How much does an answering service cost?
Prices from Ruby, Smith.ai, Abby Connect and others, read on their own pricing pages, plus the part that moves your bill most: whether you pay by the minute, by the call or in the service's own units, and what counts.
In this article
A human answering service's cheapest published plan runs from about $44 to $300 a month, on the pricing pages we read, and the low end includes few or no minutes. Specialty Answering Service lists $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute, and PATLive lists $49 a month with no minutes included, then $2.99 a minute. Plans with about 50 minutes or 30 calls included run $99 at PATLive, $165 at Abby Connect, $250 at Ruby and $300 for 30 calls at Smith.ai. What you actually pay turns on how each one counts.
Most "answering service cost" guides give a range and stop there. The ranges rarely link to a vendor's own pricing page, so you cannot tell what is current. Below, every price comes from the company's own page, linked, with the date we read it. Then we explain the part that moves your bill more than the headline: whether you are billed by the minute, by the call or in the service's own units, and what counts.
What answering services charge, from their own pages
| Service | How it bills | Listed plans |
|---|---|---|
| Specialty Answering Service | By the second | Economy: $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute. 100 minutes: $159 a month. Larger plans are listed on its page. |
| PATLive | By minute | Pay as you go: $49 a month with no minutes included, then $2.99 a minute. 50 minutes: $99 a month. Larger plans are listed on its page. |
| Ruby | By receptionist minute | $250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500. |
| Smith.ai receptionists | By the call | Plans answered by people: $300 a month for 30 calls, $810 for 90 calls, $2,100 for 300 calls. |
| Abby Connect | By "Abby Minute" | $165 a month for 50 Abby Minutes, $329 for 100, $599 for 200, $1,380 for 500. No setup fee. |
| AnswerConnect | Quote only | Its plans and pricing page asks for your name, company email and phone number before it shows plans. |
| Nexa | By minute | Plans are listed as 100, 300 and 500 voice minutes, with no prices on the page. Minutes past your plan are charged at your base rate. |
Sources: each company's own pricing page, linked in the table. AnswerConnect and Nexa checked September 26, 2026. Prices change, so check theirs before you decide. For one fixed month priced across these and the AI products, ours included, see our price comparison.
How do answering services bill?
Three companies with similar prices can send very different bills for the same month, because they count different things.
By the minute
Ruby sells blocks of receptionist minutes. In its words, "The only difference between our plans? The number of receptionist minutes." You pick a block, and your month is the minutes its people spend on your calls. The page lists no rate for minutes past a plan and no plan above 500 minutes. For larger plans it says to talk to Ruby.
Watch for: how a partial minute is counted. Ruby's pricing page does not say whether a 70-second call counts as one minute, two, or 70 seconds. Specialty Answering Service's page answers it plainly: "You are billed by the second." On a few hundred short calls a month that difference adds up, so ask before you sign.
By the call
Smith.ai's receptionist plans count calls, not minutes: 30, 90 or 300 calls a month. Its plans list a price for each call past the plan: $11.50 on the 30-call plan, $10.50 on the 90-call plan and $8.50 on the 300-call plan. Its page says spam and sales calls are not charged, as long as the calls you forward pass caller ID.
Watch for: extras priced per call. Smith.ai lists add-ons such as booking an appointment at $1.50 a call. Per-call pricing also suits long calls and punishes short ones: a 40-second "are you open Saturday?" costs the same as a ten-minute intake.
Source: Smith.ai receptionist pricing, checked October 13, 2026.
In the service's own units
Abby Connect counts "Abby Minutes": a minute answered by a person uses one, and a minute answered by its AI uses half of one. Overage is billed at your plan's Abby Minute rate. So the same plan stretches further when more calls go to its AI, and less when people answer.
By quote
AnswerConnect's plans and pricing page asks for your name, company email and phone number before it shows plans. That is not a bad sign on its own, but it means you cannot compare until you have talked to sales.
Do answering services charge more after hours?
Of the pricing pages we read, these say in so many words that they do not:
- Smith.ai: "Calls at 2 pm and 2 am cost the same."
- PATLive: "No night or weekend fees."
- Ruby: "There are no additional or hidden fees for activation, onboarding, setup, customization, or coverage during certain periods."
- Abby Connect: its page lets you choose your answering hours "with no weekend upcharge."
We have not read every service's terms, and the ones that only quote by phone could not be checked at all. If a quote does not say, ask: "Is a minute at 9 PM on a Sunday the same price as a minute at 10 AM on a Tuesday?"
