An AI receptionist in the UK costs between £99 and £2,000+ per month, depending on call volume, integration requirements, and the level of intelligence built into the system. For most UK small and medium-sized businesses, the right tier sits between £150 and £500 per month - a fraction of the £24,000-£32,000 annual cost of a full-time human receptionist. This guide breaks down every pricing tier, what you actually get at each level, and which businesses recover that cost the fastest.
The short answer: most UK businesses pay £150-£500 per month for a capable AI receptionist that handles inbound calls, books appointments, and captures lead information. Here is what each price bracket typically covers:
Compare that to a part-time London receptionist at £12,000-£16,000 per year including employer National Insurance and pension contributions. Even at the £299/month tier, you are spending £3,588 per year versus a minimum of £12,000 for a human - a saving of at least £8,400 before you account for sick cover, holidays, or the fact that the AI handles calls at 11pm on a Saturday.
According to Answer4u and IntroducerTODAY research, UK businesses collectively lose £30 billion per year to missed calls. The average call value in many service businesses is £1,200 (BT Business), and 85% of callers who reach voicemail never call back. At those numbers, a single recovered call per week justifies the cost of most AI receptionist tiers entirely.
For a detailed look at the business case before diving into pricing specifics, read our guide on the cost of missed calls for UK small businesses.
UK AI receptionist pricing follows a consistent tiered structure across providers. The core variables are call volume, outbound capability, integration depth, and support level. Here is a detailed breakdown of what each tier delivers:
| Tier | Monthly Cost | Call Volume | What Is Included | Setup Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic answering | £99-£149 | Up to 200 calls | Call answering, message capture, SMS/email notification, basic FAQ responses | £0-£99 |
| SME inbound | £150-£299 | 200-500 calls | All Basic features plus: appointment booking, CRM lead capture, call transfer rules, custom greeting, call summaries | £99-£299 |
| Inbound + outbound | £299-£500 | 500-1,000 calls | All SME features plus: outbound follow-up calls, quote follow-up sequences, multi-site routing, analytics dashboard, priority support | £199-£499 |
| Enterprise | £500-£2,000+ | 1,000+ calls | All Inbound + Outbound features plus: custom voice model, deep CRM/ERP integration, compliance recording, dedicated account manager, SLA guarantee | £500-£2,000+ |
Providers define call volume differently. Some count every call regardless of duration; others count only calls that the AI handles beyond a 10-second threshold. When comparing quotes, always ask: does your call count include hang-ups and misdials? A provider charging £99/month for 200 calls is much less attractive if a caller who hangs up after 8 seconds counts against your allowance.
The vast majority of UK trades businesses, professional service firms, and independent retailers land comfortably in the SME inbound tier. At this level you get an AI that:
Softomate's AI Receptionist starts at £299/month and sits at the upper end of the SME inbound tier, with full appointment booking, CRM integration, and the ability to handle both inbound and initial outbound follow-up in a single package. See the full service details on our AI receptionist and chatbot service page.
Enterprise pricing is relevant for multi-location businesses, regulated sectors (healthcare, finance, legal), and any organisation where the AI receptionist needs to integrate with complex backend systems. At this level, the cost difference versus mid-tier is driven almost entirely by:
For most businesses reading this guide, the enterprise tier is unnecessary. The SME inbound or inbound plus outbound tier handles 90% of requirements at a fraction of the cost.
Monthly subscription is only part of the story. UK businesses frequently underestimate the one-off costs involved in deploying an AI receptionist properly. Here is what to budget for beyond the monthly fee:
Most providers charge a setup fee ranging from £0 to £2,000 depending on complexity. A basic answering service with a standard greeting might cost nothing to set up. A multi-location enterprise deployment with custom voice training, CRM integration, and staff training can reach £2,000 or more as a one-off. Budget realistically: for a typical SME deployment with appointment booking and one CRM integration, expect £150-£499 in setup costs.
If you want to keep your existing business phone number, you need to port it to the AI receptionist platform or set up a forwarding rule. Number porting is typically free but takes 5-10 working days. Some providers issue a new virtual number at no extra cost; others charge £5-£15/month for number rental. Always confirm this before signing.
If your business uses sector-specific software that is not in the provider's standard integration library, you may need custom API work. This ranges from free (if the provider builds it) to £500-£2,000+ for bespoke connectors. Before committing, check whether your tools are natively supported. Common integrations that are usually included at no extra cost: Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Calendly, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho. Sector-specific tools (Cliniko, EMIS, Tradify, Jobber) may require additional work.
Regulated businesses - particularly healthcare, financial services, and legal - need compliant call recording with defined retention periods. Standard packages often include 30-90 days of call recording. Longer retention (required for some FCA-regulated firms) can add £10-£50/month depending on volume.
The quality of your AI receptionist depends heavily on the quality of its training data and scripts. Budget time (if not money) for writing your call handling logic: what questions does the AI ask to qualify a lead? What are the transfer rules? What FAQs need to be loaded? Some providers offer scripting services as a paid add-on (typically £150-£500); others provide templates and expect you to complete them yourself.
