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Answering Service Cost Estimator

What it does

Enter how many calls a month the service would handle and how long they last. The estimator picks the cheapest published plan we have on file for each provider and shows the monthly cost. It uses only prices from the providers’ own pages, the same set as our answering service cost guide. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

By · Free, no sign-up · Runs in your browser · Prices checked
Disclosure: Peace Call earns a commission if you buy HighLevel through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. We are an independent affiliate, not HighLevel. This guide is based on official vendor documentation, pricing pages, and primary sources as checked in October 2026 — not on client deployments of our own. Full disclosure.

Defaults match the 100-call, 3-minute example in the cost guide. Replace them with your own call log.

How the estimate is built

For each provider the tool tries every plan listed below and keeps the cheapest one that can cover your minutes or calls. Cost = plan price + (use − included) × overage rate. Add-ons, taxes, spam, and your own carrier’s forwarding fees are not included. Per-unique-caller plans (Goodcall) treat every call as a new caller, which is a worst case.

HighLevel Voice AI pay-per-use here is the voice engine ($0.045/min) plus OpenAI or Cartesia text-to-speech ($0.015/min), plus a local number ($1.15/month) and inbound call minutes at $0.01165/min. LLM tokens are extra and are not in the number. ElevenLabs voices cost more ($0.035 or $0.170/min) and are not used in this estimate. AI Employee Growth is $50/month for 100 Voice AI minutes, then the same pay-per-use voice rate. AI Employee Unlimited is $97/month for Voice AI minutes, subject to fair use, and phone charges still apply. Speech-to-speech models ($0.10 or $0.20/min) are not in these rows.

Abby does not publish a separate overage price. Where a plan is over its included minutes, this tool uses that plan’s effective Abby Minute rate (monthly price ÷ included minutes). That is our assumption, marked on the row. Ruby’s pricing page does not list an overage rate, so the tool only picks a Ruby plan that fully covers your minutes, and it stops at the 500-minute plan ($1,725).

Prices used (checked October 8–9, 2026)

Live per-minute plans, per-call plans, and AI plans are the tables in the answering service cost guide, taken from each vendor’s pricing page on October 8, 2026. HighLevel AI rates were re-read on October 9, 2026 from AI Product Pricing (article modified September 28, 2026): voice engine $0.045/min from May 20, 2026, OpenAI and Cartesia TTS $0.015/min, Growth $50 with 100 Voice AI minutes, Unlimited $97. Phone rates ($1.15 local number, $0.01165/min inbound) are from our pricing guide, checked October 8, 2026 against HighLevel’s phone and pricing help articles. They were not re-fetched on October 9.

Several providers publish larger plans than the ones encoded here (PATLive up to 5,000 minutes, Posh 350 and 1,000, Specialty Answering Service up to 10,000). If your volume is in that range, the page may be cheaper than this estimate. Recheck every linked pricing page before you sign.

What to do with the number

Put the same call log into the missed call calculator to see how many recovered jobs a given monthly cost needs. A two-week log spreadsheet is on the template pack page. If you want a person after hours and a text when nobody answers, pair a service with missed call text back.

See HighLevel Voice AI pricing

HighLevel publishes pay-per-use Voice AI rates and AI Employee plans on top of a platform plan from $97/month, with a 14-day trial on the pricing page. Phone and token charges still apply.

See HighLevel pricingPaid link: Peace Call earns a commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you. Check HighLevel’s current pricing and terms before you sign up.

FAQ

Does this estimator include taxes, booking fees, or tokens?

No. It uses published plan prices and the overage rates listed above. Smith.ai booking add-ons, taxes, HighLevel LLM tokens, and your own phone company’s forwarding charges are extra.

Why is HighLevel so much lower?

The pay-per-use row is AI minutes plus a phone number, not a live receptionist. It also assumes you already pay for HighLevel unless you check the $97 box. A live person and an AI agent are not the same product. Our comparison covers the difference.

Are these the only answering services?

No. We included providers that publish prices. A quote from a service that doesn’t publish rates can be higher or lower.

Sources