---
title: "AI answering service that takes your messages"
url: https://conecto.chat/solutions/ai-answering-service
description: "Calls answered in the hours you set, messages filed as tickets and every answered call transcribed. $0.25 a started minute, numbers from $2.00 a month."
updated: 2026-10-27
---

# AI answering service

Your business number answers when nobody can. Your agent sees every call, answered or missed, and follows up by email.

Give this to your agent: `Set up Conecto from https://conecto.chat/SKILL.md, then answer our phone line when we can't.`

## Example: `phone_list_calls`

Request: "Who called yesterday, and did we miss anyone?"

The documented reply of `phone_list_calls` (free), for Halverson Cycle & Repair, a bike shop with a repair workshop in Portland, Oregon (https://conecto.chat/tools/phone/phone_list_calls.md):

```json
{
 "calls": [
  {
   "call_id": "a3f5c2d1-9b8e-4f70-8c6d-2e1b0a9f8c7d",
   "direction": "inbound",
   "from": "+15035550187",
   "to": "+15035550123",
   "at": "2026-10-13T16:42:10+00:00",
   "status": "ended",
   "answered": true,
   "duration_seconds": 146,
   "cost_usd": "$0.75",
   "summary": "Asked whether the Tabor comes in a 52 cm frame and how long a build takes."
  },
  {
   "call_id": null,
   "from": "+15035550142",
   "to": "+15035550123",
   "at": "2026-10-13T03:12:44+00:00",
   "status": "missed",
   "reason": "outside_hours",
   "message": "The call came outside the answering hours.",
   "cost_usd": "$0.00"
  }
 ],
 "count": 2
}
```

## How it works

1. **Set the hours** (`phone_setup_assistant`, $0.001): The greeting, the voice and when the line answers. For example: "Answer our number yourself during shop hours, Monday to Saturday, and tell callers right away that they're talking to an AI."
2. **See who called** (`phone_list_calls`, free): Answered calls with a summary, missed calls with the reason. For example: "Who called yesterday, and did we miss anyone?"
3. **Follow up** (`ticket_reply`, $0.05): Your agent answers the caller by email, in one thread. For example: "Tell Paul we'll touch up the top tube next week, send him the photo of the paint match, and set the ticket to waiting on him."

## What it costs

Your agent pays per call from one prepaid balance, with no plan or seat fee.

| What | Price |
| --- | --- |
| A phone number | $2.00 to $25.00 a month, quoted before you rent it |
| An answered call | $0.25 a started minute |
| A message filed as a ticket | $0.01 |
| A reply to the caller by email | $0.05 |
| The call list and transcripts | Free |

Reading is free up to 1,000,000 reads a month for the whole account, then $0.50 per 10,000. Your agent starts with $1.00 of credit. Top-ups start at $5.00, plus a 7% + $0.35 fee, and the first one is doubled, up to $20.00 extra.

## Tools

- [`phone_setup_assistant`](https://conecto.chat/tools/phone/phone_setup_assistant.md) ($0.001): Sets how the business's numbers answer (the agent's webhook or taking messages), the greeting, voice and hours, and whether messages become tickets.
- [`phone_get_assistant`](https://conecto.chat/tools/phone/phone_get_assistant.md) (free): How the business's numbers answer, whether they answer right now (and why not), and the voices to choose from.
- [`phone_list_calls`](https://conecto.chat/tools/phone/phone_list_calls.md) (free): Calls to and from the business's numbers, newest first: who, when, how long and what it cost, missed ones included.
- [`phone_get_call`](https://conecto.chat/tools/phone/phone_get_call.md) (free): One call with its whole transcript: who said what, and when.
- [`ticket_list`](https://conecto.chat/tools/helpdesk/ticket_list.md) (free): Tickets, newest activity first, filtered by status, priority, requester, tag, field or contact, or as a work queue.
- [`ticket_get`](https://conecto.chat/tools/helpdesk/ticket_get.md) (free): One ticket with its request, every reply, customer message and note, its fields, SLA state and rating.
- [`ticket_reply`](https://conecto.chat/tools/helpdesk/ticket_reply.md) ($0.05): Emails the requester a reply in the ticket's thread, with files if needed, or adds a private note, and can set the status.
- [`notify_send`](https://conecto.chat/tools/notify/notify_send.md) ($0.005 per channel reached): Sends a message to one or more saved channels, with a title, a link or high priority; only the channels it reached are charged.

All 581 tools: https://conecto.chat/tools.md

## Good to know

- The greeting tells every caller they reached an AI.
- Missed calls stay in the list with the reason, so your agent sees what it missed.
- A message filed as a ticket keeps the caller's number and the transcript.
- Numbers are in the US and Canada for now. For other countries, the search says why not.

## Questions

### What is an AI answering service?

A phone line that answers your calls with software, takes a message and passes it on. On Conecto the message goes to your help desk as a ticket and to your agent as an event.

### How much does an AI answering service cost?

A number costs $2.00 to $25.00 a month, quoted per number, and an answered call costs $0.25 a started minute. Filing a message as a ticket costs $0.01.

### Can it answer only after hours?

Yes. The hours you set decide when the line answers. Outside them, callers hear your message and the call shows in the list as missed.

### Who hosts it?

Conecto hosts the servers, the database, the phone lines, the mail, the file store and the MCP servers. Your agent only needs the address.

## For agents

- Start here: https://conecto.chat/SKILL.md
- This page in Markdown: https://conecto.chat/solutions/ai-answering-service.md
- Sign up: POST https://api.conecto.chat/v1/signup
- Skills index: https://conecto.chat/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json
- MCP (Phone): https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/phone
- MCP (Help desk): https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/helpdesk
- MCP (Notifications): https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/notify
- Connector for ChatGPT, Claude or Grok, one for every area: https://api.conecto.chat/v1/mcp
- Tools (Phone): https://conecto.chat/tools/phone.md
- Tools (Help desk): https://conecto.chat/tools/helpdesk.md
- Tools (Notifications): https://conecto.chat/tools/notify.md
- Every reply carries `cost_usd` and `balance_usd`.

A `phone_list_calls` call:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/phone_list_calls \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONECTO_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"limit":20}'
```

## Related

- [AI receptionist](https://conecto.chat/solutions/ai-receptionist.md): A phone number in the US or Canada for your business, answered by your own AI agent. Every call ends with a transcript and a short summary.
- [AI help desk](https://conecto.chat/solutions/ai-help-desk.md): Every email to your support address opens a ticket. Your own AI agent answers it in the same thread.
- [AI CRM](https://conecto.chat/solutions/ai-crm.md): Contacts, companies and deals your own AI agent keeps current. One free call shows everything open with a customer.