How Much Does an Answering Service Cost?
An answering service costs $49 to $6,899 a month, because human services bill by the minute and AI services bill flat. PATLive publishes $99 for 50 minutes, Ruby publishes $250 for the same 50. Ziwi Engage is $99 a month, or $299 for Engage Pro, plus AI usage at cost. See Ziwi Engage.
Flat monthly, AI usage at cost
- $99/moZiwi Engage
- $299/moEngage Pro
vsHuman answering services$99 to $759 a month, at $1.50 to $5.00 a minute
Missed-call text back, chat capture and an instant text answer to every lead. AI usage billed at cost, no markup.
See how we compareThis page is for the owner who is losing calls after hours and wants the numbers before talking to anyone. Answering service pricing is easy to find and hard to compare, because human services meter you by the minute while AI services charge a flat monthly rate. About 560 searches a month land on the question in our September 2026 pull: "answering service cost" at 260, "how much does an answering service cost" at 210 and "virtual receptionist cost" at 90. Below are the published rates, the effective rate each one works out to, and what you actually get for the money.
How much does an answering service cost?
A live human answering service costs about $1.50 to $5.00 a minute once you divide the plan price by the minutes it includes, which puts most small businesses between $99 and $759 a month. An AI answering service costs a flat $79 to $299 a month with no meter.
Ziwi Engage is $99 a month, and Engage Pro, which qualifies the caller and books the appointment, is $299 a month, plus AI usage billed at cost with no markup.
The table reads each company's own public pricing page, checked 3 September 2026. The middle column is plan price divided by what the plan includes, which is the number a sales page rarely shows you.
| Service | Published price | Works out to | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ziwi Engage | $99 a month, plus AI usage at cost | No meter on the plan fee | Missed-call text back, website chat capture, an instant text answer to every new lead, 24/7 |
| Ziwi Engage Pro | $299 a month, plus AI usage at cost | No meter on the plan fee | Answers, qualifies, and books straight into your calendar by text and call |
| PATLive (human, published rates) | $99 for 50 minutes, $349 for 200, $759 for 500 | $1.98 down to $1.52 a minute, overage $2.29 to $1.79 | US staff answer live 24/7 and take a message or transfer |
| Ruby (human, published rates) | $250 for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500 | $5.00 down to $3.45 a minute | Live receptionists, transfers, message taking, chat sold separately |
| Smith.ai (published rates) | $300 for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300 | $10.00 down to $7.00 a call, overage $11.50 on Starter | Live-staffed 24/7, with booking and SMS priced as per-call add-ons |
| Goodcall (AI, published rates) | $79, $129 or $249 a month | $0.50 per unique caller past the plan cap | AI answering with a monthly cap on unique callers, unlimited minutes |
Two things fall out of that table. First, human services get cheaper per minute the more you buy, so the small business on the smallest plan pays the highest rate: Ruby's 50-minute plan is $5.00 a minute and its 500-minute plan is $3.45. Second, per-call pricing is not per-minute pricing.
Smith.ai bills by the call, so a 30-call month at $300 is $10 a call whether the call lasted 40 seconds or nine minutes.
Why do human answering services charge by the minute?
Because a person is on the phone and that person's time is the product. Every minute has to be staffed, so the meter has to run. It is also why the bill moves with your call volume: PATLive publishes overage rates from $2.99 a minute on its pay-as-you-go plan down to $1.49 on its largest, charged on every minute past the plan.
The practical consequence is that you cannot budget it exactly. A roofer in storm season and a dentist in the week before Christmas do not have the same call month, and the per-minute model passes that swing straight through to the invoice. Businesses that buy a minute plan to cover a normal month get their worst bill in their best month.
What does Ziwi Engage cost, and what is the AI usage line?
Ziwi Engage is $99 a month and Engage Pro is $299 a month, both month to month, with AI usage billed at cost on top. The plan fee is what you pay Ziwi. The usage line is what the AI models cost to run your conversations, passed through at what we pay with no markup, and the meter is visible to you. We do not publish a typical usage range because your call volume sets it, and a made-up range would be worse than none.
- Engage, $99 a month. Missed-call text back, website chat capture, and an instant text answer to every new call, form and message, nights and weekends included.
- Engage Pro, $299 a month. Everything above, plus the conversation: it answers questions in your business's voice, qualifies the lead, offers real openings and books into your calendar by text and call.
- AI usage, at cost. Billed at what it costs with no markup, with the meter shown to you.
- Month to month. No annual contract on either plan, and every price is on the pricing page before you talk to anyone.
Want your phone answered tonight?
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human answering service?
Yes at small-business call volumes, and the gap widens as calls go up. Goodcall publishes AI plans at $79 to $249 a month and PATLive publishes human plans from $99 to $6,899 a month, which is the shape of the whole category. A flat $99 or $299 does not move when your phone has a busy week. A per-minute plan does.
The honest caveat: they are not the same product. A human service puts a trained person on the line who can handle an upset caller, a messy intake, or anything needing judgment. AI answers in seconds every time, works at 2 AM, and costs a fraction, but it is AI and we say so out loud rather than pretending otherwise. If your calls need a licensed human on the line, Engage is the wrong tool and we will tell you that on the call.
What should you compare instead of the monthly price?
Compare cost per booked job. A service that takes a message and emails it to you has moved the lead one step. A service that answers, qualifies and puts the appointment on the calendar has finished the job. At $299 a month, Engage Pro costs less than one missed roof replacement, implant case or system install in most markets, which is the only comparison that decides anything.
- 01
What does it do with the lead? Take a message, transfer the call, or book the appointment. Three different products at three different prices.
- 02
What happens at 9 PM on a Friday? Ask about after hours specifically. Nights and weekends are when most calls go unanswered.
- 03
How fast is the first reply? Seconds, not minutes. A caller who hears nothing dials the next name on the list.
- 04
Does the bill move with call volume? Per-minute and per-call plans do. Flat monthly plans do not.
- 05
Can you read what was said? You should get the full transcript of every conversation, not a summary written afterwards.
- 06
Is it month to month? Ask before you sign, and get the answer in writing.
How do you know it paid for itself?
You count booked appointments against what you spent, which takes call tracking on every number and a record of which conversation became a job. Ziwi includes call tracking and attribution in every plan instead of selling it as a separate line, which is why the monthly report shows a cost per booked lead rather than a call count. The full breakdown is in what call tracking costs, and the mechanics are in the speed to lead guide.
Which answering service should a small business buy?
The one that answers in seconds and books the appointment for less than a single missed job is worth, which for most local service businesses is a flat monthly AI plan with a human on your team able to step into any thread. The longer comparison, including when a live human service is the right answer, is on the best answering service for a small business. To put it on your line this week, Ziwi Engage starts at $99 a month and Engage Pro is $299, month to month, with AI usage billed at cost.