Ask five AI receptionist companies what they cost and you'll get five answers that can't be compared: one quotes minutes, one quotes calls, one quotes "unique customers," and one hides the number behind a demo. This guide puts them on the same footing. We pulled current prices from each vendor's own pricing page on November 10, 2026, picked three realistic call volumes, and did the arithmetic.
One disclosure up front: we make Connie, and it's in the tables. We've kept its numbers to the same rules as everyone else's, and we say where a competitor is cheaper.
The three ways AI receptionists are priced
1. Per minute
You buy a bundle of minutes the AI spends on the phone, and pay a set rate for extra minutes. Rosie, Dialzara, My AI Front Desk and Connie work this way. It's the easiest model to predict if you know roughly how long your calls run. Short calls cost little. The thing to ask is how the vendor rounds: per second, or up to the next whole minute on every call.
2. Per call
You pay for each answered call regardless of length. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist is priced this way, and it only counts what it calls "real calls."1 Per-call pricing is friendly to long conversations and harsh on short ones: a 40-second "are you open Saturday?" costs the same as a 6-minute booking.
3. Per unique caller
Goodcall counts each phone number once per month, no matter how many times that person calls, and says spam and wrong numbers don't count.3 This rewards businesses whose customers call back several times about the same job.
A few vendors sell a flat "unlimited" plan. Read the fair-use clause before you count on it.
Prices checked November 10, 2026
| Vendor | Entry plan | Next tiers | Extra usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie2 | $49/mo, 250 min | $149/mo for 1,000 min; $299/mo for 2,000 | Not stated on the page |
| Goodcall3 | $79/mo, 100 unique customers | $129/mo for 500; $299/mo for 2,000 | $0.79 / $0.26 / $0.15 per extra customer |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist1 | Free, 25 calls | Pro $150/mo for 75 calls; Enterprise $500/mo for 300 | $3.00 (Free), $2.50 (Pro), $2.17 (Enterprise) per call |
| Dialzara4 | $29/mo, 60 min | $99/220 min; $199/500; $349/1,000 | $0.48 down to $0.35 per min |
| My AI Front Desk5 | $99/mo ($79 billed yearly), 200 min | Custom | $0.25 per min |
| Connie (pre-launch) | $79/mo, 150 min (founding: $49/mo, 300 min fair use) | $149/400 min; $249/1,000 min | $0.35 per min (Starter), $0.25 (Pro), $0.20 (Scale) |
For comparison, live human answering costs several times more. Ruby lists $250/mo for 50 minutes of receptionist time,6 and Smith.ai's human receptionists start at $300/mo for 30 calls.7 We compare human and AI answering in depth in virtual receptionist vs. AI receptionist.
How many minutes will you actually use?
Don't guess from an industry average. Two numbers decide it: how many calls the AI will answer, and how long they last.
- Calls answered. If the AI answers every call, that's your whole inbound volume. If it only gets the calls you miss (overflow), it's just the missed ones. Count those in your phone's call log over two to four weeks.
- Call length. Most calls to a small service business are short. At the repair shop where Connie was built, real calls the AI answered over 90 days averaged about 71 seconds (see the case study). Your trade may run longer if callers describe a problem in detail.
For the examples below we assume about 70 seconds a call, so 50 minutes is about 43 calls, 150 minutes is about 128, and 400 minutes is about 343. For the per-caller plans, we assume 7 in 10 calls come from a different number, which is roughly what the same shop saw (104 numbers across 150 calls). Treat both as assumptions and swap in your own.
Worked examples: what you'd pay each month
Each figure is the cheapest way to cover that volume on the vendor's published prices: either the smallest plan plus overage, or the next plan up, whichever costs less. Where a vendor doesn't publish a number, we say so.
| Vendor | 50 min (about 43 calls) | 150 min (about 128 calls) | 400 min (about 343 calls) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | $49 | $49 | $149 (overage rate not published) |
| Goodcall | $79 (about 30 callers) | $79 (about 90 callers) | $129 (about 240 callers) |
| Smith.ai AI | $54 on the Free plan (25 calls + 18 at $3) | About $283 (Pro: $150 + 53 calls at $2.50) | About $593 (Enterprise: $500 + 43 calls at $2.17) |
| Dialzara | $29 | $72.20 (Lite + 90 min at $0.48) | $180 (Pro + 180 min at $0.45) |
| My AI Front Desk | $99 ($79 yearly) | $99 ($79 yearly) | $149 (200 min at $0.25) |
| Connie | $79 ($49 founding) | $79 (Starter, 150 min) | $149 (Pro, 400 min) |
| Ruby (human, for scale) | $250 | $720 (200-min plan) | $1,725 (500-min plan) |
Connie has no setup fee on any plan, so the figures above are the whole monthly price. Smith.ai lists larger Pro tiers (150 and 300 calls) with lower per-call rates but doesn't print their monthly price, so the 150-minute figure uses the 75-call plan's overage. Ruby's overage isn't published either, so its column uses the plan that covers the volume. Human minutes and AI minutes also aren't quite the same thing: a person may spend longer per call.
