The short answer
An off-the-shelf AI receptionist in the UK costs between £9.99 and £249 a month on published plans, usually plus VAT and with no setup fee. A human answering service starts at around £49 to £115 a month and rises with call time. A custom-built AI receptionist that books into your own diary or job software costs more up front: ours is £1,450 to set up and £249 a month, with call minutes at cost. Hiring a full-time receptionist on the National Living Wage costs an employer roughly £2,100 to £2,360 a month once National Insurance and pension are added.
If you miss a handful of calls a week and just need the caller's name, number and job, a £29 to £49 subscription is probably all you need. The more expensive options earn their cost only when calls have to land in your software, follow rules specific to your business, or be handled by a person.
The four options side by side
| Option | What you get | Monthly cost | Setup | What it can't do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI subscription | An AI voice answers, takes details, texts or emails a summary; some plans book into a calendar | £9.99 to £249, mostly plus VAT | None on the plans listed here | Follow rules it wasn't built for; most only connect to a calendar or a few named tools |
| Human answering service | A person answers in your name, takes a message, sometimes books appointments | From £49 to £115+, rising with call time | None at the provider listed here | Act on the call inside your systems unless set up to; cost grows with every minute |
| Custom-built AI receptionist | An AI receptionist built around your phone line, diary, job software and handover rules | £249 plus call minutes at cost (Logica) | £1,450 (Logica) | Be cheaper than a subscription; it makes sense only when the extra fit matters |
| Hiring a receptionist | A person on the desk: phones, visitors, admin | About £2,100 to £2,360 full time at the legal minimum | Recruitment time and cost | Cover evenings, weekends, holidays or two calls at once without extra staff |
Prices are from each provider's own page, checked 1 October 2026. The hiring figure is worked through below.
1. Off-the-shelf AI receptionist subscriptions
These are monthly plans you can usually start the same day. You forward your calls to the service, give it your business details and get a summary of each call by text or email. Most have no setup fee and no long contract. What they count, and what they connect to, varies a lot.
Team-Connect
Team-Connect's trade plans start at £9.99 a month for Smart Starter, which includes 50 incoming divert minutes and a UK business landline. Lite is £19.99 for 250 minutes and adds CRM integrations and webhooks; Pro is £79.99 for 750 minutes and lists 24/7 human backup. No contract. VAT is not stated on the page.
Powered Now Receptionist
Powered Now charges £29 a month for its Speech plan (unlimited calls answered 24/7, call summaries, keeps your existing number) and £39 with text follow-ups by SMS. No setup fee, cancel any time. The page describes it as an add-on to a Powered Now plan, lists the Powered Now integration as coming soon and doesn't state VAT.
Fasthosts AI Receptionist
Fasthosts has three plans, all excluding VAT: Lite at £39 a month for 30 calls then 49p a call, Plus at £69 for 100 calls then 39p, and Unlimited at £99. Plus adds appointment scheduling; Unlimited adds integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and Zendesk.
Trade Receptionist
Trade Receptionist is built for trades. Plans are £49 a month for up to 50 calls, £89 for 150, £159 for 350 and £249 for 600, all plus VAT, monthly, with no setup fee and a 14-day trial. Every plan connects to Google Calendar; calendar booking is listed from the £89 plan.
ServiceM8 Phone
If you run jobs in ServiceM8, ServiceM8 Phone Connect Plus is £25 a month for 500 call minutes with the AI phone agent included, and Unlimited is £119. Extra minutes are 3p each. It runs alongside a ServiceM8 subscription. Check VAT with ServiceM8; the page doesn't state it.
Moneypenny AI Receptionist
Moneypenny says its AI receptionist starts from £25 a month, with live receptionists stepping in when a call needs a person. Beyond that starting price, it asks you to talk to them for a quote.
Jobber Receptionist
Jobber prices in US dollars only: $29 a month as an add-on covering 30 conversations, then $0.79 per conversation, or included with unlimited use on its Plus plan. Spam calls don't count.
Before you pick the cheapest plan, check how it counts usage against your own call log. That is where these prices differ most.
2. Human answering services
A virtual receptionist service puts a real person on your line. Face For Business lists a Taster plan from £49 a month billed by the second, a Message Only plan from £99 and an Inclusive Minutes plan from £115 that adds evening and weekend cover, appointment booking and CRM integrations. It has no setup fees, no long contracts and a 7-day trial, and says it doesn't charge for sales or nuisance calls.
The appeal is obvious: callers speak to a person, and a person handles the odd call that doesn't fit a script. The catch is that cost tracks call time, so a busy month costs more. Some providers now mix the two. Moneypenny's AI receptionist hands over to its human team, and Team-Connect's Pro plan lists human backup.
3. A custom-built AI receptionist
A custom build is worth paying for when the call has to do something specific: book into the right engineer's diary, create a job in your job software, treat a burst pipe differently from a quote request, or follow out-of-hours rules you set. Off-the-shelf plans take a message well. Fewer of them act on it inside your own systems.
We build these. Our AI receptionist is a fixed £1,450 to set up and £249 a month, with call minutes passed through at cost and no minimum term (full price list). It answers inbound calls 24/7 or only when you miss them, books into your calendar or job software, routes calls by urgency rules you set, sends summaries, and works with your existing number by forwarding. We test it on your line with your team before it goes live.
