Best AI Receptionist in 2026: 7 Options Compared on Price

By the AY Automate team. Updated November 6, 2026. We read every price and plan from the vendor's own page on that date.

The best AI receptionist depends on how many calls you take and whether a person has to be available as backup. For most small businesses with a steady call volume, a flat-price tool such as Goodcall is the best fit. It is not the cheapest, since Dialzara starts at $29 and Smith.ai has a free plan. If you want a human to take over, Smith.ai sells both. If you need strict health data handling or booking inside your own CRM, a packaged tool may not be enough.

This guide compares seven options on what each costs, how it bills, and who it suits. It ends with a decision framework and the cases where building a custom voice agent beats buying one. For how these agents work and where they fail, read our explainer on AI receptionist voice agents.

Best AI receptionist: a brief overview

• Goodcall, best flat-price AI receptionist for a small business. Billing counts unique customers, not minutes.
• Smith.ai, best when you want AI answering with live human answering from the same vendor.
• Dialzara, best low entry price, from $29 a month, billed by the minute.
• Frontdesk, best for an AI receptionist bundled with a CRM, texting and chat, with property management and therapy integrations.
• Allo, best when you also need a business phone app and want the AI as an add-on.
• Ruby, best when you want real people answering, in English and Spanish.
• Retell AI, best for developers who want to build their own voice agent and pay per minute.

1. Goodcall, best flat-price AI receptionist for a small business

Goodcall describes itself as "an AI answering service and receptionist for your business." It answers calls around the clock, books appointments, captures leads and logs calls in your CRM. A builder agent called Gabi sets it up from plain-language instructions.

The billing model is the difference. Goodcall charges by unique customers a month, not by minute or call, and its pricing page says there are no per-minute or per-call charges.

Key features

• Local number, or forwarding from your existing one
• Google Calendar, HighLevel CRM and Zapier connections
• External tools through an API, an MCP server or a custom code block
• Unlimited agent-powered edits on all plans

Pricing

• Starter $79 a month for 100 unique customers, about 150 calls, then 79 cents per extra customer
• Growth $129 a month for 500 customers, about 750 calls, then 26 cents
• Scale $299 a month for 2,000 customers, about 3,000 calls, then 15 cents
• Enterprise is custom
• A free demo agent lets you build and test it. You pay when you connect a phone number

Pros

• A bill that does not rise with call length
• You can hear your own agent before paying

Cons

• Billing follows unique customers, not calls, so a month with many different callers costs more even when each call is short. Estimate unique callers before you pick a tier
• Goodcall lists SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance on its site. That is the vendor's own claim, so ask for the paperwork before you route patient calls

Source: goodcall.com/pricing, read Nov 6, 2026.

2. Smith.ai, best when you want AI answering with a human option from the same vendor

Smith.ai sells two separate products with separate price lists. One is professional call answering "by real people." The other is an AI receptionist. Both bill by the call.

Key features

• AI plans on all tiers cover 24/7 answering, recording, transcription, summaries, lead qualification, call routing and scheduling
• Calls from known spammers are filtered out before the AI answers and do not count toward your quota
• Up to 10% of calls per billing cycle can be removed from your bill for selected spam
• Human plans include lead screening and intake, a dedicated number or free porting, and no charge for spam calls

Pricing, AI receptionist

• Free: $0, 25 real calls a month, $3.00 for each extra call. It includes 25 test calls and 50 simulated calls a month
• Pro: from $150 a month for 75 calls ($2.00 a call), with 150 and 300 call tiers at lower rates
• Enterprise: from $500 a month for 300 calls ($1.67 a call)

Pricing, live agents

• Starter $300 a month for 30 calls, $11.50 per extra call
• Basic $810 for 90 calls, $10.50 per extra call
• Pro $2,100 for 300 calls, $8.50 per extra call
• 30-day money-back guarantee for new clients

Pros

• Free plan with test calls, so you can listen before real callers do
• A published per-call price on both products, which makes the AI-versus-human gap easy to see. At the entry tiers it is $2.00 a call for AI (Pro, 75 calls) against $10.00 for a human (Starter, 30 calls for $300)

Cons

• Human answering costs far more per call
• The page does not state a trial length for the AI plans beyond the free tier

Source: smith.ai/pricing and smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist, read Nov 6, 2026.

3. Dialzara, best low entry price for an AI receptionist billed by the minute

Dialzara publishes five tiers for inbound voice, billed monthly in US dollars, each with a 7-day free trial.

Key features

• Basic CRM sync through Zapier or Make on Lite. Google and Outlook calendar sync starts at Pro ($99)
• Advanced integrations and API access on Elite
• An AI SMS agent that syncs with CRM and Zapier
• A Done for You tier where Dialzara sets it up

Pricing

• Business Lite $29 a month for 60 minutes, $0.48 a minute after
• Business Pro $99 for 220 minutes, $0.45 after
• Business Plus $199 for 500 minutes, $0.40 after
• Business Elite $349 for 1,000 minutes, $0.35 after
• Done for You from $1,500 a month, quote only

Pros

• The cheapest paid starting point in this list
• Per-minute overage rates fall as you move up tiers

Cons

• Minute billing means long calls cost more than short ones
• The pricing page does not mention HIPAA. If you handle health data, ask Dialzara directly

Source: dialzara.com/pricing, read Nov 6, 2026.

