An AI receptionist answers your business phone when you can’t. It greets callers, answers common questions, books appointments, takes messages and passes urgent calls to a person, around the clock. For a clinic, salon, law office or home-services business that loses customers to voicemail, an AI receptionist can cost less in a month than a part-time receptionist costs in a day.
Choosing AI receptionist software is harder than it looks. Every AI receptionist prices differently, by the minute, by the call or by the unique caller. Most published comparisons are written by AI receptionist companies ranking themselves first. And most ignore the Indian market, where Hindi and noisy phone lines change which tools work. This guide compares the main options, works out what each costs at a realistic call volume, and covers AI receptionists built for Indian businesses.
Which AI Receptionist Software Is Best?
Goodcall is the best AI receptionist for most small local businesses, because its plan includes unlimited minutes and charges by unique caller, so long calls don’t raise the bill. Frontdesk (formerly My AI Front Desk) suits businesses that want calls, texts and booking in one tool. Dialzara is the cheapest way to start. Smith.ai is the pick if you need a human receptionist behind the AI. For Hindi-speaking callers in India, look at India-built voice platforms such as Bolna or Ringg.
AI Receptionist Software Compared
| AI receptionist | Type | Entry price | What’s included | Beyond the allowance | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | AI | $79/month per agent ($66 annually) | Unlimited minutes, 100 unique callers | $0.50 per extra caller | Local service businesses |
| Frontdesk (formerly My AI Front Desk) | AI | $99/month ($79 annually) | 200 voice minutes, 400 SMS | About $0.25 per minute | Calls, texts and booking together |
| Dialzara | AI | $29/month | 60 minutes | $0.48 per minute, billed per second | Lowest entry price |
| Rosie | AI | $49/month | 250 minutes | Not clearly published | Home services |
| Upfirst | AI | $24.95/month | 30 calls | $1.50 per extra call | Very low call volumes |
| Smith.ai | AI plus human | Free tier for low volumes; paid AI and AI-plus-human plans | Varies by plan | Per call | Businesses needing a human fallback |
| Ruby | Human receptionists with AI features | $250/month | 50 receptionist minutes | Per minute | Businesses wanting a person on every call |
| Bolna | AI voice platform (India) | About ₹5.5 to ₹7 per minute | Pay as you go | Telephony often extra | Developer teams, Indian languages |
| Ringg | AI voice platform (India) | About ₹6 to ₹7 per connected minute | Pay as you go | ₹499/month per phone number | Hindi-first calling |
| Exotel | Cloud telephony with AI voicebot (India) | From about ₹1,999/month | Telephony plus usage | Usage-based | Businesses needing Indian phone infrastructure |
| ConnectAI | AI receptionist for clinics (India) | ₹800/month | Booking, recordings, transcripts | ₹4 per minute | Indian clinics |
Prices exclude tax and come from vendor pricing pages and recent independent pricing reviews. AI receptionist pricing changed several times in 2026, including Goodcall moving to per-caller billing and Rosie dropping unlimited minutes, so confirm current rates before signing up.
How We Evaluated These AI Receptionists
We did not place test calls with every service. We used published pricing, documentation, pricing reviews and documented user experiences. Figures from vendor-written comparisons required agreement across at least two sources. Estimates are labelled, and cost examples are our calculations from published rates.
What an AI Receptionist Software Does
A good AI receptionist handles the calls that would otherwise go to voicemail or interrupt your work:
- Answers in a natural voice and greets callers by your business name.
- Responds to common questions, such as hours, prices, location and services, using information you provide.
- Books, reschedules and cancels appointments in your calendar.
- Takes detailed messages and sends you a summary by text or email.
- Transfers urgent or high-value calls to you or a colleague.
- Follows up by SMS with a booking link or the details a caller asked for.
- Screens spam and robocalls.
Most AI receptionists also keep recordings and transcripts, so you can check what was said and spot calls the AI handled badly.