What the table shows:
- At low volume, nearly everyone is under $100. The cheapest options are a few dollars apart. Pick on quality and features, not price.
- Per-call pricing climbs fastest when calls are short and frequent. It makes more sense for long, high-value calls.
- Per-caller pricing is strongest when callers repeat. If the same customers call two or three times per job, Goodcall's model looks better than our 7-in-10 assumption suggests.
- Rosie is the cheapest per minute at high volume of the published prices here. We'd rather tell you that than hide it.
- At 50 minutes, Connie is not the cheapest. Dialzara ($29), Rosie ($49) and Smith.ai's free plan with a few paid calls (about $54) all cost less than Connie's $79 Starter. Only the 20 founding spots ($49) are in that range.
Costs that aren't on the sticker
- Texting registration. If the service texts callers from a local number, US carriers require A2P 10DLC registration. On Telnyx, for example, that's a one-time $4.50 brand fee, $15 per campaign vetting submission, and a monthly campaign fee from about $1.50 to $10.8 Ask who pays it and whether it's marked up. Our missed call text back guide explains why it exists.
- Rounding. Per-minute plans that round each call up to a full minute can bill a 70-second call as two minutes. Ask.
- Spam. Robocalls are a real share of small-business calls. At our shop, the AI filtered 42 spam calls in 90 days next to 150 real ones. Find out whether spam counts against your plan.
- Setup fees and contracts. Many AI vendors above say no setup fee and month-to-month, but check. Connie has no setup fee on any plan. Annual prepay discounts are common (usually about two months free).
- Integrations. Booking into your calendar is usually included. Connecting to field service software like Housecall Pro, Jobber or ServiceTitan may cost extra or need a higher tier.
- Your time. Every tool needs an hour or two of setup and a few weeks of reading summaries to tune it.
Answer every call, or only the ones you miss?
This choice moves your bill more than which vendor you pick. If the AI answers every call, you pay for every call, including the regulars who would happily have talked to you. With overflow (conditional call forwarding), your phone rings first and the AI only answers when you don't. A shop that takes 200 calls a month and misses 50 pays for 50.
Overflow also keeps the relationship personal. Connie only works this way. Most other AI receptionists can be set up as overflow too, through your carrier's "forward when busy / no answer" setting, so ask about it whichever you choose.
Is it worth it? Compare against one job
The fair test isn't AI vs. AI. It's the monthly price against what one lost job is worth to you. If your average ticket is $300 and the plan costs $50, the service pays for itself the first month it saves a single job that would have gone to the next company on Google.
Example only. A two-truck HVAC company misses 12 calls a week in season, about 52 a month. Say 20 of those never call back, and they'd normally book half at $350. That's about $3,500 a month in lost work, against an AI receptionist plan in the $50 to $150 range. Run your own numbers in the missed call cost calculator.
If your call log shows you rarely miss calls, a cheap plan won't save much, and that's a fine reason not to buy.
A quick buying checklist
- Count your missed calls and estimate minutes (calls × about 1.2 minutes is a safe start).
- Price your volume at two or three vendors using their published rates, as above.
- Ask about rounding, spam, texting fees, setup, contract and integrations.
- Run a trial on overflow, and place five test calls as a real customer would.
- Re-check after a month. If minutes are well under your plan, step down a tier.
Where Connie fits
Connie is an overflow-only AI receptionist for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door and roofing contractors. Your phone rings first; calls you pick up never use minutes. It answers the ones you miss, books into Google Calendar and emails you the summary. Text summaries and missed call text back are Coming at launch. We're pre-launch and onboarding from a waitlist: plans will be $79, $149 and $249 a month (150, 400 and 1,000 minutes) with extra minutes at $0.35, $0.25 and $0.20, and the first 20 founding members pay $49/mo (300 minutes fair use), locked. Side-by-side details: vs. Rosie, vs. Goodcall, vs. Smith.ai.