Most pages that rank for this question give a range, such as $50 to $1,000 a month, and stop there. A range that wide does not help you decide. What helps is knowing what you will be billed for, getting every provider to quote the same calls, and measuring the result against the work it brings in.
What answering services cost: published prices
Prices from the providers' own pricing pages, checked on 19 October 2026. Many providers only quote after a sales call, so these are the ones that publish numbers.
| Provider and plan | Price per month | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Moneypenny, live | $165 / $265 / $422 / $985 | 50 / 100 / 200 / 500 minutes; extra minutes $2.28 down to $1.67 |
| Ruby, live | $250 / $395 / $720 / $1,725 | 50 / 100 / 200 / 500 minutes, 24/7 including holidays |
| Smith.ai, live | $300 / $810 / $2,100 | 30 / 90 / 300 calls; extra calls $11.50 / $10.50 / $8.50 |
| Moneypenny, AI | $69 / $99 / $199 / $435 | 25 / 50 / 100 / 250 calls; extra calls $2.49 down to $1.89 |
| Smith.ai, AI | $0 / $150 | 25 / 75 calls; extra calls $3.00 / $2.50 |
Two things stand out. Live plans start around $165 to $300 a month and climb quickly with volume. AI plans start far lower, and the gap widens as calls go up. The plans are not identical in features, so the table is a price map, not a ranking.
What you are actually billed for
Every quote is built from the same few parts. Knowing them is how you spot the real price:
- The billing unit: minutes (Ruby, Moneypenny live) or calls (Smith.ai). Per-minute plans favour short calls; per-call plans favour long ones.
- What is included: a block of minutes or calls each cycle, then an overage rate for each one beyond it.
- Per-call extras: some tasks cost more on top. Smith.ai, for example, lists appointment booking at $1.50 per call and a dedicated Spanish line at $1.00 per call.
- Coverage hours: some plans cost the same at any hour; others add a premium for nights, weekends or holidays.
- One-time and contract terms: setup fees, minimum terms and notice periods. Ruby and Smith.ai say they charge no setup fee; Moneypenny says there is no long-term commitment and asks for 30 days' notice to cancel.
For the same calls priced on per-call, per-caller and per-minute AI plans side by side, see the worked example in our AI answering service guide.
Cost by type of business
The type of business changes what each call needs, and that changes the price.
| Business | What adds cost | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|
| Medical and dental | Privacy rules, on-call paging, triage scripts. Helpware's 2026 guide puts basic after-hours message-taking at about $25 to $100 a month and 24/7 multi-provider coverage at $1,000 to $3,000 or more. | Ask for HIPAA-compliant handling in writing |
| Legal | Detailed intake and confidentiality. Alliance Virtual Offices estimates $150 to $600 or more a month for legal intake. | Ask how intake questions are priced per call |
| Plumbing, HVAC and other trades | Emergency calls at night, dispatching, seasonal surges and lots of sales calls. | Our plumbing, HVAC and contractor guides (links below) |
| Small office or solo business | Usually just message-taking and booking during the day. | An entry plan, or AI with a handover to you |
Trade-specific detail: the plumbing answering service guide covers whether a service pays for itself, the HVAC guide covers the surge-month trap, and the contractors guide covers paying for sales calls and spam. If most of your missed calls come at night, start with the after-hours answering service guide.
Get comparable quotes: the one-page call sheet
Providers quote whatever plan fits their model best, which is why quotes rarely line up. Send every provider the same one-page sheet and ask them to price it. Fill it in from last month's phone bill or call log:
| Line on the sheet | Where to find it | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Calls per month (average month) | Phone bill or call log | Sets the plan size |
| Calls in your busiest month | Same log, highest month | Shows the overage you will really pay |
| Average call length | Call log, or time ten calls yourself | Decides per-minute vs per-call |
| Share of calls after hours and on weekends | Call log by time of day | Surcharges and coverage hours |
| Rough share of spam, sales and wrong numbers | Listen to one day of calls | May be billed or free, depending on provider |
| Calls that need a transfer to you | Your own estimate | Transfer fees and transfer destinations |
| Calls that should end in a booking | Your own estimate | Booking fees per call |
| Languages you need | Your customers | Bilingual lines often cost extra |
Put every quote on the same yardstick
Three small details can change a quote more than the headline price. Here is what each one does to the same business.
