Answering service cost calculator
Per call, per minute or flat monthly? Enter your volume and the quote you were given, and see what each model bills and where the lines cross.
Lowest bill at your volume
Per call
Same calls, same month, three ways of counting them.
What each model bills
- Per callLowestGreetKeeper Starter: $49 plus 100 extra calls$94
- Per minute600 minutes used, 400 of them extra$550
- Flat monthlyThe same whatever the phone does$300
Break-even points
- Call length where per minute matches per call
- 0.73 min (44 sec)
- Calls a month where per call matches the flat price
- 1,181
If your calls run shorter than that on average, the per-minute quote is the cheaper of the two. Longer, and per call is.
Three ways to bill the same phone
Answering services count your calls in one of three ways. Some bill each call answered. Others meter the minutes. A few charge one flat fee whatever the phone does. The same month of calls can produce three very different invoices.
The per-call column here is our own plan table, exact to the cent. The tool costs all three plans at your volume, overage included, and shows the lowest.
| 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 other two columns are yours
Per minute and flat monthly are blank on purpose. Type in the monthly price, the minutes included and the rate for each extra minute from the quote you hold. The numbers the form opens with are placeholders. They belong to no vendor.
The formulas, in plain words
| Model | How the bill is worked out |
|---|---|
| Per call | Plan price, plus each call past the allowance times that plan's overage rate. |
| Per minute | Calls times average length gives minutes used. Bundle price, plus each minute past the bundle times the extra-minute rate. |
| Flat monthly | The quoted price. Volume doesn't move it. |
Two break-even points come out of those lines. The first is a call length. Take the gap between the per-call bill and the bundle price, and divide it by the extra-minute rate. Add the included minutes, then divide by your calls. Shorter calls than that favor the minute meter.
The second is a call count. It's the busiest month in which one of our plans still costs no more than the flat quote. Past it, flat is cheaper.
A worked example
The form opens with these numbers, so you can check each line against the panel.
Per call
300 calls is 100 past the Starter allowance. 100 times $0.45 is $45, plus $49, so $94.
Per minute
300 calls at 2 minutes is 600 minutes. 200 are included, which leaves 400 extra at $1.20. That's $480, plus the $70 bundle, so $550.
Flat monthly
The quote is $300, and it stays $300.
Where per minute would win
The per-call bill is $24 above the bundle price. At $1.20 a minute that buys 20 extra minutes, so 220 in all. Spread over 300 calls, that's 0.73 minutes each, or about 44 seconds.
Where flat would win
One of our plans stays at or under $300 up to 1,181 calls a month. Beyond that, the flat quote is the lower bill.
The bill is only part of the choice
Reading a per-minute quote
Start with your real call length, because it decides everything. A caller who explains the problem, gives an address and books a slot might take four minutes. A caller checking your hours takes thirty seconds. Your mix of the two sets the average.
Then look at the month you fear, the one where the phone doubles. Type that volume in and read all three bills again. A plan that looks cheap in a quiet month can be the dear one in July, and the overage line is where that shows.
If a quote won't tell you the extra-minute rate, treat that as an answer. You can't work out a bill from half the numbers, and neither can this page.
Questions about answering service bills
How much does an answering service cost per month?
It depends on the billing model and your volume, which is why this page asks for both. Our own prices are published: Starter is $49 for 200 calls, Professional is $149 for 750 calls, Scale is $349 for 2,000 calls. For any other vendor, type in the quote they gave you.
Is per-minute or per-call billing cheaper?
Per minute wins when calls are short and few. Per call wins as calls get longer, because a four-minute booking costs the same as a wrong number. The calculator gives you the exact call length where the two bills meet.
What average call length should I use?
Yours. Most phone systems report average call duration by month. If yours doesn't, time the next ten calls with a stopwatch and average them. We don't supply a figure, because a quote request and an appointment change run very different lengths.
Why aren't other vendors' prices built into the calculator?
Prices change, and a stale number inside a calculator does more harm than an empty box. Our dated price checks live on the comparison and cost pages, where each figure carries the month it was read.
Does the per-call figure include appointment booking?
Yes. Booking is included on every GreetKeeper plan, so the per-call total already covers it. When you compare against another quote, check whether booking sits on a higher tier there.
Priced per call, overage printed
Hear it take a call from your own business before you compare another quote.