Best AI receptionist: seven services compared by monthly price and usage

Best AI receptionist: the short list

The best AI receptionist for a small service business is the one whose billing unit matches how its phone rings: My AI Front Desk for voice, texts and chat in one $99 monthly plan, Upfirst for few calls, Rosie for long calls, Goodcall for repeat callers and Smith.ai for live help.

Seven services are priced below from their own pages, in US dollars, billed monthly, as read on October 23, 2026. Each counts usage differently, so read the usage column before the price.

My AI Front Desk: voice, texts and chat in one plan

Business-in-a-Box, the only My AI Front Desk plan with a public price, costs $99 a month, billed monthly, or $79 a month, billed annually, with 200 voice minutes, 400 texts, 100 chatbot conversations and a pool of 1,000 overage credits. A credit is one cent, and an extra voice minute costs 25 credits ($0.25).

A Hot Transfer sends an urgent caller to your team with a spoken summary. The vendor sizes the plan for 1 to 10 interactions a day and its quote tier for 25 or more, and says nothing about 11 to 24. Its pricing page offers a 7-day free trial; usage fees still apply during it, and if you continue the subscription starts automatically and the payment method you provided is charged. The My AI Front Desk review has the rest.

Upfirst and Dialzara: low entry prices

Upfirst Starter and Dialzara Business Lite are the two lowest paid entry plans here, with 30 calls and 60 minutes included. Upfirst is $24.95 for 30 calls, then $1.50 each, and it lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Dialzara is $29 for 60 minutes counted to the second, then $0.48 a minute. Five of the seven services list a free trial: Upfirst for 14 days, and My AI Front Desk, Dialzara, Rosie and NextPhone for 7.

Rosie and Goodcall: minutes or repeat customers

Rosie Professional is $49 a month for 250 minutes, billed in 60-second steps; calendar booking starts on Scale at $149. Goodcall Starter is $79 a month for 100 unique customers, then 79 cents each, and it never meters minutes. Goodcall counts one phone number once a month, so repeat calls from one client count once.

Smith.ai and NextPhone: live help or unlimited calls

Smith.ai's AI Receptionist has a Free tier of 25 calls a month, then $3.00 a call, and Pro at $150 a month for 75 calls. Its live agents are a per-call add-on. NextPhone Pro is $199 a month, and its page says unlimited calls with no overage; on Pro you set it up yourself.

Smith.ai's law-firm page says it cannot handle calls that involve protected health information, and NextPhone's terms bar protected health information from its service. This is not legal advice.

How these AI receptionists count a month

Minutes, calls, unique customers and a flat rate give four different bills for one phone. Take a shop with about 15 calls a day: 450 calls in 30 days, or 1,350 minutes at 3 minutes a call. That is far past the 200 minutes in My AI Front Desk's plan, Rosie's 250 and Dialzara Lite's 60.

The totals assume a 30-day month and 3 minutes a call, and leave out extras such as texts, chat and calendar booking. Goodcall counts each phone number once a month and never meters minutes, and Smith.ai counts calls. Rosie's terms move an account that passes its minutes to a higher plan at that plan's price. My AI Front Desk's range runs from buying the exact credits to 28 auto-reloads of $10.

My AI Front Desk's pages never define an interaction, so 15 calls a day sits in the 11 to 24 range they leave open. See AI receptionist cost, best AI receptionist for small business and My AI Front Desk alternatives for more.