2026 Report
Call Answering Service Pricing: 2026 Report
Published 2026 prices from 18 US live answering services by plan size, the cost per call at 100 and 300 calls, and the billing rules that change the bill.
A call answering service is a team of live receptionists who answer a business’s phone, take messages, book appointments and transfer calls. Most bill a monthly plan with a set number of minutes, and some bill per call. This report lines up the published 2026 prices of 18 US services and turns them into the number buyers rarely see: Cost per call.
Quick answer: Live call answering costs $159 to $395 a month for a 100-minute plan in 2026, with a median of $239, and $269 to $720 for a 200-minute plan, with a median of $420. A 100-call month costs $269 to $910, or $2.69 to $9.10 per call, with a median of $3.98 per call.
Basis: Published plan prices from 18 US live answering services, checked October 26, 2026. 16 publish prices; 2 quote only. Cost-per-call figures assume 2 billed minutes per call.
$3.98 per callThe median cost per call for a 100-call month across 14 live answering services. The range runs from $2.69 to $9.10, so the same calls can cost three times as much.
Table 1: Plan prices by plan size
| Plan size | Price range | Median | Median per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | $0–$65 base | $44 base | $1.37–$2.99 per minute used |
| 50 minutes | $99–$250 | $164 | $3.28 |
| 100 minutes | $159–$395 | $239 | $2.39 |
| 200 minutes | $269–$720 | $420 | $2.10 |
| 500 minutes | $550–$1,725 | $867 | $1.73 |
We found three things in this table:
- The per-minute price falls by about half from a 50-minute plan to a 500-minute plan. Buying the right plan size saves more than switching vendors.
- The spread inside each size is about three times. At 200 minutes, the same coverage runs $269 at Specialty Answering Service and $720 at Ruby.
- Pay-as-you-go plans look low at $0 to $65 a month, but usage runs $1.37 to $2.99 a minute. They only make sense for very light call volume.
Table 2: Cost per call by service
Plan prices hide what a call costs. This table prices a 100-call month and a 300-call month at each service, using the lowest plan that fits plus overage.
| Service | 100 calls | Per call | 300 calls | Per call |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specialty Answering Service | $269 | $2.69 | $783 | $2.61 |
| Go Answer | $300 | $3.00 | $700 | $2.33 |
| Answering Service Care | $329 | $3.29 | $774 | $2.58 |
| MAP Communications | $339 | $3.39 | $777 | $2.59 |
| PATLive | $349 | $3.49 | $938 | $3.13 |
| AnswerConnect | $350 | $3.50 | $888 | $2.96 |
| AnswerFirst | $375 | $3.75 | $1,065 | $3.55 |
| Posh | $420 | $4.20 | $1,170 | $3.90 |
| Moneypenny | $422 | $4.22 | $1,194 | $3.98 |
| Abby Connect | $599 | $5.99 | $1,656 | $5.52 |
| Back Office Betties | $686 | $6.86 | $1,783 | $5.94 |
| Ruby | $720 | $7.20 | $1,725 + overage | n/a |
| Gabbyville | $749 | $7.49 | $1,949 | $6.50 |
| Smith.ai | $910 | $9.10 | $2,100 | $7.00 |
We found three things in this table:
- Per-call billing costs the most at low volume. Smith.ai and Gabbyville cost $7.49 to $9.10 a call at 100 calls, while 9 of the 12 per-minute services cost under $4.25.
- Volume lowers the cost per call by about 11% at the median, from $3.98 at 100 calls to $3.55 at 300.
- The four lowest-cost services all price under $3.40 a call at 100 calls. Back Office Betties, near the top of the range, is built for law firms; trade focus is part of what higher prices buy.
Table 3: The billing rules that change the bill
| Rule | Who uses it | What it does to a bill |
|---|---|---|
| Round up to the full minute | Ruby, AnswerConnect | A 63-second call bills as 2 minutes, about 90% more time than was used |
| Per-second billing | Davinci, Specialty Answering Service, AnswerFirst, Go Answer | A 63-second call bills as 63 seconds |
| Per-call billing | Smith.ai, Gabbyville | Long calls cost the same as short ones; short calls cost more |
| Setup fees | Davinci $95, Answering Service Care $50, AnswerConnect $49.99, Back Office Betties $399 | One time |
We found three things in these rules:
- Rounding can matter more than the rate. A 63-second call costs $1.84 at $1.75 a minute billed by the second, and $3.70 at $1.85 a minute rounded up.
- Per-call pricing suits businesses with long calls, like legal intake. Per-minute pricing suits short message calls.
- Ask every vendor two questions before you sign: How do you round, and does after-call note time count?
How to pick a plan
Count your calls before you shop. Pull one month of call logs, multiply by two minutes, and buy the plan one size above that number. Vendor guides put most small businesses at 200 to 500 minutes a month, which runs $420 to $867 at the median.
Then compare on cost per call, not the plan price. A cheaper plan with full-minute rounding can cost more than a pricier plan billed by the second. For how this compares with AI, see our AI receptionist cost per call report.
Conclusions
- Buy the plan size first, the vendor second. Plan size moves the per-minute rate by about half.
- Price the call, not the plan. The median 100-call month works out to $3.98 a call.
- Read the rounding rule. It can add up to 90% to a short call.
Run an answering service? Upcision delivers exclusive screened leads and booked appointments with business owners who need phone coverage, priced per result.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does a call answering service cost?
- A 100-minute plan costs $159-$395 a month in 2026, with a median of $239. A 200-minute plan costs $269-$720, with a median of $420. Pay-as-you-go plans start at $0-$65 a month plus $1.37-$2.99 a minute.
- What is the average cost per call for an answering service?
- For a 100-call month, the median is $3.98 a call across 14 live answering services, with a range of $2.69-$9.10. At 300 calls, the median falls to $3.55 a call.
- Is per-minute or per-call answering pricing better?
- Per-minute is better for short calls like messages and transfers. Per-call is better for long calls like legal intake, because a long call costs the same as a short one. At 100 calls, per-call services ran $7.49-$9.10 a call.
- How do answering services round minutes?
- Some, like Ruby and AnswerConnect, round each call up to the full minute, so a 63-second call bills as 2 minutes. Others, like Davinci and Specialty Answering Service, bill by the second.
- Sources & methodology
- Plan pricing: Vendor pricing pages for PATLive, Ruby, Smith.ai, Abby Connect, AnswerConnect, Posh, Moneypenny, Davinci Virtual, MAP Communications, Specialty Answering Service, Answering Service Care, Go Answer, Back Office Betties, Gabbyville, AnswerFirst and Alert Communications, checked October 26, 2026. Nexa and AnswerNet quote only.
- Ruby billing rules: Ruby billing basics. Ruby overage rates are not on its pricing page, so the 300-call figure shows plan price only.
- Cost model: 2 billed minutes per call, based on a 63-second median answered call across 626,000 calls (Upfirst, vendor data) plus rounding and note time. Lowest-cost fitting plan plus overage; setup fees excluded.
- Davinci (50- and 100-minute plans only) and Alert Communications (no published overage) are left out of the cost-per-call table. AnswerFirst and Smith.ai use the midpoint of a published range.
- About Upcision: We have run outbound campaigns for answering services and phone-coverage providers since 2019, across 14 B2B verticals, for clients ranging from SMB to Fortune 500.
- PDF copy: Want this report as a PDF? Contact us through upcision.com and we’ll send it over.
- Citing this page: Writers are welcome to cite this report with attribution to Upcision Research and a link to this page.
Jared Diamond
Founder of Upcision, a pay-per-result B2B lead generation company that has worked with clients ranging from SMB to Fortune 500.