Best AI Receptionist 2026: Ranked by Call Pattern, From Published Prices
Published · prices checked October 26, 2026
Key takeaways
- Ten ready-made AI receptionists cost $59.95 to $199 a month at 3 three-minute calls a day and $129 to $695.30 at 13 (prices checked October 26, 2026).
- The lowest bill moves with volume: Phonely's free plan under 1 call a day, Upfirst at 3, Goodcall from 13 to 25, NextPhone from about 770 calls a month.
- NextPhone is the only one whose bill stays put from 13 to 26 calls a day. Rosie is flat from 3 to 11 a day and costs less than NextPhone up to about 334 calls a month.
- Call length changes the bill only on per-minute plans. Upfirst, Smith.ai and Simple Phones bill per call, Goodcall per unique caller and NextPhone a flat fee.
- Every pick names the volume or the quoted term behind it. Answer quality is not tested here.
As of October 26, 2026, the best AI receptionist on price is Upfirst at 3 calls a day, Goodcall at 13 and NextPhone at 26, of ten in our table. At 3 three-minute calls a day Upfirst costs $59.95 a month; at 13, Goodcall costs $129. The ranking below adds the terms that move a real bill.
Ten AI receptionists ranked at 3, 5 and 13 calls a day
Prices checked against each vendor's own pricing page on October 26, 2026.
| Service | Entry plan | 3 calls/day (90/mo) | 5 calls/day (150/mo) | 13 calls/day (390/mo) | If calls double (13 to 26 a day) | Overage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | $79/month (100 unique callers) | $79 | $118.50 | $129 | +$72.80 | $0.15 to $0.79 a caller | goodcall.com/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| NextPhone | $199/month (unlimited calls) | $199 | $199 | $199 | No change | None, unlimited calls | getnextphone.com/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Upfirst | $24.95/month (30 calls) | $59.95 | $119.95 | $227.45 | +$197.55 | $0.70 to $1.50 a call | upfirst.ai/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Phonely | Free (100 minutes), then $50/month (200 minutes) | $67.50 to $74.50 | $112.50 to $137.50 | $292.50 to $389.50 | +$292.50 to $409.50 | $0.25 to $0.35 a minute | phonely.ai/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Rosie | $49/month (250 minutes) | $149 | $149 | $299 | Not computable | Moves up to the next plan | heyrosie.com/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| My AI Front Desk | $99/month (240 minutes: 200 voice plus a 1,000-credit pool worth 40) | $106.50 | $151.50 | $331.50 | +$292.50 | $0.25 a minute | myaifrontdesk.com/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Dialzara | $29/month (60 minutes) | $121.50 | $199 | $408.50 | +$409.50 | $0.35 to $0.48 a minute | dialzara.com/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| RingCentral AI Receptionist | From $49/month (100 minutes) | $134 | $224 | $584 | +$585 | $0.50 a minute | ringcentral.com/pricing/ai-receptionist.html, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Free (25 calls), then $150/month (75 calls) | $187.50 | $270 | $695.30 | +$692.70 | $2.10 to $3.00 a call | smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist, read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Simple Phones | From $97/month (100 calls) | $97 | Not computable from the published price | Not computable from the published price | Not computable | Not published | simplephones.ai/pricing, read Oct 26, 2026 |
Our arithmetic: each vendor's cheapest published plan for that volume plus its published overage, at 3-minute calls over 30 days. Goodcall bills per unique caller; we count every call as a new caller. Taxes, setup fees and add-ons are not included. How we price.
The order is cost at 13 calls a day. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist sits last there at $695.30. At 3 a day the highest bill is the flat $199 of NextPhone Pro. Simple Phones publishes no price past its 100-call entry tier, so its 5 and 13 a day cells are empty.
The ranking criteria
Seven published facts decide the order, all read from each vendor's own pricing page, terms or help center:
- Monthly cost at 3, 5 and 13 calls a day, from the cheapest plan that covers the volume.
