AI phone answering for businesses: options and prices
Stop missing calls: missed-call texts, AI receptionists, add-ons for your phone or job software and human answering services compared, with current prices.
By Daniel Will · Updated · 8 min read
For many small businesses a missed call is a missed job. Callers often ring the next company on the list instead of leaving a voicemail. AI phone answering has become one of the quickest wins for an owner who’s on a roof, under a sink or with a patient when the phone rings.
We use this technology ourselves: our assessment interview is carried out by an AI voice agent. This guide covers what these services do, what they cost and how to pick one.
Prices from each company’s own pricing page, checked . Starting prices for a small business, per month, before tax. They change often, so check before you buy.
What an AI receptionist does
An AI receptionist answers your business number in a natural voice, any time of day. A good one can:
- Answer common questions from information you give it: hours, service area, what you do and don’t do.
- Take the details: name, number, address, what the problem is, how urgent it is.
- Book the job into your calendar, or offer times for you to confirm.
- Transfer urgent calls to you or whoever is on call.
- Send you a summary by text or email straight after each call, often with a transcript.
In our experience, callers care most about a quick call and having their problem noted down properly. We recommend saying up front that it’s an AI assistant; most services let you set that greeting.
Five ways to stop missing calls
| Option | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Missed-call text-back | Your phone system texts anyone whose call you miss: “Sorry we missed you, what can we help with?” | The cheapest first step, if callers are happy to text |
| 2. AI receptionist service | A service answers calls you forward to it, 24/7, and sends you the details | Trades and service businesses that miss calls on the job or after hours |
| 3. AI built into your phone or job software | An add-on to the phone system or field-service software you already use | Businesses already on RingCentral, Quo, Jobber, Microsoft Teams Phone and similar |
| 4. Human answering service | Real receptionists answer in your business name | Law, medical and high-value calls where a person matters |
| 5. A custom voice agent | An AI agent built for your business on a voice platform, connected to your own systems | Higher call volumes or calls with many steps, such as intake interviews |
What it costs
| Service | Type | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Quo (formerly OpenPhone) | Business phone app with missed-call auto-replies and an AI answering agent | $15 per user, billed yearly |
| Dialzara | AI receptionist | $29 (60 minutes) |
| Rosie | AI receptionist | $49 (250 minutes) |
| Goodcall | AI receptionist, priced by number of callers | $79 per agent |
| Smith.ai | AI receptionist with live-agent backup | Free for 25 calls, then $3 a call; Pro $150 |
| RingCentral AI Receptionist | Add-on to a RingCentral phone system | From $39, on top of the phone plan |
| Microsoft Teams Phone Agent | AI receptionist inside Teams Phone: answers questions from your web pages, screens spam calls, routes calls | Billed per call in Copilot Credits: about $0.05 to $0.40 for a short call in Microsoft’s examples, more for long ones. Needs Teams Phone (about $10 per user) and a phone number |
| Jobber Receptionist | Add-on to Jobber field-service software | $29 (30 conversations, then $0.79 each); included on Jobber’s Plus plan |
| Ruby | Human receptionists | $250 (50 minutes) |
| AnswerConnect | Human answering, 24/7 | $350 (200 minutes) |
As a rough rule, AI answering costs a fraction of a human service for the same number of calls, and it can answer several calls at once, so callers aren’t left on hold. Human services still win when a caller needs empathy or judgment. If one extra job a month pays for the service, it’s worth trying.
How to choose
- Check what you already have. Field-service and practice software (Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Weave and others) and business phone systems increasingly include missed-call texts or an AI receptionist. Turning on a feature you pay for beats adding a new service.
- Count your calls and minutes. Plans are priced by minutes, calls or callers. Your phone bill or phone app shows last month’s numbers.
- Decide what it should do. Just take messages? Book jobs? Transfer emergencies? The more it needs to do, the fewer services will fit.
- Check where the details go. A summary by text is fine to start. Better is a service that puts the caller straight into your calendar or job software, or sends the details somewhere an automation can pick them up.
- Try it on your own number first. Most have a free trial. Call it ten times as a difficult customer before real callers do.
On Microsoft 365?
If you already use Teams Phone, look at Teams Phone Agent first. It became generally available on September 30, 2026. It answers calls to your business number, answers common questions from your web pages and passes callers to the right person. An admin sets it up in the Teams admin center. It needs Copilot Credits billing turned on.
None of the other services has a Power Automate connector (a ready-made link to Microsoft’s automation tool) yet, but most send a summary email after each call. A Power Automate flow, an automation that runs on its own, can pick that email up and turn it into a job in your list, a calendar hold, or a Teams message to whoever is on call.
How to set one up
- Write a one-page brief: your services, service area, hours, prices you’re happy to quote, and what counts as an emergency. The answers are only as good as this page.
- Keep it short. Ask for the essentials and let the caller go. Long AI calls lose people.
- Say when to hand off. Angry callers, emergencies and anyone who asks for a person should reach a human, or get a firm callback time.
- Register your number for texting if the service sends texts from your business number. US carriers now block business texts from unregistered numbers, and approval can take days to weeks.
- Read the first 20 summaries. Fix the brief wherever the AI guessed or asked the wrong thing.
Health practices and sensitive calls
If callers may share health information, the service is handling patient data, and your practice needs a signed business associate agreement (BAA) with it before you switch it on. Some answering services sign one; others say in their terms that health information isn’t allowed. Ask for the agreement in writing, and check it covers the plan you’re buying.
Sources
- Pricing pages: quo.com/pricing · dialzara.com/pricing · heyrosie.com/pricing · goodcall.com/pricing · smith.ai/pricing · ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html · ruby.com/pricing · answerconnect.com
- Jobber Receptionist: help.getjobber.com (Receptionist powered by Jobber AI)
- Teams Phone Agent: learn.microsoft.com/microsoftteams/aa-cq-setup-teams-phone-agent · licensing: learn.microsoft.com/microsoftteams/aa-cq-reference-prerequisites-licensing · credits per call: Microsoft Copilot Credits Guide, October 2026
- Business texting registration: support.quo.com (A2P 10DLC)
- Business associates: hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/business-associates