How much does an answering service cost? Real 2026 prices, live and AI
Published prices for Ruby, Smith.ai, PATLive, Goodcall and AI receptionists, checked October 30, 2026, and what each one costs at 50, 100 and 200 calls a month.
Disclosure: Bloombilt makes Frontdesk, an AI front desk for service businesses, so we sell one of the things being priced here. Every other price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, linked, checked October 30, 2026.
The short answer
For a small business taking 50 to 200 three-minute calls a month, a live answering service runs about $300 to $2,000 a month. An AI receptionist runs about $75 to $400 for the same calls. The spread inside each group is wide, because vendors bill on different units: minutes, calls or unique callers. The cheapest one for you depends on how many calls you get and how long they run.
What the published plans cost
| Service | Who answers | Entry plan | Billed by |
|---|---|---|---|
| PATLive | People | $49/mo plus $2.99 a minute | Minute |
| Ruby | People | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Minute |
| Smith.ai receptionists | People | $300/mo for 30 calls | Call |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI | Free for 25 calls, then $3 a call | Call |
| Goodcall | AI | $79/mo for 100 unique callers | Unique caller |
| Jobber AI Receptionist | AI | $29/mo, on top of a Jobber plan | Bundled |
The plans above the entry tier, from the same pages:
- PATLive: $99 for 50 minutes, $189 for 100, $349 for 200, $479 for 300, $759 for 500. Overage drops from $2.29 to $1.79 a minute as the plan gets bigger.
- Ruby: $395 for 100 minutes, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500. Ruby doesn’t publish an overage rate.
- Smith.ai receptionists: $810 for 90 calls, $2,100 for 300. Overage runs $11.50 a call on the entry plan, down to $8.50 on the top one.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: Pro is $150 for 75 calls, with 150 and 300-call options at $1.80 and $1.67 a call. Overage on Pro is $2.17 to $2.50 a call.
- Goodcall: $129 for 500 unique callers, $299 for 2,000. Extra callers cost 79 cents on the entry plan, 26 cents on Growth.
The billing unit matters more than the price
Per minute (Ruby, PATLive). Good if your calls are short. Ruby’s entry plan works out to $5 a minute, PATLive’s 200-minute plan to about $1.75. A two-minute “are you open Saturday” call is cheap. A ten-minute “my furnace is making a noise” call isn’t.
Per call (Smith.ai). Good if your calls run long, since a twelve-minute call costs the same as a one-minute one. Bad if you get a lot of quick ones. Smith.ai says it doesn’t charge for spam and sales calls.
Per unique caller (Goodcall). The same person calling three times about one job counts once. For shops whose customers call back to check on a tech’s arrival, that adds up in your favor.
Flat monthly. Some AI tools, ours included, quote one monthly price against your call volume and don’t meter calls or minutes. Nothing changes the bill when it rains and the phone doesn’t stop.
What it costs at your volume
Here’s each one priced at three call volumes, assuming three-minute calls and that every call is a new caller. We picked the cheapest plan-plus-overage combination on each vendor’s page. The math is ours; the rates are theirs.
| Calls a month (minutes) | 50 (150 min) | 100 (300 min) | 200 (600 min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PATLive | $294 | $479 | $938 |
| Ruby | $395 + 50 min overage | $720 + 100 min overage | $1,725 + 100 min overage |
| Smith.ai receptionists | $530 | $915 | $1,965 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | $75 | $213 | $385 |
| Goodcall | $79 | $79 | $129 |
Ruby’s overage rate isn’t on its pricing page, so we can’t finish those cells. Ask for it before you sign.
A few things the table can’t show. Goodcall and other self-serve AI tools are cheap partly because you set them up yourself. Smith.ai’s human plans include intake and screening that the cheaper services may not. And none of these prices include the calls you lose when an answer is wrong, which is the cost that actually matters.
Fees that aren’t on the price grid
- Taxes. PATLive’s prices exclude government taxes and fees. Most vendors work this way.
- Phone extras. PATLive’s optional phone system adds a $50 one-time fee for business texting approval and $5 a month for each extra number.
- Setup. Smith.ai and Ruby both say they charge no setup fees.
- Contracts. Smith.ai and PATLive are month to month, and Smith.ai takes 10% off for a 12-month commitment. Ruby’s page doesn’t state contract terms.
- Overage and rounding. Ruby doesn’t publish its overage rate, and neither Ruby nor PATLive publishes how minutes are rounded. A service that rounds every call up to the next full minute bills a 61-second call as two.
Which one to pick
Pull three numbers from your call log first: how many calls you get a month, how long they run, and how many come after hours. We walk through why those three decide it in AI receptionist vs answering service.
- Few calls, high-value callers who expect a person: Smith.ai or Ruby. Smith.ai vs Ruby covers which bills better for your call length.
- Lots of short calls and you still want people: PATLive’s per-minute rates are the lowest published here.
- You want the smallest bill and don’t mind doing the setup: Goodcall or Smith.ai’s AI tier.
- You already run Jobber: try its $29 AI Receptionist add-on before you buy anything separate.
- Leaving one of these: we compared the field in Smith.ai alternatives and Ruby alternatives.
Where Frontdesk fits
Frontdesk answers calls, chats and web forms for service businesses. We build it from your own website before you pay, so it already knows your services, your service area and your FAQ the first time you call it. Calls that need a person go to your on-call phone with the details already taken. It’s quoted flat monthly against your real call volume, with no per-call or per-minute meter.
If you want to know what it would cost for your call volume, book fifteen minutes. Bring the three numbers from your call log and we’ll tell you whether we’re cheaper than the options above, or whether one of them fits better.