Answer in brief · 10 November 2026

AI phone answering services, side by side

Compare managed answering services before developer APIs. Goodcall charges $79 a month for 100 distinct callers, while Smith.ai lists $150 for 75 calls on Pro and a free 25-call tier. Those billing units are different: the same person calling repeatedly counts once at Goodcall, while call-based plans count each answered call.

6 answering services compared
19 dated sources
Checked 10 November 2026

Rosie $49/mo, 250 minSlang.ai From $399 per location

Published plan base ($/mo): one mark per company that publishes a figure, 6 of 6. The ringed mark is our pick, Goodcall.

The call

Runner-up

Smith.ai when human escalation matters more than the lowest bill. Pro is $150 for 75 calls; its published FAQ describes North America-based receptionist backup.

What buyers get wrong

Treating dollars per call, per minute and per unique caller as the same price. Calculate the bill using your actual call pattern.

Answering services, side by side

6 of 6

Name and our take	Published rate per minute $/min	What the rate covers	Published plan base $/mo	Concurrent calls, entry calls	Billing increment	Vendor-stated latency	Carrier / SIP options	Published certifications
RosieAI receptionist Lowest small-business entry at $49 for 250 minutes. But booking and transfers start at $149, and going over moves you up a plan instead of billing overage. Visit Rosie →	No overage rate; auto-upgrade15	250 min plan; English and Spanish on every call14	$49/mo, 250 min14	—	Rounded up to the next full minute15	—	—	—
PhonelyAI receptionist Cheapest annual entry at $33/month, with unlimited concurrent calls. But its page lists 200 minutes on the plan card and 250 in the table. Visit Phonely →	$0.25 overage (Starter, monthly)17	Plan minutes; Enterprise from $0.05/min17	$50/mo ($33 billed annually)17	Unlimited17	—	—	3 free numbers on Starter; SIP trunking on Enterprise17	SOC 2, GDPR; HIPAA BAA on Enterprise17
GoodcallAI receptionist Best billing unit for small businesses: $79/month for 100 unique callers, and minutes are never metered. Repeat callers in a month count once. Visit Goodcall →	Per unique caller, not per minute13	Unlimited minutes for 100 unique callers13	$79/mo13	—	—	—	Local number included, or forward your own13	—
My AI Front DeskAI receptionist suite Voice plus chat, SMS and a CRM for $99/month ($79 annual). But voice is only 200 minutes, then 25 credits ($0.25) a minute. Visit My AI Front Desk →	$0.25 overage (25 credits)16	200 voice min, 100 chats, 400 SMS per month16	$99/mo ($79 billed annually)16	—	—	—	—	—
Smith.ai AI ReceptionistAI receptionist + live humans Includes live North America receptionist backup. You pay for it: $2.00 a call on Pro, and $3.00 per call past the Free tier's 25. Visit Smith.ai AI Receptionist →	Per call: $2.00 (Pro)12	AI answering with live-agent escalation12	$150/mo Pro; free tier: 25 calls12	—	—	—	—	—
Slang.aiRestaurant phone agent Built for restaurants only, booking through OpenTable, SevenRooms, Yelp and Resy. At $399 per location it costs 8x Rosie's entry plan for a single venue. Visit Slang.ai →	Per location, quote-based19	Reservations, VIP routing, CSAT per call19	From $399 per location19	—	—	—	—	—

Published rate per minute: Lowest self-serve list rate per agent minute. For receptionist plans, the overage rate. Blank means no per-minute price is published. What the rate covers: Which layers (orchestration, STT, LLM, TTS, telephony) the per-minute rate includes, per the vendor. Published plan base: The named plan's monthly base, with free tiers and usage charges stated separately. This is not a total-cost ranking. Concurrent calls, entry: Simultaneous calls included on the cheapest plan, as published. Billing increment: How call time is rounded, where the vendor states it. Vendor-stated latency: Latency figure the vendor publishes. These are vendor claims, not our measurements. Carrier / SIP options: Whether you can bring your own carrier or SIP trunk, and what the vendor charges for it. Published certifications: Certifications and BAA terms as the vendor lists them, including which plan they apply to.

A dash means the company publishes no figure. The small number beside a value opens the source we read it from. We did not test these products.

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How to read the table

The monthly column shows the named published plan, not a guaranteed total bill or the cheapest possible free tier.

The per-minute column may instead describe per-call or per-customer billing. Compare the unit before comparing the number.

These are managed answering products. Developer voice runtimes have a separate comparison on the voice-platform sites.

Use this data

Cite this index

AI Phone Answering Services. “AI phone answering services, side by side.” Superprompt, 10 November 2026. https://aiphoneansweringservices.com/

The full table is published as data.json and data.csv, every value with its source. AI agents and researchers may quote it with attribution.