A live answering service costs $100 to $1,000+ per month plus a per-minute charge of $0.75 to $1.50, with setup fees between $49.99 and $500. An AI answering service costs $50 to $300 per month, according to Nextiva's 2026 pricing breakdown.
The monthly figure is not the number that decides your bill. The metering is.
What do the named providers actually charge?
Published entry plans cluster between $99 and $329 a month, and every one of them meters something. Below is what the providers themselves publish, all via Nextiva's 2026 comparison.
| Provider | Entry price | What you get | Effective unit cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moneypenny | $99/month | 30 minutes | $3.30 per minute |
| Ruby | $250/month | 50 minutes | $5.00 per minute |
| Smith.ai | $300/month | 30 calls, $11.50 per call overage | $10.00 per call |
| AbbyConnect | $329/month | 100 minutes | $3.29 per minute |
| Typical AI service | $50 to $300/month | Varies, often unmetered | Depends on plan |
Note what the entry plans include. Thirty minutes is roughly ten calls.
Why is per-minute billing a problem for a trades business?
Because your call volume spikes exactly when you can least afford a surprise invoice. A heat wave, a cold snap or a storm triples your inbound calls and triples the metered portion of your bill in the same week.
A flat plan moves that risk to the vendor. That is the entire argument for flat pricing, and it matters more in seasonal trades than in almost any other industry.
What is the real cost of a missed call, for comparison?
Whatever your average job is worth, because the caller does not wait. For a trades business that number is usually in the hundreds or thousands, which is why almost any answering service pays for itself if it actually converts calls.
We are not going to put a percentage on how many callers hang up rather than leave a voicemail, because we could not find a source we trust for it. Use your own number: count the unanswered calls on your own phone bill for two weeks.
Are there setup fees?
Often, ranging from $49.99 to $500, per Nextiva. AnswerConnect publishes a $49.99 setup fee as an example.
Ask specifically what setup includes. If it means someone writes your call script and configures the routing, it is usually worth it. If it means creating an account, it is a fee.
How does an AI answering service compare on price?
AI services run $50 to $300 a month against $100 to $1,000+ plus metering for live services, so the headline gap is wide and the gap on a busy month is wider. Our own AI booking agent is $299 a month flat, with no per-call or per-minute charge.
Price is not the only axis and cheaper is not automatically right. See AI answering service versus live for where each one genuinely wins.
What questions should I ask before signing?
Four. What is metered and at what rate, what happens when I exceed the plan, is there a setup fee, and can I leave without losing my call records.
The fourth is the one nobody asks. Your call history is business data, and you should confirm you can export it before it accumulates somewhere you cannot reach.
Is the cheapest option ever the right one?
Rarely, and the failure mode is specific: a cheap plan with tight metering costs more than an expensive flat one the moment you get busy. Price the plan against your worst month, not your average one.
Run the arithmetic on the month you had the most calls last year. That is the number that matters, because that is the month the service either saves you or bills you.
Part of our guide to phone answering services in Canada.