How much does an AI receptionist cost?
It depends on connected minutes, platform and telephony rates, speech and model usage, fixed fees, resolution rate, and human work for unresolved calls. Use current quotes and your own call data.
AI receptionist economics / worksheet
Price the calls it finishes.
An AI receptionist plan is only one line of the bill. Model connected minutes, the voice stack, resolution quality, and the human work created by every transfer or failed outcome.
Open the editable calculator →Monthly input sheet
Use one narrow call type.
Volume
Connected calls per month and average connected minutes. Separate after-hours, appointment, routing, and support calls if their outcomes differ.
AI stack
Platform, telephony, STT, TTS, LLM, phone-number fees, support, minimum commitments, and other fixed charges.
Outcomes
Calls completed correctly without a person, transfers, abandoned calls, repeat contacts, and booking or routing errors.
Human baseline
Loaded cost for the same successful outcome plus the time people spend on AI escalations, cleanup, and repeat work.
Three editable starting points
Open a scenario. Replace every assumption.
These examples use a $0.105/minute illustrative stack and $30/hour human escalation cost. Their purpose is to expose the model, not predict a vendor bill or guarantee savings.
Pilot rules
Define success first.
Containment is not resolution when the answer or booking is wrong.
Start with low-risk calls.
Use a narrow workflow with an explicit transfer path.
Audit repeat contact.
A second call can erase the apparent savings from the first.
Decision sequence
Run the economics after the pilot.
Use actual calls to measure resolution and escalation time before multiplying a result across annual volume. Check latency and correctness alongside cost: a cheap interaction that users abandon or repeat is not a cheap outcome.
Calculate cost per resolved call → Read the per-minute formula → Model time to first audio →How should an AI receptionist be compared with a human receptionist?
Compare the same call type, coverage window, and successful outcome. Include AI operating cost and escalation work, then compare cost per correctly resolved call.
What counts as an AI receptionist resolution?
A resolution is a call completed correctly without human intervention or avoidable repeat contact. Define the intended outcome before measuring containment.
Which data should be collected during an AI receptionist pilot?
Track connected minutes, successful outcomes, transfers, repeat calls, abandonment, booking or routing accuracy, human cleanup time, and every invoice line.
Operational evidence, not a vendor pitch
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