AI Receptionist Cost UK (2026): Real Prices, Pricing Models and Hidden Costs
Entry plans for an AI receptionist in the UK cost from £39 a month (plus VAT) to £125 a month, based on providers' own published prices. Self-serve tools start at £39 a month plus VAT for 30 calls (Fasthosts and IONOS), £49 a month (Sayora's early-bird plan) or £59 a month (Whoza, with 10 booked jobs). Done-for-you services cost more: UpZilo is £99 a month plus a £299 setup fee on a 12-month agreement, and the DeskAgent® Phone Agent is £125 a month with unlimited inbound calls and no contract. What you actually pay depends on the pricing model, your call volume, setup fees and VAT.
Every price here is as published on the provider's own website, checked on 9 November 2026. This guide is written by DeskAgent, which sells an AI receptionist, so we include our own prices on the same terms and say where others work out cheaper.
What do UK AI receptionists cost in 2026?
| Provider | Pricing model | Published price | VAT | Other costs and terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bOnline | Add-on to a phone plan | £10 a month on top of a bOnline plan (plans from £7 per user per month) | Plans quoted plus VAT | Your phone service moves to bOnline |
| Fasthosts | Per-call tiers | £39 (30 calls, then 49p a call), £69 (100 calls, then 39p a call), £99 unlimited | Excludes VAT at 20% | 1 month free; cancel online any time |
| IONOS | Per-call tiers | £39 (30 calls, then 49p a call), £69 (100 calls, then 39p a call), £99 unlimited | Excludes VAT at 20% | 1 month free; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Sayora | Flat fee | £49 a month early bird, unlimited minutes | No VAT charged | Early-bird places limited; later price not published |
| Moneypenny AI Receptionist | Quote | From £49 a month | Not stated | Contract terms not published |
| Whoza | Minutes plus booked jobs | £59 (100 minutes, 10 jobs), £125 (300 minutes, 20 jobs), £230 (700 minutes, 40 jobs) | No VAT charged | £2.75 to £4.50 per extra job; 40p per extra minute or £20 for 100 |
| UpZilo Respond 24/7 | Monthly fee with allowances | £99 a month (100 AI phone minutes and 300 digital sessions) | Not stated | £299 setup; 12-month agreement; higher usage moves to a higher tier or overage |
| DeskAgent Phone Agent | Flat fee | £125 a month, unlimited inbound calls | No VAT to add | No setup fee (first month covers the build); no contract |
| BT Business AI Receptionist | Minute bundles | No list price; 100-minute bundles from 100 to 14,000 minutes a month | Not stated | Optional £150 setup session; monthly rolling; stops at 100% of minutes unless you buy more or turn on overage |
Prices as published on each provider's own website on 9 November 2026. For what each product does beyond the price, see our guide to the best AI receptionists in the UK.
How are AI receptionists priced?
Most UK AI receptionists use one of six pricing models. Knowing which one you are looking at is the first step to comparing them fairly.
Per-call tiers
A monthly fee covers a set number of calls, then each extra call is charged. Fasthosts and IONOS both include 30 calls for £39 a month, then charge 49p a call, or 100 calls for £69, then 39p a call. A long call costs the same as a short one, so per-call pricing suits businesses whose calls are short and fairly steady. Check whether spam and wrong numbers count towards the allowance.
Minute bundles
You buy a monthly allowance of minutes. BT sells its AI Receptionist in 100-minute bundles, from 100 to 14,000 minutes a month, billed on inbound minutes, and UpZilo includes 100 incoming AI phone minutes a month. Minutes suit low volumes of short calls, but long conversations use them up fast. Ask what happens at the limit: BT says its service turns off at 100% unless you buy more minutes or switch on overage, which is charged at a higher rate.
Per booked job
Whoza charges a monthly fee that includes call minutes and a number of booked jobs (an enquiry you accept on WhatsApp), then £2.75 to £4.50 for each extra job depending on the plan. Your bill follows your work, which is fair in quiet months, but a busy month costs more.
Flat fee
One monthly price, whatever happens. Sayora's early-bird plan is £49 a month with unlimited minutes, the Fasthosts and IONOS Unlimited plans are £99 a month plus VAT, and the DeskAgent Phone Agent is £125 a month with unlimited inbound calls. Flat fees are the easiest to budget for and mean you never think twice about a long call.
