AI Receptionist Services Compared by Published Pricing

Every call your business misses is a customer deciding whether to call the next name on the list. After hours, during the lunch rush, or when your team is already on another line, the phone rings and nobody picks up. Voicemail catches a few of those callers. Most of them just hang up and move on.

An AI receptionist fixes that by answering every call, day or night, and turning it into a captured lead or a booked appointment. The hard part is choosing one. Most "best AI receptionist" roundups you will find are published by the vendors themselves, quietly rank their own product first, and leave out anyone who might beat them on price.

This one is different. We are including CallSprout, we are telling you exactly how we scored, and we are only using each provider's own published numbers. Where a company does not publish a price, we say so rather than guessing.

How we scored (and why that matters)

We judged each service on three things a busy owner actually cares about:

• Price transparency. Can you see what it costs before a sales call?
• Billing fairness. Does the meter match the work, or do you pay for minutes you never use?
• What happens at the cap. When you hit a limit, do calls keep getting answered or does the service stop?

We scored only on published capabilities and pricing. We did not invent feature claims, and we did not paste in review quotes we cannot verify. All competitor figures below come from each vendor's own public pricing or support pages, checked in August 2026. Vendors change their pricing often, so confirm the current number on their site before you decide. If you want the longer view on how these services differ from each other and from live agents, see AI receptionist vs answering service and our guide to how much an AI receptionist costs.

The comparison table

| Service | Published price (as of Aug 2026) | Billing model | What happens at the cap | |---|---|---|---| | CallSprout (Sage) | $0.39/min after the first 30 free seconds of each call | Billed by the second | No caps | | RingCentral | No AI receptionist price published (quote only) | Not published | Not published | | Dialpad | No AI receptionist price published (quote only) | Not published | Not published | | 8x8 | No AI receptionist price published (quote only) | Not published | Not published | | GoTo Connect | No AI receptionist price published (quote only) | Not published | Not published | | Nextiva AI Receptionist | $99/mo including 100 interactions, then $0.99 each | Monthly bundle plus per conversation | Not published | | Ooma AI Receptionist | From $49.99 per license for 100 minutes | Monthly minute bundle | Higher tier | | Zoom | $0.30/min, or prepaid minute bundles | Per minute or prepaid bundle | Not published | | Grasshopper (with Smith.ai) | Starts at $95/mo, billed separately | Monthly tier | Overage per tier | | Smith.ai | Tiered, plus $3.00 per call when a live agent takes over | Per call plus live-agent fee | Overage per tier | | Ruby | $250/mo at 50 minutes up to $1,725/mo at 500 minutes | Monthly minute bundle | Overage per bundle | | Dialzara | Overage runs $0.35 to $0.48/min | Monthly plus overage | Overage per minute | | Rosie | Tiered minute bundles of 250, 1,000, and 2,000 | Monthly minute bundle | Moves you up to the next tier | | Simple Phones | From $97/mo for 100 calls | Monthly call bundle | Numbers released if you exceed your tier |

What the table actually tells you

A few patterns jump out once the numbers sit side by side.

The big VoIP names hide the price. RingCentral, Dialpad, 8x8, and GoTo Connect all publish no AI receptionist price at all. You have to get on a call with sales to find out what you would pay. If a provider will not show you the number before you talk to a rep, that is worth noticing.

Bundled pricing hides your real rate. Nextiva includes 100 interactions in its $99 a month and then charges $0.99 for each one after that, so your cost per call depends entirely on where you land against the bundle. Ooma starts at $49.99 for 100 minutes, and Zoom sells both a $0.30 per minute rate and prepaid minute packs. In every case the AI sits on top of a base phone bill rather than being included in it.

Human-backed services carry human-backed prices. Grasshopper partners with Smith.ai and bills it separately from your Grasshopper plan, starting at $95 a month, and Smith.ai adds $3.00 to a call when a live agent takes over from the AI. Ruby's published plans run from $250 a month for 50 minutes up to $1,725 a month for 500. Note which way that scales: the entry plan works out to $5.00 a minute and the largest to $3.45, so the smallest plan carries the worst rate per minute. Those can be fine choices, but you are paying answering-service rates.

Bundles are where it gets risky. Rosie sells minute bundles of 250, 1,000, and 2,000 and moves your account to the next tier once you pass one, so a busy month raises your bill without you deciding to. Simple Phones counts calls rather than minutes, starting at $97 a month for 100 calls, and releases your phone numbers if you exceed your tier or cancel. Losing the number is the worst version of this problem, because the calls you most need answered are exactly the ones that stop getting through.

Where CallSprout lands

CallSprout's AI voice agent, Sage, was built around the three things the scoring rewards.

• AI is included, not a costly add-on. Sage is part of the phone system, not a separate upsell you bolt on later. You are not paying a platform fee just to unlock the receptionist.
• One transparent plan, no contract. You see the price up front, and you are not locked into a term. Compare that to the quote-only providers above.
• Billed by the second, with no caps. Sage runs $0.39 per minute after the first 30 free seconds of every call, and the meter counts actual seconds. There is no rounding up to the next minute, no monthly minute bundle to burn through, and no cap that shuts your number off.

That last point matters most for the calls you cannot predict. Sage keeps answering during your after-hours rush, your seasonal spike, and your busiest afternoon, without a limit that quietly turns callers away. You can see how it works on the AI voice agent page, and dig into the details on our pricing page.

Which one is right for you

The honest answer depends on your call volume and how much you value a live human on transfers.

• If you want a person to physically pick up transferred calls and you can absorb the cost, a service like Ruby or Smith.ai fits, as long as you have read AI receptionist vs human receptionist first.
• If you already run RingCentral or Nextiva and just want to add AI, get the quote and compare it to a by-the-second plan before you commit.
• If you want every call answered, clear pricing, and no cap that cuts you off, a by-the-second AI receptionist is the simpler math.

Whatever you choose, the real cost is the call that never gets answered. It helps to know how many calls small businesses miss and the true cost of a missed call before you decide anything. If you run a specific trade, our industry pages show how Sage handles calls for your kind of business.

Hear Sage for yourself

A table can only tell you so much. The fastest way to judge an AI receptionist is to hear one answer a call the way your customers would.

Get a live callback from Sage and listen to how it greets a caller, captures the details, and books the appointment. See our pricing or contact us to set it up.