AI Receptionist True-Cost Calculator: What You'll Actually Pay (2026)

By Dan Miller · Last updated November 4, 2026 · Prices checked November 4, 2026

Two AI receptionists both advertise “$29 a month.” One of them would bill our example plumber $123.80. The other would bill him $349. And a third tool — one with a $0 headline — would bill him $270.

That is the honest state of AI receptionist pricing: the number on the pricing page is not your invoice. Rosie bills by the minute. Goodcall bills by the unique caller. Smith.ai bills by the call. Jobber bills by the conversation. Dialzara bills by the minute again, but with a different overage meter and a booking restriction on the cheap plan.

We compared all five in our full plumber review. This post is the companion piece: we built a True-Cost Calculator that runs your call volume through each tool’s real billing model — minutes, unique callers, overage rates, all of it — and shows what you’d actually pay. No signup, no email; your numbers never leave the page.

The short version

• True cost is set by the billing model, not the headline: minutes, unique callers, calls, or conversations.
• For a typical plumber (150 calls a month, 6 minutes each), true monthly costs run from $79 to $349.
• Long calls punish per-minute billing. Lots of different callers punish per-caller billing. Heavy volume punishes per-call billing.
• Already paying for Jobber? Its $29 AI Receptionist add-on can beat every standalone tool here — but it needs the Jobber subscription underneath.
• The cheapest headline almost never wins. Run your own numbers in the calculator.

Our take: If you take long calls and the same customers ring repeatedly, Goodcall’s per-caller billing with unlimited minutes is the hardest invoice to blow up. If the receptionist must book jobs and per-minute pricing fits your volume, Rosie Scale. Already on Jobber? Add its AI Receptionist instead of buying a standalone tool. Only need message-taking at low volume? Dialzara’s $29 tier re-enters the race.

Why starting prices lie

Every tool on this page sells the same product — an AI that answers your phone — but they meter it four different ways:

1. Per-minute bundles (Rosie): $49 for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000, $299 for 2,000. No published per-minute overage — go over and you’re moved up a plan.
2. Per unique caller (Goodcall): $79 for 100 callers, $129 for 500, $299 for 2,000, then 79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ per extra caller by tier. Minutes unlimited.
3. Per-minute with overage (Dialzara): $29 for 60 minutes (+$0.48/min over), $99 for 220 minutes (+$0.45/min over), $199 for 500 minutes (+$0.40/min over), $349 for 1,000 minutes (+$0.35/min over). Job booking only starts on the $99 plan.
4. Per call (Smith.ai AI Receptionist): free for 25 calls (+$3/call), Pro steps $150 for 75 (+$2.50/call), $270 for 150 (+$2.30/call) and $500 for 300 (+$2.17/call), Enterprise $500 for 300 (+$2.17/call) and $800 for 500 (+$2.10/call).
5. Per conversation (Jobber AI Receptionist): $29/month add-on, 30 conversations included, then $0.79 each. Requires a Jobber subscription (Core from ~$29/month after the intro price) — not included.

Tool	Billing unit	Cheapest headline	Overage spelled out on the pricing page?	True cost: plumber preset*
Rosie	Minutes (bundles)	$49	✡ — go over and you’re bumped to the next plan	$149
Goodcall	Unique callers	$79	✓ (79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ per extra caller, by tier)	$79
Dialzara	Minutes (+ overage)	$29	✓ ($0.48/$0.45/$0.40/$0.35 per minute)	$349
Smith.ai (AI)	Calls	$0	✓ ($3.00–$2.10 per extra call, by step)	$270
Jobber AI Receptionist	Conversations	$29	✓ ($0.79 per extra conversation)	$123.80†

*Plumber preset: 150 calls × 6 min = 900 minutes, about 98 unique callers, job booking on. †Excludes the required Jobber subscription.

One plumber, five invoices

Here is the preset math, tool by tool — the same arithmetic the calculator runs:

Goodcall — $79. With 35% of calls coming from repeat numbers, about 98 of the 150 calls are unique callers. That fits inside the Starter tier’s 100, so it’s $79 base plus zero overage.

Jobber AI Receptionist — $123.80. $29 covers the first 30 conversations; the other 120 bill at $0.79 each: $29 + $94.80. Remember the Jobber subscription sits underneath this and is not in the number.

Rosie — $149. Nine hundred minutes blows past the Professional plan’s 250, but fits inside Scale’s 1,000. Since Rosie publishes no per-minute overage rate, the calculator takes the cheapest plan that covers your minutes.

Smith.ai — $270. The Free tier covers 25 calls; the other 125 at $3 each come to $375. The Pro 75-call step ($150) plus 75 extra at $2.50 totals $337.50 — but the Pro 150-call step covers all 150 for a flat $270, which is the cheapest path. Enterprise would cover all 150 for a flat $500.

Dialzara — $349. With booking switched on, the $99 Business Pro plan qualifies, but the $349 Business Elite plan covers all 900 minutes for a flat $349 — cheaper than Pro plus overage ($99 + 680 × $0.45 = $405). Elite is the cheapest booking-capable path.

Read it again: the $29 headline billed $349. The $0 headline billed $270. The $49 headline billed $149. Only the $79 headline billed $79. Nobody is technically lying — every one of these numbers appears on a pricing page — but none of the headlines tells you your invoice.