The cost comparison between an AI receptionist and a human is more nuanced than headline salary figures suggest. When you account for all employer costs, coverage gaps, and capability differences, the financial case for AI becomes overwhelming for most UK SMEs.
| Factor | AI Receptionist (SME tier) | Part-Time Human | Full-Time Human |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | £150-£299 | £1,000-£1,333 | £2,000-£2,667 |
| Annual cost | £1,800-£3,588 | £12,000-£16,000 | £24,000-£32,000 |
| Hours covered | 24/7, 365 days | 16-24 hours/week | 37-40 hours/week |
| Call capacity | Unlimited simultaneous | 1 call at a time | 1 call at a time |
| Holiday cover | No disruption | 28 days/year - cover required | 28 days/year - cover required |
| Sick cover | No disruption | Average 6.5 sick days/year | Average 6.5 sick days/year |
| Setup cost | £0-£499 | Recruitment: £500-£2,000 | Recruitment: £1,000-£4,000 |
| Integration capability | Multiple systems simultaneously | Manual data entry only | Manual data entry only |
| 24/7 availability | Yes | No | No |
The figures above use London market rates for receptionist salaries (£25,000-£32,000 full-time, £12-£14/hour part-time) with employer National Insurance at 13.8% and auto-enrolment pension contributions at 3%. They do not include the management overhead of supervising a staff member, the cost of HR administration, or the productivity loss when a receptionist is handling non-phone tasks and calls go unanswered.
One factor the table does not fully capture: a human receptionist can only handle one call at a time. If your business receives a burst of inbound calls - common for trades businesses after a storm, or for GP surgeries at 8am - every call after the first queues or goes unanswered. An AI receptionist handles unlimited simultaneous calls. During a busy period where three customers ring at once, the AI answers all three instantly. A single human misses two of them.
For a deeper analysis of the trade-offs beyond cost, see our article on AI receptionist vs human receptionist for UK businesses.
Not all industries benefit equally from an AI receptionist. The ROI depends on three variables: how many calls you currently miss, the average value of a new customer, and how quickly the AI can capture and convert that lead. Here is how the numbers work across the industries where we see the fastest payback:
Trades businesses have the fastest AI receptionist ROI of any sector. According to a 2025 study from paperclip.co.uk, 27-47% of UK SME calls go unanswered. For trades, the miss rate is even higher because sole traders and small teams are physically unable to answer their phones when working on-site. The average job value for an electrician is £200-£800; for a plumber handling an emergency, it is £300-£1,200 (BT Business average).
A typical sole trader electrician receiving 150 calls/month and missing 40% of them loses roughly 60 leads per month. Even if only 30% of those are genuine enquiries (18 leads) and they close 35% (6-7 jobs), that is £1,200-£5,600 in recovered monthly revenue from a £150-£299 investment. Payback period: immediate.
Professional services firms have high-value clients but typically miss fewer calls because office staff are present during business hours. The AI receptionist ROI here comes from: out-of-hours capture (prospective clients who call after 6pm or on weekends often have time-sensitive matters), overflow handling during busy periods, and consistent lead qualification that human receptionists do inconsistently.
A small law firm with a £500-£2,000 average new client value that recovers just one additional client per month through after-hours AI answering recovers its entire annual AI cost in a single call.
For private healthcare and dental practices, the ROI calculation involves both revenue recovery and patient satisfaction metrics. A private dental practice charging £150-£800 per treatment that currently loses new patient enquiries to voicemail or engaged tones recovers cost rapidly. The additional benefit - reducing receptionist workload - allows existing staff to focus on in-practice patient experience rather than phone triage.
Hotels, restaurants, and event venues that take bookings by phone see AI receptionist ROI through consistent booking capture and immediate confirmation. A venue losing one wedding enquiry per month at £8,000-£15,000 per event is haemorrhaging substantial revenue. Even at enterprise pricing (£500-£1,000/month), a single recovered booking represents 5-20 months of subscription value.
For online retailers who still receive inbound calls about orders, returns, and product questions, the ROI is primarily operational: the AI handles 60-80% of routine enquiries without staff involvement, freeing customer service teams for complex cases. The cost saving is in staff hours rather than revenue recovery, but the numbers still work at the SME inbound tier.
Understanding the pricing levers helps you get an accurate quote and avoid paying for features you do not need. Here are the main factors that drive AI receptionist pricing in the UK market:
The most obvious driver. Providers price on call minutes or call count. A business receiving 50 calls per month pays significantly less than one receiving 800. Before getting quotes, pull your call data from your current phone system for the last three months and calculate your monthly average. If you are growing, build in headroom.
Basic calendar booking via Google Calendar is standard. If you need the AI to write records into a CRM, update a job management system, or pull customer history before answering, the integration complexity rises. Each additional integration point typically adds £20-£100/month or a one-off development fee.
A receptionist that only handles inbound calls is cheaper than one that also makes outbound follow-up calls (missed call callbacks, appointment reminders, quote follow-ups). If outbound is important to your business model, expect to pay at least £299/month for a system that handles both directions reliably.
