AI Receptionist True Cost Calculator: Comparing 2026 Plans at 100, 200, and 500 Minutes

AI Receptionist True Cost Calculator: Comparing 2026 Plans at 100, 200, and 500 Minutes

As of June 2026, the cheapest AI receptionist sticker price at 100 minutes per month is AIRA (and the identically priced UpFirst) at $24.95, though that base covers only 30 calls before per-call overage kicks in. The best overall value is Trillet at $49 total with 150 minutes included, $0.20/minute overage, and multi-channel support (voice, SMS, WhatsApp) on every plan. At 200 minutes, Rosie holds the lowest total at $49 (250 minutes included), though it locks appointment booking behind its $149 Scale plan. At 500 minutes, costs diverge sharply: Trillet totals $119, Phonely $112.50, Rosie $149 (Scale plan), Dialzara $199 (Business Plus plan), and Smith.ai's fully managed AI Receptionist runs a flat $500. The sticker price on an AI receptionist plan tells you almost nothing about what you will actually pay.

Most AI receptionist providers structure their pricing to look competitive at the entry tier, then recover margin through overage rates, feature gating, or per-call billing that punishes longer conversations. The tables below calculate your actual monthly bill at three usage levels, using each provider's published rates as of June 2026.

The Bottom Line

• At 100 minutes/month, several platforms cluster between $24.95 and $50, but only Trillet, Rosie, Phonely, and Echowin include that usage without overage math. AIRA and UpFirst use per-call billing, which makes true minute-level comparison imprecise.
• At 200 minutes/month, the field splits. Dialzara's $0.48/minute overage pushes it to $96.20, more than triple its $29 sticker and well above Trillet's $59. Per-call platforms become expensive or require plan upgrades.
• At 500 minutes/month, the gap is wide. Trillet costs $119 and Phonely $112.50, while Dialzara needs its $199 Business Plus plan and Smith.ai's managed AI Receptionist is a flat $500. The "cheapest" entry-price provider is rarely the cheapest at scale.

Which Trillet product is right for you? If you run a single business and need an AI receptionist, Trillet's D2C plan starts at $49/month with 150 minutes included and $0.20/minute overage. If you are an agency reselling AI receptionists to clients, Trillet's white-label platform starts at $99/month (Studio) with $0.12/minute usage.

Methodology

All prices are as of June 2026, sourced from each provider's public pricing page. Per-call platforms (AIRA, UpFirst) are converted to estimated minutes using an average call duration of 3 minutes, which is consistent with industry data for small business inbound calls. Actual costs on per-call platforms will vary based on your call length mix. Overage calculations use each provider's published per-minute or per-call rate applied to minutes beyond what the base plan includes. Where a provider offers multiple plans, we use the cheapest path to the target usage level. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist is a fully managed flat-rate service rather than a minute-metered plan, so it is shown at its published monthly rate. Annual billing discounts are not reflected; all prices are monthly billing rates.

Cost Comparison at 100 Minutes per Month

At 100 minutes per month, most AI receptionist plans absorb the usage within their base allocation, keeping bills predictable. The exceptions are Dialzara (60-minute base) and per-call platforms where billing depends on call count rather than duration.

At this tier, AIRA and UpFirst look like the obvious winners on sticker price, but their 30-call Starter cap means a business receiving more than one call per day is already paying $1.50-per-call overage. Trillet and Rosie both sit at $49 with no overage math required. Phonely's free tier (100 minutes at $0) is the genuine low-cost option here if you can live without compliance certifications. For a deeper look at how pricing models create unexpected bills, see AI Receptionist Pricing Models Explained.

Cost Comparison at 200 Minutes per Month

Two hundred minutes per month is where overage rates start doing real damage. Platforms with low base allocations or high per-minute rates diverge sharply from those with generous included minutes.

