category guide — updated october 2026
AI answering service: what 100 calls cost under each billing model
An AI answering service picks up your business line with a software voice instead of a person or voicemail. Services bill that work three different ways, per minute, per call or per caller, so a sticker price tells you little. This guide prices the same 100 calls across ten services, walks through a sample call flow, and says when a person is the better answer.
Disclosure: VantaWeb publishes this guide and sells Anna, an AI receptionist, so this is a vendor-written comparison, not an independent ranking. The ten other services are listed alphabetically from facts read on each vendor's own pages on 2026-10-18. VantaWeb sits in its own box and is not ranked. We placed no test calls and read no third-party reviews.
quick answer
An AI answering service answers a business line at any hour, takes a message or books the job, and passes real emergencies to a person you name. The bill depends on the billing unit more than on AI versus human: per minute (Abby Connect, Dialzara, Rosie, Ruby), per call (Smith.ai, Upfirst) or per unique caller (Goodcall). Plans and a worked example follow.
Ten answering services and how each one bills
Read the last column first. Every row links the vendor's own pricing page, read on 2026-10-18. Prices change, so recheck the source before you buy.
| Service | Who answers | Billing unit | Published plans (as read) | Source, checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abby Connect | People, AI, or a mix you choose | Per "Abby Minute": a human minute counts as 1, an AI minute as half | $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes; $329 for 100; $599 for 200; $1,380 for 500. Overage billed at the plan's rate. Free trial on every plan | abby.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Answering Service Care | People or AI, priced separately | Per minute | Live: $40/mo plus $1.75 a minute, or $179 for 100 minutes, $329 for 250 ($1.60 a minute over), $639 for 500. AI: $40/mo plus $0.85 an AI minute, or $80 for 100, $195 for 250 ($0.75 over), $350 for 500 | answeringservicecare.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Dialzara | AI | Per minute: included minutes plus an overage rate | $29/mo for 60 minutes (overage $0.48); $99 for 220 ($0.45); $199 for 500 ($0.40); $349 for 1,000 ($0.35). 7-day free trial. SMS, chat and outbound are priced separately | dialzara.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Goodcall | AI | Per unique customer a month; minutes and calls are not metered | $79/mo for 100 unique customers, then 79 cents each; $129 for 500 (26 cents); $299 for 2,000 (15 cents). Free demo agent | goodcall.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| NextPhone | AI | Flat monthly price, unlimited calls | $199/mo (self-setup), $299 (done-for-you build), $599 (custom flows and two-way texting). 7 days free on the first plan | getnextphone.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| PATLive | People | Per minute | $49/mo pay-as-you-go at $2.99 a minute; $479 for 300 minutes (then $1.89 a minute); up to $6,899/mo for 5,000 minutes | patlive.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Rosie | AI | Per minute: a monthly bucket of minutes | $49/mo for 250 minutes; $149 for 1,000; $299 for 2,000. 7-day free trial. Website-texting add-on $50/mo | heyrosie.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Ruby | People | Per minute: a monthly bucket of receptionist minutes | $250/mo for 50 minutes; $395 for 100; $720 for 200; $1,725 for 500 | ruby.com/pricing 2026-10-18 |
| Smith.ai | AI plans, or human receptionists | Per call: a monthly allowance, then a per-call rate | AI: free for 25 calls then $3.00 a call; $150/mo for 75 calls then $2.00; $500 for 300. Human: $300/mo for 30 calls then $11.50 a call; $810 for 90 (then $10.50); $2,100 for 300 | AI plans, human plans 2026-10-18 |
| Upfirst | AI | Per call: a monthly allowance, then a per-call rate; spam is not billed | $24.95/mo for 30 calls then $1.50; $59.95 for 90 then $1.00; $159.95 for 300 then $0.75; $299 for 600 then $0.70. 14-day free trial | upfirst.ai/pricing 2026-10-18 |
Publisher's own product, shown separately and not ranked
VantaWeb (Anna) is an AI receptionist on a flat monthly plan with an included voice-minute pool and $0.15 a minute above it.
Phone answering is on Surge ($299/mo, 200 minutes included) and Apex ($599/mo, 400 minutes). At the 300 minutes in the example below, Surge comes to $314. Plans are on the pricing page.
