How we compare AI phone answering
We list 10 AI phone answering services sold to US businesses. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars, with no exchange rate between the advertised figure and your card.
The calculator asks for calls a month and average call length, because part of this market bills on minutes and minutes are the product of those two numbers. It costs each provider at that volume on whatever unit the provider bills, picks the plan that covers you, and sorts by the monthly estimate. Commission does not change the order.
Software only, or people behind it: two kinds of AI phone answering
Start with one row, because it decides which market you are shopping in.
| Provider | Live human backup |
|---|---|
| Clara | No |
| Dialzara | No, transfers go to your own team |
| Goodcall | No |
| LucroVox | No, transfers go to your own team |
| My AI Front Desk | None published |
| Rosie | No, this is AI only |
| Simple Phones | No, transfers go to your own team |
| Smith.ai | Yes, human agents as a per-call add-on |
Smith.ai breaks the pattern. It is the one row that lists the vendor's own receptionists behind the AI, sold as a per-call add-on, and it meters calls: its included allowance reads 25 calls (Free). None stated on Pro or Enterprise Its per-call charge reads $3.00 a call (Free), $2.00 (Pro), $1.67 (Enterprise)
An AI-only service can take a message or ring your cell phone. A service with staff behind it can keep a caller talking while somebody works out who should handle them. If your callers mostly want your hours, your address and a slot in the calendar, the software-only services in this table do that job.
Minutes, calls or callers: what an AI phone answering plan counts
Vendors here have not agreed on what to count, and that changes which one is cheap for you.
Some meter minutes. Dialzara includes 60 minutes (Business Lite), 220 (Pro), 500 (Plus), 1,000 (Elite) Rosie includes 250 minutes (Professional), 1,000 (Scale), 2,000 (Growth).
Some meter calls, and length does not enter into it. Simple Phones publishes Up to 100 calls a month (Basic), 500 (Advanced), 2,500 (Premium), and LucroVox publishes 100 calls (Starter), 500 (Pro), 2,000 (Enterprise).
Goodcall counts distinct callers: 100 unique callers (Starter), 250 (Growth), 500 (Scale) Clara publishes no meter at all: No fixed cap (fair use applies) The Included per month row in the table holds the rest.
Take two businesses with the same calls a month: a dental practice whose callers reschedule in under a minute, and a contractor whose callers describe a job. On call-metered and flat plans they pay the same. On minute-metered plans they do not.
Your call records decide the AI phone answering shortlist
Nobody knows their average call length, and guessing it is how people buy the wrong plan. The data is in the call detail record on your carrier or VoIP account.
Export one full month, not a week. Filter to the calls the robot would actually take: if you are buying this for after hours and overflow, daytime calls answered by a person are out of scope. Divide total answered talk time by answered calls, since unanswered calls carry no talk time on most meters. If Goodcall is on your list, count distinct phone numbers separately.
Put calls per month and average minutes per call into the calculator. If your average sits near a plan boundary, run it again a minute higher.
Over the allowance: what AI phone answering charges, upgrades or cuts off
The answers for the month you go over differ in kind, not just in price.
A per-unit charge: ai-receptionist.com publishes $0.25 a minute, prepaid packs My AI Front Desk publishes $0.25 a minute, prepaid credits
An automatic move to a bigger plan: Rosie states None. You move up to the next plan Your subscription changes without you agreeing to it that month.
A stop: Simple Phones states None. Service stops at the call cap The failure there is not a larger invoice, it is a phone that no longer answers.
Nothing published: LucroVox states Not published, though the terms say it is charged Put that question to the vendor in writing before you sign.
Trials, contracts and Spanish in AI phone answering
Trial lengths are not standardized. Every contract here runs month to month, with an annual option on some, so read the Contract row before assuming a discount.
| Provider | Free trial |
|---|---|
| ai-receptionist.com | Yes, 3 days |
| Clara | Yes, 7 days |
| Dialzara | Yes, 7 days |
| Goodcall | Yes, length not published |
| LucroVox | Yes, 14 days, and 30 days on the top plan |
| My AI Front Desk | Yes, 7 days |
| Rosie | Yes, 7 days |
| Simple Phones | Yes, 14 days |
| Smith.ai | Yes, a free forever plan |
Spanish decides whether the service can take a call at all in much of the country. These providers publish a language list in our data:
| Provider | Languages |
|---|---|
| Dialzara | Bilingual English and Spanish on Pro and above |
| My AI Front Desk | 20+ languages |
| Rosie | English and Spanish on every call |
| Simple Phones | 1, 5 or 20 languages by plan |
| Smith.ai | English and Spanish |
Transfers and calendar booking are often gated by plan. Rosie's transfer row reads Yes, on Growth and above. Not on Professional Clara's reads No, not on any plan you can buy Check the feature you cannot do without against the rung your call volume puts you on, not the top of the vendor's page.
Recording consent and outbound calls: the US questions for AI phone answering
An AI receptionist works by capturing what the caller said, so call recording consent is a live question. Federal law and most states allow a call to be recorded with the consent of one party to it. A meaningful minority of states require the consent of every party, which is why many businesses announce the recording at the start of the call. Your callers are not necessarily in your state, and the stricter rule can follow the caller. Confirm which rule applies, check what greeting the vendor can play, and take the question to your own attorney. We describe the mechanism; we cannot advise you on it.
Answering an inbound call and starting an outbound one are different regulatory propositions, and some of these products do both. Clara's capability row reads Answering, custom greetings and outbound calls; Pro adds text follow-ups My AI Front Desk's reads Knowledge-base answers, SMS, chat and forms on one credit meter Where a service dials out or texts on your behalf, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the National Do Not Call Registry come into scope, and the consent needed is much harder to establish. Treat follow-up calling as its own compliance question.
Finally, the number itself. A callback from an unfamiliar area code often goes unanswered. Goodcall states Yes, included, US only Rosie states Yes, included, you pick the area code. The Local number row carries the rest. The safest arrangement is to keep advertising the number customers already know and forward it, so a change of vendor never becomes a change of number on your trucks and listings.