Rosie holds at $49 here because its Professional plan includes 250 minutes, though appointment booking requires the $149 Scale plan, which means the true cost for a business that needs scheduling is $149. Trillet's $59 total includes calendar integration on the base plan. Dialzara's $29 starting price has now ballooned to $96.20, more than triple the sticker price. The per-call platforms (AIRA and UpFirst) cross $80 once volume passes their 30-call Starter cap, a reminder that per-call billing punishes anyone with more than a handful of calls a day. Smith.ai's flat $500 reflects a fully managed model that sits closer to a human receptionist service than a self-serve plan.

Cost Comparison at 500 Minutes per Month

Five hundred minutes per month is roughly 17 minutes of calls per day, a realistic volume for an active small business. At this level, the cost spread across platforms is enormous.

Phonely and Echowin edge out Trillet on raw cost at this tier ($112.50 and $113.99 vs. $119), but neither includes multi-channel support and both gate compliance behind higher or managed tiers. Trillet's $49 base plan with $0.20/minute overage scales more predictably than platforms that force plan upgrades: Dialzara requires jumping to its $199 Business Plus plan, both AIRA and UpFirst require their $159.95 Pro plans, and My AI Front Desk's $0.25/minute overage pushes its single paid tier to $174. Smith.ai's fully managed AI Receptionist is a flat $500, more than 4x Trillet's cost, though it bundles 24/7 human-backed handoff rather than self-serve AI.

Rosie's $149 Scale plan is competitive at this level, but that plan is required to unlock appointment booking links and call transfers, features that Trillet includes on its $49 base plan.

How to Estimate Your Own Monthly Minutes

To find your real cost, multiply your monthly call volume by your average call length, then check which plan absorbs that total without overage. A business taking 4 inbound calls per day at 3 minutes each runs roughly 12 minutes per day, or about 260 minutes per month (12 x 22 working days, plus weekend and after-hours calls). That single number determines which plan is genuinely cheapest for you, not the advertised entry price.

The three usage levels in this calculator map to common small-business profiles. One hundred minutes per month fits a solo operator or appointment-only practice that screens most calls. Two hundred minutes covers a steady single-location business: a salon, a small clinic, a two-truck home-services outfit. Five hundred minutes, roughly 17 minutes of conversation per day, describes an active business with consistent inbound demand or seasonal spikes.

Two variables move your bill more than the sticker price. The first is average call duration: per-call platforms like AIRA and UpFirst reward short calls and penalize long booking conversations, while per-minute platforms charge for exactly the airtime used. The second is the cost of crossing a plan boundary. A platform with a low base allocation and a high overage rate, like Dialzara at $0.48/minute, can cost more at 200 minutes than a platform with a higher base and a low overage rate. Trillet's $0.20/minute overage is the lowest among the AI-only platforms in this comparison, which is why its total stays predictable as usage climbs. The full pricing model is laid out in the Trillet AI receptionist guide.

What to do: Pull your last three phone bills or call logs, average the monthly minutes, and add a 20 percent buffer for growth and after-hours calls (which an AI receptionist will start answering once it is live). Run that number through the tier that matches it above. If you land near a plan boundary, favor the platform with the lower overage rate, because real call volume varies month to month and you will cross that boundary eventually.

What the Price Tag Does Not Include

Raw monthly cost is only one dimension. Several features that small businesses rely on are either included or gated behind upgrades depending on the platform. As of June 2026, these are the key differences.

Multi-channel support. Trillet includes voice, SMS, and WhatsApp on every plan. AIRA, UpFirst, and Rosie are voice-only at the entry tier, and Dialzara, Echowin, and Phonely add chat or SMS but not WhatsApp. When a caller texts back after a missed call, voice-only platforms lose the lead. For more on why this matters, see The Multi-Channel Follow-Up Maze.

Compliance. Trillet includes TCPA, ACMA, GDPR, and DNCR compliance on every plan at no extra cost. Phonely offers HIPAA only via an Enterprise BAA. AIRA, UpFirst, Rosie, My AI Front Desk, and Echowin (self-serve) publish no compliance certifications, and several competitors claim HIPAA without published proof. For healthcare, legal, or financial service businesses, this is not optional.

