Automated answering service: types, costs and setup
An automated answering service picks up business calls when your team can’t. The three types are a phone tree (IVR) that routes callers by keypad, voicemail that turns messages into text, and an AI receptionist that talks with callers, books appointments and transfers urgent calls. AI receptionist entry plans run $14 to $150 a month (October 2026).
Prices checked October 9, 2026 on each vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars before tax. LobbyStack wrote this guide and sells an AI receptionist, so we say where other options fit better.
What is an automated answering service?
An automated answering service is software that answers calls on your business line without a person. Depending on the type, it routes the caller, records a message, or talks with the caller to answer questions and book appointments. You can keep your current number by forwarding it to the service.
Other names for an automated answering service
- Auto attendant or IVR (interactive voice response): a recorded menu where callers press a key or say a word to be routed.
- Automated receptionist, automated phone answering system or automated phone answering service: loose labels that can mean any type in this guide, so ask which one a vendor sells.
- AI receptionist or AI answering service: software that talks with callers, answers from your business information, and can book or transfer.
- Virtual receptionist: often means a remote human receptionist. See what a virtual receptionist is and how one compares with an AI receptionist.
- Phone answering service or answering service: usually live operators who answer in your business name. See what a phone answering service is and how it works.
How calls reach it
You either get a new number from the provider or forward your existing line to it. Forwarding lets customers keep dialing the number on your website. You choose which calls the service gets with your carrier’s forwarding rule: unanswered calls, after-hours calls or every call. Step 6 below covers the choice.
This guide covers business phone lines. The auto-answer setting on an iPhone or Android phone is a different feature.
What are the types of automated answering services?
Automated answering services come in three types. A phone tree (IVR or auto attendant) routes callers through a menu, voicemail-to-text records and transcribes messages, and an AI receptionist holds a conversation and can book or transfer. A live answering service, staffed by remote human receptionists, is the non-automated alternative to all three.
| Type | What the caller does | Can it book? | How vendors bill | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone tree (IVR or auto attendant) | Presses a key or says a word | No | Per-minute add-on or part of a phone plan | Routing between departments |
| Voicemail-to-text | Leaves a message | No | Per-minute add-on or part of a phone plan | Low volume, calls that can wait |
| AI receptionist | Talks and asks questions | On most plans | Per minute, per call or per unique caller | Booking and after-hours calls |
| Live answering service (human, for comparison) | Talks to a person | On many plans; Smith.ai Virtual Front Desk charges $1.50 per call for booking | Per minute or per call | Calls that need judgment |
Phone tree (IVR or auto attendant)
A phone tree plays a menu (“press 1 for service, press 2 for billing”) and connects callers to the line they pick. Some menus accept a spoken word instead of a key press. Phone systems often call this feature an auto attendant. It’s cheap and predictable when callers know who they want. It can’t answer an open question, take booking details or spot an urgent call.
LobbyStack doesn’t sell a keypad menu. Callers speak, and the receptionist answers them or transfers the call under your rules.
Voicemail-to-text
Voicemail-to-text records a message and turns it into a transcript. The caller explains the problem, leaves a number and waits for you to call back. It suits low call volume and callers who don’t mind waiting, such as vendors and existing clients. AI receptionist vs voicemail covers where voicemail still works and where it falls short.
AI receptionist
An AI receptionist talks with callers in everyday speech. It answers questions from your business information, books into your calendar, transfers urgent calls and takes messages. You set its behavior in plain language instead of building a menu. LobbyStack’s version is on the AI phone answering page.
Live answering service, the human option
A live answering service puts remote human receptionists on your calls. They handle calls that need judgment, such as an upset customer or a legal intake, and bill per minute or per call at higher rates than software. The cost section below compares the bills.
Can I use AI to answer my phone calls?
Yes. An AI receptionist picks up your business line, follows the rules you write, answers questions from your business information, books appointments, transfers urgent calls and takes messages. You decide which calls it gets through your carrier’s forwarding, and which calls go to a person through its transfer settings.