What each tool is really selling you

Rosie. ✓ Minute bundles suit shops with short calls — 250 minutes goes a long way at 3 minutes a pop. ✡ Job booking starts at the $149 Scale plan, so the $49 tier is message-taking only. ✡ No published overage rate: run long and your plan just gets bigger, quietly.

Goodcall. ✓ Unlimited minutes on every tier — 900 minutes costs exactly the same as 90. ✓ A customer ringing five times in a month counts once. ✡ Take 400 different callers a month and the $129 Growth tier still covers you flat (400 ≤ 500 included). Past 500, Growth adds 26¢ per caller; past 2,000, Scale adds 15¢.

Dialzara. ✓ The $29 Business Lite tier is real — for message-taking at low volume. ✡ With booking on and real call volume, the overage meter spins on the wrong tier: $0.45 a minute would add $306 for our plumber on the $99 Pro plan — which is why the calculator steps him up to Elite.

Smith.ai (AI Receptionist). ✓ The free tier is genuinely free at 25 calls — fine for testing the waters. ✡ Per-call billing punishes busy shops: 150 calls costs $270 on the Pro 150-call step — and every redial still counts as another call. (This is the AI tier, not Smith.ai’s $300+/month human-staffed plans.)

Jobber AI Receptionist. ✓ For existing Jobber customers it’s the cheapest path on this page. ✡ Compare it as an add-on, not a standalone price — the subscription underneath is mandatory. Worth knowing: Jobber made our under-$100 CRM shortlist, if you’re choosing both at once.

How the calculator works

Four controls, nothing to sign up for:

• Calls per month — how many the receptionist actually answers.
• Average call length — the lever that breaks per-minute pricing.
• Repeat callers % — the same number calling twice counts once under Goodcall’s caller-based billing.
• “Must book jobs” toggle — untick it if message-taking is enough. It changes Rosie and Dialzara completely: Rosie drops to the $49 Professional tier, Dialzara to the $29 Business Lite.

Start from a preset — Plumber (150 calls, 6 min, 35% repeat), HVAC (200 calls, 5 min, 50%), Electrician (100 calls, 4 min, 40%) — then drag the sliders to match your shop. Every number on the page recalculates live. Try it here: the True-Cost Calculator.

The method, in one paragraph

For each tool, the calculator picks the cheapest plan-plus-overage combination that covers your inputs — the same logic a careful buyer would use, minus the spreadsheet. Rosie publishes no per-minute overage rate (its terms move you up a plan), so the calculator takes the cheapest plan covering your minutes and flags “Custom — get a quote” past 2,000 minutes a month.

Two honesty caveats

Rosie’s “unlimited minutes” language. Rosie’s own site has shown “unlimited minutes” wording while third-party breakdowns list the minute bundles our math uses. The calculator flags “confirm with Rosie” for exactly this reason: if their terms are genuinely unlimited at your volume, your real price could come in under our number.

Jobber’s subscription. Our Jobber number is the $29 add-on plus overage only — the Jobber subscription it sits on (Core from ~$29/month after the intro price) is not included, and the calculator footnotes it. If you don’t already use Jobber, add that before comparing. Answering still pays, because every missed call costs real money — just compare like with like.

Which should you pick?

Answer 3 questions → your pick:

1. Must it book jobs, not just take messages? If messages are enough, Dialzara’s $29 Lite tier is back in the race — booking is what forces the $99 plan. Rosie drops to the $49 tier at the same time.
2. Do the same customers call repeatedly (30%+ repeats)? If yes, per-caller billing (Goodcall) rewards you; per-call billing (Smith.ai) charges you for every redial.
3. Are your calls long (5+ minutes)? If yes, per-minute meters run hot — our plumber’s $349 Dialzara bill is what that looks like. Per-caller billing with unlimited minutes (Goodcall) shields you; Rosie Scale’s 1,000-minute bundle is the middle ground.

Translated into picks: long calls + repeat callers → Goodcall; booking must + moderate minutes → Rosie Scale; already paying for Jobber → the AI Receptionist add-on; message-taking only, low volume → Dialzara Business Lite; tiny volume, testing the waters → Smith.ai Free.

FAQs

Do I need to sign up or give the calculator my email?

No. All the math runs in your browser; your numbers never leave the page. There is nothing to create and nothing to download.

How often are the calculator’s prices updated?

The prices were checked on November 4, 2026, and we refresh them monthly — the calculator page carries its own checked stamp. If you spot a change on a vendor’s pricing page, tell us through the contact page and we’ll fix it.

Are taxes and fees included in the numbers?

No — the calculator works from published plan prices, which are quoted before sales tax and any telecom surcharges. Expect your real invoice to land a few percent higher, and check each vendor’s checkout for their add-ons.

I run two locations — does the calculator still work?

Mostly. The math assumes one phone line and one agent (Goodcall’s tiers are priced per agent). If each location gets its own line or agent, run the calculator once per location and add the totals.

Prices checked November 4, 2026 against vendor pricing pages and 2026 cost breakdowns. Vendors change plans without notice; verify before you buy.

Affiliate links coming soon — when we add them, they’ll be clearly labeled, and our math won’t change because of them.