The short answer
Smith.ai runs two receptionist tracks. The AI Receptionist is free for 25 calls/mo, then $150/mo for 75 calls ($2.00/call, $2.50 overage); volume tiers drop per-call to $1.67. Human Virtual Receptionist plans: $300/30 calls, $810/90, $2,100/300, overage $8.50-$11.50 per call. Month-to-month, no setup fees.
Key takeaways
- AI Receptionist: free at 25 calls/mo, then $150 for 75; volume tiers cut per-call to $1.67.
- Human receptionist plans: $300 (30 calls), $810 (90), $2,100 (300); overage $8.50-$11.50 per call.
- Every per-call add-on (booking, intake, routing, recording) stacks $0.25-$1.50 on top.
- Spam calls identified as spam cost nothing on either track; annual prepay knocks 10% off.
- No Smith.ai tier dials outbound lead campaigns; that job belongs to a different category.
Smith.ai sells two different receptionists on two different meters. The AI Receptionist starts free with 25 calls a month, then runs $150 a month for 75 calls. Human Virtual Receptionist plans start at $300 a month for 30 calls, and every human plan bills overage between $8.50 and $11.50 per call past the bundle. Everything below comes off Smith.ai's own two pricing pages, fetched the day this article published.
Two receptionists, two meters#
The split matters more than any single price on the page. The AI track meters per call at roughly $1.67 to $3.00 depending on tier, while the human track comes in call bundles that work out to $7 to $10 per call at list price. Which meter you should buy is a volume question, and the sections after the tables run that math directly. Neither track dials outbound for leads at any tier; that edge has its own section below.
AI Receptionist plans#
| Plan | Monthly price | Calls included | Per call inside tier | Overage per call |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25 | $0 | $3.00 |
| Pro | $150 | 75 | $2.00 | $2.50 |
| Pro, 150-call tier | $270 | 150 | $1.80 | $2.30 |
| Pro, 300-call tier | ~$500 | 300 | $1.67 | $2.17 |
| Enterprise | $500+ | 300+ | From $1.67 | Custom |
The Free plan is a real product, not a demo trick: 25 calls a month, 24/7 answering, summaries and transcripts, lead qualification and routing, Calendly scheduling, and Clio plus Zapier integrations, all at $0. Quality Studio, a simulated-call testing tool with 50 test calls a month on the free tier, ships with every plan.
Pro starts at $150 with 75 calls and widens into volume tiers that cut the per-call rate to $1.80 at 150 calls and lower again at 300. Enterprise starts at $500 with 300 calls included, adds a dedicated success manager and custom integrations, and pushes past 1,000 calls on custom terms. Billing is month to month with no setup fees, cancellation takes 30 days' notice, and spam calls identified as such don't count against your call quota on any tier.
Human Virtual Receptionist plans#
| Plan | Monthly price | Calls included | Overage per call | Free transfer destinations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $300 | 30 | $11.50 | 1 |
| Basic | $810 | 90 | $10.50 | 2 |
| Pro | $2,100 | 300 | $8.50 | 10 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
The human line is what Smith.ai built its name on: live agents answering around the clock, doing intake, booking appointments, taking payments, and transferring hot callers to your team. Lead screening, a five-question new-client intake, the first CRM integration, and your number all come inside the bundle price.
Two guarantees soften the sticker. A 30-day money-back window refunds plan and add-on charges up to $1,000 (overage excluded), and paying 12 months up front drops 10% off any tier. There's no setup fee and no contract past month to month.
Overage and add-ons are where the bill grows#
On the human track, overage runs $8.50 to $11.50 per call past the bundle, and every per-call add-on stacks on top of that:
| Add-on (per call) | Price |
|---|---|
| Call recording and transcription | $0.25 |
| Text and email follow-up | $0.50 |
| Conflict checks | $0.50 |
| SMS, Slack, or Teams notifications | $0.50 |
| Third-party intake | $1.00 |
| Complex call routing | $1.50 |
| Book appointments | $1.50 |
| Extended intake, 6 extra questions | $1.50 |
Monthly extras are three: $10 for business caller ID on outbound, $15 for additional transfer destinations, $5 per inbound tracking number.