What 100 calls cost under each billing model
The example: 100 calls a month, three minutes each, from 100 different callers, so 300 minutes. Billing unit decides who looks cheap. Per-call services ignore the three minutes, a per-caller service ignores repeat calls, and per-minute services charge for every second of talk.
- $69.95 to $232.50AI services, a month. Upfirst $69.95, Goodcall $79, Dialzara $135, Rosie $149, NextPhone $199, Smith.ai AI $200, Answering Service Care AI $232.50. Sources: Upfirst, Goodcall, Dialzara, Rosie, NextPhone, Smith.ai, Answering Service Care, all checked 2026-10-18. Method: for each service we took the cheapest published plan, or pay-as-you-go combination, that covers 300 minutes or 100 calls, added the published overage, and left out add-ons, taxes and free trials. Examples: Upfirst $59.95 plus 10 calls at $1.00; Dialzara $99 plus 80 minutes at $0.45; Smith.ai $150 plus 25 calls at $2.00; Answering Service Care $195 plus 50 minutes at $0.75. These are our sums on published prices, not quotes.
- $409 to $1,725Services with people on the line, a month. Answering Service Care live $409, PATLive $479, Abby Connect $898.50, Smith.ai human receptionists $915, Ruby $1,725. Sources: Answering Service Care, PATLive, Smith.ai, Abby Connect, Ruby, all checked 2026-10-18. Method: same rules as above. Answering Service Care live is $329 plus 50 minutes at $1.60. PATLive is its 300-minute plan. Abby Connect is the $599 plan for 200 Abby Minutes plus 100 minutes at the plan rate of $2.995 each. Smith.ai is the 90-call plan at $810 plus 10 calls at $10.50. Ruby publishes no overage rate, so its figure is the 500-minute plan.
- 74%Why a missed call is hard to win back: 74% of US adults say they do not take calls from unknown numbers for fear of scams, so calling back often fails. Source: TransUnion consumer survey, August 2024, checked 2026-10-18. Method: an online survey of 1,556 US adults who own a mobile phone, run by TransUnion with Toluna; TransUnion sells caller-ID branding, so read its framing with that in mind.
Rerun the sums with your own call count, average call length and share of repeat callers. People answering and software answering are different products, so the lowest number is not automatically the best fit. The missed-call calculator sets the monthly bill against what unanswered calls cost you, and the AI receptionist cost guide goes deeper on AI-only vendors.
Sample call flow: an overflow afternoon at a plumbing company
Sample flow, not a recorded call
The company, callers and times are invented. The office forwards its line to Anna when nobody picks up in four rings, so each row shows the job an answering service would do and the tool Anna uses for it.
| Time | Caller | What happens | Anna's tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:05 pm | Homeowner, leaking water heater | The office line rings out and forwards. Anna takes name, number and address, asks how bad the leak is, and finds tomorrow's openings. | Check availability |
| 2:08 pm | Same call | The caller takes 9 am. Anna books it and texts the time to the caller's phone. | Book, confirmation SMS |
| 2:40 pm | Returning customer | Cancels Thursday's drain job and asks for next Monday instead. | Reschedule or cancel |
| 3:15 pm | Parts supplier | Asks for the owner, who set himself as reachable. Anna passes the call to his mobile. | Transfer |
| 3:50 pm | Caller wanting a repipe quote | A repipe needs a site visit the owner prices, so nothing is booked. Anna writes down the address and the best time to call back. | Take a message |
| 9:40 pm | Tenant, water through the ceiling | The words match the emergency rule, so Anna skips the calendar and sends the call to the on-call plumber. | Emergency transfer |
| 7:30 am | Office manager, email | One follow-up email per customer and one summary of the evening's calls, so the morning starts from a list. | Follow-up email, call summary |
A traditional service would hand the office a page of messages. Here the same afternoon ends with two appointments on the calendar, one cancellation moved, and anything unfinished waiting as a message.
Answering service quote checklist
Paste this into an email or a notes app and put every question to each service on your shortlist. Where a vendor will not answer in writing, treat that as an answer.
