What does an AI receptionist cost compared with the alternatives?
An AI receptionist answers your business line in a natural voice, handles routine questions, books appointments and passes you the details. Here’s how its cost compares with the other ways to cover the phone.
| Option | Typical cost | Coverage | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI receptionist, self-serve app | $25–$300 a month (typically $100–$160) | 24/7, several calls at once | You set it up and maintain the scripts yourself. Handles routine calls well. |
| AI receptionist, done for you | $250–$900 a month (typically $300–$500), plus up to $1,000 setup | 24/7, several calls at once | Built and tuned around your business. Complex or emotional calls still need a person. |
| Human answering service | About $350–$800 a month for ~200 minutes (typically $600–$720) | Depends on the plan | A live person, but cost rises with call volume, and agents follow a script rather than knowing your business. |
| Part-time receptionist (20 hours a week) | About $1,795 a month in wages, before payroll taxes | Only the hours they work | Knows your business and customers. Can’t cover nights, weekends or two calls at once. |
| Voicemail | Usually included with your phone service | 24/7, recording only | Nothing happens until you listen and call back. |
AI receptionist and answering service figures are typical 2026 market ranges for small businesses. The receptionist figure uses the New York State median wage for receptionists, $20.71 an hour (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025), times 20 hours a week. Long Island rates may differ.
How many calls do small businesses actually miss?
Nearly every AI receptionist website quotes “62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered.” That figure comes from one 2016 study by 411 Locals, which monitored the calls of 85 businesses in 58 industries for 30 days. It found 37.8% of calls were answered live, 37.8% went to voicemail and 24.3% got no response. The 62% counts voicemail as unanswered. It’s a small, old sample.
The companion claim, that 85% of callers who don’t get through never call back, we couldn’t trace to any original study, so we don’t use it. A larger, newer dataset from Invoca, covering more than 70 million calls on its platform, found 56% of callers to businesses spoke with a person. Those are businesses that use call-tracking software, not a random sample of small businesses.
The number that matters is yours. Pull a month of call logs from your phone provider and count missed calls, voicemails and calls that came in after hours.
What can an AI receptionist handle, and what can’t it?
It handles well:
- Answering in your business name, day or night, including when you’re already on a call.
- Hours, services, service area, typical prices and other questions you answer every day.
- Booking, moving and canceling appointments in your calendar.
- Taking the caller’s details and sending you a summary by text or email.
- Sending urgent calls to your cell.
It still needs a person for:
- Quotes that depend on seeing the job.
- Upset customers, complaints and sensitive conversations.
- Unusual questions it hasn’t been set up to answer.
- Anything where a wrong answer is costly, such as firm prices on complex work.
A good setup says so plainly. When the AI doesn’t know, it should take a message or transfer the call rather than guess.
When is an AI receptionist worth it, and when isn’t it?
Usually worth it if: you’re on job sites, with patients or driving when the phone rings; calls come in after hours or on weekends; your volume jumps in season, as it does for many East End businesses between Memorial Day and Labor Day; most calls are routine; and each new customer is worth hundreds of dollars or more.
Probably not worth it if: you already answer nearly every call; most calls are long consultations that need you; someone already covers the phone during the hours your calls come in; or your phone rarely rings. In that last case, the problem is being found, not answering. Start with why a business doesn’t show up on Google Maps.
A simple break-even calculation
- Monthly cost. Take the quote, including setup spread over a year. Say $300 a month.
- Profit per new job. Use profit, not revenue. Say a typical new job leaves you $400.
- Break-even. Divide cost by profit per job: $300 ÷ $400 = 0.75. You need fewer than one extra job a month.
- Reality check. Compare that with your missed calls. If you miss 20 calls a month and one in ten would have become a job, that’s two jobs, or $800 of profit on $300 of cost.
These figures are an example, not a promise. Run it with your own numbers. If you also lose hours to admin like follow-ups, scheduling and invoicing, the savings calculator on our business automation page puts a number on that time.
A cheaper first step
If you mostly miss calls while you’re busy, missed-call text-back texts every missed caller within seconds. Standalone tools typically cost $20–$150 a month. See how missed-call text-back works.
What to ask before you sign up
- Can I hear it first? Call a live demo set up with your business name and your real questions.
- What happens when it doesn’t know? It should take a message or transfer the call, not invent an answer.
- Can I read every call? You want recordings or transcripts and a summary of each call.
- What’s included in the price? Check minutes or call limits, setup, changes to its script, and what overages cost.
- How do I leave? Look for month-to-month terms, and confirm you keep your phone number.
What East End Web offers
We set up AI receptionists for phone and website chat for Long Island businesses, trained on your services, prices and FAQs, with urgent calls routed to you. We price it against the calls and time it saves you, and missed-call text-back is included. See how our AI receptionist works.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, New York: Receptionists and Information Clerks (43-4171)
- 411 Locals, “SMBs Don’t Answer 62% Of Phone Calls” (January 2016)
- Invoca, “Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report 2026”
- Published pricing from AI receptionist providers and answering services, reviewed September 2026.