AI Answering Service: How It Works and What It Costs
A live answering service picks up your phone, takes a message and bills you by the minute. An AI answering service picks up the same call for a fraction of the cost. The good ones go further: they work out whether the caller is a real job and put them on the right person’s calendar before the call ends.
The quick answer: An AI answering service is a voice agent that answers your business calls when your team can’t, 24/7, instead of a human operator at a call center. Most bill per call rather than per minute, so the same volume costs a fraction of Ruby, AnswerConnect or Smith.ai’s live plans. Carly is the pick if you want bookings instead of messages: Carly Phone answers on your business number, knows the caller from your email and CRM, qualifies them against your criteria and books them on a real calendar. The Carly team sets it up with you, so book a call with the Carly team to see it run on your own call flow.
AI answering service vs live answering service: prices side by side
US list prices, checked September 14, 2026.
| Service | Who answers | Entry price | What the entry plan covers | Past the allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly Phone | AI on your own business line, after your team | Set on a short call | Calls and texts on one number, routing, AI receptionist, CRM logging | Scoped on the call |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI | $0, or $150/mo for Pro | 25 calls (free plan), 75 calls (Pro) | $3.00/call (free), $2.50/call (Pro) |
| Quo Sona | AI agent on a Quo number | Quo from $19/user/mo, 10 Sona calls included | Credit packs from $25/mo for 40 calls | $1.00 to $0.45/call |
| RingCentral AI Receptionist | AI | Starts at $39 | Add-on to RingEX or standalone license | Bundles quoted by sales |
| Smith.ai live receptionists | Humans | $300/mo | 30 calls | $11.50/call |
| Ruby | Humans | $250/mo | 50 receptionist minutes | Next plan: 100 minutes for $395 |
| AnswerConnect | Humans | $350/mo + $49.99 setup | 200 minutes | $2.50/minute |
The pattern: human services sell minutes or calls in small blocks, AI services sell calls in big ones. For the full ranked list of tools, see our best AI receptionist guide.
What an AI answering service actually is
“AI answering service,” “AI phone answering service” and “AI virtual receptionist” all describe the same product: a voice agent that answers your business line. What varies is how much it can do once the caller starts talking. There are three levels:
- Live answering service. A trained human answers with your greeting, follows a script, takes a message and sends it to you. Ruby and AnswerConnect work this way. Smith.ai sells both a human and an AI version.
- AI message-taker. A voice agent answers, collects name, number and reason for calling, and sends you a transcript. Cheaper than a human, but you still call everyone back.
- AI that qualifies and books. The agent asks your qualifying questions, reads your calendars and books the appointment itself. The note you get the next morning says “booked,” not “please call back.”
Most people searching this term are comparing level 1 to level 2. The money is in level 3. Get a walkthrough of Carly Phone to see what that looks like on a real line.
How a call flows through an AI answering service
Take Michael, who runs a four-person HVAC company. Claire calls at 6:40pm on a Tuesday because her furnace is making a grinding noise. Here is what happens on Carly Phone:
- Your team rings first. During business hours, routing rings Michael and his dispatcher at once or in order. After hours, calls go straight to the AI. Phone menus are optional.
- Carly answers when nobody picks up, in the company’s name.
- It knows who is calling. Claire’s number matches a CRM record and an email thread from last winter’s install, so Carly already has her address and her system.
- It answers the easy questions: service area, diagnostic fee, weekend availability.
- It qualifies against your criteria. Emergency? Inside the service area? Under warranty? Michael’s rules, in his order.
- It checks real calendars and books the right person. Carly looks at the technicians’ calendars, finds Josh free at 8am Wednesday and books him.
- It texts Claire. A confirmation from the same business number, plus a link if you want one (a booking page or an intake form).
- It logs everything. Transcript, summary and outcome land in the call inbox and in Carly’s CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365. Michael marks it resolved in the morning, or it reopens if Claire texts back.
If Claire texts instead, the same thing happens in the shared SMS inbox, and anyone on the team can take over (see SMS appointment booking for business). Want to hear it on your own number? Book a call with the Carly team.