The number that matters: cost per booked job
The monthly fee on its own says little. What you want to know is what each new job costs you. Work it out like this:
- Total monthly bill, including every fee from your last invoice.
- New jobs or appointments the service booked or passed to you that month (from its call summaries).
- Of those, the ones that came in when you could not have answered: after hours, or while you were on another call or on a job.
- Cost per booked job = monthly bill ÷ jobs booked.
- Cost per rescued job = monthly bill ÷ jobs you would otherwise have missed.
Track this for two or three months. It is the fairest way to compare a cheap plan with an expensive one, and it tells you when to move up or down a tier.
Check your first two invoices
Billing mistakes and surprises usually show up in the first two bills. Check these lines against the provider's call log before you pay:
- Billed minutes or calls match the call log, give or take the rounding you were quoted.
- Spam, wrong numbers and hang-ups were treated the way you were told.
- No after-call work (notes, wrap-up) was billed as talk time unless the quote said so.
- Overage was charged at the quoted rate and only after the included block ran out.
- Per-call extras (bookings, transfers, Spanish line) match what actually happened on those calls.
- Holiday or after-hours surcharges appear only if you agreed to them.
- The billing period is the length you were told: a month or 28 days.
- Any setup or onboarding fee matches the quote.
If a line does not match, raise it in writing in the first month. It is easier to fix a billing rule early than to dispute six months of invoices later.
How to pay less without missing calls
- Forward only the calls you miss. Ring your own phone first and send unanswered or after-hours calls to the service, instead of forwarding every call.
- Put AI in front and a person behind. Let an AI plan handle routine questions and bookings, and pay live rates only for the calls that need a person.
- Filter spam before it reaches a paid line, or choose a provider that does not bill for it.
- Size the plan for your busy month, not your quiet one, if overage rates are high.
- Cut add-ons you do not use. A booking fee on every call adds up if you could send a booking link by text instead.
If you mainly lose callers who hang up before anyone answers, a cheaper first step is missed call text back. If you want every call answered, booked and handed over by your own rules, that is what we build: our AI receptionist answers in your business name, the AI voice agent handles the conversation and transfers, and the appointment booking agent puts jobs straight into your calendar. For questions to ask any vendor, see the AI receptionist buyer's guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
On providers' own pricing pages in October 2026, live answering started at $165 a month for 50 minutes (Moneypenny), $250 for 50 minutes (Ruby) and $300 for 30 calls (Smith.ai). AI answering started lower: Smith.ai has a free plan with 25 calls, and Moneypenny's AI plan is $69 for 25 calls. Your real bill depends on your call volume, call length and what each call needs, such as transfers or bookings.
Both exist. Ruby and Moneypenny's live plans are sold in minutes; Smith.ai's live and AI plans are sold in calls. Per-minute plans favour short calls, per-call plans favour long ones. Before comparing, ask how partial minutes are rounded and which calls count as billable.
Some do and some do not. Ruby says it charges no extra fees for coverage during certain periods and answers 24/7 including holidays; Smith.ai says calls at 2 p.m. and 2 a.m. cost the same. Other providers add after-hours or holiday surcharges, so ask for the price of your busiest night and holiday in writing.
It depends on the provider. Smith.ai says it does not charge for spam or unsolicited sales calls on its live plans when forwarded calls pass caller ID, and filters known spam before its AI answers. Many per-call and per-minute plans count every call, so ask before you sign.
The lowest sticker price is usually an AI plan, and some start free. The cheapest service for you is the one with the lowest cost per booked job once rounding, add-ons and your busiest month are included. A cheap plan you outgrow every month can cost more than a bigger one.
Divide the monthly bill by the new jobs the service books for you, then compare that with what one job is worth to you. If one booked job pays for the month, it usually is. The worksheet in this guide shows how to work it out from your own call log.
Sources
- Ruby plans and pricing — retrieved 19 October 2026
- Smith.ai virtual receptionist pricing (live plans, add-ons, spam policy) — retrieved 19 October 2026
- Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing — retrieved 19 October 2026
- Moneypenny US pricing (people and AI answering) — retrieved 19 October 2026
- Medical Answering Service Pricing: Models, Real Costs, and Fees (2026) — Helpware, 15 July 2026
- Answering Service Pricing: How Much Does a Business Live Answering Service Cost in 2026? — Alliance Virtual Offices, 21 July 2026