White-Label AI Receptionist Pricing (2026): Costs & Margins
Agencies should price white-label AI receptionist services with a monthly retainer, a bounded allowance of AI minutes, and a published overage rate. Charge setup separately for measured onboarding work, define how phone and transferred minutes are billed, and use fair-use limits instead of promising unlimited calls. A common benchmark is a $300/month retainer per client, plus a setup fee and per-minute markup, but the right package depends on usage, telephony, support, and compliance scope.
The platform's cost is only the input. The client buys an outcome and an operating service: calls answered, leads qualified, appointments booked, workflows maintained, and someone accountable when the configuration changes.
The Bottom Line
A durable AI receptionist package separates recurring service, variable usage, and one-time implementation work.
- Monthly retainer: covers the agent, workspace, reporting, routine updates, and support.
- Included AI minutes: gives the client a predictable bill without exposing the agency to unlimited usage.
- Overage: protects margin when call volume exceeds the package allowance.
- Setup fee: pays for scoped onboarding and integration work rather than burying it in month one.
- Telephony and transfers: need explicit rules because they are not the same as active AI time.
Start with the agency's real cost per client, then set a price that leaves room for labor, sales, support, and usage variance.
What Costs Must an Agency Allocate to Each Client?
Each client must carry a fair share of the platform subscription, AI usage, telephony, transferred-call time, add-ons, and measured labor. Ignoring any one of those inputs can turn a high headline margin into a loss.
Use this formula:
Client cost = allocated platform fee + AI usage + telephony + transfers + SMS + workflow runs + client-specific add-ons + measured labor
Trillet's Agency plan costs $299 per month, includes 3,000 shared AI minutes, and supports unlimited workspaces. The 3,000 minutes form one account pool, not a fresh allowance for every client. AI usage after that pool is $0.12 per minute for platform, STT, LLM, and TTS.
Telephony is separate. Web calls and bring your own telephony add no Trillet telephony fee, US Trillet telephony starts at $0.014 per connected minute, and other countries vary. After the AI transfers a call to a human, the $0.12 AI charge stops and the transferred portion costs $0.05 per minute.
Two smaller lines belong in the same allocation. SMS costs $0.02 per message, or $0.01 with your own Twilio or Telnyx number, at the same rate when a workflow sends it. Workflow runs are included up to 2,000 a month on Studio and 10,000 on Agency, then cost 1.2¢ or 1¢ per completed run; test, skipped and failed runs are not billed. A client with heavy text follow-up or many automations should carry its share of both.
The voice AI pricing per minute guide shows the complete input-cost method for web, bring your own telephony, US phone, and component-priced competitors.
How Should Agencies Structure the Monthly Retainer?
The monthly retainer should pay for the ongoing service even when call volume is low. It covers the branded workspace, agent availability, reporting, routine knowledge updates, and a defined level of support.
Trillet's white-label page cites a common benchmark of a $300/month retainer per client, plus a setup fee and per-minute markup. At $0.12 per minute, a $300 client using 300 AI minutes leaves roughly $264 before the plan fee, telephony and any further markup. On Agency, you can also set a custom per-minute rate for each client. That benchmark is a reference point, not a command. A simple receptionist that takes messages should not be priced like a regulated intake workflow that books appointments and writes to several systems.
Define the retainer in operational terms:
- Number of agents or workflows
- Locations, departments, or phone numbers covered
- Included AI minutes
- Reporting frequency
- Routine change allowance
- Support channel and response target
- Integrations maintained
- Compliance and documentation scope
What to do: write one sentence describing what the retainer includes and another describing what triggers a quote or overage. Ambiguity is expensive support work waiting to happen.
How Many Minutes Should a Package Include?
Included minutes should reflect observed client volume and remain bounded. Use the client's recent call records where available, then set the allowance above normal usage without pretending that an extreme month is free.
An illustrative three-package menu might look like this:
| Package | Monthly retainer | Included AI minutes | Illustrative overage | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $300 | 200 | $0.30/min | Low-volume message taking and qualification |
| Growth | $450 | 500 | $0.25/min | Booking, follow-up, and regular inbound volume |
| Managed | From $600 | 750 | Quoted by channel and country | Multi-workflow or regulated deployments |
These are examples, not Trillet plan prices or guaranteed market rates. The agency should replace them with its own service scope, sales position, client volume, and cost model.
