Blog · Comparisons
Virtual phone number vs AI phone number
One moves your calls around. The other picks them up. They solve different problems, and plenty of people only have the first problem.
By the CosVoice team · · 5 minute read
What's the actual difference?
A virtual phone number moves a call from one place to another. Someone dials it, and it rings an app on your mobile, or your laptop, or forwards to a phone you already own. An AI phone number picks the call up. Something on the other end answers, holds the conversation, and tells you about it afterwards in writing.
So a virtual number is plumbing, and good plumbing is worth having. An AI number is closer to a member of staff. If your problem is "I want a separate number for work", you want the first. If your problem is "I can't get to the phone, and I hate making calls", you want the second.
What does a virtual number do well?
Quite a lot, for not much money. A virtual number isn't tied to a SIM card or a particular handset, so you can have a work number and a personal number on the same phone, and drop the work one when you change jobs or close the business. Your own mobile number stays out of adverts and invoices.
Most of them text properly, in both directions. Many let two or three people share one number, so whoever's free picks up. Some providers offer numbers in other countries, which matters if your customers are abroad. And you can usually set business hours, a greeting, maybe a short menu.
All of that is about where a call goes. None of it changes who has to answer.
What happens on each when nobody picks up?
This is the question that separates the two. On a virtual number, an unanswered call ends up in voicemail. Possibly a nicer voicemail, with a transcript emailed to you, but the caller still got a beep and still had to decide whether to talk to it.
On an AI number there's no such thing as an unanswered call in the usual sense, because answering is the product. The caller gets a conversation. It asks who they are and what they need, and it writes down the amounts, the dates and the next step. You get a summary. We went through that contrast in detail in AI answering vs voicemail.
What does an AI number do that a virtual number can't?
Three things, and people tend to notice one and miss the other two.
- It answers when you can't. Give the number out, or forward your missed calls to it. Callers you've approved get a warm welcome. Strangers get a polite assistant that doesn't share your details.
- It calls out for you. Booking a table, moving an appointment, chasing a contractor for a quote, waiting on hold with an airline. You say what you want and it makes the call.
- You can call it yourself. It knows your mobile, so when you ring or text the line, what you say is treated as an instruction.
What does an AI number do worse?
Texting, for one, and we'd sooner you heard it from us. Texts sent to our line always arrive and are saved, and a text from your own mobile counts as an instruction. But texts from the line to other people are limited for now. Anything that has to arrive goes as a call or an email. If your customers live in their text messages, a virtual number handles that better today.
Coverage is another. Our numbers are US numbers, in the area code you choose. If you need a number in another country, a virtual number provider is where to look.
It also costs more, because a conversation costs more to run than a forward. Our plans start from $29 a month and include call minutes, and the details are on the pricing page. A basic virtual number is usually cheaper than that. And an AI number is one assistant's line. It isn't a phone system for a team of eight with extensions.
When is a plain virtual number all you need?
More often than people selling AI would like. If you answer nearly all your calls, you don't need something to answer them for you. A freelancer who wants a business number on the invoice, takes six calls a week and picks up every one is well served by a virtual number and nothing else. We've written about that choice in should a freelancer have a separate business phone number?
The same goes if what you want is privacy. Selling a sofa online, signing up for something, putting a number on a flyer: you want a number you can hand out and later throw away. That's a virtual number's job.
And if you have a team who share the phones, with people available to answer during the day, the routing is what you're paying for. Get the phone system.
Not sure which camp you're in? Look at your call log for the last month. Lots of answered calls and the odd miss means a virtual number will do. A long column of missed calls from numbers you don't recognize is the case for the other kind.
Can you have both?
Yes, and it's a sensible setup. An AI line is an ordinary phone number from the outside, so anything that can forward a call can forward it there. If your virtual number lets you send unanswered calls to another number, point them at the AI line in place of voicemail. You keep the number your customers know, you keep the texting, and the calls you'd have missed get answered.
That's what we'd suggest to anyone who already has a number they like. Don't replace it. Put something behind it that answers.
Common questions
Is an AI phone number a real phone number?
Yes. It has an area code and anyone can ring it from any phone. The person calling doesn't need an app or an account. What's different is that an AI assistant answers it and dials out from it.
Can I text from an AI phone number?
On our line, texts in always arrive and are saved, and a text from your own mobile is an instruction. Texts out to other people are limited for now, so we send anything important as a call or an email.
Can I get an AI phone number outside the United States?
Not from us today. Our numbers are in US area codes, and Canada is next. For a number in another country, look at virtual number providers.
Which is cheaper, a virtual number or an AI number?
A virtual number, nearly always. It only routes calls, and that's cheap to do. An AI number holds conversations and places calls, so you're paying for minutes of talk time as well as the number.
Read next: What is an AI phone number? · Four ways to get a second phone number · How our line works
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