- The change when calls double, from 13 to 26 a day: the "If calls double" column.
- Billing unit: minute, call, unique caller or a flat fee.
- Rounding: per second, per 30 seconds, or per started minute.
- What happens past the allowance: a rate, a plan upgrade or voicemail.
- Contract and notice to cancel.
- Documented integrations, from our integration matrix.
A low price on one line does not earn a pick by itself. It has to hold at the volume named in the pick.
The terms behind each bill
| Service | Billing unit | Rounding | If calls double (13 to 26 a day) | Contract | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | Per unique caller a month | No minute or call meter | +$72.80 | Month-to-month | No trial; a free demo agent without a phone number |
| NextPhone | Flat monthly subscription with unlimited calls | No per-minute or per-call charge | No change | Month-to-month; no notice period or cancellation fee | 7 days free |
| Upfirst | Per call | Per call; calls under 15 seconds not billed | +$197.55 | Month-to-month or annual; no notice period | 14 days free, no card |
| Phonely | Per minute, in a monthly minute bundle | Not published | +$292.50 to $409.50 | Not published | No trial; a free plan of 100 minutes |
| Rosie | Per minute, in monthly minute bundles | 60 seconds, rounded up per call | Not computable | 30-day subscription that renews automatically | 7 days free |
| My AI Front Desk | Per minute, in a monthly minute bundle | Not published | +$292.50 | Month-to-month, or yearly at a discount | 7 days free, no card; usage fees still apply |
| Dialzara | Per minute, in monthly minute bundles | Per second, no rounding up | +$409.50 | Month-to-month | 7 days free |
| RingCentral AI Receptionist | Per minute, in a monthly minute bundle | 30 seconds, rounded up | +$585 | Not published | 14 days free |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Per answered call | Per call; duration does not change the base call charge | +$692.70 | Month-to-month; 30 days notice to cancel | Permanent free plan for 25 calls, not a trial |
| Simple Phones | Per call, in a monthly call bundle | Per call; duration not billed | Not computable | No commitment; numbers released on cancelling or going over the tier | 14 days free |
Billing terms from each vendor's pricing page, terms or help center; read dates are in the Sources list below.
One row shows "no change" when calls double: NextPhone, because nothing is metered. Rosie's cell is empty: 26 three-minute calls a day are 2,340 minutes, past the 2,000 of Growth, its largest published plan. Smith.ai and RingCentral add the most for the extra calls.
The best AI receptionist for each call pattern
Best for a quiet line, under 1 call a day: Phonely
Phonely is free for 100 minutes, enough for 30 three-minute calls a month. At that volume no other row costs nothing; Smith.ai's free 25-call plan plus overage comes to $15.
Watch for: the free plan has no overage rate; going past it means an upgrade. The paid Starter plan is $50/month for 200 minutes.
Best at 3 calls a day, long calls included: Upfirst
Upfirst bills per call, so a nine-minute call costs what a one-minute call does. Its Premium plan is $59.95/month for 90 calls, the lowest bill in the table at 3 calls a day. Phonely comes next at $67.50 to $74.50.
Watch for: each call past the allowance is billed at $1.00 a call on Premium. At 13 calls a day Upfirst comes to $227.45, above Goodcall and NextPhone.
Best for a steady 3 to 11 calls a day: Rosie
Rosie's Scale plan, $149/month for 1,000 minutes, covers every volume from 3 to 11 three-minute calls a day. NextPhone is the only other row with one price across that band, and it costs $199. At 13 a day Rosie has already moved to Growth, $299.
Watch for: Rosie rounds each call up to a full minute. Outgrow Scale and the account moves up a plan for "at least the subsequent two consecutive billing periods" (heyrosie.com/legal/terms, read October 27, 2026).
Best for 13 to 25 calls a day: Goodcall
Goodcall costs $129 at 13 calls a day and $194 at 25, the lowest in the table at both. Its Growth plan is $129/month for 500 unique callers, and a caller who rings twice counts once.