A useful allowance is large enough that an ordinary month does not feel metered but small enough that a seasonal spike cannot consume the entire annual margin. Review the package after the first 30 to 60 days of real traffic.
How Should Agencies Set the Usage Markup?
Set the overage rate from the fully loaded variable cost, not just Trillet's $0.12 AI rate. The rate may also need to recover telephony, support variance, payment fees, and the risk that the client's model differs from the average.
For a US Trillet phone call while the AI remains active, the baseline variable cost is $0.12 + $0.014 = $0.134 per minute after shared included AI minutes. A $0.25 client overage would leave $0.116 before payment costs, support, and other variable expenses. A $0.30 overage would leave $0.166 on the same basis.
Web and bring your own telephony calls have a different cost base because Trillet adds no telephony fee. International calls also need country-specific pricing. One global overage rate can work only if it includes enough buffer for the actual traffic mix.
Agencies can set custom minute markups on Trillet Agency. Current platform limits and usage boundaries are listed on the white-label pricing page.
How Should Setup Fees Be Calculated?
A setup fee should recover one-time implementation work that will not repeat every month. Calculate it from the actual scope rather than copying an arbitrary competitor fee.
Include tasks such as:
- Discovery and call-flow design
- Knowledge-base review and cleanup
- Agent configuration and testing
- Phone-number or forwarding setup
- Calendar, CRM, API, or webhook configuration
- Consent, retention, and escalation design
- Staff training and launch support
Use this formula:
Setup fee = estimated implementation hours x loaded hourly rate + external one-time costs + risk buffer
If the agency waives the setup fee, recover that cost through a minimum term or a higher retainer. Calling implementation “free” does not remove the work; it only hides who pays for it.
How Should Transferred Calls Be Priced?
Transferred minutes should be separate from active AI minutes because the cost changes when a human answers. On Trillet, the $0.12 AI usage charge stops at transfer and the transferred portion is billed at $0.05 per minute.
Agencies have three sensible options:
- Include a bounded number of transferred minutes in the retainer, then charge an overage.
- Pass the $0.05 transferred-minute cost through with a disclosed markup.
- Require the client to use its own transfer destination or telephony arrangement where appropriate.
For example, 100 transferred minutes cost the agency $5. If the package includes 50, the remaining 50 can be billed under the published transfer rule. Do not charge the client as though the AI remained active for the whole human conversation unless the contract explicitly defines a broader service fee.
What Fair-Use Guardrails Should Every Package Have?
Every package needs numerical fair-use rules for minutes, concurrency, phone geography, integrations, and support. “Unlimited” without a measurable boundary converts the agency into an insurer for the client's busiest possible month.
Useful guardrails include:
- Included AI minutes and overage price
- Included transferred minutes and transfer overage
- Countries and phone routes covered
- Maximum concurrent-call assumption
- Number of routine configuration changes per month
- Support hours and response target
- Separate quote for new integrations or workflows
- Review trigger when usage stays above the package allowance
Two platform settings enforce part of this on Trillet. Set a maximum call length on each call flow so an unusually long call cannot run up usage. Give every shareable demo link a per-user limit or total budget before sending it, because new links have no minute limit until you set one.
If unlimited language is commercially necessary, pair it with a published fair-use ceiling and a right to move sustained high usage to a custom plan. The ceiling should be visible before the client signs.
How Do You Allocate Shared Minutes and Platform Cost?
Allocate Trillet's shared included minutes once across the whole agency account, then divide the resulting account cost using a consistent rule. Equal allocation is simple, while usage-weighted allocation is fairer when client volumes differ materially.
Consider 20 clients using 300 AI minutes each, or 6,000 minutes in total:
- Agency platform: $299
- Billable AI minutes:
6,000 - 3,000 shared minutes = 3,000 - AI usage:
3,000 x $0.12 = $360 - Web or bring your own telephony account cost:
$299 + $360 = $659 - Equal average cost:
$659 / 20 = $32.95 per client
If all 6,000 minutes use baseline US Trillet telephony, add 6,000 x $0.014 = $84. The account total becomes $743, or $37.15 per client. If every client also generates 50 transferred minutes, 1,000 transferred minutes add $50, bringing the equal average to $39.65 per client.
