The best AI receptionists in 2026, compared on the same calls

The short list

What each one costs for the same calls

We billed every service for the same months, each call lasting two and a half minutes, using the cheapest mix of its own plans and extra-use rates.

The longer tables, with other call lengths and the fine print, are in what an AI receptionist costs. Conecto's row uses its cheapest number, at $2 a month.

Rosie

Rosie sells plans of minutes: Professional at $49 a month for 250 minutes, Scale at $149 for 1,000 and Growth at $299 for 2,000. Professional takes messages and includes spam detection and a chat widget for your website. Scale adds appointment booking and texts to callers during the call. There is a 7-day free trial, and paying for a year gives two months free.¹

Good for: a solo owner with up to about 100 calls a month, where $49 covers everything.

Goodcall

Goodcall counts the people who call, and doesn't charge for minutes. Starter costs $79 a month for 100 unique customers, then 79 cents each. Growth costs $129 for 500, then 26 cents each, and Scale $299 for 2,000. Goodcall says 100 customers come to about 150 calls. Someone who calls back five times in a month counts once, and spam and wrong numbers don't count at all. You can start free with a demo agent.²

Good for: a busy shop where the same customers call more than once.

Upfirst

Upfirst sells calls. Starter is $24.95 a month for 30 calls, Premium $59.95 for 90, Pro $159.95 for 300 and Scale covers 600. Extra calls cost $1.50 down to 70 cents, depending on the plan. It blocks spam so you don't pay for junk calls, and paying annually saves 20 percent.³

Good for: long calls, since a ten-minute booking costs the same as a one-minute question.

NextPhone

NextPhone charges from $199 a month for unlimited calls. Its page lists 30 voices and 14 languages, among them English, Spanish, French and German, and says the receptionist is trained on your business and your website.⁴

Good for: a business with many calls that wants the same bill every month. Under about 300 calls a month, the plans above cost less.

Smith.ai AI Receptionist

Smith.ai has a free plan with 25 calls a month, and each call after that costs $3.00. Pro is $150 a month for 75 calls, which is $2.00 a call, and larger bundles lower the rate. Its calls are handled by AI first, and a call that gets complex can be passed to a live receptionist in North America at any time.⁵

Good for: a firm where a wrong answer is costly and a person should be able to step in. It is the most expensive of the eight at every volume above 50 calls.

Dialzara

Dialzara's Lite plan costs $29 a month and includes 60 minutes, with extra minutes at $0.48. Pro is $99, Plus $199 and Elite $349, each with more minutes. There is a 7-day free trial and no contract. Outbound calls, texts and website chat are add-ons with their own prices.⁶

Good for: very low volume, such as a line that only catches calls you miss.

My AI Front Desk

My AI Front Desk starts at $99 a month, or $79 billed annually, with 200 voice minutes. The plan also covers chat, texts and a CRM, and the page lists 20+ languages. There is a 7-day free trial.⁷

Good for: a business that wants phone, chat and texts from one vendor.

Conecto

Conecto is our product, and it works differently. It rents your AI agent a phone number in the US or Canada. The line can take messages, or your own agent, such as Claude or ChatGPT, can answer live through a webhook. Answered calls cost $0.25 per started minute and a number costs from $2 a month.⁸

Good for: a business that already runs an AI agent and wants calls to land where the rest of its work is. If you want a receptionist that works out of the box with no agent of your own, one of the seven above fits better.

How to choose

1. Count last month's calls and how long they ran. Your phone provider's call log shows both.
2. Find your column in the table. Few calls point to Rosie or Dialzara, steady volume to Goodcall, long calls to Upfirst, and heavy volume to NextPhone.
3. Decide whether a person must be able to take over. If so, look at Smith.ai.
4. Use the free trial or the free plan, and call it with your ten most common questions and one awkward one.

How we compared them

We read each service's pricing page on November 10, 2026, in US dollars at monthly prices. The bills use the cheapest mix of a plan and its published extra-use rate. Goodcall is billed by its own ratio of 1.5 calls to a customer, and Conecto by the started minute. We compared prices and the features each page lists. We did not place test calls, so this guide says nothing about how natural each voice sounds or how well each one handles a hard caller. Conecto is ours, and we left it out of every "costs the least" statement.

Questions

What is the best AI receptionist for a small business?

It depends on call volume. Up to 100 calls a month, Rosie's $49 plan costs the least. From 150 to 400 calls, Goodcall does, at $79 to $129. For unlimited calls at one price, NextPhone charges $199.^1,2,4

What is the cheapest AI receptionist?

Smith.ai's free plan covers 25 calls a month.⁵ Among paid plans, Upfirst starts at $24.95 for 30 calls and Dialzara at $29 for 60 minutes.^3,6

Is there a free AI receptionist?

Smith.ai has a free plan with 25 calls a month, then $3.00 a call.⁵ Rosie, Dialzara and My AI Front Desk each offer a 7-day free trial.^1,6,7

Which AI receptionist can hand a call to a person?

Smith.ai's AI Receptionist can transfer a call to one of its live receptionists at any time, day or night.⁵

Which AI receptionists answer in Spanish?

NextPhone lists 14 languages, Spanish among them, and My AI Front Desk lists 20+ languages.^4,7

Sources

We read these pages on November 10, 2026. Each number in the guide links to the page behind that sentence.

1. Plans and pricing, Rosie
2. Pricing, Goodcall
3. Pricing, Upfirst
4. Pricing, NextPhone
5. AI Receptionist pricing, Smith.ai
6. Pricing, Dialzara
7. Pricing, My AI Front Desk
8. AI receptionist, Conecto

Conecto publishes this guide and sells business tools for AI agents. How we write our guides. To report a mistake, write to hello@conecto.chat.

Written by Amelia Cardona Hernandez, Co-founder of Conecto. LinkedIn