4. Frontdesk, best for an AI receptionist bundled with a CRM, texting and chat

Frontdesk (listed as AI Front Desk in its legal footer, a Bevado company) calls itself "an AI-powered front office platform for small and medium businesses." It bundles a phone receptionist, web chatbot, SMS agent, CRM and calendar with shared memory across channels.

Key features

• Voice, web chat, two-way SMS and an AI-native CRM in one plan
• Integrations for property management (Yardi, RealPage, AppFolio, Entrata, Buildium), retail (Shopify, WooCommerce, Klaviyo) and therapy (SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, Jane App, CentralReach)
• Zapier and direct API connections
• States "HIPAA compliant" with signed BAAs, and offers deployment on your own infrastructure

Pricing

• Business-in-a-Box $99 a month, or $79 a month on annual billing ($948 a year)
• 200 voice minutes a month included
• Extra voice costs 25 credits a minute (1 credit is $0.01), drawn from a monthly pool of 1,000 credits. Auto-reload adds 1,000 credits for $10
• 7-day free trial
• Partner and Enterprise plans are custom

Pros

• One bill for phone, chat, SMS and CRM
• Integrations aimed at specific industries

Cons

• The credit system makes the real cost of a busy month harder to predict than a flat price
• The compliance wording is Frontdesk's own. The page names no certifications such as SOC 2

Source: myaifrontdesk.com and its pricing page, read Nov 6, 2026.

5. Allo, best when you also need a business phone app

Allo is a business phone system sold per seat. The AI receptionist is a separate add-on, not part of the seat price.

Key features

• AI receptionist add-on that answers every call, day and night, and several calls at once
• Books appointments, takes messages and sends an SMS follow-up
• Updates your CRM after every call
• Mobile, desktop and web apps with unlimited national calls on the seat plans

Pricing

• AI Receptionist add-on: the FAQ says $32 a month per agent, and says it costs the same as a Business seat. The pricing cards show euros, excluding VAT, and the currency changes by region. Expect roughly $32 to 35 and check Allo's page for your country
• Seat plans: Solo, Business and Ultra, priced per seat with yearly or monthly billing. We could not read the seat figures reliably, so check the page. On the day we read it, the Solo plan card read "Coming soon"
• HIPAA Business Associate Agreement add-on: $50 a month per workspace
• 3-day free trial, no setup fees and no contracts

Pros

• Fits a team that wants calls, texts and the AI receptionist in one system
• Offers a paid HIPAA BAA add-on for healthcare teams

Cons

• You pay for a seat and the add-on, so the real monthly figure is higher than the add-on price.
• The page does not say how many AI call minutes the add-on covers, so ask before you rely on it

Source: withallo.com/pricing, read Nov 6, 2026.

6. Ruby, best when you want real people answering, in English and Spanish

Ruby does not sell an autonomous AI receptionist, and it says so. Its site states that "Ruby uses live, human receptionists" and that "an AI virtual receptionist that independently picks up and conducts the call isn't how Ruby works." Its pricing page says optional AI enhancements, such as AI-powered transcripts and call flows, come at no extra cost.

Key features

• Live answering around the clock, including weekends and holidays
• English and Spanish, with bilingual call handling
• Lead intake, scheduling, payment collection, outbound call assistance and AI-powered transcripts
• Live chat plans as a separate product

Pricing

• Startups $250 a month for 50 minutes
• One-person businesses $395 for 100 minutes
• Small businesses $720 for 200 minutes
• Larger businesses $1,725 for 500 minutes
• Overage rates, contract terms and a trial are not listed on the pricing page

Pros

• A person handles the call, which suits sensitive or emotional conversations
• Ruby states 15,000+ businesses and an average answer time under 10 seconds. These are Ruby's figures

Cons

• Per minute, it costs more than the AI tools above
• No public overage price, so ask what happens when you go over

Source: ruby.com and ruby.com/pricing, read Nov 6, 2026.

7. Retell AI, best for developers who want to build their own voice agent

Retell AI is a platform for building voice agents, not a ready-made receptionist. You assemble the agent, connect your tools and pay per minute.

