There is no industry-standard price for an AI receptionist yet, and the range is wild. Some services charge $99 a month. Some charge $2,500 a month plus per-minute fees. Most of the cheap ones are call-center outsourcers in another country who happen to be using AI scripts. The expensive ones are usually enterprise vendors selling to hospital systems.
What a small business actually pays in 2026
For a Miami or South Florida business with one to ten locations, the realistic range is $250 to $1,500 a month plus a one-time setup fee of $500 to $3,000. That includes answering, basic call routing, appointment booking, and bilingual coverage. Anything below $250 a month usually means you are paying per minute and the bill surprises you. Anything above $1,500 a month for a single location usually means the salesperson is upselling you on features you do not need.
Where the per-minute trap hides
Some providers quote $200 a month but charge $0.15 a minute for call time. If your AI handles 800 minutes a month, your bill is $200 plus $120, plus any SMS, plus any integration fees. The quote is technically true. The invoice is not.
What we still hand to a human
Four types of calls do not belong on an AI line, and any vendor who promises otherwise is selling you a demo, not a product: angry customers who are mid-complaint, family members calling about a patient who is in surgery or under sedation, calls that require negotiating price or contract terms on the spot, and any conversation where the caller is in obvious emotional distress and a human voice matters more than a fast one.
A good AI receptionist does not pretend to be human for these calls. It says, "I am going to connect you with someone on our team right now," and it does. The handoff is the part that actually builds trust with the caller.