Blog · Answering calls
How much does an answering service cost?
Nobody can give you one number, because there are three different ways of charging. Here's how each works, and how to price your own month.
By the CosVoice team · · 6 minute read
There are three ways to be charged
An answering service bills you in one of three ways: a fee for every call it takes, a fee for every minute it spends on the phone, or a flat monthly amount that covers a set allowance. Most quotes are one of those, or a blend (a monthly base with some calls or minutes included, then a rate for everything over). What you end up paying depends far more on your call pattern than on the headline rate.
So the useful answer to "how much" is a sum you do yourself. You need two numbers from your own business: how many calls you'd hand over in a month, and how long they tend to run. With those, any quote turns into a monthly figure in about two minutes. Without them you're comparing adverts.
We're not going to print a table of other companies' prices. They change, they vary by region, and a table like that is out of date before you've finished reading it. The shapes don't change.
Per-call pricing suits short, predictable calls
You pay a fixed amount each time the service picks up. A forty-second call and a nine-minute call cost the same. If your callers are brief ("are you open Saturday?", "can someone ring me about a quote?") this is easy to budget, because the bill is just calls times rate.
Two things to check. First, what counts as a call. Wrong numbers, sales calls, robocalls and people who hang up after two seconds all ring your line too, and some services bill for every one of them. Ask for the definition in writing. Second, whether a call that gets transferred to you, or a call the service makes back out on your behalf, is billed as a second call.
Per-minute pricing follows the length of the conversation
Here you pay for time. It's fair in the sense that a quick call costs little. It can hurt if your callers like to talk, or if the person answering is slow because they're reading your details off a screen for the first time.
Ask how minutes are rounded. Some services round each call up to the next full minute, some bill in smaller steps, and the difference adds up over a few hundred calls. Ask what's on the clock as well: hold time, the time spent typing up the message after the caller has gone, the time spent waiting for you to pick up a transfer. All of those can be billable, and none of them is time your customer was being helped.
Flat monthly plans buy you a ceiling
A flat plan charges the same every month for an allowance of calls or minutes. You know the bill in advance, which matters more than people admit when July is busy and January isn't. The catch is the allowance. Go over it and you're back on a per-call or per-minute rate for the extra, and that rate can be higher than the one inside the plan.
Software-based answering (an AI line, in plain terms) is usually sold this way, because there's no roster of staff to pay by the hour. Ours is: a monthly plan, from $29 a month, with call minutes included and a per-minute rate beyond them. A minute is time connected on a call, rounded up per call. The allowances are on the pricing page.
What pushes the bill up
The rate is rarely the problem. These are.
- After-hours and holiday rates. Some services charge more for nights, weekends and public holidays, which is exactly when you need them.
- Long calls. A caller describing a leak in detail, or an upset one, can run to ten minutes. On per-minute pricing a handful of those move the total.
- Setup fees. A one-off charge to build your account and script. Fine if it's stated up front. Annoying if you first meet it on an invoice.
- Monthly minimums. You pay the minimum even in a dead month.
- Extras billed separately. Call transfers, appointment taking, a second greeting for a second brand, a local number, messages delivered by text.
- Junk calls. If spam counts as billable, you're paying to have a robot answered politely.
How to turn a quote into a monthly figure
Start by counting. For two weeks, tally every call you'd want the service to take: the ones you miss now, plus the ones you answer badly because you're up a ladder. Double it for a rough month. Then estimate length. If you don't know, time your next ten calls. They're usually shorter than they feel.
Say you land on 120 calls a month at about three minutes each. That's 360 minutes. For a per-call quote, multiply 120 by the per-call rate and add any monthly base. For a per-minute quote, multiply 360 by the rate, remembering the rounding. For a flat plan, check whether 360 minutes fits inside the allowance, and if it doesn't, price the extra at the overage rate.
Now do it again for your busiest month. That second sum is the one that matters. A plan that's cheap in a quiet month and painful in a busy one charges you most when you've the least time to argue about it.
Compare what you get, not only what you pay
Two quotes at the same monthly figure can buy different things. One takes a name and a number and emails you "please call back". The other finds out what the job is, the address, how urgent it is and when the caller is free, so your callback is a two-minute confirmation and not a fresh start. The second is worth more, and you should price it that way.
We went through that difference in AI receptionist or answering service. And if you're not sure the phone is costing you anything at all, do the sum in what a missed call costs first. It'll tell you what a sensible monthly budget looks like.
Last thing. Before you sign, ask for a sample invoice from a real month, with the line items left in. A price list tells you what they charge for. An invoice tells you what customers end up paying for.
Common questions
Is per-minute or per-call pricing cheaper?
It depends on your call length. Short calls suit per-minute pricing and long calls suit per-call. Work out your average call length first, then run both sums on the same month of calls.
Do answering services charge for spam and wrong numbers?
Some do and some don't. Ask what counts as a billable call and get the answer in writing, because junk calls can be a fair share of what rings a business line.
Do answering services tie you into a contract?
Often, yes. Look for the minimum term, the notice period and whether the price can change during the term. Month to month is worth having while you're still finding out whether the service suits you.
Is an automated answering service cheaper than a live one?
Usually, because there are no staff hours behind each call, and it's typically sold as a flat monthly plan. Cheaper isn't the only question though. Check what each one hands you after the call.
Read next: Unlimited or per-minute: how to choose · A checklist for choosing a service · What our plans include
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