At a $400 retainer, that last scenario leaves $360.35 per client before labor, payment fees, client-specific add-ons, sales expense, and overhead. That is a contribution margin, not net profit.
For more ways to stress-test client count and usage, see the white-label AI profit margin analysis.
How Should Small Agencies Price Their First Three Clients?
Small agencies should avoid allocating the $299 Agency fee across one experimental client when Studio meets the scope. Trillet Studio costs $99 per month, includes 1,000 shared AI minutes, and has a hard cap of three workspaces. Agencies needing a fourth workspace move to Agency; the retired $15 additional-workspace option is no longer available.
One client using 300 web or bring your own telephony AI minutes remains within Studio's 1,000-minute allowance, so the account cost is $99 before labor and add-ons. Baseline US Trillet telephony adds $4.20, producing $103.20. A $400 retainer leaves $296.80 before setup work, support, payments, and overhead.
Do not divide the Studio fee by three until three paying clients actually exist. Price the first client to cover the business as it operates today, then improve the margin as the shared platform cost spreads across more accounts.
How Should Regulated Verticals Be Packaged?
Regulated clients should receive a scoped managed package, not the standard plan with “HIPAA” added to the sales copy. Healthcare, legal, and financial workflows create extra documentation, integration, retention, access-control, and escalation work.
Trillet holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications and can co-deliver larger regulated deployments as the agency's compliance and infrastructure partner. PHI use requires a signed BAA and applicable Order Form, available on Agency and Enterprise after the standard process. GDPR obligations require the applicable DPA and transfer terms, while TCPA, ACMA, and DNCR compliance still depends on lawful workflow configuration and use.
A regulated package should state:
- Which parties sign required agreements
- Where data is processed and retained
- Which users can access recordings, transcripts, and integrations
- How consent, redaction, and deletion are handled
- Which model, telephony, and integration vendors touch the data
- Which calls must escalate to a person
- What audit evidence and review cadence are included
Price the additional discovery, documentation, testing, and review as real work. A higher retainer is justified by a larger service obligation, not by the compliance label alone.
How Often Should Client Pricing Be Reviewed?
Review pricing after the first full month, after any major workflow change, and at least quarterly. The package should change when actual minutes, phone geography, transfer duration, integrations, or support demand move outside the assumptions used to price it.
Use a simple review rule: if a client exceeds its included minutes for two consecutive months, move it to the next package or revise the allowance and retainer. If usage falls materially, keep the current plan only when the operational service still justifies it.
Agencies ready to package a branded offer can use the white-label voice AI guide for agencies to evaluate workspaces, orchestration, client delivery, and support.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should an agency charge for an AI receptionist?
A common benchmark is a $300/month retainer per client, plus a setup fee and per-minute markup. The final price should reflect included minutes, telephony, transfers, integrations, support, and compliance scope.
Should AI receptionist packages include unlimited minutes?
No, not without a numerical fair-use ceiling. Use a bounded included-minute allowance and a published overage so an unusual traffic spike cannot erase the agency's margin.
How should agencies bill transferred calls?
Separate them from active AI minutes. Trillet stops the $0.12 AI charge at transfer and bills the transferred portion at $0.05 per minute, which the agency can include in a bounded allowance or pass through with a disclosed markup.
Does Trillet's $0.12 per minute include telephony?
No. It includes platform, STT, LLM, and TTS. Web and bring your own telephony add no Trillet telephony fee, US Trillet telephony starts at $0.014 per minute, and international rates vary.
How should an agency divide Trillet's included minutes among clients?
Subtract the shared pool once from total account AI usage, then allocate the resulting cost equally or by client usage. Do not apply 3,000 included Agency minutes to every client.
Updated for September 2026: corrected Studio and Agency allowances to 1,000 and 3,000 AI minutes, recalculated the client-margin examples, removed the retired Studio workspace add-on, and qualified regulated-workflow contracts. Also replaced the $300 to $600 "typical" range with the $300/month retainer benchmark from Trillet's white-label page, and added SMS and workflow-run cost lines, the $264 worked margin, and maximum-call-length and demo-link budget guardrails.