Key features

• Voice agents priced per minute, with the first 20 concurrent calls included
• Knowledge base, safety guardrails and PII removal as paid add-ons
• SMS at $0.01 a message
• Lists SOC 2 Type I and Type II and HIPAA and GDPR compliance in its pricing-page FAQ, and "HIPAA / BAA" under Enterprise. These are Retell's own claims

Pricing

• $0.07 to $0.31 a minute for AI voice agents. The calculator example totals $0.11 a minute, made of LLM $0.04, voice infrastructure $0.055 and text-to-speech $0.015
• Telephony is $0.015 a minute on the Twilio or Telnyx US rate. SIP trunking or custom telephony has no charge, and the calculator example shows $0.00 telephony
• $10 in free credits to start
• Each extra concurrent call is $8 a month
• You are billed for the full call, including silence and hold

Pros

• Full control of the call flow, and a price that scales with usage
• A free credit to test before you commit

Cons

• You build and maintain the agent yourself or hire someone to
• The final per-minute cost depends on model and add-on choices, so the range is wide

Source: retellai.com/pricing, read Nov 6, 2026.

How to choose the best AI receptionist

1) Does a person have to be able to pick up?

If callers are upset, the stakes are legal or medical, or the call is a sale worth thousands, plan for a human. Ruby and Smith.ai's live agents give you people. Smith.ai also sells the AI product from the same vendor, so you can start with AI and move high-value calls to a person. Our piece on human-in-the-loop automation covers where to put that handoff.

2) How do you want to be billed?

Per unique customer (Goodcall), per call (Smith.ai), per minute (Dialzara, Retell AI, Ruby) or per agent plus seat (Allo). Count last month's calls and average length before you compare. A 90-second appointment call and a 12-minute intake call cost very differently on a per-minute plan.

3) What does it have to plug into?

If you only need a calendar and a message, the packaged tools work. If bookings must land in your own CRM, practice system or property software, check the integration list by name. Frontdesk lists property and therapy systems. Others rely on Zapier.

4) Do you handle health or regulated data?

Four vendors here make HIPAA statements (Goodcall, Frontdesk, Retell AI, and Allo through a paid $50 a month BAA add-on). Each is the vendor's own claim on its site. Ask for a signed BAA before you route real patient calls, and test what the agent does when it does not know the answer. Our post on AI agent guardrails lists what to check.

5) Pilot with real calls

Run two weeks of real calls on a free or trial plan before you commit a year. Listen to a sample of recordings every day in week one.

When a packaged AI receptionist is the wrong call

Off-the-shelf tools handle most small-business phone work. They struggle when you need strict health data handling under your own contract, booking that writes into your CRM or scheduling system with your own rules, routing across many locations, or a voice that follows a script you control.

In those cases a custom voice agent can cost less over a year than a stack of workarounds. Read how that build works in our guide to AI voice agent development, and compare cost and timeline in AI chatbot development: build vs buy.

If that sounds like your situation, AY Automate builds custom voice agents connected to your CRM and scheduling tools. See AI agent development and AI customer support agent development, or book a consultation.

If you want a custom build instead of a packaged tool, compare AI voice agent development companies, or see how an AI customer support agent is built.

FAQ

What is the best AI receptionist for a small business?

For a small business with steady calls and no need for a person on the line, Goodcall is the best flat-price pick. It starts at $79 a month for 100 unique customers. Smith.ai fits better if you want a human option from the same vendor, and Dialzara has the lowest paid start at $29 a month.

How much does an AI receptionist cost?

From the vendor pages read on November 6, 2026, AI receptionists ran from $0 (Smith.ai Free, 25 calls) to $349 a month (Dialzara Elite, 1,000 minutes). Goodcall runs $79 to $299 a month. Retell AI charges $0.07 to $0.31 a minute. Live human answering costs more, from $250 a month at Ruby and $300 at Smith.ai.

Is there a free AI receptionist?

Smith.ai has a free AI plan with 25 real calls a month. Goodcall gives a free demo agent and charges when you connect a number. Dialzara and Frontdesk offer 7-day trials, Allo 3 days, and Retell AI gives $10 in free credits.

What is the difference between an AI receptionist and a virtual receptionist?

An AI receptionist is software that answers and talks to the caller. A virtual receptionist is usually a remote person who answers for your business. Ruby is people-only. Smith.ai sells both, on separate price lists.

Can an AI receptionist replace a human one?

For booking, routing, taking messages and answering common questions, often yes. For angry callers, legal or medical situations and high-value sales, keep a person available. Our explainer on AI receptionist voice agents covers where a live person still needs to pick up.

Is an AI receptionist HIPAA compliant?

It depends on the vendor and the contract. Goodcall, Frontdesk and Retell AI state HIPAA compliance on their sites, and Allo sells a BAA add-on at $50 a month per workspace. Dialzara's pricing page does not mention it. Ask for a signed BAA before any patient call goes through.

Should I build my own AI receptionist or buy one?

Buy if your needs are a calendar, messages and common questions. Build if you need your own CRM logic, multi-location routing or tighter data control. A platform such as Retell AI is a middle route if you have a developer, and a custom AI agent is the full route.

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Sources, all read November 6, 2026: Goodcall pricing, Smith.ai pricing, Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing, Dialzara pricing, Frontdesk, Allo pricing, Ruby pricing, Retell AI pricing. Prices change. Check each page before you buy.