ANSWERING SERVICE QUOTE CHECKLIST [ ] Billing unit: minute, call or unique caller? What counts as one? [ ] Do billed minutes include hold time and after-call work? [ ] What is the overage rate, and is it printed on the pricing page? [ ] Are spam calls and wrong numbers billed? [ ] Who answers: software only, people only, or a mix I choose? [ ] Ask for a test call: "a pipe just burst". Does it change behavior or book Thursday? [ ] Can it transfer to my on-call number, and what happens if nobody picks up? [ ] Which languages work on the phone, not only in chat? [ ] What arrives after each call: email, text, summary, recording? [ ] Contract length, setup fee, cancellation notice [ ] My numbers: calls a month ___, average minutes ___, repeat-caller share ___
To switch, keep your number and change the forwarding at your carrier: after-hours calls first, then daytime overflow once a week of summaries matches your old message log.
Pick someone else if one of these fits you
Each fact was read on 2026-10-18 from the vendor's own page, linked below.
- You want a person on every call. Ruby starts at $250/mo for 50 minutes, PATLive at $49/mo plus $2.99 a minute, and Smith.ai human receptionists at $300/mo for 30 calls.
- Your jobs live in Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan. Jobber Receptionist adds $29/mo to a Jobber plan with 30 conversations included, per its help center and pricing page. Housecall Pro CSR AI is sold separately from plans starting at $59/mo (pricing), and ServiceTitan's AI Virtual Agent is part of Contact Center Pro.
- Callers speak Spanish on the phone. Abby Connect lists English and Spanish, and Answering Service Care lists 80-plus languages.
- You take patient information. Goodcall states HIPAA and SOC 2 compliance on its site.
- You want a text to go to callers who hang up. Jobber's receptionist sends an SMS to those callers, per its help center.
Where Anna stops
- No people stand behind Anna. She is AI only, and anything that needs a person goes to your own staff.
- Spanish calls are not supported. Anna speaks Spanish in website chat only.
- VantaWeb is not for healthcare: no PHI, no HIPAA workflows and no BAA.
- There is no CRM or field-service write-back. VantaWeb has no connection to ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro, so Anna emails your team the details and they enter the job.
- VantaWeb has no missed-call text-back, so a caller who hangs up first gets no text from us.
Questions about AI answering services
What is an AI answering service?
An AI answering service is software that answers a business line with a computer voice instead of a person or voicemail. It asks what the caller needs, takes a message or books the job, and passes real emergencies to a person you name. Services bill it three ways: per minute, per call or per unique caller.
Is an AI answering service cheaper than a live one?
Usually, at the same volume. For 100 calls of three minutes, the AI plans we priced came to $69.95 to $232.50 a month, and the services with people on the line to $409 to $1,725. Billing unit and call length move those figures a lot, so rerun the sums with your own call count.
Should I pay per minute or per call?
Per-minute billing favors short calls, and per-call billing favors long ones, because a long call costs the same as a short one. Per unique caller, as Goodcall bills, favors customers who ring repeatedly. Multiply your monthly call count by your average call length, then run both numbers through each pricing ladder.
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?
If a caller asks, a reputable service says so. What callers notice more is the pause before each reply and whether their problem gets handled. We publish no latency figure for Anna, so time the gap between your sentence and the reply on a demo call before you sign with any service.
How do I switch from my current answering service?
Keep your number and change the call forwarding at your carrier. Send after-hours calls to the new service first, compare its summaries with your old message log for a week, then move daytime overflow. Cancel the old plan only after the test calls pass and you have checked the notice terms in your contract.
Does VantaWeb offer an AI answering service?
Anna is VantaWeb's AI receptionist, and she covers the answering-service job on a flat plan: you forward your line to her and she takes messages, books and transfers by your rules. Phone answering starts on Surge at $299/mo with 200 minutes included. The limits are listed above, and the AI receptionist guide covers the rest of the front desk.
Is an AI answering service worth it for a small business?
If you miss calls, it can be. A 30-day 411 Locals study found 62% of calls to 85 small businesses went unanswered by a person, and 74% of US adults skip unknown numbers, so callbacks often fail. Price one recovered job against the plan before you decide.
Related guides
- The AI receptionist guide: the whole front desk, with chat and booking
- Best AI receptionist roundup: AI-only shortlist
- AI receptionist vs answering service: head-to-head
- AI receptionist pricing guide: vendor-by-vendor rates
- After-hours answering: nights and weekends
- Answering service alternatives: AI, in-house staff and hybrids
- AI receptionist benchmark: a draft test framework with no results yet
- Trades: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing
Talk to us about your phone setup.
Tell us your call volume and your hours and we will say whether Anna fits or whether one of the services above suits you better.