Most providers publish a range and gate the real number behind a consultation. We publish ours. Here’s what an AI receptionist costs in Australia, broken into the three layers that catch people out, and what we charge.
The three cost layers
When you compare AI receptionist prices, you’re usually looking at the monthly fee. That’s one of three costs:
- Setup — the build cost. Conversation design, qualifying questions, integration with your tools, testing. One-off, paid before launch.
- Monthly management — the ongoing fee. Covers the AI answering calls, knowledge updates, error review and support.
- Call usage — the one that makes flat-rate comparisons misleading. Some providers bill per minute. Some bill per unique caller. Some bundle a call allowance into the monthly fee and charge for extras. Two services quoting the same monthly fee can cost very different amounts depending on this layer.
Why per-minute billing is hard to budget for
Per-minute billing means a five-minute call costs more than a one-minute call. That sounds fair until you try to predict your monthly cost. A quiet week with three long calls and a busy week with twenty short ones can produce wildly different bills, and you can’t control how long a caller talks.
We don’t bill per minute. Our AI receptionist plans include a set number of answered calls a month. Additional answered calls are a flat rate, and that rate covers the call itself — there is no separate telephony charge. A 30-second call and a 5-minute call cost the same. The only usage charged on top is SMS, at provider cost.
Our prices
Every figure below carries “from” or “up to” because the final number depends on your call flow, integrations and scripting. Your expected figure is confirmed in writing before launch.
Simple Reception
- Setup: Setup from $290
- Monthly: From $199/month
- Includes up to 40 answered calls a month
- Additional answered calls from $2 each (telephony included)
- SMS charged separately at provider cost
Answers calls, handles common questions, collects job details, sends you a written summary. No calendar booking, no job creation in ServiceM8 or SimPRO.
Booking & Workflow Reception
- Setup: Setup from $690
- Monthly: From $349/month
- Includes up to 100 answered calls a month
- Additional answered calls from $2 each (telephony included)
- SMS charged separately at provider cost
Everything in Simple, plus calendar booking, writing enquiries into your CRM, qualifying questions and business rules.
Advanced Front Office
- Setup: Setup from $1,900
- Monthly: From $749/month
- Includes up to 300 answered calls a month
- Additional answered calls from $2 each (telephony included)
- SMS charged separately at provider cost
Multiple locations or departments, custom API integrations, complex escalation, outbound follow-up on approved lists, call-quality review and ongoing tuning.
How that compares to the market
We’re not going to quote competitors’ prices as facts — they change. Instead, here are the bands:
- Cheap flat-rate services — lower monthly fee, often unlimited minutes. You get a generic receptionist with limited customisation. Fine for a straightforward business with simple call flows. No conversation design, no qualifying questions in your order, no integration with your CRM.
- Managed AI receptionist — what we do. Higher monthly fee, configured around your services, your suburbs, your qualification questions and escalation rules, tested against real scenarios before launch.
- Human answering services — a real person answers. More per call or per minute, limited to business hours usually, one call at a time. Better for businesses where the human touch genuinely matters — medical, legal, complex intake.
We’re not a neutral reviewer here. We sell managed AI reception. But the cheap flat-rate option genuinely suits some businesses better, and we’d rather tell you that before you pay us than after.
Who each option suits
Cheap flat-rate suits a business with straightforward calls, no CRM to write into, and no need for custom qualifying questions. If “take a message and text me” is all you need, you’ll save money with the generic option.
Managed AI reception suits a business that loses calls during the day, needs details captured in a specific format, wants calls answered 24/7 with consistent qualifying, and wants the enquiry written into a CRM or job-management system.
Human answering service suits a business where the call itself is sensitive — a clinic, a legal practice, a business where a person’s judgement on the first call matters more than cost or availability.
Questions to ask any provider
- Is telephony included or extra? (Some quote a monthly fee that excludes the phone line.)
- Is billing per minute, per call, or bundled? What happens when I exceed the allowance?
- Who writes the conversation — you or me? Is that included in setup or extra?
- What happens when the AI doesn’t know the answer?
- What happens if the system goes down — do my calls just ring out?
- Can I keep my existing phone number?
- What’s the minimum commitment? Month to month or annual?
- Can it write into my CRM or job-management system, and is that a native integration or through Make/Zapier?
If a provider won’t answer any of these in writing before you sign, that’s your answer.