What an AI receptionist does on a call
With LobbyStack as the example:
- You write the greeting, tone and call rules in plain language, and it follows the rules in your priority order.
- It answers from your knowledge base: website pages, PDF, Word (.docx), text and Markdown files, and FAQs you write.
- Depending on the booking mode you pick, it books into Google Calendar, takes a request for your team to confirm, or takes a message. Booking needs your opening hours.
- It texts a booking confirmation and a reminder 24 hours before the appointment to US and Canadian numbers, if the caller agrees.
- You set when it transfers (never, always, on request, for urgent calls or only during business hours), and transfers go to one number. If a transfer fails, it offers to take a message and your team can get an alert.
- Your team gets an email alert for each message, and can turn on SMS alerts to a US or Canadian mobile.
- Each call gets a recording, a transcript and a one-line summary.
Where an AI receptionist stops
Learn a product’s limits before you forward a line. LobbyStack’s are:
- Google Calendar is the only calendar it connects to.
- The AI doesn’t reply to texts. Your team replies by hand from the dashboard.
- Transfers go to one number per business. They’re blind transfers, so the receptionist doesn’t brief your staff before it puts the caller through.
- It doesn’t place outbound calls, such as callbacks or reminder calls.
- Calls end at 30 minutes, and after 75 seconds of silence the receptionist says goodbye.
- It has no practice-management, field-service or CRM sync. You can connect other tools through webhooks and the REST API.
Other vendors go further on integrations. Upfirst books into Google, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity, Clio and Square calendars, and RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR) connects to Salesforce, HubSpot and Zoho.
Which languages it speaks
With LobbyStack, each call opens in the business’s default language: English, French, Spanish, Serbian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian or Dutch. The receptionist then answers in the caller’s language: 70+ languages on OpenAI GPT-Live, including Spanish and Serbian. If your business is in France, our guide to an AI phone system for small businesses in France compares French providers and their euro prices.
Other vendors publish their own counts: AI-Receptionist.com 55+, Upfirst 35+ and Zoom AI Receptionist 23. Dialzara, Rosie and Smith.ai AI Receptionist list English and Spanish. CloudTalk and ElevenLabs Reception also state 70+. Before you buy, place a test call in each language your customers speak.
How much does an automated answering service cost?
Phone trees and voicemail often come as per-minute add-ons or inside a phone plan. AI receptionist entry plans run $14 to $150 a month as of October 9, 2026. For 40 three-minute calls a month, the AI plans we priced came to $25.25 to $99 and live answering services to $127 to $599.
Phone tree and voicemail costs
Two answering services in our check publish these prices, as add-ons to a live answering account.
| Add-on | Vendor | Price, as of October 9, 2026 | Plan it sits on |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVR (phone tree) | Specialty Answering Service (SAS) | $0.15 per minute | Plans from $44 a month |
| Voicemail | SAS | $0.15 per minute | Plans from $44 a month |
| Auto attendant (phone tree) | PATLive | Free optional phone system with auto attendants; 1,000 automated minutes a month for calls that never reach a receptionist, then $0.02 per minute | Plans from $49 a month |
SAS’s $44 Economy plan adds $1.54 for each minute a live agent spends on a call, plus $0.10 a minute when it connects a caller to you. PATLive’s $49 plan is pay as you go, at $2.99 per receptionist minute. Business phone systems also bundle auto attendants and voicemail transcription, but this check didn’t cover their plan prices.
AI receptionist costs
Entry plans run $14 to $150 a month, and Smith.ai and LobbyStack also have free plans (LobbyStack’s includes a US or Canadian number for 14 days). Billing units differ: AI-Receptionist.com, Dialzara, RingCentral AIR and LobbyStack charge per minute, Upfirst and Smith.ai per call, and Goodcall per unique caller. We don’t convert between units without knowing your call lengths. See what AI receptionists cost, vendor by vendor for each entry plan and overage.