Standard AI voices are included in all tiers. If you want a proprietary voice model trained on your brand tone, a specific accent, or a named persona ("You are speaking with Sarah from Acme Plumbing"), that requires custom voice model work and sits in the enterprise tier or as a paid add-on.
Healthcare, financial services, and legal businesses face compliance requirements around call recording, data retention, and consent that standard packages may not cover. Budget for compliance add-ons if you operate in a regulated sector.
A single-location business with one number is the simplest configuration. If you run multiple sites, have different DDI numbers for different departments, or need the AI to route based on which number was called, pricing increases to reflect the additional routing logic.
Standard packages typically include email support with 24-48 hour response times. Priority or dedicated support (useful for businesses where the phone is mission-critical) adds a premium, usually £30-£100/month depending on SLA requirements.
These costs do not appear in the headline pricing but are real considerations for UK businesses evaluating AI receptionists:
If your call volume exceeds your monthly allowance, most providers charge a per-call or per-minute overage fee. These are typically £0.05-£0.20 per additional minute. For a business that dramatically underestimates its call volume, a £150/month subscription can balloon to £300+ in a busy month. Ask for the overage rate before signing and consider a higher-tier plan if your volume is variable.
Some providers offer genuinely month-by-month contracts; others use 12-month minimums with early termination fees. UK consumer protection law offers some recourse, but B2B contracts have less protection. Check the notice period: a one-month notice period on a 12-month contract means you are effectively in for at least 13 months once you factor in notice.
Your business changes: you add services, adjust pricing, or change opening hours. Keeping the AI's knowledge base current requires periodic updates. Some providers include this; others charge for knowledge base maintenance (typically £50-£150 per update session). Ask whether updates are self-service or provider-managed, and what the cost is either way.
Most providers include basic call summaries via email. If you need transcripts delivered to a specific system (Slack, a CRM, a ticketing system), ask whether that delivery method is included. Some providers charge extra for Slack integration or webhook delivery.
If the provider holds your phone number and you decide to leave, ensure the contract allows you to port your number to a new provider. Some providers make this difficult or charge a porting fee. If your business number is a recognised brand asset, confirm portability rights before committing.
All UK-based AI receptionist services will charge VAT at 20% on top of quoted prices (unless you are VAT-registered and can reclaim it). A £299/month plan costs £358.80 including VAT. For VAT-registered businesses this nets out; for non-VAT-registered businesses (those under the £90,000 threshold), it is a real additional cost to budget for.
UK AI receptionist pricing ranges from £99/month for basic call answering up to £2,000+/month for enterprise deployments. The most common tier for small and medium-sized businesses is £150-£299/month, which covers full inbound call handling, appointment booking, lead capture, and real-time notifications. At Softomate, our AI Receptionist starts from £299/month with no long-term contract required.
There are free trials (typically 7-14 days) but no genuinely free ongoing AI receptionist services for business use. Services offering "free" plans are typically limited to a handful of calls per month - insufficient for any real business use. The cheapest viable paid option for a UK business is around £99/month for basic call answering, with meaningful features (appointment booking, CRM integration) starting from £150/month.
Softomate's AI Receptionist service starts from £299/month, which includes inbound call handling, appointment booking, lead qualification, real-time call summaries, and integration with your existing calendar and CRM tools. The setup process takes 5-10 working days and includes script development and testing. Contact us via the AI receptionist service page for a tailored quote based on your call volume and integration requirements.
A £299/month AI receptionist package typically includes: custom greeting in your business name, inbound call handling 24/7, FAQ response to your 20-50 most common questions, appointment booking into your calendar, lead capture (name, number, job details), real-time SMS/email notification after every call, call transfer rules for urgent enquiries, and a monthly call volume allowance of 500-1,000 calls. Softomate's £299/month package also includes initial script development and one CRM integration at no extra charge.
Contract terms vary significantly between providers. Some offer genuine monthly rolling contracts with 30 days notice; others require 6 or 12-month commitments. Softomate offers month-by-month contracts from month three onwards, with an initial 3-month minimum to allow proper onboarding and optimisation. Always read the termination clause and number portability terms before signing any AI receptionist contract, regardless of provider.
Most reputable UK providers offer a free trial period of 7-14 days. This is usually enough time to assess call quality, booking accuracy, and integration with your existing tools. When trialling, test the scenarios that matter most to your business: how does the AI handle an emergency call? Can it book a specific appointment type correctly? Does the call summary arrive in the right format?
For a broader view of the AI receptionist landscape, including how different providers compare on features, read our guide to the best AI receptionists for UK businesses in 2026. If you are specifically comparing AI against keeping a human in the role, our AI vs human receptionist comparison covers the non-financial considerations in detail.
Ready to get a specific price for your business? Contact Softomate for a no-obligation quote based on your actual call volume and integration requirements. Most businesses get a tailored proposal within 24 hours.
We protect the real names of all clients featured in examples and case studies. Every testimonial is from a real client.
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