Appointment booking. Trillet and Phonely include calendar integration on their base plans. Rosie locks appointment booking behind the $149/month Scale tier. Dialzara includes Google Calendar on its higher Business Pro plan, not the $29 entry plan.

Concurrent call handling. Trillet handles unlimited concurrent calls. Human-backed services like Smith.ai (live-agent handoff) and Nexa are limited by staff availability. During peak periods (Monday mornings, lunch hours), calls may queue.

Spam filtering. Trillet and Rosie include spam detection and blocking. UpFirst's "spam calls don't count" policy sounds attractive, but it still requires the platform to identify them correctly, and the per-call billing model means misidentified spam costs you money.

Total Value at Each Tier

Picking an AI receptionist purely on monthly cost ignores the features you will inevitably need. The table below scores each platform across five dimensions at the $49 to $59 price range (100 to 200 minutes of usage).

Trillet is the only platform in this price range that bundles voice, SMS, WhatsApp, calendar integration, compliance, and spam blocking into the base plan. Rosie offers strong minute-per-dollar value but gates critical features behind higher tiers. For a broader comparison of how these platforms stack up feature-by-feature, see the Top 10 AI Receptionists for Small Business in 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?

AI receptionist costs range from $24.95/month (AIRA and UpFirst, 30 calls included) to $500/month (Smith.ai's fully managed AI Receptionist) as of June 2026. For a typical small business using 100 to 200 minutes per month, expect to pay between $49 and $66 on a per-minute platform like Trillet ($49/month, 150 minutes included, $0.20/minute overage) or Rosie ($49/month, 250 minutes included). Per-call platforms appear cheaper at entry but scale unpredictably depending on call duration.

Why do some AI receptionists charge per call instead of per minute?

Per-call billing (used by AIRA and UpFirst) charges a flat rate for each call regardless of length. A 30-second wrong number costs the same as a 10-minute booking conversation. This model benefits the provider when average call duration is long and benefits the customer only when calls are consistently short. Per-minute billing (used by Trillet, Dialzara, Phonely, and Echowin) is more transparent because you pay for exactly the airtime consumed.

Which AI receptionist is cheapest at 500 minutes per month?

At 500 minutes per month, Phonely ($112.50), Echowin ($113.99), and Trillet ($119) are the three most affordable options as of June 2026. Phonely and Echowin are slightly cheaper on raw cost, but neither includes WhatsApp support and both gate compliance behind higher or managed tiers. Trillet includes voice, SMS, WhatsApp, calendar integration, and TCPA/ACMA/GDPR compliance at that price.

Does Trillet charge setup fees or require a contract?

No. Trillet has no setup fees, no contracts, and a 28-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Setup takes approximately 5 minutes: enter your phone number and website URL, and Trillet's AI builds a knowledge base from your site, reviews, and social media. You can cancel anytime with at least 24 hours notice before the next billing date.

What is the cheapest AI receptionist overall?

AIRA and UpFirst tie at $24.95/month for the lowest sticker price, but both Starter plans include only 30 calls before per-call overage of $1.50/call applies. For predictable, all-inclusive pricing, Trillet at $49/month (150 minutes, multi-channel, compliance, calendar integration) and Rosie at $49/month (250 minutes, but no base-plan booking) offer the best value at the entry tier. The Cheapest AI Phone Answering Service breakdown covers this in more detail.

Updated for June 2026: Refreshed all competitor pricing against June 2026 web-verified figures. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist is now a flat $500/month managed service (the old self-serve per-call tiers are unconfirmed); My AI Front Desk rebranded with $0.25/minute overage (was $0.12); AIRA and UpFirst per-call overage corrected to $1.50/call; and per-tier totals were re-derived from scratch.

Related Resources

• AI Phone Answering Service Cost Breakdown
• Affordable AI Receptionist Under $50/Month
• The AI Receptionist Overage Trap
• Best AI Receptionist for Small Business 2026