AI receptionist for a small business in the UK: costs, options and how to choose

Your five options

Provider prices are from each provider’s own pricing page, checked on 17 October 2026. Retell AI and Vapi price in US dollars. Pocket Receptionist does not say whether its prices include VAT.

1. Voicemail

Free, but many callers will not leave a message, and you still spend time calling back. Keep it as your baseline: every other option should beat it on calls you would otherwise lose.

2. A human answering service

A UK team answers in your business name, takes a message or transfers the call. Two published examples:

• Answer.co.uk lists £2.20 per call plus VAT for new pay-as-you-go customers, with no monthly charge, 24-hour answering and a £25 minimum credit purchase.
• Pocket Receptionist lists monthly bundles: £75 for 30 calls, £145 for 60, £230 for 100 and £635 for 300, with extra calls at £2.99 each and cover from 08:00 to 20:00 on every plan.

A person handles awkward or emotional calls better than a script, which matters for clinics, legal work and anything urgent.

3. An AI option from a call-answering firm

Some answering services now sell an AI receptionist alongside their human one. Answer.co.uk lists its AI receptionist option at £10 a month and £0.85 per call, excluding VAT. This route suits businesses that want a lower per-call price without building anything.

4. A managed AI receptionist from a UK agency

An agency sets up the voice agent, connects it to your calendar, CRM or booking system, and keeps it running. In our directory, 65 agencies mention voice agents or AI receptionists, and 32 of them (49%) publish a price. Among the 16 that publish a monthly price, the median starting price is £225/month (range £29/month to £1,200/month).

Published offers that name a receptionist, voice agent or booking plan, or come from voice AI specialists:

Prices are as published on each agency’s own website when we checked them (11 or 17 October 2026). They are starting prices, and what they include (minutes, numbers, integrations, support) differs a lot. Voice AI specialists are the most open about price in our directory: 5 of 6 publish one, against 113 of 277 agencies overall. See our price study for the method.

5. A do-it-yourself voice platform

Platforms that many agencies build on also sell direct, priced by the minute:

• Retell AI lists pay-as-you-go pricing of $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, depending on the voice, language model and telephony chosen, plus $2 a month for each Retell phone number. It says calls are billed to the second and the AI fee stops once a call is transferred.
• Vapi lists $0.05 a minute for its hosting, with the speech-to-text, language model and voice providers charged on top at cost, and telephony charged by the provider. Its plan without a support package includes 1 Vapi phone number and $5 of free credit.

These are cheap per minute, but you (or someone you pay) write the prompts, connect the calendar, test it, handle a UK phone number and keep it working. Retell, for example, only sells US and Canadian numbers, so see how to connect a UK number to Retell AI before you start. If you are not technical, budget for help. In our directory, 11 agencies mention Retell or Vapi, and 8 of them publish a price, if you want help building on one.

Worked example: 200 calls a month

Two lessons from the sums. First, per-call pricing punishes high volume and per-minute pricing punishes long calls, so check both your numbers. Second, the cheapest list price often moves the work to you; a managed plan costs more but includes someone who fixes it when it goes wrong.

AI receptionist by type of business

The five routes are the same for every business, but what to check varies:

• Dentists, clinics and vets. Most callers want to book, move or cancel an appointment, and some will be worried. Look for an option that books directly into your practice system and passes anything clinical or urgent to a person quickly. Health details are special category data under UK GDPR, so ask where recordings and transcripts are stored.
• Restaurants and cafes. Calls are mostly about table bookings, opening hours and directions, and they often come at your busiest times. Check it connects to your booking system and sends allergy and dietary questions to your staff instead of answering them itself.
• Plumbers, electricians and other trades. Calls tend to come in when your hands are full. What helps most is taking the caller’s name, postcode, job type and how urgent it is, then texting you a short summary so you can call the best jobs back first.
• Estate agents. Calls are often viewing requests, valuations and “Is it still available?” questions. Check it can see your listings or CRM, and that it books viewings and valuations into the right diary, including evenings and weekends.
• Solicitors and accountants. First calls often include personal or confidential details. Keep the script to taking details and booking a call back, make sure it never says anything that sounds like advice, and check how call data is stored and who can access it.

How to choose

1. Mostly routine calls and a tight budget? Trial an AI option first (route 3 or 4) and keep a human fallback for urgent calls.
2. Sensitive, emotional or complex calls? A human answering service (route 2) is the safer choice, even if it costs more per call.
3. Calls need to book into your diary or update a CRM? A managed plan from an agency (route 4) is usually worth the setup fee, because the integration is the hard part.
4. Technical, or have someone who is? A platform (route 5) gives the lowest running cost and full control.
5. Not sure? Several of these providers offer free trials. Put each one on your real calls for a week and compare the messages and the bill.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Can I trial it on my own calls, using my own script?
• What does a call over my allowance cost, and can I cap my monthly spend?
• How does an urgent call reach a person, and how fast?
• Is the call recorded, where is the data stored, and for how long?
• Do I keep my phone number if I leave, and what is the notice period?
• Are prices shown with or without VAT?

If the agent records calls or takes callers’ details, tell callers how their data is used. For outbound marketing calls, the ICO’s telephone marketing guidance sets strict rules, so take advice before using AI for them. Our UK GDPR checklist for AI covers the basics.

Find AI receptionist providers

• Browse every agency that mentions voice agents and AI receptionists, or only those with a published starting price under £1,000.
• See voice AI specialists or agencies that mention Retell or Vapi.
• Want web chat as well? Read how much a website chatbot costs in the UK.
• Not sure where to start? Get matched with suitable agencies for free.