AI receptionists for vet clinics, and the triage line
Veterinary is the vertical where the boundary matters most on this whole site, because a distressed owner describing symptoms is asking for advice the assistant must not give. The first design decision is not which vendor, it is that any symptom call routes to a person or to your emergency instruction, immediately.
We rank first because that boundary is a rule you write, and enforcing it costs $49. Symptom words route straight out before the assistant discusses anything, routine bookings carry on, and the disclosure plays at call start. What it must never do is judge how sick an animal is.
Given that constraint, the vendors separate on what happens after the handoff fails. Smith.ai has its own human team, which in a clinic with no overnight staff is a genuine difference. Everyone else, ourselves included, transfers to your people or takes a message.
For routine work, which is most of the volume, the comparison is ordinary: booking included, price, overage. Rosie gates booking to $149; ours is on the $49 plan.
Veterinary medicine is a state-licensed occupation. In Utah that means the AI Policy Act requires a prominent verbal disclosure at the start of the interaction, so ask every vendor whether their assistant can announce itself at call start.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on the triage boundary and on routine scheduling, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether a symptom call can be routed out of the assistant immediately, by rule.
- What happens when that routing does not reach anyone.
- Whether the assistant can speak an AI disclosure at the start of the call.
- Booking availability at the entry tier, plus price and overage.
What we could not test
- How reliably each recognizes a symptom description as a symptom description, which is the safety-critical behavior and which nobody publishes data on.
- How a distressed owner reacts to a handoff mid-sentence.
- Practice-management integration depth, which in veterinary software is thin across this category.
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 |
| 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 |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Symptom calls routed out by rule, routine bookings kept, at $49.
Worth it for: A clinic that wants an owner describing bleeding or collapse sent straight to a person or an emergency instruction, while vaccination and check-up bookings carry on without the front desk.
Not for: Any clinic wanting the assistant to weigh how urgent a case is, which it must not do. No customers, no reviews, no certifications, no uptime figure, and English only at launch.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Smith.ai
The human team matters when the handoff has nowhere else to go.
Worth it for: A clinic without overnight staff, where an owner ringing at 2am about a symptom should reach a person rather than a message.
Not for: Practices on a tight budget at $150 for Pro, and anyone expecting veterinary-specific tooling, which is not where their depth is.
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.
Goodcall
Unique-caller billing suits owners who ring repeatedly about one animal.
Worth it for: A practice where a single case generates several calls from the same owner over days.
Not for: Multi-line practices, since each number is a priced agent.
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.
Ruby
People answering, which for a distressed owner is a real difference.
Worth it for: A clinic where the emotional register of the call matters enough to pay from $250 a month for 50 minutes.
Not for: Routine appointment volume, which burns human minutes on work software handles fine.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
Rosie
Cheap coverage with booking behind the second tier.
Worth it for: A clinic wanting after-hours calls captured accurately with its own emergency instruction played first.
Not for: Filling the appointment book from the entry plan, since booking starts at $149.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
The rule that matters more than the vendor
Write the emergency path first. Before any of these products answers a call, decide what a caller describing bleeding, collapse, poisoning or breathing difficulty hears, and make it the same thing regardless of hour. Usually that is an immediate instruction and a number, not a question.
Never let the assistant assess urgency. An owner asking whether something is serious is asking a clinical question, and the correct behavior is to route rather than to answer. Any vendor who demos their product triaging veterinary symptoms is demonstrating a liability.
And if your clinic offers no out-of-hours service, an assistant that collects details overnight may set the wrong expectation. A clear message naming the emergency hospital is more useful to the animal than a booking request logged at 3am.
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
Can it triage an emergency?
No, and no vendor here should tell you otherwise. It can recognize that a call involves symptoms and route it out under your rules. Assessing urgency is a clinical judgment.
Does the Utah AI rule apply to vets?
Veterinary medicine is a state-licensed occupation, so under the Utah AI Policy Act a prominent verbal disclosure at the start applies. Ask each vendor whether their assistant can do that.
Can it take payment or discuss treatment costs?
Quoting treatment is a clinical and commercial judgment that belongs with your team. Ours is scoped to inquiries and scheduling, which is a deliberate limit.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because the safety rule here is a configuration, and ours routes symptom calls out before the assistant engages, at the entry price. When that handoff has nowhere to go at 2am, Smith.ai's human team catches the call and our message does not. We have no customers, no reviews and no clinics to point you at.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.