What 40 calls a month cost by type
We assume 40 calls of 3 minutes each (120 minutes a month), billed on the cheapest plan, or plan plus overage, that covers that volume.
| Type | Monthly bill | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Phone tree (PATLive auto attendant) | From $49 | Pay-as-you-go plan; 120 minutes of calls that never reach a receptionist fit in the 1,000 automated minutes included. Any receptionist minute adds $2.99 |
| Phone tree or voicemail (SAS add-on) | $62 | $44 Economy plan + 120 minutes × $0.15, if no call reaches a live agent or gets connected through to you |
| AI receptionist | $25.25 to $99 | Low: AI-Receptionist.com $14 + 45 Booster minutes × $0.25. LobbyStack (ours): $30, inside Starter’s 150 minutes. High: $99 plans from Moneypenny AI, Nextiva XBert, CloudTalk and My AI Front Desk |
| Live answering service | $127 to $599 | Low: AnswerNet Silver (prices on AnsweringServicesUS.com) $105 + 20 minutes × $1.10, plus $10 per holiday. High: Abby Connect $599 for 200 minutes. Abby Connect publishes no overage rate, so its 200-minute plan is the cheapest fully priced way to cover 120 minutes |
A phone tree or voicemail doesn’t talk with the caller. The caller waits for your callback, or the menu routes them to a person you also pay for. The $25.25 AI figure assumes you buy Booster minutes. AI-Receptionist.com’s FAQ says the receptionist stops taking new calls when included minutes run out unless you hold Booster minutes. For live plans at other volumes, see live answering service prices by call volume.
Fees and billing rules to check
Live services that state a setup fee charge $0 to $95, and per-minute services bill time in steps from one second to 60 seconds. The live answering service pricing guide compares both. None of the AI vendors in our check publishes a setup fee, and LobbyStack has none on any plan. LobbyStack counts seconds without rounding a call up to a minute, and it doesn’t count calls under 10 seconds or calls the receptionist ends as spam. LobbyStack sets no overage cap by default, so set one in Settings > Plan. Once you reach the cap, new calls get a busy signal.
How do I set up an automated answering service?
Set one up in seven steps: list your calls, pick the type that fits them, write the greeting, load your business facts, write call rules, choose which calls it answers through carrier forwarding, and test it before real callers reach it. The steps work for any type, with LobbyStack as the example.
1. List your calls and the ones a person must take
Pull two to four weeks of calls from your call log and sort them: bookings, price and hours questions, existing customers, vendors and spam. Then mark the calls a person must take, such as emergencies and complaints. Use that list to pick the type and write your transfer rules.
2. Pick the type that matches those calls
- Routing between people or departments: a phone tree.
- Messages that can wait a day: voicemail-to-text.
- Booking requests and repeat questions: an AI receptionist.
- Calls that need judgment or a human voice: a live answering service.
You can combine two, such as an AI receptionist that transfers emergencies to a person.
3. Write the greeting callers hear first
Give the business name and say what the caller can do, in under 25 words:
“Thanks for calling [business name]. I can book a visit, answer questions about our services, or take a message. How can I help?”
If the service records calls, as LobbyStack does, add a recording notice where local law requires one. For a phone tree, offer only the options most callers need. For busy-line, after-hours and AI receptionist greetings, see our phone answering script templates.
4. Give it your business facts
Collect your hours, services, prices or price ranges, service area and the questions customers ask most. An AI receptionist’s answers about your business are only as complete as what you give it. LobbyStack imports your website pages and accepts PDF, Word (.docx), text and Markdown files plus FAQs you type, up to 5 MB of text on Starter and 20 MB on Pro.
5. Write call rules in plain language
Write what should happen on each call type from step 1, most important first: urgent calls, then transfers, booking and messages. One rule might read: “If a caller says they have no heat, treat it as urgent and transfer the call.” LobbyStack follows your rules in the order you give them. For more examples, see call rules in plain language.
