds up fast past 100.

Dialpad pricing for AI agents

Dialpad pricing for its AI agents is custom: you buy a pool of AI agent credits, and a conversation is billed only when the AI looks something up or takes an action (Dialpad pricing).

Advantage: you don't pay for calls where the AI does nothing.

Drawback: no list price. The AI agents are sold as their own product, Dialpad Resolve, so you can't compare it without a sales call.

Best AI voice agent platforms if you'd rather build one

The best AI voice agent platform for building your own receptionist is Retell for most teams with a developer, and Vapi if you want to pick every part yourself. Both bill by the minute and give you a toolkit, not a finished receptionist. For more options, see our Vapi alternatives, or how an AI voice agent works.

Retell AI voice agent

A Retell AI voice agent runs about $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, built from a $0.055 infrastructure fee plus the AI model and voice you choose. Retell's own estimator opens at $0.15 for 1,000 minutes: $0.08 for the model, $0.055 infrastructure and $0.015 for the voice (Retell pricing). Numbers are $2 a month, with $10 of free credit and 20 calls at once included. More in Retell AI pricing.

Vapi AI voice agent

A Vapi AI voice agent costs $0.05 a minute for Vapi's hosting plus the speech, model and voice providers at cost, which Vapi estimates at $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes (Vapi pricing). The free tier allows 4 calls at once, and more lines cost $10 each a month.

Synthflow pricing

Synthflow pricing now starts at $30,000 a year on an enterprise contract, the only plan on its pricing page (Synthflow pricing). It's built for contact centers, not a single front desk.

How we picked the best AI receptionists

We picked the best AI receptionists a business owner can buy today and priced each one from its own pages, checked October 23, 2026. We didn't use third-party lists as sources: several still show prices the vendors have changed.

We judged each tool on five things: total cost at real call volumes, what counts as a billable call, calendar and CRM connections, how a call reaches a person, and the contract. We left out Ruby: its FAQ says it's not an automated receptionist, because people answer every call. If you want humans, compare that in AI phone answering service vs a live service.

Rent an AI voice agent platform, or own the agent?

Renting is the right call for most businesses taking a few hundred calls a month: $129 to $500 a month buys a working AI receptionist with no build. Owning makes sense when the agent is a big, growing line on the bill, or has to work inside your own CRM and data.

Every AI receptionist rents the same two raw parts underneath: a phone line and an AI model. Phone minutes are cheap at the source. Twilio lists inbound US calls at $0.0085 a minute and Telnyx about half a cent. The plan fee and platform markup sit on top, every month.

An owned agent flips that. The conversation logic, scripts, calendar and CRM hookups, recordings and transcripts run on hosting you control. The phone line and AI minutes are utilities you pay at cost, with no platform markup, and you can swap either provider later. You still rent a carrier and a model. Everything above them is yours.

If your phones, CRM, dialer and AI tools add up to under $1,000 a month and they work, keep them. If the stack runs a few thousand a month and grows with every hire, owning it is typically less than you spend today, paid monthly, with build payments that end. Here's how pricing works.

Sources

All checked October 23, 2026, on monthly billing unless noted. Prices change, so check the vendor's page before you buy.

• Upfirst pricing
• Goodcall pricing
• Rosie pricing
• Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing
• My AI Front Desk pricing
• RingCentral AI Receptionist pricing and product page
• Nextiva XBert AI receptionist
• Dialpad pricing
• Retell AI pricing
• Vapi pricing
• Synthflow pricing
• Ruby FAQs and Ruby pricing
• Twilio US voice pricing (Twilio says current as of August 2026)
• Telnyx call control pricing

The SaaS cost calculator adds up your stack in about two minutes. If it comes out at a few thousand a month, book a free audit and we'll show you what one owned system would replace.