Be clear about the sums. Over a first year that is £1,450 plus 12 × £249 = £4,438 before call minutes, more than most subscriptions above. If a subscription does the job, buy the subscription.
If what you really want is for nobody to ring off and call someone else, there is a cheaper step. Our missed-call text-back texts the caller in your business's name within moments of a missed call, for £295 plus £79 a month, with texts at cost (about 3 to 4p each). Our guide to missed calls goes through that option in more detail.
4. Hiring a receptionist
The legal floor for anyone aged 21 or over is the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour from April 2026. On top of pay, employers pay National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year, and must pay at least 3% pension contributions on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. Here is a full-time role at 37.5 hours a week:
Pay
37.5 hours × 52 weeks = 1,950 hours. 1,950 × £12.71 = £24,784.50 a year.
Employer National Insurance
(£24,784.50 − £5,000) × 15% = £2,967.68.
Employer pension
(£24,784.50 − £6,240) × 3% = £556.34.
Total
£28,308.52 a year, or about £2,359 a month. If your business can claim the £10,500 Employment Allowance against its NI bill, the cost falls to about £2,112 a month.
A part-time receptionist on 20 hours a week works out at £13,218.40 pay, £1,232.76 employer NI and £209.35 pension: about £1,222 a month before any Employment Allowance.
Those are minimum-wage figures, so treat them as the lowest case, and they leave out recruitment, equipment and sick cover. A full-time week of 37.5 hours is about a fifth of the 168 hours in a week, and most workers on a five-day week get at least 28 days' paid holiday, so evenings, weekends and holidays still need covering. What a hire gives you that no phone service does is a person on site for visitors, post and admin.
What actually drives the cost
Call volume
Most plans are priced in bands. Count how many calls you get a month, and how many you actually miss, before choosing one. If you only want missed calls answered, you need a far smaller plan.
Minutes or calls
Trade Receptionist and Fasthosts count calls; ServiceM8 and Team-Connect count minutes; Jobber counts conversations. On Fasthosts, 60 calls on Lite costs £39 + 30 × 49p = £53.70; past about 91 calls Plus is cheaper, and past about 177 calls Unlimited is. On Team-Connect's 50 minutes, calls averaging two minutes would give you about 25.
Booking into your diary
Taking a message is the basic job. Booking a slot needs access to your calendar and rules about which jobs fit where. Some plans include it only on higher tiers, as with Trade Receptionist and Fasthosts.
Integration with job or CRM software
If calls should create a job or contact record in your software, check that exact connection. Where it isn't offered, someone retypes the details, or you pay for a build that connects them.
Out-of-hours rules
Do you want every call answered, or only after 6pm? Should an emergency call ring your mobile while a quote request waits until morning? Simple schedules come with most plans; rules that depend on the job usually need setting up.
Your phone number
Most services work by diverting your existing number, so nothing changes for callers. Some give you a new number. If you move your number to a new provider, Ofcom's number portability rules let you keep it when you switch. Ask whether you need to move it at all.
Which one fits
You miss a few calls a week and want the details
A subscription in the £29 to £49 range, or missed-call text-back if a quick text reply is enough.
You already use ServiceM8, Jobber or Powered Now
Look at your job software's own receptionist first. It may already link calls to your jobs, or soon will.
Callers expect a person
A human answering service, or an AI plan with human backup, for high-value, sensitive or complaint calls.
Calls must land in your systems and follow your rules
A custom build, especially with several diaries, emergency triage or software no plan connects to. See how this works for trades, dentists and clinics.
You need someone on the desk
Hire, and use one of the options above for evenings, weekends and holidays.
If most of your leads come through your website rather than the phone, answering web enquiries fast matters as much. That is what speed-to-lead covers.
Questions to ask before you sign up
- Does the price include VAT, and is there a setup fee?
- What counts as usage: calls, minutes or conversations? Do spam and sales calls count?
- What does each extra call or minute cost, and what happens if I go over?
- Can it book into my diary, or only take a message?
- Does it connect to the software I use for jobs or patients, and what exactly does it send?
- What happens when it can't answer a question: transfer, text, or message?
- Can I set different rules for working hours, evenings and emergencies?
- Do I keep my number, and how do I leave?
- Can I hear test calls before it answers real customers?
Quick answers
How much is an AI receptionist per month in the UK?
Published plans run from £9.99 to £249 a month, mostly plus VAT. Usage limits matter as much as the headline price.
Is there a setup fee?
Not on the subscriptions listed here. Custom builds charge one: ours is £1,450.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human?
Than hiring, by a wide margin: the dearest published AI plan here is £249 a month, while a full-time minimum-wage hire costs an employer about £2,359. A human answering service can cost less than some AI plans at low volumes, but its price climbs with call time.
Can I keep my business number?
Usually. Most services divert your existing number, and Ofcom's portability rules let you keep a number when you change provider.
Can it book appointments?
Some plans can, often only on higher tiers. Booking into job software rather than a calendar is less common off the shelf.
Do I need one at all?
If you rarely miss calls, no. If you miss a few and lose work because of it, start with the cheapest option that fixes that.