Pricing at a glance (October 2026)
The question behind every search on this topic is what an AI receptionist actually costs. Here's the short answer for all eight, verified on each vendor's site the week of October 28, 2026:
| Platform | Entry price | Model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fusion Calling | $149/mo (500 min) | Flat monthly | Flat-rate answering + agency resale |
| Goodcall | $79/mo | Subscription (per customer helped) | Simple no-code setup for one location |
| Smith.ai | $300/mo (30 calls) | Per-call + humans | Law firms and professional intake |
| Ruby | $250/mo (50 min) | Human + AI tools | Live-human coverage with AI assists |
| Retell AI | ~$0.07–$0.31/min | Usage-based | Teams wanting a documented engine |
| Vapi | $0.05/min + provider costs | Usage-based | Engineering teams building their own stack |
| Bland AI | $0.14/min | Usage-based | High-volume outbound infrastructure |
| Slang.ai | $399/mo per location | Subscription | Restaurants |
Two pricing models exist in this market: flat monthly plans with included minutes (budget them like a utility) and usage-based engines (cheap at low volume, scaling with every second of talk time). Estimate your busiest month's minutes before picking a side — the overage math is where plans that looked cheap stop being cheap.
1. Fusion Calling — best for flat-rate answering and agency resale
$149/mo with 500 included minutes, scaling to $497/mo for 2,100 minutes. $0 setup, no contract. As of October 2026.
Fusion Calling answers every call in two rings, books into your calendar, takes messages, warm-transfers urgent calls, and sends SMS confirmations — with unlimited simultaneous calls, so peak hours don't queue. Every call comes back transcribed, and agents run on Vapi, Retell, or ElevenLabs under one dashboard.
Limits: it's AI-only — there is no live-human tier, so calls needing human judgment still warm-transfer to your team. The entry plan's 500 minutes covers most single locations, but a high-volume multi-location business should start at the 2,100-minute tier.
The differentiator: agencies can white-label the entire platform with 6 client sub-accounts from $99/mo and Stripe rebilling — the same service becomes your own product.
2. Goodcall — best for simple no-code setup
Plans start at $79/mo, priced by the customers your agent helps each month, with no per-minute charges. As of October 2026.
Goodcall (founded inside Google in 2017) targets non-technical owners: describe your business in plain language and its assistant writes the greeting, questions, and workflows. It books into calendars, captures and qualifies leads, syncs with CRMs, and handles e-commerce checks like order status. SOC 2 and HIPAA compliant.
Limits: one business per account — there are no client sub-accounts or white-label resale mechanics, so agencies should look elsewhere. Very high call volumes should confirm what "per customer helped" translates to at their scale before committing.
3. Smith.ai — best for law firms and human-handled intake
Starter plan $300/mo for 30 calls, $11.50/call overage; larger plans scale to $2,100/mo for 300 calls. As of October 2026.
Smith.ai is a hybrid service: live US-based receptionists handle calls where empathy and judgment matter, with AI assisting. Its intake playbooks for law firms and professional services are the most mature in this list, and it screens leads before they reach your calendar.
Limits: per-call pricing punishes busy periods — a busy month of 60 calls on Starter costs more than double the plan. Surges queue behind staffing rather than getting answered in parallel, and callers at 2am are answered by whoever is on shift, not instantly.
4. Ruby — best for live-human coverage with AI assists
From $250/mo for 50 minutes, up to $1,725/mo for 500 minutes. No setup fees. As of October 2026.
Ruby is the human benchmark on this list rather than a pure AI receptionist: 24/7 live answering by US-based receptionists, with AI-powered transcripts, sentiment analysis, and AI-assisted call flows included at no extra cost. Bilingual Spanish handling and HIPAA-compliant options are available.
Limits: it's priced per minute and per human coverage, so it costs 5–10x the AI-native options at the same volume — $1,725/mo for 500 minutes vs $149–$497/mo flat for the same minutes on Fusion Calling. Choose Ruby when every call genuinely needs a human voice.
5. Retell AI — best documented usage-based engine
$0.07–$0.31/min all-in depending on LLM and voice, $10 free credit, phone numbers $2/mo. As of October 2026.
Retell is a voice engine platform: build agents from components (LLM, voice, telephony) with strong call-center tooling and clear documentation. A typical configuration runs around $0.11/min all-in, and 20 concurrent calls are included free.
Limits: there's no finished product for a non-technical owner — white-label branding, client sub-accounts, and billing are all self-built. Costs scale with every minute, so a busy month can surprise you.
6. Vapi — best for engineering teams building their own stack
$0.05/min platform fee plus provider costs passed through at cost; $5 free credit. Roughly $82–$129/mo total at 1,000 minutes. As of October 2026.
Vapi is a developer platform: bring your own models across transcription, LLM, and voice, with a transparent hosting fee and no markup on providers. Unlimited agents are included, and Vapi's own example puts 1,000 minutes at roughly $82–$129/month all-in.
Limits: this is infrastructure, not a product — expect to build dashboards, branding, and client billing yourself. HIPAA compliance is a $2,000/mo add-on, and the optional Core success package adds $29/mo.
7. Bland AI — best for high-volume outbound infrastructure
Start: $0.14/min all-inclusive, no platform fee. Build: $0.12/min plus a $299/mo platform fee. As of October 2026.
Bland is API-first calling infrastructure: rates cover LLM, STT, and TTS with no separate component pricing, and it scales to high-volume outbound campaigns. The Start tier includes 10 concurrent calls and 100 calls/day with no card required.
Limits: outbound-first DNA — businesses needing a polished inbound receptionist experience will build more than they configure. The Build tier's $299/mo platform fee only pays off at serious volume, and agency branding and billing are self-built.
8. Slang.ai — best for restaurants
Core from $399/mo per location, Premium from $599/mo; enterprise quote-based. As of October 2026.
Slang.ai (now styled Slang) is purpose-built for restaurant phone lines: it answers questions about hours and menus, handles reservations and takeout orders, and recovers missed calls during service rush. Restaurant-specific tuning is its whole product.
Limits: restaurants only — the playbooks and integrations don't generalize to service businesses, and the entry price is the highest on this list. General small businesses should start with the flat-rate options above.
How to choose
Three questions sort this list quickly:
- Do you want humans available? Yes → Smith.ai or Ruby. No → an AI-native platform, which is 5–10x cheaper at the same volume.
- Flat rate or per-minute? Predictable budget → flat plans with included minutes (Fusion Calling, Goodcall). Low volume or engineering control → usage engines (Retell, Vapi, Bland).
- Buying for yourself or reselling? Reselling → you need sub-accounts, white-label branding, and rebilling, which only Fusion Calling bundles at $99/mo on this list.
Before signing anything, test honestly: call the vendor's demo with your own scenarios, interrupt it mid-sentence, ask something not in its knowledge base, and check what happens when you say "let me talk to a person." Then verify the overage rate and estimate your busiest month's minutes — not your average one. Our AI receptionist pricing benchmark covers 21 platforms side by side if the eight here aren't enough.
