An AI receptionist is usually the lowest-cost way to get every call answered around the clock. Self-serve AI receptionist plans we reviewed start between $0 and $79 a month. Live answering service plans start at $49 to $250 a month for light call volume and can pass $2,000. An in-house receptionist in the Las Vegas area earns close to $38,000 a year in wages alone.
So the AI receptionist cost is lower on paper. The better question is what each option costs at your call volume, and what your callers need. Below are published prices, a break-even example, and the cases where a person is still worth paying for.
Note on pricing: Vendor prices below come from each company’s own pricing page, as of September 2026. Prices change often, so confirm before you buy.
What an AI Receptionist Costs in 2026
An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers your business line. It can answer common questions, take messages, book appointments, and transfer callers to your team. Vendors charge by the minute, by the call, or by unique customer.
Self-serve AI receptionist pricing
You sign up and build the agent yourself.
- Dialzara: Business Lite is $29 a month with up to 60 minutes of talk time, then $0.48 a minute. Business Plus is $199 a month with up to 500 minutes.
- Rosie: Professional is $49 a month with 250 minutes. Scale is $149 a month with 1,000 minutes and adds calendar booking and live transfers.
- Goodcall: Starter is $79 a month per agent with 100 unique customers, then $0.50 per additional customer. Annual billing takes 15% off.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: A free plan covers 25 calls a month, then $3.00 a call. The Pro plan starts at $150 a month for 75 calls.
Managed AI receptionist pricing
Some owners would rather not write call scripts, connect calendars, and test call flows. A managed provider builds the agent for you, which costs more.
For transparency, here is our own pricing. MCNM’s AI Voice Receptionist plan is $497 a month plus a $1,497 one-time setup fee. The AI Chat & Text Agent is $397 a month plus $997 setup. The full AI Agent Suite (voice, chat, review, and content agents) is $1,297 a month plus $1,997 setup. Voice minutes, SMS carrier fees, and platform fees are billed at cost. All plans are month to month, and you can cancel with 30 days notice.
What a Live Answering Service Costs
A live answering service uses human receptionists who answer your calls off-site. Most plans are sold in blocks of minutes or calls, with overage charges.
- Ruby: $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, and $1,725 for 500. Ruby advertises 24/7 coverage and no setup fees. Its pricing page does not list an overage rate.
- PATLive: $99 a month for 50 minutes (about 20 calls), then $2.29 per additional minute. The 200-minute plan is $349, and the 500-minute plan is $759. A pay-as-you-go option is $49 a month plus $2.99 a minute.
- Smith.ai human-first receptionists: Starter is $300 a month for 30 calls, then $11.50 a call. Basic is $810 for 90 calls. Pro is $2,100 for 300 calls. Add-ons such as appointment booking cost extra per call.
- AnswerConnect: does not list prices on its plans page. You have to submit a quote request.
Watch the billing unit. A minute-based plan counts talk time, so one five-minute call uses five minutes. A call-based plan charges the same for a short call and a long one.
What an In-House Receptionist Costs in Las Vegas
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks receptionist pay by metro area. In the Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metro area, receptionists and information clerks earned a mean wage of $18.26 an hour and a mean annual wage of $37,980 in May 2025. The national mean was $18.97 an hour.
Wages are only part of the bill. Across private-industry jobs, benefits made up 30.0% of employer compensation costs in June 2026, per the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release. That is an all-jobs average, not a receptionist figure, but the true cost clearly runs above the wage.
Coverage is the other gap. A full-time receptionist covers about 40 of the 168 hours in a week, minus breaks, sick days, and vacation. And one person answers one call at a time.
To be fair, an in-house hire does things no phone service can: greeting walk-ins, checking patients in, and handling paperwork.
AI Receptionist vs. Answering Service vs. In-House: Side by Side
| In-house receptionist | Live answering service | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Hourly wage plus benefits and payroll costs | Monthly block of minutes or calls, plus overage | Monthly subscription; some charge per minute, call, or customer |
| Published cost | $37,980 mean annual wage (Las Vegas metro, May 2025) | $49 (plus per-minute fees) to $2,100 a month on the plans above | $0 to $500 a month self-serve; $497 a month plus setup managed (MCNM) |
| Hours | Your business hours | 24/7 at the vendors reviewed | 24/7 |
| Handles well | Walk-ins, office tasks, complex judgment calls | Emotional callers, nuanced intake, people who want a human | FAQs, after-hours calls, booking, message taking, call spikes |
| Limits | One call at a time, time off, turnover | Costs climb with volume; agents follow scripts | Can misread unusual requests; needs solid setup and a human handoff |
A Simple Break-Even Example (Hypothetical Numbers)
The numbers in this scenario are hypothetical. The prices are real published rates from the sources above. Picture a Henderson home-services company that gets 200 calls a month, averaging 2.5 minutes each. That is 500 minutes of talk time.