Watch for: past 500 callers each one adds $0.26 a caller. Goodcall offers no trial, only a demo agent without a phone number.
Best at 26 or more calls a day, or for a swinging volume: NextPhone
NextPhone Pro does not meter calls, so its bill is $199 at 26 calls a day, the lowest in the table there, just under Goodcall's $201.80. Every other row priced at both 13 and 26 a day costs more at 26.
Watch for: at 3 calls a day the same flat fee is the highest bill in the table. Pro is self-built; NextPhone's own team builds the agent on Growth, $299/month for unlimited calls.
Best if most calls are short: Dialzara
Dialzara meters by the second: "partial minutes are not rounded up" (dialzara.com/pricing, read October 27, 2026). A 40-second call uses 40 seconds of its bundle, against a full minute at Rosie and a minute at RingCentral's 30-second steps.
Watch for: when the bundle runs out, calls go to voicemail unless auto-recharge is on, per the same FAQ. At 13 three-minute calls a day it costs $408.50.
Which ones write to your CRM and calendar
The matrix records what each vendor documents; no cell here comes from a test account. Built-in HubSpot cells belong to NextPhone, Smith.ai, Rosie and My AI Front Desk. Google Calendar is built in at NextPhone, Rosie, Dialzara, My AI Front Desk, Upfirst and Phonely.
Smith.ai's pages tie its Google Calendar, Jobber and ServiceTitan connections to its live receptionists, not the AI Receptionist. Goodcall documents Zapier connections only, for 10 of the 11 tools. RingCentral AI Receptionist and Simple Phones document none of the 11 tools. Tool by tool: which receptionists write to Clio, HubSpot, Jobber and more.
Not ranked here
Slang.ai serves restaurants only and prices from $399/month per location (allowance not published).
Build-your-own voice platforms are parts, not receptionists. Bland is pay as you go at $0.14 a minute, and Retell AI pay as you go at $0.07 to $0.31 a minute. Vapi is pay as you go: $0.05/min hosting, plus each speech, model, voice and phone provider billed per minute, and Synthflow is quote only. Each leaves the phone line and the build to you: build your own AI receptionist.
For a business choosing by size rather than call pattern, see the best AI receptionist for small business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI receptionist?
On published prices, Upfirst at 3 three-minute calls a day ($59.95) and Goodcall at 13 ($129). At 26 calls a day, NextPhone's flat $199 is the lowest.
Which AI receptionist is best for long calls?
One that does not bill minutes. Upfirst and Smith.ai bill per call, Goodcall per unique caller and NextPhone a flat fee. On per-minute plans like Dialzara and RingCentral, a 6-minute call uses twice the minutes of a 3-minute one.
Which AI receptionist has no contract?
None of those that publish a term asks for one: 8 of 8 sell month-to-month (vendor terms, read October 5 to 27, 2026). Smith.ai still asks for 30 days' notice to cancel.
How much does the best AI receptionist cost?
At 13 three-minute calls a day, ready-made AI receptionists with published prices cost $129 to $695.30 a month. The median is $299.
Is a free AI receptionist any good for a business line?
For under 1 call a day, yes on cost: Phonely is free for 100 minutes, and Smith.ai is free for 25 calls. Past those allowances both move to paid plans; every free plan and trial is on free AI receptionists.
How these numbers were made
Every vendor price on this page was read from the vendor's own pricing page on the date in its Source cell and saved as a dated capture. Monthly costs use each vendor's cheapest published plan for the volume plus its published overage, at 3-minute calls. Vendors that hide prices stay in the tables as quote only. We do not test answering quality and publish no ratings.