Rezora point of view
Smith.ai bills nothing for calls it identifies as spam, on both tracks. On a busy line that clause is worth real money; on most phone systems the carrier charges for every ring regardless.
What a busy office actually pays#
Run the math on an office fielding about three calls a day, roughly 90 a month.
On the AI track: the Pro tier covers 75 calls for $150. The 15 calls past the bundle bill at $2.50 each, $37.50, so the month lands near $187.50 before any add-ons.
On the human track: Basic covers 90 calls for exactly $810, and that office pays $810 whether its calls are five seconds or fifty minutes. Add appointment booking at $1.50 a call on half the calls and the month sits at roughly $877.
Same coverage, a gap past $620. That's the pricing story in one paragraph: Smith.ai's human receptionist costs four to five times the AI receptionist at every volume the public tiers cover, from $150 against $810 at 90 calls to roughly $500 against $2,100 at 300. Only at the low end does the human line's declining per-call rate (from $11.50 to $8.50) do anything the headline doesn't promise.
How Smith.ai fits against the receptionist aisle#
| Option | Working entry price | Meter | Better fit when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | $150/mo, 75 calls | Per call, from free | Reliable answering without staffing a phone |
| Smith.ai human plan | $300/mo, 30 calls | Call bundles | Intake nuance beyond an AI's script |
| Allo | $18/user/mo annual | Per seat | Teams that need AI answering inside a phone system |
| Rezora IO | $289/mo + $0.20/conversational minute | Per conversation | Leads that need dialing, not just answering |
Against a phone system with answering AI built in, Smith.ai's free tier is the cheaper test: Allo's entry seat is $18 a month billed annually with the receptionist and booking included, and we priced that whole stack in the Allo pricing guide. The paid comparison favors Smith.ai's Free and Allo's Starter about equally until call volume crosses about a call a day.
The per-call market we track in the OpenPhone alternatives guide puts Smith.ai's AI receptionist between Quo's capped Sona (10 calls free) and the per-seat systems' add-on agents.
Where no receptionist tier will take you#
Everything above answers calls. None of it works a list of leads, reactivates a past database, or qualifies an inquiry before it ever reaches a phone queue. If that's the hole, a receptionist is the wrong tool at any price on either track.
Rezora IO is built for that hole. It's an AI voice agent that calls out and picks up inbound on the same engine: new leads get a call within seconds, qualification happens live on the call, and appointments land directly on the calendar. The engine beneath it is training over prompting: Rezora IO tunes the models it hosts itself (supervised fine-tuning, preference optimization) on real sales conversations, and that tuned base is why the agent handles objections instead of deflecting to a script. One published plan, $289 a month plus $0.20 per conversational minute, month to month, and enterprise plans with custom-trained deployments are available.
Receptionist quotes assume you receive calls
If your pipeline problem is outbound, price the outcome instead. Rezora IO works a lead list end to end: dials, qualifies, books. Test it on a list you already own.
Book a demoFAQ#
How much does Smith.ai cost?#
Two tracks. AI Receptionist: free for 25 calls a month, then $150 for 75 calls, with volume tiers cutting the per-call rate. Human Virtual Receptionist: $300 for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300, with a 10% annual prepay discount.
Is there a free trial?#
Better: the AI Receptionist has a permanent free plan (25 calls monthly, all core AI features). Human plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee capped at $1,000 of plan and add-on charges; overage isn't refundable.
Does Smith.ai charge per call or per month?#
Both. You buy a monthly bundle of calls, then every call past the bundle bills per call: $2.17 to $3.00 on the AI track, $8.50 to $11.50 on the human one. Per-call add-ons (booking, intake, routing) stack separately from $0.25 to $1.50.
Can Smith.ai make outbound calls to leads?#
Not as a receptionist product. No plan on either pricing page sells lead dialing; the human line does callback-style follow-ups tied to answering, and anything shaped like an outbound campaign needs a different tool entirely.
AI or human receptionist for a small office?#
At one to three calls a day the AI track is roughly a fifth the human price ($150 vs $810 at 90 calls). Buy the human plan when callers need judgment past a script, complex intake, or payment taking, and the per-call premium pays for avoided errors.