6. Choose which calls it answers
You set the coverage with your carrier’s call forwarding:
| Forwarding rule at your carrier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Forward when busy or unanswered | Overflow: the service takes calls your team misses |
| Forward at closing time | After-hours coverage |
| Forward every call | Full-time answering |
LobbyStack answers whatever calls reach its number. Forward your number to keep it, or contact the team to port it. LobbyStack numbers are available in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. If nights and weekends are your gap, see after-hours answering.
7. Test it before you forward real calls
Call it yourself before customers do. LobbyStack’s Free plan gives you 30 voice minutes a month and a US or Canadian number free for 14 days, with no card. Script an emergency, a booking and a caller who speaks Spanish or another language your customers use. After you forward your line, read the first week’s recordings, transcripts and summaries, and fix any rule that misfires.
Which automated answering service fits your business?
Pick by the calls you get most. A phone tree fits routing between departments, voicemail-to-text fits calls that can wait, an AI receptionist fits booking and after-hours calls, and a live service fits calls that need judgment. You can also pair an AI receptionist with transfers to your staff for urgent calls.
Choose a phone tree if callers need routing
A phone tree fits a business with several departments or staff, where callers know who they want. PATLive includes a phone system with auto attendants in its live plans, so a menu can send some callers to your staff while a receptionist takes the rest.
Choose voicemail-to-text if calls can wait
Voicemail fits low call volume and callers who will wait, such as vendors and existing clients. If most calls come from new customers, they wait for your callback, and some may call another business instead.
Choose an AI receptionist if callers want to book
AI receptionists fit service businesses that run on bookings and need after-hours coverage. Other vendors win on specific points:
- AI-Receptionist.com was the cheapest at 40 calls in our check, though SMS starts at its $39 tier.
- Upfirst connects Outlook, Calendly and Acuity, and doesn’t bill spam, calls under 15 seconds or silent callers.
- Smith.ai has a free AI plan that answers 25 real calls a month.
- Goodcall bills per unique caller, so repeat callers cost nothing extra.
- RingCentral AIR works with any phone system and connects to Salesforce, HubSpot and Zoho.
LobbyStack (ours) fits owners who want booking, transfers and confirmation texts on a $30 plan with 150 minutes. It also suits businesses whose callers speak languages other than English and Spanish, and it offers a free browser test and MIT-licensed code you can self-host. Pick another vendor if you need a calendar other than Google, a practice-management sync, AI replies to texts or a keypad menu.
Choose a live service if calls need judgment
Live answering fits legal intake, sensitive calls and callers who want a person. Ruby and PATLive include Spanish-speaking receptionists at no extra cost. In our check, 40 calls cost $127 to $599 with a live service, against $25.25 to $99 on AI plans.
Automated answering service FAQ
Is there a free automated answering service?
LobbyStack Free gives you 30 voice minutes a month and a US or Canadian number that answers real calls free for 14 days, with no card. Smith.ai’s AI Free plan answers 25 real calls a month, then charges $3 per call. Other vendors offer trials; what AI receptionists cost, vendor by vendor lists them.
Can I keep my business number?
Yes. Forward it to the service at your carrier, or port it to the provider. With LobbyStack, you forward your number to your LobbyStack number, or contact the team to port it. You pick which calls the service answers with the forwarding rule (step 6).
What happens to spam calls?
LobbyStack’s receptionist can hang up on spam and abusive calls, and you can block a caller so LobbyStack rejects their calls without answering. Calls under 10 seconds and calls it ends as spam don’t count toward your minutes. Upfirst doesn’t bill spam, calls under 15 seconds or silent callers, and Goodcall doesn’t count spam or wrong numbers. Ambs Call Center, a live service, bills solicitor calls to plan minutes.
Try an AI receptionist before you forward a call
Hear how an AI receptionist handles your calls before a customer does. LobbyStack’s Free plan gives you 30 voice minutes a month and a US or Canadian number free for 14 days, with no card. If the calls sound right, Starter costs $30 a month for 150 minutes and a business number. There’s no setup fee, and you can cancel anytime without a cancellation fee. Start free or compare plans on the pricing page.