Veterinary Answering Service: Options and Costs (2026)
A vet clinic’s phone never really stops. Daytime it’s appointment requests, refills and “is this normal?” while your front desk is checking someone in. After close it’s the dog that ate a sock and the owner who doesn’t know whether it can wait until morning.
The quick answer: A veterinary answering service picks up when your front desk can’t. Vet-tech triage lines like GuardianVets put credentialed technicians on after-hours calls (priced by quote). General live services run about $380 to $1,725 a month at 100 calls. Carly is the pick for clinics that want every call answered and booked: it rings your team first, answers when nobody can, books appointments on your real calendar, takes refill requests and, for anything on your emergency list, gives the caller your partner ER’s number and texts your on-call vet.
Veterinary answering service costs at 100 calls a month
US list prices from each vendor’s own page, checked October 23, 2026. The last column estimates a month for a clinic sending 100 calls to the service, about 3 minutes each (300 minutes).
| Option | Who answers | Entry price | Billing unit | At 100 calls (300 min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Your team first, then AI | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo | Monthly plan | Setup: one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude |
| GuardianVets | Credentialed veterinary technicians | Not published | Quote | Quote |
| Weave | Phone system with an AI Receptionist in early access | From $199/mo | Plan | From $199 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI, with live staff available | Free for 25 calls, then $3 a call | Per call | $212.50 (Pro: $150 for 75, then $2.50) |
| Specialty Answering Service | Humans | $44 plus $1.54/min | Per minute, by the second | About $384 (220-minute plan plus 80 minutes at $1.44) |
| PATLive | Humans | $49 plus $2.99/min | Per minute | $479 (300-minute plan) |
| Smith.ai live receptionists | Humans | $300 for 30 calls | Per call | $915 ($810 for 90 + 10 calls at $10.50) |
| Ruby | Humans | $250 for 50 minutes | Per minute | $1,725 (500-minute plan) |
GuardianVets is the specialist: every after-hours call goes to a US-based credentialed veterinary technician with at least three to five years of clinical experience, who triages the pet and documents the call in your practice management system. If you want clinical triage at 2am, that’s what it’s built for. Weave is a phone and texting platform for dental, optometry and vet practices.
What each option does with four common calls
| ”My dog ate chocolate” at 11pm | Appointment for a limping cat | Refill request | What your team sees at 8am | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | Owner searches online, or drives to an ER | Calls another clinic | Waits | A list of voicemails |
| Vet-tech triage line | Triaged by a technician, sent to the ER or told to watch and wait | Appointment request | Message taken | Triage notes in your system |
| General live service | Read your ER instructions, message taken | Message or booking request | Message taken | Messages by email or app |
| Carly | On your emergency list, so the ER’s number and address are given right away and the on-call vet is texted | Booked into the next open slot on your calendar, confirmation texted | Taken and assigned to the right tech | Every call summarized, booked or assigned |
Four jobs a vet clinic’s answering setup has to do
1. Send emergencies to the right place, fast
Write the list: trouble breathing, collapse, seizures, suspected toxin ingestion, a bloated belly, hit by a car, heavy bleeding. Whoever answers should give your partner ER’s name, address and number without hesitation, and alert your on-call vet if you take after-hours cases.
2. Book, don’t promise a callback
Most calls want an appointment. A slot booked during the call, with a confirmation text, beats a message your front desk has to return between patients.
3. Take refills and records requests cleanly
Pet name, medication, owner, pharmacy or pickup preference. Assigned to the right person, not buried in voicemail.
4. Answer the easy questions
Hours, prices on your published list, boarding and grooming availability, what to bring to a first visit.
How Carly covers a vet clinic’s phones
Carly follows your instructions on every call, exactly the same way, so the 11pm caller gets the same careful handling as the 11am one.
- Your front desk rings first. Carly answers when nobody picks up, and takes every call after close.
- Emergency list, your words. For anything on it, Carly gives the ER’s details immediately and a workflow texts your on-call vet the summary and callback number.
- Books appointments on your clinic’s real Google or Outlook calendars, by doctor or appointment type, and texts the confirmation from your number.
- Takes refill and records requests and assigns them to the right teammate.
- Texts back every missed call and sends vaccine and appointment reminders, each owner getting their own text (missed-call text back).
- Answers everyday questions from the hours, prices and policies you give it.
- Knows returning clients. Owners already in your CRM are greeted by name.
- English or Spanish, detected from the caller.
- One morning list. Every call, transcript, voicemail and text sits in a team inbox and Carly’s CRM. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Keep the clinic’s number and forward the calls your team misses, or grab a new number in the chat. Paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:
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.Then call after hours and describe a dog that ate chocolate to hear exactly what an owner would (how to test it). Get started.
Questions to ask any veterinary answering service
- Who answers after hours, and what are they allowed to say?
- How does the on-call vet hear about an urgent call? Text, call or app, and how fast.
- Can it book into my schedule, or only take requests?
- What’s billed? Minutes, calls or a plan, plus overage, rounding and holiday rates.
- Where do the notes land? Your practice management system, a shared inbox, or an email per call.
More in after-hours answering service and AI answering service.
FAQ
How much does a veterinary answering service cost?
At about 100 calls a month, general live services run from about $384 (Specialty Answering Service) to $1,725 (Ruby) on list prices checked October 23, 2026. GuardianVets, which uses credentialed vet techs, prices by quote. Carly: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Can an AI answering service handle veterinary emergencies?
Yes. With Carly, you write the emergency list, and callers who match it get your partner ER’s details right away while your on-call vet gets a text.
Can an answering service book vet appointments?
Some live services take booking requests. Carly books into your real calendar during the call and texts the owner a confirmation.
Can I keep my clinic’s phone number?
Yes. Forward unanswered calls to Carly and your number, signage and Google listing stay the same.
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