Sources
Vendor pricing and terms pages, from the price index
- Bland: bland.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Dialzara: dialzara.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026); dialzara.com/terms-of-use (read October 27, 2026)
- Goodcall: goodcall.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026); help.goodcall.com/en/articles/8007566-terms-of-service (read October 27, 2026)
- My AI Front Desk: myaifrontdesk.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026); myaifrontdesk.com/terms-of-service (read October 27, 2026)
- NextPhone: getnextphone.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Phonely: phonely.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Retell AI: retellai.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- RingCentral AI Receptionist: ringcentral.com/pricing/ai-receptionist.html (read October 26, 2026)
- Rosie: heyrosie.com/pricing (read October 26, 2026); heyrosie.com/legal/terms (read October 27, 2026)
- Simple Phones: simplephones.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Slang.ai: slang.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist (read October 26, 2026)
- Synthflow: synthflow.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
- Upfirst: upfirst.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026); upfirst.ai/terms-of-service (read October 27, 2026)
- Vapi: vapi.ai/pricing (read October 26, 2026)
Other pages quoted
- Rosie terms: heyrosie.com/legal/terms, read October 27, 2026.
- Dialzara pricing FAQ: dialzara.com/pricing, read October 27, 2026.
Changes to these prices
- Upfirst: cancellation notice recorded as none. Its pricing FAQ says "You can cancel, upgrade, or downgrade anytime, no questions asked," the same strength as other cancel-anytime terms. Its setup-fee summary now reads "None stated": no page says there is no fee. No price changed.
- Retell AI: corrected the transfer term. Its pricing page says "Once the call is transferred, the AI voice agent fee stops. Only the telephony fee continues for the remainder of the transferred call." The index had said the whole call was billed after a transfer. No price changed.
- My AI Front Desk: the 1,000 monthly overage credits its pricing page lists as included ("Extra credits you get each month in case you go over your included usage") now count as 40 included minutes, so Business-in-a-Box covers 240 minutes before the $0.25 rate applies (was 200).
- Phonely: its Professional plan card says 650 minutes and its comparison table 750; the card is used. When two plans tie on their lowest cost, the one with the narrower range is chosen, so Phonely at 300 calls a month prices on Professional alone.
- My AI Front Desk: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Simple Phones: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Phonely: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- RingCentral AI Receptionist: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Slang.ai: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Vapi: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Retell AI: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Bland: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Synthflow: billing-term summaries (billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam, setup fee, contract, trial) added from the vendor-data billing-terms and contracts files and their captures. No price changed.
- Rosie added from its own pricing page (captured October 26, 2026), with billing terms from its terms, FAQ and help pages (read October 27, 2026). Rosie moves an account up a plan instead of charging overage.
- Goodcall added from its own pricing page (captured October 26, 2026), with billing terms from its terms, FAQ and help pages (read October 27, 2026). Goodcall bills per unique caller a month; our arithmetic counts every call as a different caller.
- Dialzara added from its own pricing page (captured October 26, 2026), with billing terms from its terms, FAQ and help pages (read October 27, 2026).
- Upfirst added from its own pricing page (captured October 26, 2026), with billing terms from its terms, FAQ and help pages (read October 27, 2026). Upfirst does not bill calls under 15 seconds or spam.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist Enterprise at 500 calls ($800, $2.10 per extra call) added from its pricing page, in a full re-check of every source page.
- Added NextPhone Pro, Growth and Scale from its public pricing page. All three plans include unlimited calls with no per-minute charge or overage fee.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: billing terms added.
- My AI Front Desk: overage of $0.25 a minute (25 credits at $0.01) added; it was on the captured page but missing here.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: billing terms added from its terms, FAQ and help pages (read October 7, 2026): billing unit, rounding, time billed beyond the call, spam billing, setup fee, contract and trial.
Download the data
The first table on this page (CSV, 10 rows). The full price index (CSV), free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
How to cite this page
ReceptionistPrices.com, Best AI Receptionist 2026: Ranked by Call Pattern, From Published Prices, prices checked October 26, 2026, https://www.receptionistprices.com/best-ai-receptionist/