What an AI Receptionist Software Really Costs: 100 Calls a Month
Headline prices hide very different billing models. Here is what each would cost for a business taking 100 calls a month at an average of 3 minutes each, or 300 minutes. All figures are our calculations from published rates.
| AI receptionist | Billing model | Estimated monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | Per unique caller, unlimited minutes | $79 if those calls come from 100 or fewer unique callers |
| Frontdesk | Minutes plus overage | About $124 ($99 for 200 minutes, plus 100 minutes at $0.25) |
| Upfirst | Per call | About $130 ($24.95 for 30 calls, plus 70 calls at $1.50) |
| Dialzara | Per minute | About $144 ($29 for 60 minutes, plus 240 minutes at $0.48) |
| Rosie | Minutes plus overage | $49 for 250 minutes, plus overage on the remaining 50 |
| Ruby | Human, per minute | Several hundred dollars, since $250 covers only 50 minutes |
The pattern is clear. The cheapest entry price isn’t the cheapest AI receptionist once you have regular call volume. Per-minute plans suit businesses with few, short calls. Per-caller or flat plans suit businesses with steady volume or long calls, such as intake or booking conversations.
The Best AI Receptionists for Small Businesses
1. Goodcall
Goodcall’s base plan costs $79 a month per agent ($66 on annual billing) and includes unlimited minutes for up to 100 unique callers, then $0.50 per additional caller. Because it counts callers rather than minutes, repeat callers and long conversations don’t push the bill up. That suits plumbers, salons, repair shops and other local businesses where the same customers call back. It’s one of the few AI receptionists whose pricing gets cheaper per minute as calls get longer.
2. Frontdesk (formerly My AI Front Desk)
Frontdesk, rebranded from My AI Front Desk, combines an AI receptionist with SMS and its own booking calendar. The entry plan costs $99 a month ($79 on annual billing) for 200 voice minutes and 400 text messages, with extra minutes at about $0.25 each, and there’s a 7-day free trial with no card required. It handles more than 20 languages. For a business that books appointments by phone and confirms them by text, keeping both in one tool saves time.
3. Dialzara
Dialzara has the lowest entry price among established AI receptionists, at $29 a month for 60 minutes, with extra minutes at $0.48 billed per second. It’s a sensible way to test whether an AI receptionist works for your callers before committing. Watch the per-minute cost as volume grows: at a few hundred minutes a month, it can cost more than plans with a higher headline price.
4. Rosie
Rosie is aimed at home-services businesses such as HVAC, plumbing and cleaning companies. Plans start at $49 a month for 250 minutes. Rosie dropped its unlimited-minute plans in 2026, and its overage rate isn’t clearly published, so check what happens above the allowance before choosing it for a busy line.
5. Upfirst
Upfirst starts at $24.95 a month for 30 calls, then $1.50 per extra call. Per-call billing suits businesses that get only a handful of calls a week, especially long ones. Above about 60 calls a month, per-minute or per-caller plans usually work out cheaper.
6. Smith.ai
Smith.ai combines an AI receptionist with live human receptionists who take over when a call needs judgement, empathy or a complex intake. It offers a free tier for low call volumes, with paid AI and AI-plus-human plans billed per call. Smith.ai’s plans changed several times in 2026, so check its current pricing page. For law firms, medical practices and businesses where a mishandled call is expensive, the human backup is the reason to choose it.
7. Ruby
Ruby isn’t a pure AI receptionist. It’s a live receptionist service that uses AI for transcription and workflow, starting at $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes. It’s the most expensive option here at any real volume. Choose it if every caller must reach a person.
AI Receptionists for Indian Businesses
Most global AI receptionists are built for American English and US phone networks. Indian callers often switch between Hindi and English mid-sentence, and many call from noisy mobile lines, which global voice agents tend to handle poorly. India-built voice AI platforms are designed for that.
Bolna
Bolna is an India-built voice AI platform with support for more than 10 Indian languages. Self-serve pricing is about ₹5.5 to ₹7 a minute, and enterprise volume can be negotiated much lower. It suits businesses with a developer who can build the call flow, and telephony is usually bought separately.
Ringg
Ringg focuses on Hindi-first voice agents, charging about ₹6 to ₹7 per connected minute plus ₹499 a month per phone number.
