Cheapest AI Receptionists in 2026: 9 Plans Under $50 Compared

Nine AI receptionist plans now cost less than $50 a month. One of them is free. A year ago the cheap end of this market was our $14 Essential plan and Dialzara at $29; since then Zoom, RingCentral, ElevenLabs and a wave of funded startups have all launched entry plans between $25 and $50. That is good news if you run a one-person business and just want the phone answered.

We make one of these plans, so read the table with that in mind. We have put ourselves first because we are the cheapest paid plan on the list, and we have listed what our plan leaves out in the same words we use for everyone else. Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page in September 2026, and we re-check them monthly. All prices are US dollars; our UK plans are priced in pounds, starting at £19.

Every AI receptionist plan under $50, at a glance

Per-call plans are converted at an assumed three minutes per call; if your calls run longer, the per-call plans get cheaper relative to the per-minute ones. Annual billing lowers most of these by 15 to 20 percent; the table shows month-to-month prices because that is how most people start.

One price you will see elsewhere is missing on purpose. Several roundups list Allo at $18 a month as a cheap AI receptionist. That is the price of an Allo phone-system seat. On Allo's own pricing page the AI receptionist is a 35 euro monthly add-on on top of a Business seat at 35 to 45 euros, so the receptionist costs about 70 euros a month and does not make the under-$50 cut. Frontdesk (formerly My AI Front Desk) starts at $99 for 200 minutes; several review sites still list a free 20-minute tier and a $20 plan, neither of which is on its pricing page. Goodcall ($79 per agent) and Smith.ai ($95) are good products, not cheap ones.

What the cheap plans leave out

A $14 to $49 plan is a real receptionist, but every vendor takes something out to hit the price. Before you pick on price alone, check which of these you can live without.

• Minutes. 60 minutes is roughly 20 calls a month. If you take three calls a day, you need 200 minutes and you are looking at a $50 to $99 plan from anyone, or a free plan plus an overage bill.
• Calendar booking. Rosie only books into your calendar from its $149 plan. Our Essential plan does not include Google Calendar either; that starts at Starter. Reception, Upfirst and Phonely include booking on their entry plans.
• Call transfers. Reception routes with rules on every plan, Rosie holds live transfers back to its $149 plan, and Phonely's free tier includes transfer. We include single-number transfer and extension dialing on Essential.
• Simultaneous calls. Reception's $29 plan takes one call at a time, so a second caller gets a busy tone. Phonely's free plan and all of our plans take multiple calls at once (we handle up to five simultaneously on every plan).
• Transcripts and recordings. Phonely's free plan has no transcripts or analytics. We include text, audio and real-time transcripts on Essential; downloading the audio starts at Starter.
• Phone numbers outside the US. Reception provisions US area codes only. We provide local numbers in the US, Canada and the UK.
• The trial. Reception, Upfirst and Rosie let you try without a card. Our trial is three days and asks for a card.

The plans, one by one

AI Receptionist Essential, $14 a month

Essential is our own entry plan and the cheapest paid AI receptionist we know of. You get 60 minutes a month, a dedicated number or forwarding from your existing one, 24/7 answering in 55+ languages, spam filtering, single-number transfer with extension dialing, voicemail, text, audio and real-time transcripts, a FAQ and text knowledge base, custom voice selection and Boss Mode, which lets you call your own receptionist to get a briefing or change its instructions by voice. Overage is $0.25 a minute through a booster pack, so 100 minutes costs $24, which is still less than every other paid plan here. Frontdesk's own pricing page, comparing published rates, lists ai-receptionist.com as the lowest starting price in the category.

Essential leaves out Google Calendar booking, downloadable audio, file and URL knowledge sources, personality customization and priority support, all of which start at our $39 Starter plan. Essential also runs on our Mini AI model, which is very good at answering and taking messages and a step behind our Advanced model in long, complicated conversations. If your calls are mostly "are you open" and "can you have someone call me back," Essential is enough.

Best for: freelancers, tradespeople and solo professionals who miss calls while working and want the cheapest fix that still transfers and filters spam.

Phonely Free, $0

Phonely gives you 100 minutes a month, a free phone number, call transfer, a custom knowledge base built from three pages of your website, and unlimited simultaneous calls, for nothing. The free plan exists to move you onto the $50 Starter plan: there is no overage, so when the 100 minutes run out the receptionist stops answering until you upgrade, and the free tier has no transcripts, no analytics, no premium voices and community-only support. It works, and it costs nothing, and it is the only free plan on this list. For comparison, 100 minutes on our Essential plan is $24 and comes with transcripts and a person to email.

Best for: anyone who wants to try an AI receptionist on real calls before paying anyone.

Upfirst Starter, $24.95 a month

Upfirst prices per call instead of per minute: 30 answered calls for $24.95, then $1.50 a call. Every plan includes transfers, screening, spam blocking, scheduling into Google, Outlook, Calendly and Acuity, in-call texting and 35+ languages, and the trial is 14 days with no card. At three minutes a call, 30 calls is about 90 minutes, so this is close to our Essential plan on volume and about $11 more per month. Long calls cost you nothing extra, short calls cost you the same as long ones.

Best for: businesses with a few longer calls a week that want booking included at the entry price.

