An AI receptionist costs two things: monthly infrastructure — typically $500–$2,200/month for voice, SMS, telephony, and LLM tokens, billed by your vendors — and a one-time install, either do-it-yourself with a $198 skill and a developer over 30–60 days, or managed and scoped per engagement. Here's where every dollar goes.
What are you actually paying for?
Vendors quote wildly different numbers because they're quoting different layers. There are three, and you should price each one separately before you sign anything:
- 01Infrastructure — the phone number, voice provider, Twilio SMS, email, and LLM tokens the AI runs on. Billed by those vendors, to you, at cost. No markup hiding here.
- 02The install — wiring the AI into your phone tree, CRM, and calendar, writing the qualification logic, and testing it against real calls.
- 03Tuning and coverage — the first 30–90 days of watching real calls, tightening escalation rules, and proving the weekly number.
What does the monthly number look like?
For a single-location service business, plan on $500–$2,200/month in vendor infrastructure once live: a voice provider, Twilio for SMS, email sending, and LLM usage. Call volume moves you inside that range — storm-season roofers burn more voice minutes than a bookkeeping firm ever will.
“The dirtiest trick in this market is the flat monthly fee with the infrastructure buried inside it. Ask any vendor one question — 'whose Twilio account does this run on?' — and watch their face.”
DIY or managed install?
The method is the same either way; the difference is whose hands are on the keyboard. Technical teams run the $198 skill themselves — plan 30–60 days of a full-stack developer's part-time attention for the first loop. Managed installs are scoped per engagement (typically five figures, named on the audit call before you commit) and go live in about 30 days with the operator trained on the loop.
See both install paths and the three engagement scopes
How does it compare to the human alternative?
A full-time front desk hire runs $60–90K/yr and works one shift. The AI front desk answers around the clock — nights, weekends, storm days — and never calls in sick. That's the honest comparison, and also the honest limit: it covers the phones; it doesn't greet a walk-in or run your office. Most operators use it to stop paying overtime for coverage, not to replace a person they value.
When is it not worth it?
- ›Under roughly $1M in revenue — the leak usually isn't big enough for the math to pencil yet. Come back at $1M+.
- ›Very low inbound call volume — if the phone rings four times a day, fix marketing before coverage.
- ›Regulated verticals with strict call-handling rules that haven't been cleared — medical, legal-adjacent, public adjusters. Get a straight answer before installing anything.
Book a Free Revenue Leak Audit
New to the category? Start with the plain-English definition of what an AI employee actually is — and isn't — before you price one.