How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?

Off-the-shelf AI receptionists start around $79 a month for Goodcall, or free for 25 calls on Smith.ai. A custom-built phone agent has a one-time build cost, quoted as a fixed price on a discovery call, plus running costs. At 450 minutes a month, the phone company's share is about $35, before the AI model and voice fees.

Is a live answering service better than an AI phone agent?

It depends on your callers. If they are often upset or the calls are delicate, a real person is worth paying for. If most calls are the same few questions or bookings, an AI agent handles them well and costs less.

Do callers know they are talking to an AI?

They should. A good phone agent says it is an AI at the start of the call, and the AI Foundations line does.

What happens when the AI cannot handle a call?

It should hand off to a person. A well-built agent forwards the call to your cell or takes a message and sends it to you straight away.

AI phone agents

What an AI phone agent costs a Kelowna small business

By Andy Parker · November 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Picture a plumber who misses a call at 4:40 on a Friday. By Monday that customer has booked someone else. Here is what it costs to stop that from happening, with the real numbers.

A missed call is the most expensive thing most small businesses never track. The customer doesn't leave a message. They call the next name on the list. So the question is not whether to answer the phone, it's what it costs to make sure somebody does.

There are three ways to do it. A live answering service with real people, an AI receptionist you subscribe to, or an AI phone agent built around your business. Each one has a price and a catch.

A live answering service

Here are two providers' own published prices, checked in November 2026. Posh starts at $65 a month plus $2.30 for every minute a receptionist spends on your calls, and its $215 plan includes 100 minutes. Smith.ai's human-staffed plans start at $300 a month for 30 calls, with $11.50 for each call over that, and $810 a month for 90 calls. Both quote in plain dollars and show no Canadian pricing, so confirm what you'd actually pay in Canadian dollars before you sign.

What you get is a real person, which matters when a caller is upset or the situation is delicate. What you usually don't get is someone who can see your schedule and book into it, unless you pay more for that.

An off-the-shelf AI receptionist

Goodcall's entry plan is $79 a month and covers about 150 calls, billed per unique caller rather than per minute. Smith.ai's AI receptionist has a free tier with 25 calls a month and then $3 a call, and a $150 a month plan at about $2 a call. A busy month costs more than a quiet one. They turn on in an afternoon, and if your calls are mostly "what are your hours" and "take a message," they are a good answer. Buy one this week and move on.

The catch is that they are built for everyone, so they sound generic. They answer from a script and your website. They rarely know today's schedule, quote from your price list or pass a job to your crew the way you would.

A phone agent built around your business

This is the work we do. The agent answers in your tone, knows your services and prices, asks the questions you would ask, texts a booking link, and sends you a summary as soon as the call ends. Building one falls under our AI integration work. The price is fixed and agreed before we begin.

After the build you pay for the line and the AI itself. Twilio, the company that carries the call, publishes $0.07 a minute for its voice agent layer, and bills the call itself separately. On our own account an inbound call costs $0.0085 a minute, so Twilio's side comes to about 8 cents a minute. The AI model and the voice add their own fees, which depend on which ones you choose. If someone quotes you a flat "cost per call" without showing those pieces, ask for the pieces.

Here's the arithmetic. A business taking 150 calls a month at three minutes each is 450 minutes, which is about $35 a month on Twilio's side, before the AI model and voice fees. Your real bill depends on your volume and your choices, so ask whoever builds it to show you the actual invoices after the first month.

Want one set up for you? We build it around your business, tune it on real test calls until it sounds like you, and hand you the accounts so you own it. Fixed price, agreed before we start. Tell me about your calls and I'll tell you straight whether you need a custom agent or an app off the shelf.

Book a free discovery call

How to decide

If a handful of calls come in and a message is enough, buy the off-the-shelf one. If your callers need a person, pay for the live service. If every call is a different job, a quote or a booking, and the answer depends on your schedule, that's where a custom agent earns its cost.

Here's a quick test. Write down what you say in the first thirty seconds of a typical call. If it's the same five questions every time, an agent can do that part, and you get your evenings back.

What an AI phone agent shouldn't do

It should tell callers it's an AI. Ours says so right in the greeting. It shouldn't argue with an angry customer or give medical, legal or financial advice. It needs a plan for the call it can't handle, which is usually a forward to your cell. And it will sometimes mishear a name or an address, so anything it captures should land in front of a person before a job is booked.

AI is a good receptionist. It's not a replacement for judgment. You still decide who gets a callback first.

Hear one before you decide

The AI Foundations line, (778) 924-9243, is one we built and run ourselves. Call it, ask about a project, and see how it feels. If you'd like one for your business, book a free discovery call and we'll talk through your calls and what a build would cost.