| Option | Monthly cost at this volume | First-year cost |
|---|---|---|
| In-house receptionist at the Las Vegas mean wage (40 hrs/week) | $3,165 in wages | $37,980 before benefits and payroll taxes |
| Ruby, 500-minute plan | $1,725 | $20,700 |
| Smith.ai human-first Basic (90 calls + 110 overage calls at $10.50) | $1,965 | $23,580 |
| PATLive, 500-minute plan | $759 | $9,108 |
| MCNM AI Voice Receptionist | $497 plus usage at cost | $7,461 plus usage |
| Dialzara Business Plus, self-serve AI (500 minutes) | $199 | $2,388 |
Self-serve AI is the cheapest line on this chart. If you are comfortable building and testing an AI agent yourself, start there. Managed makes more sense when you want it built for you and tied into your CRM and follow-up automations.
Where break-even really comes from
Now add revenue. Say each booked job brings in $300 of gross profit (again, hypothetical). Two extra booked jobs a month cover the $497 fee. Five more jobs earn back the $1,497 setup fee.
The real test is whether the AI books calls you miss today, like after-hours emergencies or overflow at your busiest times. Track booked jobs and usage charges for 60 days. If the numbers do not work, month-to-month terms mean you are not locked in.
Want to run this math with your own call volume and job value? Use our free missed call calculator.
When a Human Answering Service Is the Better Choice
AI is not the right fit for every business. A live service or an in-house hire is often the better call when:
- Calls are emotional or high-stakes. Someone calling a law firm after an arrest, or a patient in pain, may need a calm human voice.
- Your call volume is very low. A handful of calls a month may cost less on a free tier or pay-as-you-go plan than on any managed service.
- Each call needs real judgment. Complex quotes, triage, or intake that changes with every answer can outrun a script.
- Your callers hang up on automated systems. If they expect a person, give them one.
- You lack clear answers to feed the AI. Without set pricing, hours, and booking rules, an AI receptionist will struggle.
A hybrid also works: AI for after-hours and overflow, people during the day. Smith.ai, for example, sells both AI-first and human-first plans.
Guardrails: AI Disclosure, Human Handoff, and Texting Consent
Whatever you choose, set these rules before you go live.
- Tell callers they are talking to AI. Our agents disclose that they are AI.
- Always offer a human handoff. Every AI call flow needs a clear path to a person, whether that is a live transfer or a fast callback.
- Get consent before outbound AI calls and texts. In a February 2024 declaratory ruling, the FCC confirmed that AI-generated voices count as an artificial or prerecorded voice under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Those calls need the called party’s prior express consent unless an exemption applies, and telemarketing calls need prior express written consent. Collect opt-in before texting callers, keep a record, and honor opt-outs right away.
Law firms, dental offices, and med spas should ask their attorney how call recordings and client or patient details will be stored before launch.
AI Receptionist Cost: Frequently Asked Questions
Self-serve AI receptionist plans we reviewed in September 2026 start between $0 and $79 a month, with higher tiers from $149 to $500 as call volume grows. Managed options cost more because the provider builds the agent. MCNM charges $497 a month plus a $1,497 setup fee, with usage billed at cost.
Usually, yes. Live answering plans we reviewed range from $99 a month for 50 minutes to $2,100 a month for 300 calls, and many add overage charges. Self-serve AI plans cover hundreds of minutes for under $200 a month. The gap grows as your call volume rises, since human minutes cost more.
The national services we reviewed publish one price list with no Las Vegas-specific rates. Ruby starts at $250 a month for 50 minutes, and PATLive starts at $99 for 50 minutes. For comparison, receptionists in the Las Vegas metro area earned a mean wage of $18.26 an hour in May 2025, according to BLS data.
They should. We recommend every AI receptionist say it is AI at the start of the call, and MCNM agents disclose that they are AI. For outbound calls, the FCC has confirmed that AI-generated voices fall under TCPA consent rules, so get permission before an AI calls anyone.
Yes. Some AI receptionist plans we reviewed include call transfers, and MCNM agents hand off to a human when a caller needs one. Set clear rules for when to transfer, such as emergencies, upset callers, or questions the AI cannot answer, and make sure someone is ready to pick up.
Find Out What Missed Calls Are Costing You
If you run a home-services company, med spa, law firm, or dental practice in Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, or Summerlin, start with your own numbers. How many calls hit voicemail or come in after hours? That tells you whether an AI voice receptionist will pay for itself.
Request a free marketing audit, or call MCNM Marketing at (702) 608-4226. You can also learn about our Las Vegas digital marketing agency or explore all of our AI marketing agents.
Leave a Reply