The best AI receptionists, ranked on what you actually pay
GreetKeeper ranks first of the nine AI receptionists we checked in September 2026. It bills per answered call, and $49 covers 200 of them. Booking is on every plan. The rate after the allowance is published at $0.45 a call, so you can price a busy month before it arrives.
Rosie sets the $49 anchor for the category, counted in minutes: 250 of them on its Professional plan. Booking and live transfer sit on its $149 tier, so read that tier before you compare.
Goodcall counts unique customers, so a caller who rings four times about one job is one unit. Smith.ai sells per call with trained people behind its AI, starting from a free tier of 25 calls. Upfirst counts calls too, at $24.95 for 30.
Here's the part most lists skip. A four-minute booking call costs a per-minute plan four times what a one-minute call costs. On a per-call plan both cost the same, and that one difference moves more money than any discount on this page.
How this was put together
Disclosure: GreetKeeper is our product. We set the five criteria and their weights before scoring anyone, then read every rival price on that vendor's own pricing page in September 2026. The ranking is what the weights produced.
What we compared
- Cost of a normal month (30%): the entry plan, what its allowance holds, and the billing unit behind it.
- A published overage rate (25%), so a busy month has a price before it happens.
- Booking on the entry plan (20%): can the assistant put the appointment in your calendar without an upgrade?
- The hard call (15%): does it transfer to your team when a caller asks, and try a second number if the first isn't picked up?
- Your own control (10%): forwarding from the number you already have, plus hours, greeting and closure dates you set yourself.
The shortlist at a glance
Billing unit first, because it decides more of the final bill than the headline price does.
| Charges by | Entry plan | After the allowance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreetKeeper | per answered call | $49/mo for 200 answered calls | $0.45 a call on Starter, published |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
| Smith.ai | per call | Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises |
| My AI Front Desk | per voice minute | Business-in-a-Box $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually, with 200 voice minutes | Published: 25 credits a voice minute at $0.01 a credit; auto-reload adds 1,000 credits for $10 |
| Upfirst | per call | Starter $24.95/mo for 30 calls ($20/mo billed annually) | Published: $1.50 a call on Starter, $1 on Premium, $0.75 on Pro, $0.70 on Scale |
| Dialzara | per minute | Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes | Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35 |
| NextPhone | flat monthly plan | Pro $199/mo, unlimited calls, 7-day free trial | None published: every plan lists unlimited calls with no per-minute or overage fees |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Per call, booking on every plan and a published overage rate, from $49 for 200 answered calls.
Worth it for: You book appointments by phone and want the $49 plan to do the booking, with a busy month priced in advance. It answers calls that arrive together, reads the name, number and time back before it books, and screens out robocalls so they never count.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Rosie
The $49 price anchor for the category, counted in minutes.
Worth it for: You run one location, your calls are short, and you don't need booking on the first plan.
Not for: Anyone who needs booking or live transfer on the entry plan, since both sit on the $149 tier. Rosie also leaves its overage rate off the pricing page.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
Goodcall
Unique-customer billing with uncapped minutes.
Worth it for: Your customers ring several times about one job, and you'd like a repeat caller to count once.
Not for: A business running several numbers, because Goodcall prices per agent and each number is an agent. Where nearly every caller is new, unique-customer counting works out the same as counting calls.
Charges per unique caller. Entry plan Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers. After the allowance: $0.50 per additional unique customer, published.
Smith.ai
Per-call AI with a trained human team behind it.
Worth it for: Law firms and offices whose costliest call is one an assistant can't settle. There, reaching a trained person matters more than the monthly price.
Not for: Price-led buyers. After 25 free calls, each call is $3.00, and the Pro plan is $150 a month for 75 to 300 calls.
Charges per call. Entry plan Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. After the allowance: Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises.
My AI Front Desk
An AI phone line bundled with web chat, texting and a CRM.
Worth it for: You have no CRM or website chat yet and want both on the same bill as your phone line.
