How much does a virtual receptionist cost per month?

It depends on whether a human or an AI answers. AI virtual receptionists commonly run $20 to $300 per month on published plans, usually with a call or minute cap. Human virtual receptionist services commonly start at a $65 to $300 monthly base plus roughly $1.90 to $2.30 per receptionist minute, with larger plans from $700 to $2,100 per month. Medical-specific flat plans sit higher; Clinivocx is $799, $1,999, or $4,999 per month by practice size. Figures other than ours reflect published vendor pricing pages, verified Aug 2026.

How much does an AI virtual receptionist cost?

Published AI plans run from about $25 per month for 30 calls to about $300 per month for 600 calls on per-call vendors, and around $99 per month for 200 voice minutes on per-minute vendors, per published vendor pricing pages, verified Aug 2026. Watch the meter: a busy month is billed as overage, commonly $0.70 to $1.50 per additional call. Flat-rate AI plans avoid the meter entirely and cost more per month.

Is an AI virtual receptionist cheaper than a human one?

Per call handled, almost always, because human services bill for a person's minutes and AI does not. At roughly $2 per receptionist minute, a human service reaches $700 to $2,000 per month at medical call volumes. The exception is very low volume: a line taking a handful of calls a month is cheaper on a small human base plan or a metered AI starter than on any flat tier.

What hidden fees should I check in virtual receptionist pricing?

Five recur across the category: minute rounding (a 61-second call billed as 2 minutes), hold and wrap-up time counted as billable, overage rates that differ from the plan rate, spam and wrong-number calls counted against your allowance, and setup or script-change fees. Ask each vendor to define a billable call or minute in writing before comparing quotes.

What should a medical practice pay for a virtual receptionist?

Price it on three lines, not one: the invoice, the compliance line, and the labor line. The invoice is the published plan. The compliance line is whether a BAA is included, because a vendor answering patient calls is a business associate under HIPAA, and some vendors reserve BAAs for custom tiers. The labor line is what the service leaves behind: a receptionist that only takes messages leaves every callback on your front desk. The cheapest invoice frequently loses on the other two lines.

Practice economics

Virtual Receptionist Cost: What You'll Pay in 2026

AI and human virtual receptionist pricing compared from published vendor rates: per-minute, per-call, and flat models, with the hidden fees to check.

Ade MercerFounder, ClinivocxUpdated August 9, 20269 min read

Virtual receptionist pricing spans two orders of magnitude, from $20 a month to over $2,000, and the spread is not noise. It tracks three choices: whether a human or an AI answers, whether the price is metered or flat, and whether the service is built for your industry or for everyone. This guide lays out the published ranges, the meters behind them, and the formula for the number that matters more than any sticker price: what each option costs per call actually handled.

Every figure below other than our own is drawn from published vendor pricing pages, verified Aug 2026. Prices change; confirm before you sign.

The short answer

AI virtual receptionists, metered: commonly $20 to $300 per month, with 30 to 600 calls or about 200 voice minutes included and overage at roughly $0.70 to $1.50 per call or $0.25 per minute.
Human virtual receptionists, per minute: commonly a $65 to $300 monthly base plus roughly $1.90 to $2.30 per receptionist minute; bigger bundles run $700 to $2,100 per month.
Human virtual receptionists, per call: commonly $7 to $11.50 per call on published plans.
Flat-rate medical AI: Clinivocx is $799, $1,999, or $4,999 per month by practice size, with no meter.

Price by pricing model

Ranges reflect published vendor pricing pages, verified Aug 2026, and change without notice. Clinivocx prices are our own published rates.
Model	Typical published cost	What you get	Watch out for
AI, per call	$25-$299/mo for 30-600 calls; overage $0.70-$1.50 per call	AI answers 24/7, takes messages, may book	Spam and wrong numbers can count as billable calls
AI, per minute	Around $99/mo for 200 voice minutes; overage around $0.25/min	AI answers, metered like a phone plan	Long calls burn the allowance fast
Human, per minute	$65-$1,900/mo base with 0-1,000 minutes; extra minutes $1.90-$2.30	A live person answers 24/7 and follows your script	Hold time, wrap-up time, and rounding are often billable
Human, per call	$300-$2,100/mo plans working out to $7-$11.50 per call	A live person answers; per-call budgeting is simpler	Overage rates above the plan's per-call rate
Flat monthly, medical AI	Clinivocx: $799, $1,999, or $4,999/mo by practice size	24/7 answering, booking, urgent escalation, signed BAA	Confirm what sits outside any flat rate before signing

Why the meters matter more than the base price

A metered plan is a bet about your call volume, and the vendor sets the odds. The base price is the number in the ad; the meter is the number on the invoice. Three months matter when you model it: your busiest month in the last year, not your average one, because flu season, a marketing push, or a colleague's practice closing all arrive as phone calls. On a per-minute human plan at roughly $2 per minute, an extra 200 minutes of seasonal volume is an extra $400 that month. On a flat plan it is $0.

The reverse is also true, and worth saying plainly: if your line is quiet, the meter is your friend. A practice taking a handful of after-hours calls a week will not beat a $65 base plus usage, and no flat tier can compete with a $25 starter plan at 30 calls a month.

The medical premium is mostly a compliance line

General-purpose virtual receptionists are priced for every storefront at once, which is why they can be cheap. A patient line adds two costs that do not show up on a pricing table. The first is the BAA: a vendor answering patient calls is a business associate under HIPAA, and on published pages some vendors do not mention one, while others reserve it for custom enterprise tiers. The second is what happens on the worst call of the week: a general service takes "chest pain" down as a message, while a medical one fires an escalation protocol. That difference is the product, documented here, and it is most of why medical-specific plans cost more than $99 a month.

The formula: cost per call handled

Normalize every quote with your own last-90-days call volume, using your busiest month:

Metered human: (base + minutes × per-minute rate) ÷ calls handled.
Metered AI: (base + overage calls × overage rate) ÷ calls handled.
Flat: monthly price ÷ calls handled, which improves every time the phone gets busier.

Then subtract what the service does not finish. A message-taking service converts every call into a callback your staff still owes, so add those staff minutes back to its cost. A receptionist that books during the call leaves nothing behind. That single distinction moves the real cost more than any sticker price; the calculator does this math with your numbers.

Where Clinivocx sits, stated plainly

Clinivocx is deliberately at the flat end of the market: $799 per month for a 1-provider practice, $1,999 for 2-3 providers, $4,999 for 4 or more, published on the pricing page, with 24/7 answering, booking during the call, urgent escalation, six languages, and a signed BAA in every tier. It is not the cheapest way to answer a phone. It is priced against the two alternatives a practice actually weighs: a metered human service at medical call volumes, and the front-desk hours that callbacks consume. If your volume is low or your line is not medical, the cheaper options above are honestly better, and the comparison pages on this site say so by name.