Pricing

How Much Does a Virtual Receptionist Cost?

A virtual receptionist — a real person answering your calls remotely — typically costs $200 to $1,000+ a month in the US, priced per minute or per call on top of a base fee, with most small home-service businesses landing around $300–$600 a month for a few hundred minutes. A dedicated virtual assistant answering only your line runs $1,500–$3,000 a month. An AI receptionist, which answers 24/7 without a person, costs $149–$699 a month with minutes included. Here is what drives the price in each case, and how to work out which one you actually need.

Updated September 2026 · 6 min read

First, three things that all get called “virtual receptionist”

• A shared virtual receptionist service. A call centre answers under your business name. Operators handle several companies at once, from a script. This is what most “virtual receptionist” pricing pages are selling.
• A dedicated remote receptionist. One person, working from home or offshore, answering only your calls during set hours. Priced like a part-time employee.
• An AI receptionist. Software that answers every call in a natural voice, asks the questions you set, and sends you a structured lead. No person, no hours, no queue.

They cost very different amounts and do very different things, so it’s worth knowing which one you’re quoting.

What a shared virtual receptionist service costs

Pricing is almost always a base fee plus usage. Common structures in 2026:

• Per-minute plans: roughly $1.00–$1.50 per minute of operator time, often with a $50–$150 base. A plumber doing 150 calls a month at three minutes each is around $450–$675 before the base.
• Minute bundles: $200–$300 for 100 minutes, $400–$600 for 250–300 minutes, $800–$1,200+ for 500 or more. Overage is billed at the per-minute rate.
• Per-call plans: $8–$15 a call on some services, which gets expensive quickly for a business that gets a lot of short calls.

Watch for: after-hours and weekend surcharges, minimum-minute rounding (a 90-second call billed as two or three minutes), and setup fees of $50–$300. Your bill also climbs in your busiest month, which is exactly when you can least predict it.

What a dedicated remote receptionist costs

A part-time remote receptionist in the US typically runs $15–$25 an hour; a full-time one, with payroll costs, lands at $3,000–$4,500 a month. Offshore virtual assistants are cheaper — often $800–$1,800 a month full-time — with trade-offs in time zone, accent familiarity and turnover. Either way you get one person, on a schedule, who can take one call at a time and is off nights and weekends.

What an AI receptionist costs

AI receptionist services are priced as a flat monthly plan with call minutes included, no per-operator cost. CallSide AI, for example:

No setup fee, no after-hours surcharge, and the same price whether one call comes in or ten at once. The price buys a receptionist that is built around your business, answers 24/7, and sends you a structured lead — but not one that can negotiate or handle a call outside what it was set up for.

Side by side for a typical small home-service business

Assume 150 calls a month averaging three minutes — about 450 minutes.

How to pick

• Most of your calls are “I have a problem, can someone come out?” and you mainly need the details captured and the urgent ones flagged → an AI receptionist does this for the least money and never puts anyone on hold.
• Your calls need a person to negotiate, calm, or make a judgment call → a human service, or a person on staff, for those calls. Many businesses use the AI as the front line and a person for the few that need one.
• You want someone doing office work too (invoicing, scheduling, ordering) → that’s a dedicated assistant, not a receptionist service, and it’s priced accordingly.

Questions owners ask

Are there hidden costs with an AI receptionist?

The one to check is overage — what you pay per minute past your plan. A good service alerts you before you hit the limit. There should be no setup fee and no after-hours surcharge.

Is the cheapest option the right one?

Only if it answers the calls you actually get. Voicemail is free and loses jobs; the cheapest virtual receptionist plan may cap you at 50 minutes. Price the option against what a missed emergency call is worth to you — the missed-call calculator does that with your own numbers.

Can I try before paying?

Most human services offer a short trial. CallSide AI offers 25 free minutes with no card required.

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