How much does a virtual receptionist cost?
Based on prices published in October 2026, a human virtual receptionist or live answering service starts at about $165 to $300 a month for a small plan of 50 minutes or 30 calls. On the published plans from Ruby, Abby Connect and Smith.ai, that works out to roughly $2.76 to $5.00 per minute or $7 to $10 per call, with the rate falling as the plan gets larger.
For a business that needs 100 receptionist minutes a month, the published price is $329 at Abby Connect and $395 at Ruby. Those figures buy a trained person who answers in your business name, which is a different product from an automated system, and the rest of this guide explains what drives the number up or down.
Per-minute vs per-call pricing: how answering services bill
Human services use two main billing units. Per-minute plans sell a monthly block of receptionist minutes. Ruby and Abby Connect both work this way. You are charged for the time a receptionist spends on your calls, so short calls are cheap and long calls are expensive. A business whose callers mostly want to be transferred or leave a quick message does well on minutes.
Per-call plans sell a number of calls a month regardless of length. Smith.ai's human Virtual Receptionists are priced this way. A 12-minute intake call costs the same as a 40-second message, which suits law firms and other businesses with long first conversations. It suits businesses with many brief calls less well.
The definitions matter as much as the price. On a per-minute plan, ask how time is measured: whether calls are rounded up to the next minute or billed in smaller increments, and whether hold time, transfer time and the receptionist's after-call notes count. On a per-call plan, ask which calls are billable. Many services exclude spam, sales calls and wrong numbers, and some do not.
Both models have plan tiers and overage. If you exceed your allowance, each additional minute or call is charged at an overage rate that is usually higher than the rate inside the plan. Smith.ai's entry plan, for example, charges $11.50 for each call beyond the 30 included.
Published virtual receptionist prices in October 2026
These are the plans each company lists on its own pricing page. The effective rate column is simple division of the monthly price by the allowance, so you can compare plans of different sizes.
| Service | Billing unit | Plan (per month) | Allowance | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | Per minute | $250 | 50 minutes | $5.00 per minute |
| Ruby | Per minute | $395 | 100 minutes | $3.95 per minute |
| Ruby | Per minute | $720 | 200 minutes | $3.60 per minute |
| Ruby | Per minute | $1,725 | 500 minutes | $3.45 per minute |
| Abby Connect | Per Abby Minute | $165 | 50 Abby Minutes | $3.30 per human minute |
| Abby Connect | Per Abby Minute | $329 | 100 Abby Minutes | $3.29 per human minute |
| Abby Connect | Per Abby Minute | $599 | 200 Abby Minutes | About $3.00 per human minute |
| Abby Connect | Per Abby Minute | $1,380 | 500 Abby Minutes | $2.76 per human minute |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | Per call | $300 | 30 calls ($11.50 per extra call) | $10.00 per call |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | Per call | $810 | 90 calls | $9.00 per call |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | Per call | $2,100 | 300 calls | $7.00 per call |
What an in-house receptionist costs
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median pay for receptionists of $38,010 a year, or $18.27 an hour, as of May 2025. Spread over twelve months that is about $3,168 a month in wages. The full cost of employment is higher once payroll taxes and benefits are added, and you also carry hiring, training, sick days and vacation cover.
For that money you get something no outsourced service provides: a person who is physically present, knows your customers by name, and handles everything else that happens at a front desk. If you have steady walk-in traffic or a waiting room, an in-house receptionist is doing a job that phone services do not touch.
The limit is coverage. One full-time person works roughly 40 hours a week and can take one call at a time. Lunch, evenings, weekends and the moment two lines ring together are still uncovered, which is why many businesses with a receptionist also use an overflow or after-hours service.
Related: Call overflow options
The AI option and what it costs
AI receptionists answer the phone with software rather than staff, and they are priced accordingly. Published plans in October 2026 include Rosie at $49 a month for 250 minutes, Dialzara at $29 for 60 minutes, Upfirst at $24.95 for 30 calls, and Goodcall at $79 for 100 unique customers with unlimited minutes. Masheev charges $18 a month plus $0.30 per voice minute.