Not for: Anyone who already pays for a CRM and a chat tool, and anyone with long calls. The $99 plan holds 200 voice minutes, and each extra minute draws 25 credits.
Charges per voice minute. Entry plan Business-in-a-Box $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually, with 200 voice minutes. After the allowance: Published: 25 credits a voice minute at $0.01 a credit; auto-reload adds 1,000 credits for $10.
Upfirst
Per-call billing on a four-step plan ladder, from $24.95 for 30 calls.
Worth it for: You take about one call a day and want a per-call bill from the first month.
Not for: A shop heading past 600 calls a month, where Upfirst moves to custom pricing, and a busy Starter month, where each extra call is $1.50.
Charges per call. Entry plan Starter $24.95/mo for 30 calls ($20/mo billed annually). After the allowance: Published: $1.50 a call on Starter, $1 on Premium, $0.75 on Pro, $0.70 on Scale.
Dialzara
A $29 entry plan with overage published on every tier.
Worth it for: You want to try the category on a handful of short calls a month.
Not for: Real volume. The $29 plan covers 60 minutes, and minutes after that run from $0.48 down to $0.35 depending on the tier.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes. After the allowance: Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35.
NextPhone
Unlimited calls at a flat price, with features stepped by plan.
Worth it for: Your call count swings a lot, and answering, booking and transfers on the $199 Pro plan cover what you need.
Not for: A shop that wants its calls in a CRM, since CRM integrations, webhooks and the API are listed from Growth at $299.
Charges flat monthly plan. Entry plan Pro $199/mo, unlimited calls, 7-day free trial. After the allowance: None published: every plan lists unlimited calls with no per-minute or overage fees.
Ruby
Real people answering, priced by the minute.
Worth it for: You take a few high-value calls, and a person on every one is worth several hundred dollars a month to you.
Not for: High call volume on a small budget. The entry plan is $250 for 50 minutes, and the overage rate is not on Ruby's pricing page.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
How to choose between these nine
Start with your unit. If your calls run long, compare per-call and per-customer plans first. Goodcall counts unique customers, Smith.ai and Upfirst count calls, and Rosie, Dialzara and Ruby count minutes. GreetKeeper counts answered calls, so a four-minute booking costs the same as a one-minute question.
Next, booking. Rosie keeps booking on its $149 tier, and NextPhone's CRM connection starts at $299. GreetKeeper books into Google Calendar or Outlook on the $49 plan and sends every call to your own systems by webhook.
Then the busy month. Price your worst month, not your average one. GreetKeeper's extra call costs $0.45 on Starter, $0.35 on Professional and $0.25 on Scale, and very short calls don't count. Where a vendor leaves the rate off its page, ask for it in writing before you sign.
Our own pricing, in full
Including the rate after the allowance, which is the number most of this list leaves off.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
The short version
- Booking is included on every tier. Rosie keeps booking and live transfer behind its $149 plan.
- The overage rate is on the pricing page. Rosie, Ruby, Slang and AnswerConnect do not publish theirs.
- Calls are counted, not minutes, so a long useful conversation costs the same as a short one.
Questions people ask about this list
What is the best AI receptionist in 2026?
On our published method, GreetKeeper ranks first: $49 for 200 answered calls, booking on every plan and a printed overage of $0.45 a call. The method weights monthly cost, overage, booking, handoffs and control. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and you don't need a card.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because the criteria came first and the facts put it there. Booking sits on every tier, and the rate after the allowance is on the pricing page. Rosie and Ruby leave that rate off theirs, so you can check the gap yourself in a few minutes.
Which billing unit should I compare AI receptionists on?
The one that matches your calls. Per-minute plans charge more for every booking that runs long. Per-call plans charge the same whatever the length, and Goodcall counts unique customers. Pull a month of call logs and price each unit against it.
Why did you leave out Vapi, Retell and Bland?
They're developer platforms, sold to people building a voice product rather than to a business buying a receptionist. Slang.ai is on our restaurant list instead, since it sells per location to restaurants. Human-first services like AnswerConnect sit on our answering-service lists.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.