Exotel
Exotel is a cloud telephony provider that has added AI voicebots on top of its Indian phone infrastructure, with plans from about ₹1,999 a month. It suits businesses that need Indian phone numbers, IVR and call routing alongside the AI receptionist.
ConnectAI
ConnectAI offers an AI voice receptionist built for Indian clinics, speaking Hindi and Indian English, at ₹800 a month plus ₹4 per minute, with bookings and WhatsApp reminders. If you run a clinic, our guides to physical therapy practice software and hospital management software cover the systems these tools connect to.
Watch the gap between headline and real cost in India. Published AI rates often sit between ₹2 and ₹12 a minute, but the effective cost after telephony, platform fees and setup typically lands between ₹6 and ₹25 a minute. Ask every vendor for an all-in rate.
Many Indian businesses pair an AI receptionist with WhatsApp follow-ups, sending booking confirmations or details after a call. Platforms such as WATI, Interakt and AiSensy handle that side. For call-heavy sales teams, Indian CRMs like TeleCRM and Kylas log calls and leads in one place.
Check Your Phone System First
If you already pay for a business phone system, check whether it sells an AI receptionist add-on before buying a separate tool. Providers such as RingCentral and Aircall have added AI answering features, and keeping calls in one system makes routing, recordings and billing simpler.
AI Receptionist vs AI Voice Agent Platform
An AI receptionist is a ready-made product: you describe your business, connect a phone number and it starts answering. An AI voice agent platform, such as Vapi, Retell or Bolna, is a set of building blocks for creating your own voice agent, and it usually needs a developer. Small businesses almost always want an AI receptionist. Companies with unusual call flows, high volumes or their own engineering team may get better value from a platform.
AI receptionists answer incoming calls. For outbound prospecting, AI sales agents are a different category, covered in our guide to the best AI SDR tools.
Where AI Receptionists Fall Short
AI receptionists handle routine calls well, but they have limits worth planning for:
- Strong accents, poor connections and background noise still cause misunderstandings.
- Complex intake, such as legal or medical histories, often needs a person.
- They can’t judge an emergency the way a person can, so set clear rules for transferring urgent calls.
- They only know what you tell them. Outdated prices or hours in the setup mean wrong answers.
- Some callers hang up when they realise they’re talking to an AI.
Disclosure, Consent and Recording
Tell callers they’re speaking with an AI assistant, and that calls may be recorded. Many US states require consent to record calls, and the FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices count as “artificial” voices under US robocall law, which matters if you use the same tool for outbound calls. In India, call recordings and transcripts count as personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, and commercial calling falls under TRAI’s rules. Check the requirements for your industry before going live.
How to Set Up AI Receptionist Software
- Write down your 20 most common caller questions and their answers.
- Add your hours, prices, services, location and booking rules.
- Connect your calendar, and your CRM if you use one, such as HubSpot CRM or Zoho CRM.
- Set transfer rules for urgent calls, VIP customers and anything the AI can’t answer.
- Record a greeting that says callers are speaking with an AI assistant.
- Forward calls only after hours for the first two weeks.
- Review recordings and transcripts weekly, and fix any wrong answers.
- Move to answering every call once the AI handles routine calls reliably.
How to Choose AI Receptionist Software
- If you run a local service business with repeat callers, start with Goodcall.
- If you book appointments by phone and confirm them by text, choose Frontdesk.
- If you want to test an AI receptionist on the smallest budget, try Dialzara or Upfirst.
- If a mishandled call would be costly, choose Smith.ai for its human fallback.
- If every caller must reach a person, Ruby is the human-first option.
- If your callers speak Hindi or mix Hindi and English, look at Bolna, Ringg or Exotel, or ConnectAI for clinics.
If your business also handles support by chat and email, our guide to AI agents for customer support covers tools that work across channels, including helpdesks like Freshdesk and Zendesk.
FAQs
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AI receptionist or answering service: which is better?
Ajay Kumar is an SEO and AI search specialist with more than 10 years of experience across SEO, app store optimisation and generative engine optimisation. He has led search growth for gaming, software, fintech and healthcare brands in India and internationally, and he edits every CompareCrest comparison, checking pricing and claims against vendor sources before publishing.