What the same month costs at each
Say a small shop sends 60 calls a month to a service, and each call averages 3 minutes. That is 180 minutes of talk.
- Ruby: 180 minutes is past the 100-minute plan, so the 200-minute plan at $720, if partial minutes do not push it higher.
- Smith.ai receptionists: 60 calls is past the 30-call plan, so either the 90-call plan at $810, or the 30-call plan plus 30 calls at $11.50 each.
- Abby Connect, people answering: 180 Abby Minutes, so the 200-minute plan at $599.
- Forge Voice, an AI agent: we round each call up to the next full minute, so 60 calls come to 180 to 240 minutes. That fits Starter, $297 a month for 500 minutes.
The call count and call length are made up for the example. Plan prices are from each company's own page, linked above. Use your own phone records.
The last line is not a like-for-like comparison. The first three put a person on the line; ours is an AI. Which one fits depends on your calls, and we wrote a separate post on virtual receptionists, answering services and AI receptionists and when a person is the better choice.
What an AI answering service costs instead
The AI products below list lower prices for each minute or call than the human plans above, and they count differently again: by the call, by the minute or by the caller. A few, each from its own pricing page:
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: AI Receptionist plans: $0 a month for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call; Pro from $150 a month for 75 calls; Enterprise from $500 a month for 300 calls.
- Rosie: $49 a month for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000, $299 for 2,000. Past your plan's minutes, it moves you up to the next plan at that plan's price.
- IONOS: Flex is $39 a month with 30 calls, then $0.49 a call. Flex Pro is $69 with 100 calls, then $0.39 a call. Unlimited is $99 with unlimited calls.
- Goodcall: $79, $129 or $299 a month. It does not charge for minutes. Plans include 100, 500 or 2,000 unique customers a month. Each one past that costs $0.79 on Starter, $0.26 on Growth or $0.15 on Scale.
Sources: Smith.ai, Rosie and IONOS, checked September 26, 2026; Goodcall, checked October 11, 2026.
Our own plans differ in minutes and the rate past them, and the larger plans add a few extras that the pricing page lists:
| 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 |
Each call counts as at least 1 minute. We round each call up to the next full minute. No setup fee. No per-caller or per-transfer fees. You pay your plan price plus any minutes past your plan. 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. The agent is an AI and says so if asked, and it takes appointment requests your team confirms rather than booking them. For how AI products price their plans, see how much an AI receptionist costs. If you are weighing a hire instead, see an AI receptionist vs hiring one.
Questions to ask any answering service
- What would last month have cost? Give them your real call count and length, and ask for a number with overage included.
- How is a call counted? To the second, rounded to the minute, or per call, and whether a short call has a minimum.
- What happens past my plan? A listed overage rate, an automatic move to a bigger plan, or a call from sales.
- Do nights, weekends and holidays cost more? Get it in writing.
- What is extra? Booking, transfers, texts, a second language, integrations. Map each to a line item.
- How do I cancel? Notice period, and what happens to the current month.
Before any of that, find out what your missed calls are worth. Our missed-calls calculator runs in your browser, and its answer is the most any of these services is worth to you. Every price we charge is on the pricing page.
Questions owners ask about answering service cost
How much does an answering service cost per month?
On the pricing pages we read, the cheapest plans are $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute at Specialty Answering Service, and $49 a month with no minutes included, then $2.99 a minute, at PATLive. Plans with about 50 minutes or 30 calls included run $99 at PATLive, $165 at Abby Connect, $250 at Ruby and $300 for 30 calls at Smith.ai. Some services, such as AnswerConnect, only give prices after you fill in a quote form.
Is it cheaper to pay per minute or per call?
It depends on how long your calls run. Per-call pricing costs the same for a 40-second question as for a ten-minute intake, so it suits long calls. Per-minute pricing suits short ones, as long as you know how partial minutes are rounded.
Do answering services charge extra after hours?
Of the pricing pages we read, Smith.ai says calls at 2 pm and 2 am cost the same, PATLive says it has no night or weekend fees, Ruby says it charges no extra fees for coverage during certain periods, and Abby Connect says it has no weekend upcharge. Ask any other service to put its answer in writing.
What does Forge Voice cost?
Forge Voice is an AI agent, not a person. Plans are $297 a month for 500 minutes, $497 for 1,000 and $897 for 2,500. Each call counts as at least 1 minute. We round each call up to the next full minute. No setup fee. The first 7 days are free, with up to 100 minutes of answered calls.