Reception by ElevenLabs Basic, $29 a month

ElevenLabs launched Reception in September 2026 and its Basic plan is $29 plus tax for 75 minutes, one number and one call at a time, with overage at $0.45 a minute. Every plan includes booking, a hosted booking page, transfer rules, 70+ languages, Google Calendar, Calendly, Zapier and webhooks, and the trial is 14 days with 30 minutes and no card. The voices are the best in the category, which is what you would expect from ElevenLabs. The limits are the single concurrent call, three knowledge sources, and US-only phone numbers. The pricing page labels the trial "Free," but there is no ongoing free plan; after 14 days you pick a paid tier.

Best for: US businesses that care most about how the receptionist sounds and take one call at a time.

Dialzara Business Lite, $29 a month

Dialzara's entry plan is $29 for 60 minutes, with overage at $0.48 a minute, a 7-day trial and no setup fee. SMS and website chat are separate add-ons. Dialzara has been in the market for years and its higher tiers ($99 for 220 minutes, $199 for 500) are a reasonable step up, but at the entry level you get the same 60 minutes we include at $14 for about twice the price and nearly twice the overage rate. We wrote a longer comparison at AI Receptionist vs Dialzara.

Best for: businesses that want a known vendor and plan to grow into the $99 tier.

Beside Baseline, $29.99 a month

Beside sells a flat monthly price instead of minutes: $29.99 for 30 AI-answered calls, or $99.99 for unlimited calls, with every feature on both plans and a 7-day trial on Unlimited. Beside serves the US and Canada, raised $32 million in late 2025 and is building a wider small-business toolkit around the phone product. No overage rate is published for Baseline, so if you take more than 30 calls a month the real price is $99.99.

Best for: owners who want one flat number and never want to count minutes.

Zoom Virtual Agent Receptionist, $29.99 a month

Zoom's receptionist became a standalone product in July 2026 and works with any phone system. It is $29.99 a month per 100 minutes ($24.99 billed annually), with scheduling, routing to a person, live transcription and 10+ languages, and there is a free trial. You buy more minutes in 100-minute blocks rather than paying a per-minute overage. Zoom is the cheapest of the big platforms and the one to look at if your team already lives in Zoom.

Best for: businesses that already run a phone system and want to add AI answering on top.

RingCentral AI Receptionist, $49 a month ($39 for RingEX customers)

RingCentral's AIR includes 100 minutes, bills overage at $0.50 a minute in half-minute increments and comes with a 14-day trial. It ranks first on Google for "ai receptionist" and it is a solid product if you are already a RingCentral customer. As a standalone it is the most expensive 100 minutes on this list and the highest overage rate.

Best for: existing RingCentral customers who want AI answering without changing vendors.

Rosie Professional, $49 a month

Rosie's entry plan gives you 250 minutes for $49, the most minutes under $50 by a wide margin, with English and Spanish, a 7-day trial and no card. On the Professional plan the receptionist texts the caller a booking link; booking straight into your calendar and warm or live transfers start at the $149 Scale plan. If you go over 250 minutes Rosie moves you up a tier rather than charging per minute.

Best for: home-service businesses with steady call volume that can wait on live transfer.

How to choose

If you take fewer than 20 calls a month and want transfers and spam filtering, our Essential plan at $14 costs the least. If you want to spend nothing and can live without transcripts, Phonely's free plan is the one. If you take more than 60 minutes of calls, Rosie's 250 minutes for $49 is the cheapest volume on the list, with Zoom at $29.99 per 100 minutes close behind. If voice quality is what you care about and you take one call at a time, Reception is worth the $29.

Whatever you pick, run five real calls during the trial: ask a question from your website, ask to book, ask for a person, ask something off-topic, and switch languages halfway. The cheap plans differ more on those five calls than they do on price. You can make the first one right now on our demo line, and if you want the same comparison at 200 and 400 minutes with the full feature list, it is in our 2026 market comparison.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest AI receptionist?

Phonely's free plan (100 minutes a month) is the cheapest working AI receptionist. The cheapest paid plan is our Essential plan at $14 a month for 60 minutes (plan by plan detail is on our pricing comparison page). Upfirst ($24.95), Reception ($29), Dialzara ($29), Beside ($29.99) and Zoom ($29.99) are the next cheapest.

Is there a free AI receptionist?

Yes, one, with a catch. Phonely offers 100 free minutes a month with a free phone number, but the free plan has no transcripts, no analytics and no support beyond a community forum, and when the 100 minutes run out it stops answering until you move to the $50 plan. Reception, Upfirst, Rosie, Frontdesk and RingCentral offer free trials of 7 to 14 days but no ongoing free plan. Our plans start at $14 with a 3-day free trial.

How many calls do 60 minutes cover?

About 20 calls, assuming three minutes each. A business taking three calls a day needs roughly 200 minutes a month.

Do cheap AI receptionists transfer calls to a person?

Most do, with limits. We include single-number transfer and extension dialing on Essential. Reception uses transfer rules on every plan. Phonely includes transfer on its free plan. Rosie holds live transfers back to its $149 plan.

Can I get an AI receptionist outside the US on a cheap plan?

Ours works in the US, Canada and the UK with local numbers; other countries are not supported yet. Reception provisions US numbers only. Zoom and RingCentral serve international customers on their standard plans.

What happens when I run out of minutes?

It depends on the vendor. We charge $0.25 a minute through a booster pack, and our cost guide walks through when upgrading beats paying overage. Reception charges $0.45, Dialzara $0.48 and RingCentral $0.50. Zoom sells another 100-minute block. Rosie moves you to the next plan. Phonely's free plan stops answering until you upgrade.

We re-check every price on this page monthly. If you spot one that has changed, tell us and we will fix it the same week. And if you want to see what $14 a month gets you, start a trial and put it on your line for a day.