Add-on to your phone plan
Some phone providers sell AI answering as an extra. bOnline's AI Receptionist is £10 a month on top of a bOnline phone plan, and RingCentral sells its AI Receptionist in the UK only as an add-on for RingCentral phone customers. Cheap if you are already with that provider, but you need their phone service.
Quote only
Moneypenny publishes a starting price of £49 a month for its AI Receptionist and asks you to get a quote for your plan. Ask exactly what the quote includes, what happens above any allowance and whether there is a minimum term.
What hidden costs should you check?
- Overage. Extra calls (49p or 39p each on the Fasthosts and IONOS tiers), extra minutes (40p each on Whoza) or extra jobs. Work out a busy month, not just a quiet one.
- What happens at the limit. Some services keep answering and bill you; BT's stops answering at 100% of your minutes unless you buy more or have overage switched on.
- Setup fees. UpZilo charges £299 once. BT's optional setup session is £150, with a £25 charge if the booking is abandoned. Whoza offers optional setup help at £200 an hour.
- Contracts and notice. UpZilo's Respond 24/7 is on a 12-month agreement. Most self-serve tools, BT's monthly rolling contract and DeskAgent have no long-term contract.
- VAT. Fasthosts and IONOS quote prices excluding VAT at 20%, so £39 becomes £46.80 and £99 becomes £118.80 if you cannot reclaim it. Sayora, Whoza and DeskAgent charge no VAT. See the GOV.UK VAT rates if you are unsure.
- A phone plan. Add-ons such as bOnline's need that provider's phone plan as well.
- Calls at once. Whoza's Starter plan handles one call at a time; a second caller gets a message instead. Ask every provider how many calls it can take together.
- Currency. Some well-known tools, such as Smith.ai and Goodcall, price in US dollars and publish no UK coverage.
- Your own time. Self-serve tools are cheaper partly because you build, test and update them yourself. Count the hours.
Worked example: what would 120 calls a month cost?
These are example numbers, not typical figures. Say a small trades firm gets 120 calls a month, they average 3 minutes each (360 minutes in total) and 15 of them become booked jobs. Here is what that month would cost on each published price list.
| Plan | Working | Monthly cost | If you can't reclaim VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fasthosts or IONOS, 30-call plan | £39 + 90 extra calls x 49p | £83.10 + VAT | £99.72 |
| Fasthosts or IONOS, 100-call plan | £69 + 20 extra calls x 39p | £76.80 + VAT | £92.16 |
| Fasthosts or IONOS, Unlimited | Flat fee | £99 + VAT | £118.80 |
| Sayora early bird | Flat fee, unlimited minutes | £49 | £49 (no VAT charged) |
| Whoza Growth | £125 + a £20 bundle of 100 minutes (300 included, 360 used); 15 jobs within the 20 included | £145 | £145 (no VAT charged) |
| Whoza Starter | £59 + three £20 minute bundles + 5 extra jobs x £4.50 | £141.50 | £141.50 (no VAT charged) |
| UpZilo Respond 24/7 | £99 includes 100 phone minutes; the other 260 move you to a higher tier or overage | £99 + overage (not published) | Not stated; plus £299 setup in month one |
| DeskAgent Phone Agent | Flat fee, unlimited inbound calls | £125 | £125 (no VAT to add) |
On these example numbers, Sayora's early-bird plan is the cheapest and the DeskAgent Phone Agent sits in the middle. The gap is mostly about who does the work and what you get: the self-serve tools are set up and kept up to date by you and answer the phone only, while DeskAgent is built and tested for you, routes urgent jobs to your mobile and sends a summary of every call by email and WhatsApp. If you had 300 calls a month, the per-call tiers would cost more and the flat fees would stay the same, so run the numbers on your own busiest month.
Is it worth it? An example against one missed job
The fairest way to judge the cost is against the work you lose to missed calls. Again, these are example numbers: say your average job is worth £250 and you keep £100 of it after materials and labour.
- At £125 a month, you need about 1.25 extra jobs a month (£125 ÷ £100) to cover the cost.
- At £92.16 a month (the 100-call tier above, with VAT), you need just under one extra job a month.
- If one missed call can be a big contract for you, the sums get easier still: one extra job a year that leaves you £1,500 covers a year of the Phone Agent.
Use your own figures: your phone provider's call logs will show how many calls went unanswered last month, and you know your own job values. Our guide to capturing leads from missed calls shows where those calls go.
How does the cost compare with a human receptionist?
