How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost? (2026 Pricing Breakdown)

The honest answer: for most service businesses, an AI receptionist costs between $50 and $500 per month. But that range is almost useless on its own, because the real question isn't "how much does it cost?" — it's "what am I comparing it to, and how many jobs does it capture?"

A cheap plan that only takes messages can cost you more than an expensive one that books confirmed appointments, because the whole point is the revenue you're currently losing to missed calls. Let's break down what you actually pay for.

The quick answer

• Message-taking / basic answering: ~$50–$150/month. The AI answers, greets the caller, and takes a message or forwards it.
• Full AI front office: ~$150–$500/month. Answers 24/7, books appointments into your calendar, texts callers back, qualifies leads, and covers after-hours and overflow.
• Flat-rate vs per-minute: flat plans are the most predictable. EZBiz plans are $149, $297, and $497/month with no per-minute charges.

What actually drives the price

Two AI receptionists at wildly different prices aren't the same product. Here's what you're paying more for:

• Message-taking vs. appointment booking. Reading back a message is easy. Checking your live calendar and booking a confirmed appointment — with a text confirmation to the caller — is what turns a call into revenue.
• After-hours and overflow. 35–50% of service calls come after hours. Plans that cover nights, weekends, and simultaneous callers cost more because they capture the calls you're most likely to lose.
• Text-back and follow-up. Automatically texting a caller back (and following up if they don't book) dramatically raises how many calls become jobs.
• Integrations. Connecting to your calendar, CRM, or field-service software (Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro) adds cost but removes manual data entry.
• Per-minute vs. flat. Per-minute pricing looks cheap until your busy season — a heat wave or storm can triple call volume and spike the bill. Flat pricing protects you exactly when volume is highest.

AI receptionist vs. the alternatives

Cost only makes sense in context. Here's what the same job costs four different ways:

| Option | Typical cost | Hours covered | Concurrent calls | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Voicemail / do nothing | "Free" | None (callers hang up) | — | | Full-time receptionist | $3,000–$4,000+/mo (all-in) | ~40 hrs/week | 1 | | Live answering service | $1–$2/min or $200–$1,500+/mo | Varies, often per-minute | Limited by staff | | AI receptionist | $50–$500/mo | 24/7 | Unlimited |

Voicemail feels free, but 85% of callers who hit voicemail never call back — they call a competitor. That's the most expensive option on the list; it just doesn't show up on an invoice.

The real cost is the calls you're already missing

Here's the number that matters more than the monthly price. Service businesses lose an average of $126,000 per year to missed calls, and a single missed call in the trades is often worth $180–$250 — sometimes thousands for a roofing or HVAC job.

So the math flips. If an AI receptionist costs $297/month and captures one extra job a month that you'd otherwise have lost, it has almost certainly paid for itself. Everything after that is upside. Want to run your own numbers? Use the AI receptionist ROI calculator.

How to think about what you should pay

Don't shop on the monthly price alone. Ask:

1. Does it book appointments, or just take messages? Booking is where the revenue is.
2. Does it cover after-hours and multiple calls at once? That's where the lost jobs hide.
3. Is the pricing flat or per-minute? Flat protects you in your busy season.
4. How fast is setup? A good provider goes live in about 48 hours with no new phone number or hardware.

If you're weighing options, our breakdowns of AI receptionist vs. a live answering service and AI receptionist vs. a virtual assistant walk through the tradeoffs in detail.

EZBiz pricing

EZBiz keeps it simple: $149, $297, and $497 per month, flat. Every plan includes the AI receptionist that answers 24/7, books appointments, and texts callers back — with no per-minute charges and no overtime multipliers. The right plan depends on your call volume and which integrations you need, not on how busy your season gets.