Put side by side, 100 minutes of answering costs $395 at Ruby and $329 at Abby Connect from a human team, and between $41 and $99 from the AI vendors in the worked examples of our AI cost guide. Abby Connect's own pricing makes the gap explicit: one Abby Minute buys one minute of a human receptionist or two minutes of its AI.
The lower price reflects a real difference in what you get. An AI can take simultaneous calls, up to plan and provider limits, at any hour you configure, and can answer routine questions or book through a connected calendar. It does not have a person's judgment in an unusual or emotional situation, and a good setup hands those calls to your team rather than attempting them.
Related: AI receptionist cost guide, What is an AI receptionist?
How to estimate your own minutes
Most people guess their call volume and guess wrong. Before you ask for quotes, pull one full month of call records from your carrier or phone system. You want three numbers: total inbound calls, how many of those you would hand to the service, and the average length of an answered call.
Multiply the calls you would hand over by the average length. Suppose you plan to send 120 calls a month to a service and they average two and a half minutes. That is 120 x 2.5 = 300 minutes. On Ruby's published plans, 200 minutes at $720 is not enough and the 500-minute plan is $1,725. On Abby Connect, the 200 Abby Minute plan at $599 plus 100 more minutes billed at that plan's Abby Minute rate of about $3.00 comes to about $899, against $1,380 for the 500-minute plan. Ruby does not list its overage rate, so ask for it and do the sum both ways.
On a per-call plan the same workload is simply 120 calls. At Smith.ai's published human rates, the $810 plan covers 90 calls with 30 billed as overage, and the $2,100 plan covers 300. Length no longer matters, which is the point of per-call pricing.
Add a margin. Call volume is seasonal for most trades, and a service answering promptly will often take calls that used to hang up before voicemail. Plan for a month that is busier than your average, then check what that month would cost under the overage rules.
- Count only calls the service would answer: all calls, overflow only, or after hours only.
- Remove spam and internal calls from the sample, then ask whether the service bills for spam.
- Use the average length of answered calls, not all calls, since missed calls have no length.
- Recheck after the first month. Real minutes with a live service often differ from the estimate.
Fees that change the real price
The plan price is the starting point. Read the terms for the items below, and ask for a sample invoice if the service will provide one.
- Overage rate per minute or per call once the plan allowance is used.
- Setup or onboarding fees charged once at the start.
- After-hours, weekend or holiday surcharges, or plans that only cover business hours.
- Charges for extras such as appointment booking, outbound calls, call recording, bilingual answering or CRM entry.
- Billing increments on per-minute plans, and whether hold and wrap-up time are counted.
- Minimum contract length and the notice required to cancel or move down a plan.
Common questions
What is the difference between a virtual receptionist and an answering service?
The terms overlap. An answering service traditionally takes messages and relays them. A virtual receptionist is usually a remote person who also transfers calls, answers basic questions and books appointments in your business name. Many companies now sell both under either label, so compare what the plan includes rather than what it is called.
How much does an answering service cost per month?
Published plans checked in October 2026 start at $165 a month for 50 minutes at Abby Connect, $250 for 50 minutes at Ruby, and $300 for 30 calls at Smith.ai. A business needing around 100 minutes a month should expect roughly $329 to $395 on those published plans.
How much does a virtual receptionist cost per minute?
On published plans the effective rate ranges from about $2.76 a minute on Abby Connect's 500-minute plan to $5.00 a minute on Ruby's 50-minute plan. Larger plans have lower per-minute rates. Overage minutes beyond your plan usually cost more than the minutes inside it.
Is a virtual receptionist cheaper than hiring one?
For phone coverage alone, usually yes. The US median receptionist wage is $38,010 a year, about $3,168 a month before taxes and benefits, while a 500-minute plan from a human service is listed at $1,380 to $1,725 a month. An in-house receptionist also handles visitors and office tasks that an outsourced service does not.
Can I combine a human service with an AI receptionist?
Yes, and it is a common setup. An AI answers first and resolves routine questions and bookings, then passes sensitive or complex calls to your team or to a human service. Abby Connect sells both in one plan, where one Abby Minute covers one human minute or two AI minutes. You can also pair separate products through call forwarding.
Sources
Prices and figures in this guide come from the publishers' own pages, checked on October 5, 2026. They change, so confirm before you rely on them. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Masheev is not affiliated with or endorsed by the other services named.