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What does an answering service cost in 2026?
Per-minute vs flat-rate — and which one actually works out cheaper for a trade.
The bottom line: A traditional answering service bills by the minute — usually $0.75–$1.75/min, which lands most small businesses around $135–$450+ a month, and more in a busy stretch (Housecall Pro). AI answering services charge a flat fee for unlimited calls — ReplyFirst is $120–$170 — so a call spike never blows up your bill.
How do traditional answering services charge?
A traditional answering service is a call centre that picks up your phone and takes messages, usually billed by usage — per minute, per call, or in monthly minute bundles. Rates tend to run $0.75 to $1.75 a minute, so a basic plan lands around $135–$450 a month and climbs from there with volume (Housecall Pro). Here's the catch, though: a long emergency call or a busy week pushes the bill up fast, and many still charge you for spam and wrong numbers. Worse, your call often joins a queue at the call centre — and for a customer with no heat, a hold is just a slower voicemail. They hang up and call the next trade.
How do AI answering services charge?
An AI service charges a flat monthly fee for unlimited calls, because there's no per-call labour behind it. So you know the bill before the month even starts. And when a heat wave or a cold snap triples your calls, the price doesn't budge — which matters a lot when your work already comes in waves. There's no queue, either: the AI answers every call at once, on the first ring. That speed isn't a nice-to-have. Businesses that answer within five minutes are 21 times more likely to qualify the lead than ones that wait (Lead Response Management Study).
Watch the per-minute overages
The sticker price on a traditional plan is rarely what you pay. A common setup is a low monthly base — say $199 — bundled with a set number of minutes, then overage charges once you pass it. Take a $1.50-per-minute overage and a busy month of 300 billable minutes, and you're suddenly north of $600 (Housecall Pro walks through similar math). Every long emergency call, every chatty customer, every wrong number nudges the meter. That's the trap with per-minute pricing: your bill is highest in exactly the months you're busiest and can least afford a surprise. A flat plan just doesn't have that failure mode — the number's the same whether you take 30 calls or 300.
A predictable bill is worth more than a low headline rate.Side by side
| Traditional service | AI answering service |
|---|
| Billing | Per minute / per call | Flat monthly |
| Typical cost | $135–$450+/mo | $120–$170/mo |
| A busy month | Bill goes up | Bill stays flat |
| Answers instantly, 24/7 | Often queued | Yes |
| Charged for spam calls | Often | No |
Which is cheaper for a trade?
If you take more than a handful of calls a week, flat-rate almost always wins — and it's predictable, which counts for a lot when the work comes in waves. In practice, that's why most small trades we set up choose the flat plan. It also helps that the phone is still where the work comes from: around 60% of people call a local business after a Google search (Numa), so paying per minute to answer your best leads is a strange place to pinch pennies. See what's included for trades, or stack it against voicemail and a receptionist on the pricing section.
Flat $120/month. Unlimited calls. No contract. Live in days.
Common questions
- Are there setup fees?
- ReplyFirst keeps it to a flat monthly plan with no long-term contract. That said, if you'd rather we build your script, service area, and routing for you, there's an optional one-time done-for-you setup ($250).
- Do I pay more when I get more calls?
- No. The fee is flat for unlimited calls, so a busy season never spikes your bill the way per-minute pricing does ([Housecall Pro](https://www.housecallpro.com/resources/how-much-does-an-answering-service-cost/) shows how quickly per-minute adds up).
- Can I keep my current number?
- Yes. It runs alongside your existing BC number — no porting, and no new hardware to buy or install.
- Is the cheapest plan actually the cheapest?
- Often not. A low base rate with per-minute overages can pass a flat plan in a single busy month ([Housecall Pro](https://www.housecallpro.com/resources/how-much-does-an-answering-service-cost/)). Compare the realistic monthly total at your call volume, not the headline price.
See ReplyFirst pricing →