Message-taker vs an AI that qualifies and books
| Message-taker (human or AI) | AI that qualifies and books | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get in the morning | A list of callbacks | Booked appointments and a short list of exceptions |
| Knows the caller | Only what they say on the call | Their CRM record and email history |
| Qualifying | A fixed script | Your criteria, used to decide the next step |
| Calendar | A scheduling link at best | Reads your team’s real calendars and books the right person |
| Follow-up | You call back | A text with the confirmation or a link |
| Where the record goes | Email or app notification | Your CRM and a call inbox with resolve/reopen |
The callback list is where leads go to die: a caller who hears “someone will get back to you” dials the next company on Google. The lead response agent guide covers the same problem on email.
That gap is Carly’s pitch: the AI works from the caller’s email and CRM history and books a real calendar slot instead of writing down a name. See Carly Phone on a call.
What an AI answering service costs next to a live one
The billing unit matters more than the headline price. Four are in use:
- Per receptionist minute (Ruby, AnswerConnect). AnswerConnect rounds each interaction up to the next minute, with the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds per cycle not charged.
- Per call (Smith.ai, live and AI). Add-ons are per call too: booking an appointment on a live Smith.ai plan adds $1.50 a call.
- Per call through credits (Quo Sona). One call is 100 credits.
- Per license (RingCentral AI Receptionist), with bundles quoted.
Here is one month for a small service business: 120 answered calls, each billed as 3 minutes (360 minutes).
| Option | How the month lands | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby | Past the 200-minute plan ($720), so the 500-minute plan | $1,725 |
| Smith.ai live, Basic | $810 for 90 calls + 30 × $10.50 | $1,125 before booking add-ons |
| AnswerConnect, Growth | $395 for 300 minutes + 60 × $1.85 | $506 |
| Smith.ai AI, Pro 150-call tier | 150 calls at $1.80 each | $270 |
| Quo + Sona | $19 seat + $49 pack (100 calls) + 20 × $0.65 | About $81 |
The AI rows win on price, but price says nothing about what happens on the call: an agent that only takes messages still leaves you 120 callbacks. Carly Phone is an add-on for teams, scoped to your call volume and routing and priced on a short call: get a walkthrough and a number for your line.
Buyer’s checklist for an AI answering service
Ask every vendor these before you sign:
- Does it answer on my existing number? Keeping your number beats forwarding callers somewhere new.
- Does my team get the first ring? You want routing rules (at once or in order, business hours vs after hours), not AI on every call.
- What exactly is billed? Minutes or calls, whether time rounds up, and whether hang-ups, spam and wrong numbers count.
- Can it read all of my team’s calendars? And book the right person by service, territory or availability, instead of sending a link.
- Does it qualify against my criteria? Budget, location, urgency, case type: whatever decides whether you want the job.
- Does it know the caller? An agent with CRM and email history doesn’t ask a repeat customer for their address.
- What happens after the call? A text to the caller from your business number, and a transcript and summary in your CRM.
- What are the exit terms? Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist asks for 30 days’ notice to cancel. AnswerConnect advertises no contract and no notice period.
- Who does the setup? Self-serve means you write the scripts and call flows yourself.
Run the checklist against your own call flow on a call with the Carly team.
AI answering service options, Carly first
The short version is below. The best AI receptionist list ranks more tools in more depth, and best small business phone systems covers the phone line itself.
1. Carly Phone
A business phone line run by Carly: a new local number or the one you already have, calls and texts on the same number, routing and phone menus, and an AI receptionist that answers when nobody picks up. It qualifies callers, checks real calendars, books the right person and texts them a link, then logs the call to Carly’s CRM or to HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365. It comes with everything else Carly does across email, calendar and follow-ups, and Carly connects to thousands of apps.
Best for: Service businesses, agencies and professional firms where a missed call is a lost job and the goal is a booked appointment, not a message. Pricing: An add-on for teams, priced on a short call. Book a call to scope it. Watch out for: The Carly team sets it up with you rather than handing you a self-serve builder, so plan on one call before you go live.
