How much does an AI receptionist cost in 2026?
AI receptionist prices run from free self-serve tiers to per-minute developer platforms and human answering services billed by the minute or the call. What you pay turns on how minutes are counted, the price of an extra minute, and who sets the agent up. Here is how each model works, what to compare, and what we charge.
In this article
Shop for an AI receptionist and you run into the same problem in the first hour: every pricing page counts differently. Some charge by the minute, some by the call, some by the "interaction", and some will not say a number until you get on a sales call. It is hard to tell whether two prices are for the same thing.
This post sorts the market into the four ways these products are priced, lists what actually moves the number, and shows what we charge for Forge Voice, with the fine print in plain sight. For one month of calls priced from each company's own page, ours included, see our price comparison.
Four ways AI receptionists are priced
Most products fall into one of four pricing models. They are not better or worse versions of one thing. They are built for different buyers.
1. Self-serve plans
You sign up online, answer a few setup questions and point your number at the agent. Plans are monthly, often with a small allowance of calls or minutes, and some start free.
Good fit: a solo operator with a light call load who wants something better than voicemail and is happy to set it up alone.
Watch for: the allowance and the price of going over it. A low monthly price with a small cap can cost several times the headline in a busy month.
2. Done-for-you plans
A monthly plan with a larger block of minutes, where the vendor's team writes the script with you, tests it and adjusts it after launch. Forge Voice is in this group.
Good fit: a business that lives on the phone, like a trade or a salon, and would rather not tune an agent itself.
Watch for: what setup includes, how long tuning lasts, and whether integrations cost extra.
3. Human answering services
People answer your line from a script you approve. They are usually billed by the minute or by the call, on top of a monthly base.
Good fit: calls that need human judgment every time, like emotionally heavy or high-stakes intake.
Watch for: how minutes are counted and rounded, and what happens when your call volume spikes.
4. Developer platforms
Toolkits for engineers to build their own voice agents. You pay per minute of voice, per minute of phone time and for the AI model underneath, then build and maintain the agent yourself.
Good fit: a company with its own engineers building a voice feature into a product.
Watch for: the stack of separate meters, plus the engineering time to build and keep it working. Cheap on paper is not the same as cheap.
What moves the price
When two quotes are far apart, one of these is usually the reason.
- Minutes included, and how they are counted. Ask whether a call is billed to the second, rounded up to the next 30 seconds, or rounded up to the next full minute. On hundreds of short calls, rounding adds up.
- The price of an extra minute. A plan is only cheap if your busiest month fits inside it.
- Languages. Check which languages are included and whether the agent switches on its own when a caller speaks one.
- Integrations. Some vendors include calendar or CRM connections, some charge for them, and some do not offer the one you use. Ask about your exact tools.
- Setup and tuning. A bot you configure alone and an agent a team writes and adjusts with you are different products at different prices.
- Support. Find out who you reach when the agent handles a call badly, and how fast.
What Forge Voice costs
We publish every price on our pricing page. The three plans differ only in minutes:
| Plan | Monthly price | Minutes included | Each extra minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $297 | 500 | $0.25 |
| Pro | $497 | 1,000 | $0.25 |
| Scale | $897 | 2,500 | $0.20 |
Every plan answers 24/7, records every call, and comes with a script our team writes with you and tunes for your first 30 days. No setup fee. No per-caller or per-transfer fees. You pay your plan price plus any minutes past your plan.
Each call counts as at least 1 minute. We round each call up to the next full minute. Unused minutes do not carry over to the next month.
Every plan starts with a free trial. Your first 7 days are free and include up to 100 minutes of answered calls. You add a card to start, and we do not charge it during the trial. If you do not cancel, we charge your plan's monthly price when the trial ends, then on that date each month. Cancel before the trial ends and you pay nothing. The pricing page shows the full terms next to each plan.
How to estimate the minutes you need
Take the number of calls you would send to the agent in a month and multiply by how long a typical call runs. Then allow for rounding.
Your phone carrier's call log shows your real numbers. Count the calls you miss, not just the ones you answer, because those are the calls the agent would take first.
Questions to ask any vendor
Take this list into any sales call. A vendor that cannot answer these plainly has answered them anyway.
- What will I pay for my call volume? Ask for a number with overage included, not just the headline price.
- How are minutes counted? To the second, to the half minute or to the full minute, and whether short calls have a minimum.
- What is included and what is extra? Calendar, CRM, texts, transcripts and extra languages. Map each to a line item.
- Who writes and tunes the agent, and for how long? A tool you set up alone is a different purchase from a service.
- What happens when the agent cannot help a caller? Taking a message, forwarding to your cell and a live transfer should all be possible.
- Where do recordings and transcripts go? Who can see them, how long they are kept, and whether they are used to train anything.
- How do I cancel? Online, by email, or only by phone, and what happens to the current month.
The short version
Compare plans on minutes, rounding and the price of an extra minute, not on the headline. Then weigh what a missed call costs your business against the difference between two plans. If you want to put your own numbers in, our missed-calls calculator does the arithmetic in your browser.
If you would rather hear the product than read about it, call the agent that answers our own line. It will tell you what a plan costs for a shop your size.