A full-time receptionist on the National Living Wage (£12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026) costs £24,784.50 a year in wages for 37.5 hours a week, or about £2,065 a month, before employer National Insurance, pension and holiday cover, and only during office hours. A shared human answering service is cheaper: ReceptionHQ's MessageExpress, for example, is £15 a month plus £1.15 a call, plus VAT, with UK receptionists 24/7, though it takes a message rather than qualifying the job. Our guide to 24/7 answering services in the UK compares every option, including night staff of your own.
How do you compare AI receptionist quotes?
- Write down a normal month and a busy month: calls, average call length, how many are out of hours and how many become jobs.
- Ask for the total monthly cost on both, including overage, extra jobs and VAT.
- Add one-off costs: setup fees, setup sessions and your own time on a self-serve tool.
- Check the terms: minimum term, notice period and what happens at your allowance limit.
- Compare like with like: channels covered (phone only, or WhatsApp, web chat and email too), who builds it, and how urgent calls reach you.
- Hear it first: ring each provider's demo line and play one of your own customers.
Our older guide to AI receptionist pricing goes deeper on pricing tiers and contract terms.
What does DeskAgent cost?
The DeskAgent Phone Agent is £125 a month with unlimited inbound calls. The WhatsApp Agent is also £125, and the Web Agent and Inbox Agent are £85 each. Full DeskAgent, with all four agents sharing one brain and DeskAgent HQ so you can run it from WhatsApp, is £285 a month. Single agents have no separate setup fee, because your first month covers the build. The way in for the full system is the 3-month pilot: £500 one-off for the build and three months live, then £285 a month if you keep it. There is no contract and no VAT to add. Every plan is on our pricing page, and if you only need evenings and weekends covered, see out of hours call answering.
Want to hear it before you work out the sums? Ring 020 7101 0617, tell our AI receptionist your business name and a typical enquiry, and play one of your customers. Or book a free 30-minute demo and we'll build a demo agent for your business first.
FAQ
How much does an AI receptionist cost per month in the UK?
Entry plans from UK providers run from £39 a month plus VAT for 30 calls (Fasthosts and IONOS) to £125 a month with unlimited inbound calls (the DeskAgent Phone Agent), based on prices published on 9 November 2026. In between are Sayora at £49 a month on its early-bird plan, Moneypenny from £49 a month, Whoza from £59 a month and UpZilo at £99 a month plus a £299 setup fee. A bOnline add-on is £10 a month on top of a bOnline phone plan, and BT sells minute bundles without a published price.
Is there a free AI receptionist?
None of the UK providers in this guide has a permanent free plan, but there are free trials: Fasthosts and IONOS give the first month free, and Sayora and Whoza offer 7 days. Smith.ai has a free plan with 25 calls a month, but it publishes no UK coverage and prices in US dollars. DeskAgent has no free trial; instead you can ring the demo line on 020 7101 0617 or book a free demo with an agent built for your business.
Do AI receptionist prices include VAT?
Often not. Fasthosts and IONOS quote prices excluding VAT at 20%, and bOnline quotes its phone plans plus VAT. Sayora and Whoza say they charge no VAT, and DeskAgent does not charge VAT either, so its prices are what you pay. Moneypenny and UpZilo do not say. If your business is not VAT-registered and cannot reclaim it, add 20% to any price quoted excluding VAT before you compare.
Is per-call or per-minute pricing better?
Per-call pricing suits short, predictable calls, because a long call costs the same as a short one. Per-minute bundles suit low volumes of short calls but can run out quickly if callers talk for a while. If your call numbers swing from month to month, a flat fee with unlimited calls is the easiest to budget for.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human receptionist?
Yes, by a long way, if you compare with employing someone. A full-time receptionist on the National Living Wage costs £24,784.50 a year in wages alone (37.5 hours a week at £12.71), before employer National Insurance, pension and holiday cover. AI receptionist plans cost from £39 to £125 a month. A shared human answering service sits in between: for example, ReceptionHQ's MessageExpress is £15 a month plus £1.15 a call, plus VAT.
Do AI receptionists charge a setup fee?
Most self-serve tools do not. Of the providers we checked, UpZilo charges a £299 one-time setup fee, BT offers an optional £150 setup session, and Whoza charges £200 an hour for optional setup help. DeskAgent has no separate setup fee on single agents, because the first month covers the build; the full system starts with a £500 3-month pilot that covers the build and three months live.
