Independent · 20 tools · Prices checked October 17, 2026

Find the right AI receptionist, at the real price.

A neutral directory of AI receptionists and voice agents for small business. Every price links to the vendor page it came from. No invented numbers.

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AI receptionists for small business

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Smith.ai AI Receptionist
AI receptionist
AI receptionist billed per call, with transfer to a live North America based receptionist when a call needs a person.
Price
From $0 a month (25 calls)
Best for
Law firms and professional services
My AI Front Desk (Frontdesk)
AI receptionist
One plan that bundles an AI phone receptionist with web chat, 2 way SMS, a CRM and follow up automations.
Price
From $99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually
Best for
Small businesses that want voice, chat and SMS in one plan
Goodcall
AI receptionist
AI answering service billed per unique customer per month, with no per minute charges. Repeat callers in the same month count once.
Price
From $79 a month
Best for
Solo operators and busy trade shops
Rosie
AI receptionist
AI answering service for small businesses with minute bundles, booking, warm transfers and English and Spanish on every call.
Price
From $49 a month
Best for
Home services and small offices
Upfirst
AI receptionist
Per call AI receptionist with booking into Clio, Google, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity and Square. Spam and very short calls are not billed.
Price
From $24.95 a month ($20 billed annually)
Best for
Solo practices and law firms on Clio
Dialzara
AI receptionist
AI receptionist with 4 minute bundles, warm transfers from the Pro plan up and optional SMS, chat and outbound add ons.
Price
From $29 a month
Best for
Small businesses with low to mid call volume

Calculator

What does an AI receptionist cost vs a human?

Enter your call volume and see every AI plan with published pricing next to an in house hire (BLS median wage) and a live answering service (Ruby published plans).

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Uses only published tiers and overage
Your overhead, your assumption
Source links for every number

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For builders

AI voice agent platforms

Per minute toolkits for developers and agencies building their own voice agents.

Retell AI
Voice agent platform
Developer platform for AI phone agents. Pay as you go per minute with itemized voice, LLM and telephony costs.
Price
From $0.07 to $0.31 a minute
Best for
Agencies and developers building custom agents
Vapi
Voice agent platform
Developer platform for voice agents. Vapi charges a hosting fee per minute and passes model, voice and transcription costs through at cost.
Price
From $0.05 a minute hosting, plus providers
Best for
Engineering teams that want full control of the stack
Bland AI
Voice agent platform
Voice agent platform with one per minute rate that covers LLM, speech to text and text to speech. Telephony is billed separately.
Price
From $0.14 a minute, $0 platform fee
Best for
Teams that want one blended per minute rate
ElevenLabs Agents
Voice agent platform
Voice agent platform from the ElevenLabs voice company, billed by call minutes with LLM usage on top.
Price
From $0 a month (15 minutes)
Best for
Brands that care most about voice quality
Synthflow
Voice agent platform
Enterprise voice AI platform with scoped contracts, implementation and telephony options.
Price
Contact sales
Best for
Large call volumes and contact centers

Not every call should go to a bot

Want a human instead?

If your callers are upset, high value or need judgment, a trained person beats any script. WiseVAs places dedicated, AI trained virtual assistants from Latin America who answer in your time zone and can work alongside an AI receptionist.

Talk to WiseVAs

Disclosure: WiseVAs and this site share an owner. WiseVAs is not ranked in the directory.

Questions

What is an AI receptionist?

An AI receptionist is software that answers your business phone with a natural voice, answers common questions, books appointments, takes messages and transfers calls to a person when needed. It works 24/7 and is usually billed per minute or per call.

How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small business?

Published entry plans in this directory start at $0 (Smith.ai Free, 25 calls) and $24.95 a month (Upfirst Starter, 30 calls). Use the calculator to price your own volume.

AI receptionist or voice agent platform?

An AI receptionist is a finished product you configure without code. A voice agent platform such as Retell, Vapi or Bland is a developer toolkit billed per minute that you or an agency build on.

Where do your prices come from?

Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, with the source link and the date we checked it shown on each listing. Last full check: October 17, 2026. If a vendor does not publish prices we say Contact sales.