Outsourced phone answering in France: 2026 euro prices
An outsourced phone answering service in France costs €50 to €118.60 a month before VAT for 40 calls, and €100 to €238 for 100 calls, at the four French providers whose published prices let you work out the bill (October 2026). An AI receptionist such as LobbyStack takes 40 calls for $30, but without a French number.
Prices checked October 10, 2026 on each provider’s own website, before VAT (HT) unless noted. In France this service goes by “standard téléphonique externalisé”, “permanence téléphonique” or “télésecrétariat”. LobbyStack wrote this guide and sells an AI receptionist, so it appears in one row, listed last, with its limits for a business based in France.
What is an outsourced phone answering service?
An outsourced phone answering service is a team of remote operators who answer your calls in your company’s name. You forward your line to the provider, all the time or only when you don’t pick up. The operator takes a message, transfers the call to you or, on some plans, books an appointment in your calendar.
French providers use three names for related services:
- Standard externalisé (outsourced switchboard): operators screen calls and transfer them to your team. Optilib sells it as a separate plan.
- Permanence téléphonique: the operator’s main job is taking detailed messages and passing them on. Absys draws this line on its own page.
- Télésecrétariat or secrétariat téléphonique (remote secretary): messages and appointments, common with independent professionals and tradespeople.
Our guide to what a phone answering service is explains these formats. The prices below cover all three, so check what each plan does with a call before you compare amounts.
How much does outsourced phone answering cost in France in 2026?
French providers bill in three ways: a price per call with a monthly minimum, a monthly fee plus a price per call, or a bundle with a set number of calls. Entry prices run from a €15 monthly fee at Op’tel Services to €139 for 100 calls at Optilib. Each provider’s name links to its pricing page.
| Provider | Billing model | Published price | Hours covered | Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Secrétariat | Per call | €1 per handled call, €50 monthly minimum | Not stated on the pricing page | No commitment, free trial |
| Op’tel Services | Fee + per call | €15 a month + €1.25 per handled call (€1 for doctors and allied health) | Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to noon | No commitment |
| Thelem (Standard plan) | Fee + per call | €39 a month + €1.99 per answered call up to 100 calls, for up to 3 minutes, then €0.89 a minute | Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to noon, extension to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. included | Most contracts have no commitment or notice period |
| Optilib | Call bundle | Remote secretary from €59 for 50 calls; outsourced switchboard from €139 for 100 calls; extra calls charged, price not published | Switchboard: Monday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., calls answered in France | Remote secretary has no commitment; not stated for the switchboard |
| Bureau24 | Bundle | From €59.90, €99.90 or €189.90 a month; VAT basis and included calls not published | 24/7 on the Professionnel plan | No long-term commitment, no setup fee, free trial |
| Kandbaz | Bundle | From €61 a month, included calls not published | Not stated | No commitment; built for its business-address clients |
| LobbyStack (ours, AI) | Minute bundle | $30 a month for 150 minutes, then $0.20 a minute | 24/7, with no person on the line | Cancel anytime, no setup fee |
Thelem’s price grid is marked “À jour 01.08.2025” (updated August 1, 2025); we read it on October 10, 2026. Le Secrétariat labels its €50 minimum as including VAT, while its 50-call example shows the same amount before VAT.
What 40 and 100 calls a month cost
The table shows the monthly bill before VAT at 40 and 100 calls. For Thelem it assumes calls of 3 minutes or less. For LobbyStack, which bills by the minute, it assumes 3 minutes per call. That is our assumption, with no outside source.
| Provider | 40 calls a month | 100 calls a month |
|---|---|---|
| Le Secrétariat | €50 (monthly minimum) | €100 |
| Optilib | €59 (remote secretary, 50 calls included) | €139 (switchboard, 100 calls included) |
| Op’tel Services | €65 | €140 |
| Thelem | €118.60 | €238 |
| Bureau24, Kandbaz | Can’t calculate: included calls not published | Can’t calculate |
| LobbyStack (ours, AI) | $30 (Starter), plus the cost of call forwarding | $60 (Starter), plus the cost of call forwarding |
- Op’tel Services: €15 + 40 × €1.25 = €65. At 100 calls, €15 + €125 = €140, the example on its own page.
- Thelem: €39 + 40 × €1.99 = €118.60. At 100 calls, €39 + €199 = €238. A 5-minute call costs €1.99 + 2 × €0.89 = €3.77.
- LobbyStack: 120 minutes fit in Starter’s 150. At 300 minutes, $30 + 150 × $0.20 = $60, less than the $100 Pro plan.
Per-call pricing or a bundle: which costs less?
At low volume, a small monthly fee plus a price per call costs the least. Op’tel Services (€15 plus €1.25 a call) costs less than Le Secrétariat’s €50 minimum below 28 calls a month. Above that, Le Secrétariat’s €1 per call wins. A bundle like Optilib’s fixes your budget as long as you stay under the included calls.
Four things change the real bill:
- VAT and your tax status. A business that recovers VAT pays the pre-tax price. A micro-entrepreneur under the VAT exemption pays VAT on top, 20% more: Op’tel Services’ €140 for 100 calls becomes €168.
- How long a call can run. Thelem includes 3 minutes per call and then charges €0.89 a minute. The other pages set no limit.
- The price of extra calls. Optilib charges for calls beyond the bundle but doesn’t publish the rate, so a busy month can go past the listed €59 or €139.
