How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK?

The honest answer is: it depends on the pricing model, your call volume, and what the receptionist is expected to do after it answers. This guide explains the models you will meet, the factors that move the price, what Step Into AI charges, how the cost compares with the alternatives, and how to work out whether it pays for itself in your business. We build an AI receptionist, so our own prices are here in full. We do not quote other providers' prices because they change often and depend on volume; we explain their models instead so you can compare properly.

The short version

AI receptionists in the UK are typically priced as a monthly plan with an allowance of answered minutes, sometimes per minute or per call, occasionally with setup fees or add-ons for booking and integrations.
Step Into AI includes the AI receptionist in the Answer plan from £79 a month, with the business phone system, and CRM plus follow-up from £199. Prices exclude VAT.
The comparison that matters is not the monthly fee but the value of the enquiries you currently lose. For most businesses that miss more than a handful of calls a week, the receptionist costs less than one lost job a month.
Watch for per-call pricing that penalises busy months, minute allowances that do not fit your volume, and extra charges for the features that make the receptionist useful.

The pricing models you will meet

Monthly plan with an allowance

The most common model. You pay a fixed monthly fee that includes a set number of answered minutes, and a per-minute rate beyond that. Predictable, and the busiest month does not multiply the bill unless you blow through the allowance. The thing to check is what the allowance actually is and what happens when you exceed it: some providers charge steeply, some move you to the next plan, some, like us, tell you first and agree a change.

Per minute

You pay for exactly the minutes the receptionist spends on calls, usually with a small monthly platform fee. Cheap if you take few calls, expensive if you take many, and hard to budget. It also creates an odd incentive for the provider to keep calls long.

Per call

A fixed charge per answered call regardless of length, sometimes tiered by what the call involved. Simpler than per minute but the same problem: the storm week that triples your calls also triples your bill.

Setup fees and add-ons

Some providers charge a one-off configuration fee, and some charge extra for calendar booking, call transfer, CRM integration, additional numbers or out-of-hours cover. Read the feature list against the price. A receptionist that only takes messages at the base price and needs three add-ons to book appointments and update a CRM is not cheap.

Bundled with a phone system or platform

The receptionist is included in a wider package: phone system, CRM, follow-up. This is our model. It costs more than the cheapest standalone receptionist and less than buying the pieces separately, and the pieces work together, which is the point.

What moves the price

Call volume. The biggest factor on any usage-based model. Know your monthly call count, including missed calls, before comparing quotes.
Call length. A booking conversation with qualifying questions runs three to four minutes. A message-taking call runs one to two. Your configuration determines this.
Hours of cover. AI receptionists rarely charge more for evenings and weekends, which is one of their advantages over human services. Check anyway.
Booking and transfer. Calendar integration and warm transfer are sometimes add-ons.
CRM and follow-up. Whether the enquiry is saved somewhere useful and followed up is the difference between a message service and a lead system. It may be included, an add-on, or a separate product.
Number of lines or numbers. Dedicated numbers for adverts or departments may cost extra.
Configuration and support. Some providers give you a form and a knowledge base editor. Some configure it with you and review calls in the first weeks. The second costs more and produces a much better receptionist.

What Step Into AI charges

Our pricing is on the pricing page and is per business, not per user. In summary, excluding VAT:

Phone, £29.99 a month. The cloud business phone system on its own: your number, apps, ring groups, voicemail to email, call history. No receptionist.
Answer, from £79 a month. Everything in Phone plus the AI receptionist, call summaries, enquiry capture, basic SMS follow-up to the caller and call transfer. From £79 to £129 depending on the allowance of answered minutes.
Grow, from £199 a month. Everything in Answer plus the CRM with pipeline, automated follow-up for enquiries, appointments and quotes, reminders, review requests, campaigns and the approval inbox.
Business, from £499 a month. Everything in Grow plus bespoke managed workflows, integrations, advanced reporting and priority support.

There is no setup fee on Phone or Answer. Grow and Business may include a one-off onboarding fee depending on configuration and data import, quoted before you sign. Phone and Answer are monthly rolling; Grow and Business have a three-month initial term. Call minutes to UK numbers are a fair-use allowance and SMS has a monthly allowance per plan. If you regularly exceed an allowance we tell you and agree the right plan rather than sending a surprise bill.

How it compares with the alternatives

Voicemail

Free. Most callers hang up on it, and the ones who leave a message leave a name and number. The cost is hidden in the enquiries that went elsewhere. Our guide on AI receptionist vs voicemail walks through a real call under each.

A human call answering service

Typically a monthly fee plus per-call or per-minute charges. Fair for their model, since a person's time is the cost, but it means the busiest month is the most expensive and out-of-hours cover costs more. The operator does not know your business in depth and you usually receive a message rather than a CRM record. For a business with modest, predictable call volume that wants a human voice on every call, it can be the right choice and may be cheaper. The full comparison is fair to both.

An employed receptionist

A salary, employer's costs, holidays and sickness cover, for someone who is at a desk during office hours only. For an office that takes calls all day and needs a person for other duties too, an employed receptionist is often right. For a small team that misses calls because everyone is out, or that needs evening cover, the cost is hard to justify for the call volume.

Doing nothing

The most common choice, and the most expensive. It costs the value of every enquiry that rang out.

Working out whether it pays for itself

The calculation is simple and worth doing with your own numbers rather than a general statistic, which is why we do not publish one. You need four figures.

