AI receptionist pricing in 2026: what you actually pay
AI receptionist pricing runs from per-usage phone lines to $300+ a month per location. The real cost bands, the hidden fees, and where a flat-plan receptionist fits.
Ask five vendors what an AI receptionist costs and you will get five different pricing models. That is the honest state of the market in 2026. This post lays out the bands you will actually see, the fees that hide underneath them, and a way to compare offers without a spreadsheet.
The four pricing models
- Per-minute phone plans. The AI receptionist rides on a business phone system and bills by the minute, often $0.08 to $0.30 each. Cheap if calls are short, punishing if callers actually get helped.
- Per-call or per-conversation. A flat amount per answered call, commonly $1 to $5. Predictable until call volume spikes, which is exactly when you need the receptionist most.
- Per-resolution. Priced per completed outcome like a booked meeting. Fair on the surface, but the vendor controls what counts as a resolution.
- Flat monthly plans. A fixed rate for a bucket of usage. The band runs roughly $30 to $300 a month for small business, higher for multi-location.
The fees nobody puts on the pricing page
Watch for four things: overage rates when you blow through the included usage, per-minute charges after hours, one-time setup fees for scripts or integrations, and add-on charges for things that should be table stakes, like CRM logging or a real transcript. One vendor's $99 plan can cost $250 all-in while another's $150 plan is genuinely $150.
What to actually compare
Price per minute is the wrong metric. Compare what happens on the call: Does it answer questions about your product or just take messages? Does it qualify against criteria you set, or treat every caller the same? Does the transcript and outcome land in your CRM without someone copy-pasting it? Can a real human take over mid-call when it matters? A cheap receptionist that logs nothing costs more than a slightly pricier one that does.
The flat-plan route
We built RevPeak's receptionist on flat plans with shared credits because the per-minute model punishes the exact thing you want: callers getting real help. Every plan includes the voice agent, qualification, and meeting booking, with transcript and outcome logged to your CRM automatically.
Starter is $34 a month with 2,000 work credits, Growth is $99 with 9,000, and Scale is $299 with 25,000. Credits are shared across your whole team, unlimited seats on paid plans, month-to-month with no contract. The receptionist draws from the same pool as your outbound and sourcing, so one budget covers the whole motion.
If you want the details on how the receptionist itself works, the AI receptionist page covers setup, qualification, and CRM logging.
Written by the RevPeak team. We build the MCP server this post describes, and we use it to run our own GTM.