2. Smith.ai
Smith.ai sells two products: an AI Receptionist and a human-first virtual receptionist service, both billed per call. The AI plans include lead qualification, call routing and scheduling through tools like Calendly.
Best for: Law firms and service businesses that want a human fallback from the same vendor. Pricing: AI Receptionist free for 25 calls a month ($3.00 per call after), Pro from $150/month for 75 calls. Live receptionists from $300/month for 30 calls. Watch out for: Per-call add-ons on the live plans (booking is $1.50 a call). Low-star Trustpilot reviews center on billing, including AI calls escalated to live agents and charges after cancelling.
3. Ruby
Ruby is a live receptionist service answering 24/7, with scheduling, bilingual answering and intake available, and optional AI enhancements at no extra cost.
Best for: Businesses whose callers expect a human voice every time. Pricing: $250/month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500. Watch out for: Minute billing adds up on long calls, and low-star reviewers report being charged for spam and dropped calls.
4. AnswerConnect
AnswerConnect is a human answering service that sells itself on real people answering, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with CRM integrations and a mobile app.
Best for: Higher-volume businesses that want live answering at a lower per-minute rate than Ruby. Pricing: $350/month for 200 minutes, $395 for 300, $575 for 400, per its published pricing guide. A one-time $49.99 setup fee applies on some plans. Watch out for: Every interaction rounds up to the next minute, and extras like Spanish answering and phone-menu routing are paid add-ons.
5. Quo Sona
Sona is the AI agent inside Quo (formerly OpenPhone) that answers calls 24/7. Every Quo plan includes 10 Sona calls a month, and past that you buy credit packs. Our Quo pricing breakdown has the details.
Best for: Small teams already on Quo that want after-hours coverage in the same app. Pricing: Quo from $19/user/month ($15 billed annually). Sona packs run from $25/month for 40 calls to $199/month for 600. Watch out for: Ten included calls go fast, and on the Starter plan AI call summaries and transcripts only cover Sona-handled calls.
6. RingCentral AI Receptionist
RingCentral’s AI Receptionist answers questions, captures lead details, schedules appointments, sends follow-up texts and routes urgent calls. It is sold as an add-on to RingEX or as a standalone license. More in our RingCentral AI Receptionist guide.
Best for: Companies already running their phones on RingCentral. Pricing: Starts at $39. Bundles with other add-ons are quoted by RingCentral’s team. Watch out for: The listed price is a floor, and the package you end up with is a sales quote.
FAQ
What is an AI answering service?
An AI answering service is software that answers your business phone with a voice agent when your team can’t pick up, including after hours. Basic versions take a message and send you a transcript. Better ones answer questions, qualify the caller and book the appointment on your calendar during the call.
How much does an AI answering service cost?
AI plans run from free tiers covering a few dozen calls to a few hundred dollars a month. Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist is $150/month for 75 calls, and RingCentral’s AI Receptionist starts at $39. Live answering services cost more for the same volume: Ruby starts at $250/month for 50 minutes and Smith.ai’s live receptionists at $300/month for 30 calls. Carly Phone is priced on a short call with the Carly team.
Is an AI answering service better than a live answering service?
On cost and speed, usually: an AI agent answers instantly, handles several calls at once and costs a fraction of per-minute human answering. A trained human still reads an upset caller better. What works for most small businesses is your team on the first ring and AI on overflow and after hours.
Can an AI answering service book appointments?
Some can, and it is the feature worth paying for. Look for one that reads your team’s real calendars rather than sending a scheduling link. Carly Phone qualifies the caller, books the right person and texts a confirmation; book a call with the Carly team to see it on your calendars.
Is an AI virtual receptionist the same as an AI answering service?
Yes, in practice. Vendors use both names for a voice agent that answers your business line. Compare what each one does on the call (message, qualify, book), not what it is called.
Can I keep my existing business number?
Usually. Carly Phone runs on the number you already have or a new local number, with calls and texts on the same line. Smith.ai and Quo also port existing numbers.
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