How much does an
answering service cost?
A live answering service in the United States costs about $99 to $300 a month for the smallest plan, going by seven services that publish prices, checked in September 2026. Most bill by the minute: small plans include 50 to 100 minutes, and extra minutes run from $1.44 to $2.99. Smith.ai’s human receptionists bill by the call instead, $300 for 30 calls and $11.50 for each call after. Several large services, including AnswerConnect and Nexa, do not publish prices at all. An AI answering service costs far less per minute: Voxgard includes 300 minutes for $249, then charges $0.55 a minute. The trade-off is that a live operator is a person; an AI receptionist answers every call at once, in many languages, but only as well as it has been set up.
Updated 25 September 2026Live answering service prices
Smallest plans as each service publishes them, read from their own pricing pages on 25 September 2026.
| Service | Billed by | Entry plan |
|---|---|---|
| Abby Connect | Minute | $165/month for 50 minutes |
| AnswerFirst | Minute | $30/month base plus $1.60 to $1.95 a minute |
| Moneypenny (formerly VoiceNation) | Minute | $165/month for 50 minutes, then $2.28/min |
| PATLive | Minute | $99/month for 50 minutes, then $2.29/min |
| Ruby | Minute | $250/month for 50 minutes |
| Smith.ai human receptionists | Call | $300/month for 30 calls, then $11.50/call |
| Specialty Answering Service | Minute | $159/month for 100 minutes, then $1.44/min |
Not in the table: AnswerConnect (its pricing page is a contact form), Nexa (plans listed without prices; a setup fee exists but the amount is not shown) and MAP Communications (its pricing page would not load for us). VoiceNation’s site now redirects to Moneypenny.
Per minute or per call
A per-minute service counts talk time, and some, like AnswerConnect, count the time spent on the call afterwards too. A per-call service charges the same for a 40-second message as for a ten-minute intake. PATLive says its 50-minute plan is about 20 calls, which works out to roughly two and a half minutes a call.
Spanish is included at no extra charge at PATLive and Abby Connect, listed without a separate price at Ruby and Moneypenny, and $1.00 more per call at Smith.ai.
The same month, live and AI
PATLive publishes a full price ladder, so it makes a clean comparison. Each column takes the cheapest published plan for that many minutes.
| A month of | PATLive (live) | Voxgard (AI) |
|---|---|---|
| 100 minutes | $189 | $249 |
| 300 minutes | $479 | $249 |
| 600 minutes | $938 | $414 |
| 1,000 minutes | $1,499 | $549 |
The gap widens with volume because live minutes cost people’s time and AI minutes do not. The AI price does not buy a human on the line.
When a live service is worth it
- Callers who are upset, grieving or in a crisis and need a person, not a script.
- Intake that needs judgment the business cannot write down in advance.
- A caller base that expects a human and hangs up on anything else.
Our reading: most small businesses get the calls they lose at night, at lunch and when two phones ring at once. That is where an AI receptionist costs least against a live service. A mix works too: AI first, and a hand-off to a person when the caller asks.
Sources
- Abby Connect pricing
- AnswerFirst pricing
- Moneypenny (formerly VoiceNation) pricing
- PATLive pricing
- Ruby pricing
- Smith.ai human receptionists pricing
- Specialty Answering Service pricing
- AnswerConnect pricing page
- Nexa pricing
- Voxgard pricing
Written by Voxgard, which makes an AI receptionist. The figures describe the market, not Voxgard’s results. Found an error? info@voxgard.com
Questions.
The smallest published plans run from $99 (PATLive, 50 minutes) to $300 (Smith.ai, 30 calls). AnswerFirst starts at $30 a month plus $1.60 to $1.95 a minute.
Overage rates in the price lists we checked run from $1.44 to $2.99 a minute. Larger plans lower the rate.
Per minute, yes. Voxgard includes 300 minutes for $249, then $0.55 a minute. At 300 minutes a month PATLive’s cheapest published plan costs $479.
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