AI receptionist vs human: what it costs you
Put in your call volume. We price it against 13 AI plans with published pricing, an in house receptionist and a live answering service.
Cheapest AI plan
$72
ElevenLabs Agents, Creator
In house receptionist
$3,167
40 hours a week, wage only
Live answering service
Quote
Over 500 minutes, Ruby quotes custom
Your usage: 300 calls and 900 minutes a month.
Every AI plan with published pricing
Cheapest published plan per vendor for your usage, including published overage. Taxes, setup fees and add ons excluded.
| Vendor | Plan | Monthly | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Agents | Creator | $72 | Build required. Excludes LLM usage and telephony. |
| Retell AI | Default setup on Retell's estimator | $101 | Build required. Your real rate depends on the model and voice you pick. |
| Bland AI | Start | $126 | Build required. Telephony is billed separately. |
| Goodcall | Growth | $129 | Goodcall bills unique callers, not calls. The calculator assumes every call is a new caller, the most expensive case. |
| Quo (Sona AI agent) | Tier 4 | $146 | |
| Rosie | Scale | $149 | |
| Upfirst | Pro | $160 | |
| Trillet AI Receptionist | AI Receptionist | $199 | |
| My AI Front Desk (Frontdesk) | Business in a Box | $274 | The first 1,000 overage credits each month are included in the plan, so real overage cost can be lower. |
| Dialzara | Business Elite | $349 | |
| Newo | AI Receptionist | $449 | |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Enterprise 300 | $500 | |
| Sameday AI | Scale | $789 |
How the numbers work
- AI plans: the cheapest published plan for your usage, plus published overage. If a vendor does not publish overage and you exceed a plan, we show Ask vendor.
- In house: hourly wage × hours per week × 52 ÷ 12, plus the overhead you enter. Default wage is the U.S. median of $18.27 an hour (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Receptionists, median pay May 2025).
- Live answering service: Ruby published minute plans (Ruby plans and pricing, checked October 17, 2026).
- Taxes, setup fees, phone numbers (unless the vendor bundles them) and add ons are excluded. Results are estimates, not quotes.
Want a human instead?
An AI receptionist is cheapest per call, but it cannot do judgment work. WiseVAs places dedicated, AI trained virtual assistants from Latin America who answer in your time zone and can work alongside an AI receptionist.
Disclosure: WiseVAs and this site share an owner. WiseVAs is not ranked in the directory.