Best virtual receptionist services in 2026, compared by real cost

A virtual receptionist is a real person, working remotely for an answering company, who picks up your business line in your company's name. They take messages, book appointments, screen and transfer calls, and run short intake scripts. Most services sell bundles of minutes; a few charge per call.

We priced 10 virtual receptionist services for US businesses from their own pricing pages on 5 October 2026, at 100, 250 and 500 minutes a month. At 250 minutes, the same month of calls costs $312.20 at the cheapest service and $1,177.50 at the most expensive. How a service counts a minute matters almost as much as its price: the same 100 short calls can be billed as 217 minutes at one service and 300 at another.

Our picks

• Best value: Specialty Answering Service. The lowest cost at all three volumes (tied with MAP at 500 minutes), billed by the second, with a free trial that needs no card.
• Best to try first: PATLive. A 14-day free trial on any plan, Spanish and scheduling included, and billing in 6-second steps after the first minute.
• Lowest pay-as-you-go rate: MAP Communications, $49 a month plus $1.37 a minute, but every call is rounded up to the whole minute.
• Best mix of AI and people: Abby Connect. Every plan includes an AI receptionist, and AI minutes count half.
• Best for long intake calls: Smith.ai, which charges per call, not per minute.
• Best premium service: Ruby, if you want a well-known brand and will pay for it.

What 100, 250 and 500 minutes cost

We count 2-minute calls, so 250 minutes is roughly 125 calls a month. PATLive's own pricing page assumes about 2.5 minutes a call.

Cheapest published plan for each volume, plus published overage, checked 5 October 2026. Monthly prices only: setup fees, add-ons and taxes are not included (see each review). Smith.ai sells calls, not minutes, so we counted 2-minute calls. Abby's overage is its plan rate per minute. Davinci's live receptionists work weekdays only, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern; its Business plans don't include appointment scheduling.

The spread is wide: at 250 minutes, Ruby costs $940 and Smith.ai $1,177.50 for the same calls that Specialty Answering Service handles for $312.20. For comparison, the median US receptionist earns $38,010 a year before payroll taxes and benefits (BLS), about $3,168 a month, and covers about 40 of the 168 hours in a week.

How each service counts a minute

Take a call that lasts 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Billed by the second, it costs 2.17 minutes. Rounded up to 30 seconds, 2.5 minutes. Rounded up to the whole minute, 3 minutes, and some services also add the time the receptionist spends writing up your message after the caller hangs up. Over 100 such calls, that's 217 minutes at one service and 300 or more at another.

From each service's pricing page, FAQ, help center or terms, checked 5 October 2026. “Not stated” means we found no published rule.

If your calls are short, per-second billing (Specialty Answering Service, Davinci) or PATLive's 6-second steps save real money. If they are long intakes, Smith.ai's per-call price ($7 to $10 a call inside its plans) beats the cheapest per-minute services once calls run longer than about 5 to 7 minutes.

The 10 services, ranked

Ranked on price at typical small-business volumes, how fairly the minutes are counted, and what's included without add-ons. We haven't used these services ourselves; everything below comes from their own published pages, which we link. Commissions never change a ranking (how we compare).

Not ranked: Nexa publishes plans of 100, 300 and 500 minutes but no prices, and its terms allow billing for robocalls and a setup fee (Nexa terms). Ask for a written quote.

Features side by side

From each service's pricing page, FAQ and terms, checked 5 October 2026.

Live, AI or both?

An AI receptionist is software, not a person, and it costs far less at the same volume. Among the AI services we track that book appointments and transfer calls, the cheapest costs $48.20 at 50 calls (Dialzara), $94.95 at 125 calls (Upfirst) and $149 at 250 calls (Answrr) a month, against $159, $312.20 and $649 for the cheapest live service. Compare them all on our AI answering services page.

A person still handles upset, confused or unusual callers better than a script, which is why several services now sell both:

• Abby Connect includes an AI receptionist in every plan; AI minutes count half, and the AI can pass a caller to a person mid-call.
• Posh sells AI-plus-live plans at the same prices as its live plans (Posh AI).
• Moneypenny sells separate AI plans from $69 for 25 calls, with a person on hand when a call needs one.
• Smith.ai has AI-first plans, including a free plan for 25 calls a month (Smith.ai).
• Ruby adds optional AI features to its human service at no extra cost.

One way to combine them: AI for after-hours and overflow, a person during the day.

Medical and dental offices

If the receptionist will hear patient names, dates of birth or reasons for a visit, HIPAA expects a signed business associate agreement (BAA) with the service (HHS), not just a “HIPAA compliant” badge. From the services' own pages:

• Ruby signs a BAA at no extra cost (Ruby).
• Specialty Answering Service offers a BAA.
• PATLive supports HIPAA, but only after a separate written BAA (PATLive terms).
• AnswerConnect charges $29.99 a month for HIPAA; MAP, Posh, Moneypenny and Abby describe HIPAA compliance but don't mention a BAA on the pages we checked. Ask for one in writing.
• Smith.ai says it isn't HIPAA compliant; Davinci doesn't say.

For dental offices, our dentist guide also covers booking into practice software.

Questions to ask before you sign

• How is a minute counted? Billing step, after-call work, hold time, time after a transfer.
• Do I pay for spam, robocalls and wrong numbers? Only Smith.ai, AnswerConnect (first 30 short calls) and Ruby (calls under 10 seconds, and filtered robocalls) publish which calls are free. Nexa's terms say it can bill robocalls.
• What's the overage rate? Ruby's is in its help center, not on its pricing page; Abby's is your plan's per-minute rate.
• Which fees aren't on the pricing page? Setup fees (AnswerConnect $49.99, Davinci $95), add-ons for Spanish or HIPAA, holiday and telecom fees in the terms (MAP, Nexa).
• When do live people answer? Davinci is weekdays only; Posh guarantees Spanish on weekdays only.
• How do I cancel? MAP and Nexa want written notice a month before your next invoice, Davinci 30 days' written notice, and Moneypenny 30 days' notice.

A one-week trial plan

1. Write a one-page script: greeting, your top five questions, who gets transferred and when, and what counts as urgent.
2. Call your own number at 8 a.m., at lunchtime, at 9 p.m. and on Sunday. Note how fast they pick up and whether they use your company name.
3. Ask to book an appointment and check that it lands in your calendar.
4. Ask for a person and time the transfer.
5. Call once in Spanish, if your customers speak it.
6. At the end of the week, compare the billed minutes in their portal with your own call log.