- In CallRail's 2025 survey, 78% of consumers said they had abandoned a business after an unanswered call, and only 42% said they leave a voicemail.
- Published prices we checked in October 2026: human answering services listed $99 to $395 a month for 50 to 100 minutes. Self-serve AI receptionists listed $29 to $349 for 60 to 1,000 minutes.
- AI is strongest on routine calls at any hour. A person is still better with upset, complicated, or high-stakes callers.
- If calls are recorded or answered by AI, say so at the start. Some states require it.
Every call you can't answer goes one of four ways: to voicemail, to a person you pay to answer, to software that answers for you, or to a competitor. Here is what the first three cost, using published prices we checked in October 2026, and where each one fits.
What an unanswered call costs
In a CallRail survey of 1,000 US consumers, 78% said they had abandoned a business after an unanswered call, and 21% said they immediately call another business. Calling back later often doesn't happen: Quo's analysis of 16.7 million missed business calls found that 69% got no callback within 48 hours.
Customers also choose quickly. In BrightLocal's 2026 study, 75% took less than 30 minutes to decide which local business to use.
The three options, side by side
| Voicemail | Answering service | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published monthly price | Free | $99 to $395 for 50 to 100 minutes | $29 to $349 for 60 to 1,000 minutes, self-serve |
| Who answers | Nobody | A trained person | Software |
| Strongest with | Callers who will wait | Upset, complicated, or high-value calls | Routine questions and booking, at any hour |
| Watch for | Fewer than half of callers leave a message | The bill grows with every minute | Setup, and a clear handoff to a person |
Option 1: Voicemail
It's free, and it works for customers who already know you and will wait. For new callers it's a weak net. In the CallRail survey, 42% said they leave a voicemail when nobody answers.
If you stay with voicemail, add a missed-call text back, so the caller gets a message asking how you can help. It's one of the automations worth setting up first.
Option 2: A human answering service
Receptionists at a service answer in your business name, take messages, and can often book appointments or transfer calls. You pay by the minute or by the call. Three well-known services publish their prices:
- PATLive: $99 a month for 50 minutes, $189 for 100, $349 for 200.
- Ruby: $250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200.
- Smith.ai: priced per call, at $300 a month for 30 calls or $810 for 90.
The strength is judgment. A person can calm an angry customer, spot an emergency, and handle a call that goes off script. The limit is cost, which climbs with every minute, so busy phones get expensive.
For comparison, hiring in-house isn't cheap either. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for receptionists at $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, and that covers one shift.
Option 3: An AI receptionist
An AI receptionist, also called an AI phone agent, answers the call, talks with the caller, answers common questions, and can book appointments and send you a summary. It comes two ways.
Self-serve apps. You sign up, describe your business, and set it up yourself. Published prices:
- Dialzara: $29 a month for 60 minutes, up to $349 for 1,000.
- Rosie: $49 a month for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000.
- Goodcall: $79 to $299 a month, priced by the number of different callers, not by minutes.
Done for you. Someone builds the agent around your services, hours, and prices, connects it to your calendar and other tools, and adjusts it as you learn what callers ask. That costs more than an app. Two companies that publish prices list a one-time setup fee of $499 or $1,500, plus $109 to $899 a month.
The strength is coverage. It answers at 9 pm, on holidays, and when three people call at once, and it gives every caller the same information. The limit is complexity. A federal report on chatbots in banking put it well: they may be useful for basic inquiries, but their effectiveness wanes as problems become more complex. A good setup knows when to stop and pass the caller to a person.
What callers think of AI
Better than many owners expect, with conditions. In the CallRail survey, 52% said an AI assistant answering after hours signals superior service, and only 13% said they wouldn't use AI for any task.
They want honesty about it, though. In a Talkdesk survey of 1,000 US shoppers, 40% said they would feel misled if a brand didn't disclose that they were dealing with an AI agent.
How to choose
- Few calls, mostly from existing customers: voicemail plus a missed-call text back may be enough.
- Calls that are sensitive or high in value, such as legal intake, medical questions, or emergencies: a human service, or an AI that hands off to a person.
- Lots of routine calls, after-hours demand, or staff who get interrupted all day: an AI receptionist.
- A mix: many businesses use AI first and keep a person for the calls that need one.
Rules to know
This is general information, not legal advice.
- Recording. Federal law allows a call to be recorded when one party consents. Some states require everyone on the call to consent. Florida is one of them. If your service or software records or transcribes calls, tell callers at the start.
- Saying it's AI. A few states now have rules. Maine, for example, requires clear notice when a chatbot could be mistaken for a person. The simple practice is to have the agent introduce itself as an AI assistant.
- Calling out. In 2024 the Federal Communications Commission ruled that calls made with AI-generated voices count as "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which means they need the consent that law requires. That ruling is about calls a business places. It matters if your AI agent calls customers back.
Six questions to ask any provider
- What exactly is billed: minutes, calls, or callers? What do extra ones cost?
- What happens when it can't handle a call?
- Can it book into the calendar or scheduling software I already use?
- Does it tell callers it's AI, and that the call is recorded?
- What do I receive after each call: a summary, a recording, a transcript?
- Who changes what it says when my prices or hours change?
Sources
- CallRail, survey of 1,000 US consumers, September 2025
- Quo, analysis of 16.7 million missed business calls, August 2026
- BrightLocal, Consumer Search Behavior: speed of decisions, June 2026 (1,227 US consumers)
- Pricing pages of PATLive, Ruby, Smith.ai, Dialzara, Rosie, and Goodcall, read October 5, 2026 (Goodcall read again October 10, 2026)
- Published prices of two done-for-you AI phone agent providers (RAM AI Automations and AgentZap), read October 5, 2026
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Receptionists (May 2025 pay)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "Chatbots in consumer finance," June 2023
- Talkdesk, post-holiday AI survey of 1,000 US shoppers, 2025 holiday season
- 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d) and Florida Statutes 934.03(2)(d)
- Maine Revised Statutes, Title 10, section 1500-DD
- Federal Communications Commission, declaratory ruling on AI-generated voices, February 2024