Missed calls per month. From your phone system or mobile, including calls that went to voicemail.
The share that were genuine new enquiries. Look at the unknown numbers. Half is a reasonable starting assumption for a service business.
Your win rate. Quotes won divided by quotes sent. A third if you do not know.
Your average job value. Conservative, from invoices.

Multiply them. For a two-van heating firm missing 30 calls a month, of which 15 were enquiries, at a one-in-three win rate and £350 average job, that is five jobs and about £1,750 a month of work that went to whoever answered next. Against £79 to £129 a month for the receptionist, the comparison is not close. The missed call calculator does this with sliders.

Two cautions. First, the receptionist does not recover every lost call; some callers will still prefer the business that had a human. Treat the figure as the size of the opportunity, not a forecast. Second, the estimate ignores lifetime value: the customer who comes back for annual services and recommends you. That makes it conservative.

Worked examples for three kinds of business

The same plan costs the same, but the value it produces depends on the business. These three examples use the Answer plan at £79 to £129 a month and show the arithmetic rather than a claimed result. They are illustrations, not case studies.

A two-van heating firm

Misses around 30 calls a month during working hours, more in the first cold week. About half are genuine enquiries. Win rate on quoted work is roughly one in three. Average job £350, with occasional boiler replacements worth far more. Unworked revenue: about five jobs and £1,750 a month, before counting annual services. The receptionist at up to £129 a month needs to recover one small repair to break even. The bigger value is the winter surge, when it answers thirty calls in a day that would otherwise have rung out.

A four-chair salon

Misses fewer calls, perhaps 15 a month, but almost all are booking requests, so the share that are genuine is high. Average booking £45, but a new client who returns every six weeks is worth several hundred pounds a year. Unworked revenue: perhaps ten bookings a month, £450 immediately and considerably more in lifetime value. The receptionist pays for itself on two retained new clients, and the reminders that come with the Grow plan reduce no-shows on top.

A dental practice with two reception staff

Does not miss many calls in the sense of nobody answering, but at 8am the lines are engaged and callers give up. Overflow answering for one hour a day captures appointment requests and flags patients in pain. The value is chair time filled and emergency patients kept rather than lost to another practice. Private treatment plans that are followed up rather than forgotten are worth far more than the plan costs. The practice would typically use the Grow plan at £199 for the follow-up and recalls.

What a year costs, plan by plan

Ignoring VAT and any one-off onboarding fee on Grow and Business, the annual cost of each Step Into AI plan at its starting price is:

Phone: £29.99 a month, about £360 a year.
Answer: from £79 a month, about £950 a year, up to about £1,550 at the top of the allowance range.
Grow: from £199 a month, about £2,400 a year, up to about £3,600.
Business: from £499 a month, about £6,000 a year, up to about £9,600.

Set those against the annual value of the enquiries you are currently losing, from the calculation above, and against what the alternatives cost over the same year: a per-call answering service at your volume, or a part-time salary with employer's costs. For most service businesses the receptionist is the cheapest of the three by a wide margin, and the only one that also produces a CRM record and a follow-up.

Questions to ask any provider before signing

What exactly is included in the monthly price, and what is an add-on?
How many answered minutes are included, and what happens when I exceed them?
Does the price change out of hours or at weekends?
Can it book into my calendar, and is that included?
Where does the enquiry go after the call: an email, or a CRM record with a next action?
Does it text the caller a confirmation?
Who configures it, and do you review the first week of calls with me?
What is the contract length and notice period?
Is pricing per business or per user?
Where is call data hosted, and is it used to train AI models?

Our answers, for the record: everything listed on the pricing page is included; allowances are stated and we tell you before you exceed them; no out-of-hours premium; booking is included with calendar access; the enquiry becomes a CRM record on Grow and above and a summary plus SMS on Answer; we configure with you and review early calls; monthly rolling on Phone and Answer; per business; UK hosted and never used for training.

When an AI receptionist is not worth it

If you take a handful of calls a week and someone is nearly always free to answer, the receptionist will sit idle and a good voicemail greeting with a promised callback time may be enough. If your callers must always speak to a person on first contact, a human service or an employed receptionist is the right spend even at higher cost. And if nobody in the business will ring enquiries back, no answering solution will help; fix the follow-up first, or automate it.

Hidden costs to look for

Overage rates. What a minute costs beyond the allowance, and whether you are warned.
Features behind add-ons. Booking, transfer, CRM, extra numbers.
Per-user pricing. Punishes you for giving engineers access to the CRM. We price per business.
Long contracts. A year's commitment before you have heard it take a call.
Your own time. Configuration and the first week of reviewing calls. An hour or two well spent, but real.
The cost of a bad configuration. A receptionist that gives wrong prices or promises what you cannot deliver costs more than it saves. Choose a provider who configures it with you.

Questions people ask about cost

Is there a free trial?

We offer a demo where we ring the receptionist together with your script, and pilot terms for early customers. Phone and Answer plans are monthly rolling, so the commitment is one month.

Does it cost more out of hours?

No. The receptionist costs the same at any hour. This is one of its main advantages over human services.

What if my call volume is seasonal?

Allowances can be increased for busy months and reduced afterwards. Tell us your pattern.

Are there charges for calls it transfers?

Transfer is included. Call minutes to UK numbers are within the fair-use allowance.

What about VAT?

All prices exclude VAT, which is added at the standard rate.

Where to go next

See what the receptionist does on a call on the AI receptionist page, run your own numbers through the calculator, and read the full pricing including the plan comparison and contract questions. If you would like a quote for your actual call volume, book a demo and bring your missed call count.