- Add-ons. Thelem charges €15 for booking into Google Calendar and €21 with a text reminder, without saying whether that’s monthly.
What hours does outsourced phone answering cover?
The published plans cover weekdays and Saturday morning. Op’tel Services answers Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, 59 hours a week. Optilib covers Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Thelem includes an extension to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday. Only Bureau24’s Professionnel plan advertises 24/7 service.
Evenings, Sundays and public holidays fall outside those hours. If your customers call about a leak on a Sunday, ask who answers at those hours and what it costs, or cover those hours with an after-hours answering service.
Can AI replace an outsourced phone answering service?
For routine calls, yes: an AI answers at any hour, gives your hours, takes a message or books an appointment, and costs less per minute. It doesn’t replace an operator for an angry caller or a sensitive request. For a business in France, LobbyStack also comes with number and billing constraints, listed below.
LobbyStack’s Starter plan costs $30 a month for 150 minutes, then $0.20 a minute. Pro costs $100 for 500 minutes, then $0.18 a minute. No plan has a setup fee. The receptionist opens each call in French if you set French as the default language, then answers in the caller’s language: 70+ languages on OpenAI’s GPT-Live. It books into Google Calendar, transfers urgent calls to your number, and saves a summary, transcript and recording of every call.
What to know before you use it from France
- No French number. LobbyStack offers numbers in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. You keep your French number and forward it to your LobbyStack number.
- Forwarding goes abroad. Your carrier bills the forwarded leg of each call as a call to the country of your LobbyStack number, unless your plan includes that destination. Free’s Forfait Free 5G+, for example, includes calls to US and Canadian mobiles, but its page says nothing about forwarded calls. Ask your carrier for the exact price before you turn forwarding on. Your caller still pays for a call to your French number, as before.
- Billing in dollars. LobbyStack bills in US dollars. The euro amount depends on the exchange rate and your bank’s fees.
- No texts to French mobiles. Booking confirmations and the reminder 24 hours before the appointment only go to US and Canadian numbers, so your French customers won’t get them. Email alerts to your team work anywhere; text alerts go to a US or Canadian mobile.
- No human operator. Transfers go to one number, your team’s, with no introduction of the caller. If a transfer fails, the receptionist tells the caller and offers to take a message.
- Self-hosting doesn’t solve the number. The code is MIT open source and runs on your own OpenAI and Twilio accounts, but the published code also offers numbers in those five countries only.
To compare AI phone systems sold in France, with French numbers and euro prices, read our guide to an AI phone system for small businesses in France.
How do you choose an outsourced phone answering provider?
- Count your calls. From your line’s call history, note last month’s call count, the average length and the share that came in after hours.
- Mark the calls that need a person. An urgent quote, an unhappy customer or a negotiation needs a human. A question about hours or a booking doesn’t.
- Price three bills. Run your volume through a per-call plan, a fee-plus-calls plan and a bundle, using the tables above.
- Get the full quote in writing. Ask for the extra-call price, the minutes included per call, the hours covered, the price with and without VAT, and the notice period.
- Test with real calls. Le Secrétariat and Bureau24 offer a free trial. Call yourself at 12:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. to see who answers.
- Forward your line. All of these services work through call forwarding from your carrier. Our guide on how to forward business calls explains the types: all calls, when busy, or when unanswered.
Questions about outsourced phone answering in France
How much does a remote phone secretary cost in France?
In October 2026, providers that publish prices charge €1 to €1.99 per call before VAT, with a monthly fee of €0 to €39 or a billing minimum. At 40 calls a month, the bill runs from €50 to €118.60. Bundles start around €59 a month. Ask each provider for the price of calls beyond the bundle.
Can I keep my business number?
Yes. You set up call forwarding with your carrier to the number the provider gives you: all calls, or only the ones you don’t answer. Your customers dial the same number as before. LobbyStack works the same way, except that the forwarding goes to a number in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia or New Zealand.
Do outsourced answering services in France require a contract?
Not at most providers that publish prices. Op’tel Services, Le Secrétariat, Kandbaz and Optilib’s remote secretary plan state no commitment. Thelem says most of its contracts have no commitment or notice period, and Bureau24 has no long-term commitment. Get the notice period in writing before you sign, because the pricing pages don’t spell it out.
Do they answer at night and on weekends?
The published entry plans stop at Saturday noon, or at 10 p.m. at Thelem. Bureau24 advertises 24/7 answering on its Professionnel plan, from €189.90 a month. For nights and Sundays, plan on an AI receptionist or forwarding to the on-call person’s mobile. Ask each provider where calls go outside its hours before you sign up.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than outsourced phone answering?
Per minute, yes. For 40 three-minute calls, LobbyStack costs $30, compared with €50 to €118.60 before VAT at the four French providers we could price. French AI phone systems start between €23.99 and €89 a month. AI doesn’t replace a person for sensitive calls, and LobbyStack adds the cost of forwarding abroad.
Test your calls before you choose
Take last month’s call count and find your row in the 40 and 100 call table. If an AI receptionist appeals to you, LobbyStack’s free plan gives you 30 browser voice minutes with no card and no telephone number: call it from your computer, in French, with your hardest questions. It can’t answer your business line; that takes a paid plan and call forwarding. Create a free account or see pricing.