An AI receptionist costs $500–$2,000 per month in infrastructure and platform fees, plus a one-time build cost of $5,000–35,000. Compared to a human receptionist at $35,000–$45,000 per year in salary and benefits, the AI pays back its build investment within 3–5 months — then saves $30,000–$40,000 per year ongoing.
Monthly infrastructure cost
The monthly cost of an AI receptionist depends on call volume:
| Monthly calls | Avg duration | Minutes/month | Cost estimate |
|—|—|—|—|
| 200 calls | 3 min | 600 min | $140–200/mo |
| 500 calls | 3 min | 1,500 min | $350–500/mo |
| 1,000 calls | 3 min | 3,000 min | $700–990/mo |
| 2,000 calls | 3 min | 6,000 min | $1,380–1,980/mo |
| 5,000 calls | 3 min | 15,000 min | $3,450–4,950/mo |
Pricing based on Vapi BYOK at $0.23–0.33/min. For volumes above 5,000 calls/month, LiveKit self-hosted reduces this by 50–70%.
Build cost (one-time)
| Scope | Cost | Timeline |
|—|—|—|
| Basic receptionist (FAQ + booking) | $5,000–10,000 | 1–2 weeks |
| Full production (CRM + SMS + monitoring) | $15,000–25,000 | 3–4 weeks |
| Multi-location with complex routing | $25,000–50,000 | 6–10 weeks |
Human receptionist vs AI receptionist: full cost comparison
| | Human receptionist | AI receptionist |
|—|—|—|
| Annual salary | $35,000–45,000 | — |
| Benefits (30%) | $10,500–13,500 | — |
| Payroll tax (10%) | $3,500–4,500 | — |
| Training and onboarding | $2,000–5,000 (one-time) | — |
| Turnover cost | $5,000–15,000 (every 1–2 years) | — |
| Total year 1 | $55,000–83,000 | $6,000–$24,000 + build |
| Available hours | Mon–Fri 9–5 | 24/7/365 |
| Sick days / vacation | 10–15 days/year | None |
| Simultaneous calls | 1 | Unlimited |
Payback calculation example
A law firm paying $42,000/year for a full-time receptionist:
- AI receptionist cost: $800/month infrastructure + $18,000 build = $27,600 in year one
- Year-one savings vs human: $42,000 − $27,600 = $14,400 saved in year one
- Year-two savings: $42,000 − $9,600 (infrastructure only) = $32,400 saved per year ongoing
The build cost is recovered in month 5. Every month after that is pure savings.
What’s included at each price point
$500/month (small business, low volume):
- Basic inbound answering
- Appointment booking to Google Calendar or Calendly
- FAQ answers from configured knowledge base
- SMS confirmation after booking
- Basic CRM contact creation (HubSpot or GoHighLevel)
$1,000–2,000/month (mid-size, moderate volume):
- Everything above
- Monitoring dashboard and call analytics