Marlie AI: Pricing, Review and Alternatives (2026)
Marlie AI is an AI answering service aimed at trades and local service businesses. It picks up in about two seconds, takes messages or books the job, and texts you a summary of every call.
The pricing looks simple until you check which plan unlocks what. On the cheapest plan it takes messages and can’t transfer a call.
The quick answer: Marlie AI is $49 a month for 250 minutes, $99 for 500, $199 for 1,000 and $399 for 2,000, with 25¢ to 35¢ per extra minute and a 14-day free trial. Booking appointments starts at $99, routing to different people starts at $199, and ringing your team one at a time before the AI is a $399 feature. If you want your team to ring first, leads called back within a minute and two-way texting on every plan, Carly does that from one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude.
Prices from Marlie AI’s pricing page, checked October 21, 2026.
Marlie AI pricing
| Plan | Price | Minutes | Extra minutes | Key unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $49/mo | 250 | $0.35/min | Messages with your custom questions |
| Standard | $99/mo | 500 | $0.35/min | Booking, rescheduling, transfer to one number |
| Pro | $199/mo | 1,000 | $0.30/min | Department routing, knowledge base, checkout links |
| Premium | $399/mo | 2,000 | $0.25/min | Rings your team one at a time, multi-location, account manager |
What Marlie does well
- Fast pickup, about two seconds on average.
- Your questions on every message, even on Basic.
- Spam and robocall screening on every plan.
- Call reports by email and text with summaries and transcripts.
Where Marlie falls short
- Basic can’t transfer a call or book a job. At $49 it takes messages, with one action per call.
- One transfer number on Standard. Routing to different people or departments starts at $199.
- Your team rings first only on Premium. Having staff hear who’s calling and press 1 to accept is the $399 plan.
- Custom CRM integrations are a Premium item, arranged by Marlie’s team.
- It answers. Calling a new web lead back isn’t on Marlie’s plan list.
- Texts are actions on a call: links and situation messages, counted against each plan’s actions-per-call limit.
Why Carly is the better pick for a service business
Carly answers your business line and follows your rules exactly, on every call, with nothing locked behind a top tier.
- Your team rings first. In business hours Carly rings your people and answers only when nobody picks up. After hours it answers right away.
- Books, reschedules and transfers. Bookings land on everyone’s Google and Outlook calendars, and ring groups plus phone menus up to nine options put urgent calls through.
- Calls leads back within about a minute of a form fill, then texts and emails if they don’t answer (how it works).
- Two-way texting from your business number, plus a text back on every missed call.
- Logs to your CRM from day one: HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or Carly’s own CRM. Jobber, Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan connect too, and Carly reaches thousands of apps.
- English and Spanish, detected from the caller.
- Set up and change it from your AI chat. Paste Carly’s setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and change the rules any time by asking (see how).
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
Marlie AI vs Carly
| Marlie AI | Carly | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 to $399/mo plus per-minute overage | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month |
| Rings your team first | Premium ($399) | Yes |
| Booking | Standard ($99) and up | Yes |
| Transfers | None on Basic, one number on Standard | Ring groups and phone menus |
| Calls new leads back | Not listed | Within about a minute |
| Texting | Links and situation messages on calls | Two-way, plus missed-call text back |
| CRM | Custom integrations on Premium | HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Carly CRM and more |
| Run from ChatGPT or Claude | No | Yes |
Other Marlie AI alternatives
- Carly: answering, lead callbacks, texting and CRM in one assistant.
- Rosie: minute bundles for home services. See Rosie AI alternatives.
- Goodcall: billed by unique caller. See Goodcall.
- Upfirst: billed per call, with booking on every plan. See Upfirst AI.
- Jobber Receptionist: if you run your shop on Jobber. See Jobber AI receptionist.
Trade-specific picks are in HVAC answering service and answering service for plumbers.
FAQ
How much does Marlie AI cost?
$49 a month for 250 minutes, $99 for 500, $199 for 1,000 and $399 for 2,000. Extra minutes are 35¢ on Basic and Standard, 30¢ on Pro and 25¢ on Premium. There’s a 14-day free trial.
Can Marlie AI book appointments?
Yes, from the $99 Standard plan, with calendar sync and rescheduling. Basic takes messages only.
Can Marlie AI transfer calls?
Not on Basic. Standard transfers to one number, and Pro adds routing to different people and departments.
What’s the best Marlie AI alternative?
Carly if you want your team to ring first, new leads called back within a minute and every call in your CRM, set up from ChatGPT or Claude.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
