How much does an answering service cost?
A telephone answering service costs $1.00 to $1.50 per minute, or roughly $250 to $875 a month for a bundle of included minutes. Entry plans from the well-known providers start around $245–$250/mo and include only 50–75 minutes of talk time — which is where most people get surprised, because 75 minutes is about 25 short calls.
The published tiers, collected August 2026:
| Provider | Entry price | What's included | Over the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | ~$245/mo | ~50 minutes | ~$5.19 per call |
| PATLive | ~$250/mo | 75 minutes (~$475 for 200, ~$875 for 500) | Per-minute, plus ~$20/mo for Spanish |
| Smith.ai | ~$95–$300/mo | Plan minutes, AI + human hybrid | Per-call fees on top |
| Abby Connect | Quote only | Per-minute bundles | Per-minute overage |
| eTollFree AI receptionist | From $6.95/mo | Your phone number + 100+ features | 15¢/min of talk time (13¢ and 10¢ on larger plans) |
The gap is not a rounding error. 500 minutes of answering costs about $875 from a human bundle and about $82 in AI minutes. That does not make human services bad — it makes them a considered choice for calls that genuinely need a person, rather than the default for every call.
How much does an answering service cost per month for a small business?
Work from minutes, not calls, because that is how you get billed. Take your monthly call count, multiply by average call length, and check it against the tier you are being sold:
| Your volume | Talk time | Human service | AI at 15¢/min |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 calls/mo × 3 min | 75 min | ~$250 | ~$18 + $6.95 plan |
| 70 calls/mo × 3 min | 210 min | ~$475 | ~$32 + $6.95 plan |
| 170 calls/mo × 3 min | 510 min | ~$875 | ~$77 + $6.95 plan |
| 300 calls/mo × 3 min | 900 min | ~$1,300+ | ~$117 + $14 plan (at 13¢) |
Two details that decide your real bill more than the headline rate:
- Billing increments. Many human services bill in 30-second or full-minute increments and round up, so a 20-second wrong number can bill as a minute. Ask how they round before you compare per-minute rates.
- What counts as billable. Hold time, transfer time, message dictation and sometimes the receptionist's after-call work can all be on the meter. Ask for a sample invoice, not a rate card.
How much does it cost to hire an answering service versus a receptionist?
The comparison people actually want, at 2026 rates:
- Full-time in-house receptionist: roughly $36,000–$45,000 a year in wages before payroll taxes, benefits, equipment and cover for holidays — call it $3,000–$3,800 a month, and they answer phones about 40 hours of the 168 in a week.
- Part-time receptionist: roughly $1,800–$2,600 a month, covering the hours you can afford rather than the hours customers call.
- Human answering service: $250–$875 a month for 75–500 minutes, 24/7, no employment overhead.
- AI receptionist: $6.95/mo plus 10–15¢ a minute, 24/7, answering on the first ring every time.
Cost per covered hour is the honest way to read that list. A full-time hire is excellent value between 9 and 5 on weekdays and nothing at all at 7pm on a Saturday, which is precisely when a plumbing emergency or a restaurant booking happens.
How much does a medical answering service cost?
Medical and dental answering typically sits at the upper end of the market — commonly $300–$900+ a month — for three reasons: HIPAA-compliant handling, after-hours and on-call routing to the right clinician, and longer calls because patients explain symptoms. Some providers charge a premium specifically for HIPAA handling; ask whether it is included or an add-on line.
Our AI receptionist is HIPAA-capable and runs live healthcare deployments today — Medicare enrollment, Lifeline qualification and SSDI intake are all active scenarios on the platform. A practice taking 300 calls a month at 3 minutes pays about $131/mo all in on eBizLine Lite. On-call escalation is a routing rule, not a premium tier.
How much is an after-hours answering service?
After-hours-only coverage from a human service usually costs $150–$400 a month depending on how many evening and weekend minutes you use, and some providers charge a night or holiday premium on top of the standard per-minute rate. It is billed the same way — by the minute, from a bundle.
With per-minute AI pricing there is no such thing as an after-hours rate. A call at 2am costs exactly what a call at 2pm costs: 15¢ a minute. If your business only needs evening and weekend cover, that is usually $10–$30 a month in minutes on top of your plan.
How much is a virtual receptionist?
"Virtual receptionist" is used two ways, and the price gap between them is enormous:
- A human virtual receptionist — a remote person answering your calls, often the same product as an answering service with a nicer name. Expect $245–$600+ a month on typical bundles, or a per-minute rate around $1.00–$1.50.
- A virtual receptionist app or AI — software answering, routing and booking. Flat-rate services start around $49–$79/mo; ours is usage-based from $6.95/mo plus 15¢/min.
When a quote seems unusually high or low for "a virtual receptionist," this is nearly always why. Ask directly: is a person answering, or software?
What drives the price up?
- Minutes, not calls. Every bundle is a minute bundle. Longer calls, higher bill.
- Overage rates. The tier price is the marketing; the overage rate is the bill. Ruby's is around $5.19 per call; per-minute overages elsewhere often exceed the in-bundle rate.
- Bilingual service. Commonly an add-on — PATLive publishes about $20/mo for Spanish. Our AI speaks it at the same 15¢.
- Compliance. HIPAA-capable handling can carry a premium with human services.
- Appointment booking and CRM work. Often a higher tier rather than a standard feature.
- Setup and script-building fees. One-off charges of $50–$200 are common. Ours are $0.
Is an answering service worth the money?
Do the arithmetic that actually decides it. Average job value × calls you currently miss = what the phone is costing you today.
At a $300 average job and two missed calls a week, that is about $2,400 a month walking to a competitor. Against that, even a $475/mo human bundle pays for itself, and a $25–$130/mo AI receptionist is close to free money. At a $40 average ticket and one missed call a fortnight, neither is worth it — improve your voicemail greeting and call people back the same day.
The mistake is buying on the monthly price. Buy on the cost of the calls you are losing, then choose the cheapest reliable way to stop losing them.
How to cut the cost of your answering service
- Route the routine calls to AI and keep humans for the rest. Most services bill the same rate for "what are your hours?" as for a real enquiry.
- Check your average call length. If it is over four minutes, the script is doing too much. Shorter, clearer scripts cut minute-based bills directly.
- Publish your hours and prices properly so fewer callers need to ask.
- Ask for your actual usage data and re-tier. Plenty of businesses sit on a 500-minute bundle using 180.
- Kill the after-hours premium by moving overnight coverage to a flat per-minute service.
The short version
Human answering services run $1.00–$1.50 a minute, with entry bundles at $245–$250/mo for 50–75 minutes and mid tiers at $475–$875/mo. Medical answering typically runs $300–$900+. A part-time in-house receptionist is $1,800–$2,600/mo, a full-time one $3,000–$3,800/mo.
Our AI receptionist answers the same calls, 24/7, for $6.95/mo including your phone number plus 15¢ a minute of talk time — 13¢ and 10¢ on larger plans. Most small businesses land between $25 and $131 a month, with no setup fee, no contract, and a warm transfer to a real person whenever a call deserves one.
See the full rate breakdown on our AI receptionist page, or compare the providers head to head in our 2026 AI receptionist and answering service comparison.
