The short answer
Off the shelf AI receptionists for Australian small businesses are typically advertised at about $150 to $400 a month, usually with a bundle of minutes and an overage rate of around 27 to 45 cents a minute beyond it. A custom voice agent costs more to build, with published Australian ranges of about $5,000 to $10,000 for a simple booking agent and $15,000 to $40,000 for a focused agent build, but its running cost can fall to roughly 15 to 20 cents a minute on voice platforms. For comparison, a full time receptionist on the National Minimum Wage costs at least $58,500 a year with super. These are market ranges, not quotes.
Key takeaways
- Subscriptions win at low call volumes. A few hundred minutes a month on a $150 to $300 plan is hard to beat with a custom build.
- Per minute charges dominate at higher volumes. Overage of 40 cents a minute on 3,000 minutes is $1,200 a month; the same minutes on a voice platform can cost a fraction of that.
- Custom builds pay off on fit as much as price: booking directly into ServiceM8, a practice system or your own rules, and handing over exactly as you want.
- A human receptionist costs far more but covers judgement, complaints and in person tasks an AI shouldn't. Most businesses use AI for after hours and overflow, not as a replacement.
- Budget for the hidden costs: phone system changes, integrations, call recording disclosures, testing time and someone reviewing calls each week.
What does an AI receptionist cost? The three ways to pay
You can rent an AI receptionist on a monthly plan, build a custom voice agent on a voice platform, or keep or hire a person, and each has a different cost shape. Plans are cheap to start and charge more as minutes grow. Custom builds cost more upfront and less per minute. People cost the most but do the most.
| Option | Upfront (AUD) | Ongoing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription AI receptionist | Usually little or nothing; some charge setup | About $150 to $400 a month for most small businesses, plus overage of about 27 to 45 cents a minute | Low to moderate call volumes, standard booking and message taking |
| Custom AI voice agent | About $5,000 to $10,000 for a simple booking agent; $15,000 to $40,000 for a focused agent build | Roughly 15 to 20 cents a minute in platform and phone costs, plus hosting, monitoring and maintenance | Higher volumes, your own systems and rules, specific handover |
| Human receptionist (full time) | Recruitment and training | At least about $58,500 a year at the National Minimum Wage with super; more under most awards and with on costs | Judgement, complaints, in person and office work |
Subscription figures come from Binary Elements’ November 2026 Australian guide, which lists its own plans at $149 a month (200 minutes, then 45 cents a minute) and $299 a month (600 minutes, then 40 cents a minute), and reports Siptalk at 27.5 cents a minute with a typical spend of about $400 a month. Custom build figures are from Flowtivity (an AI receptionist or appointment booking agent at $5,000 to $10,000) and Sand Labs (a focused agent build at $15,000 to $40,000). Neither build range is specific to voice, and voice usually sits at the upper end because of the telephony and speech work. These are published market figures, not our prices.
How much does a subscription AI receptionist cost?
Most plans bundle a set number of minutes for a flat monthly fee, then charge per minute. That makes the headline price misleading: what you actually pay depends on how long your calls are and how many you get.
Before comparing plans, work out your minutes. A simple estimate:
calls a month × average call length in minutes = minutes a month
For example, 10 calls a day, 22 working days, at 3 minutes each, is 660 minutes a month. If you also want after hours cover, add those calls.
| Monthly minutes | Plan with 200 minutes at $149, then 45c | Plan with 600 minutes at $299, then 40c | Pure per minute at 27.5c |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | $149 | $299 | $55 |
| 600 | $149 + (400 × $0.45) = $329 | $299 | $165 |
| 1,500 | $149 + (1,300 × $0.45) = $734 | $299 + (900 × $0.40) = $659 | $413 |
| 3,000 | $149 + (2,800 × $0.45) = $1,409 | $299 + (2,400 × $0.40) = $1,259 | $825 |
These use the published rates above as examples only; plans differ in what’s included (integrations, CRM, SMS, number porting), and you should check whether prices include GST. Pure per minute pricing usually has a minimum spend or extra fees, so it isn’t always as cheap as the column suggests.
How much does it cost per minute to run a custom voice agent?
On today’s voice platforms the running cost of a custom agent is roughly 15 to 20 Australian cents a minute for a typical setup, and it can be lower or much higher depending on the model and voice. Here’s the arithmetic, using listed prices at the time of writing.
Retell AI, a voice agent platform, lists pay as you go pricing of US$0.07 to US$0.31 a minute. Its own example configuration comes to US$0.11 a minute: US$0.04 for the language model, US$0.055 for voice infrastructure and US$0.015 for text to speech, with telephony billed separately when you bring your own carrier. Premium voices cost more: ElevenLabs voices are listed at US$0.04 to US$0.10 a minute, and speech to speech models at up to US$0.38 a minute.
Twilio lists receiving calls on an Australian local number at US$0.01 a minute plus US$3.00 a month for the number, and on a mobile number at US$0.05 a minute plus US$20.00 a month.
Worked example: 600 minutes a month on a local number
- AI platform: 600 × US$0.11 = US$66.00
- Phone line: 600 × US$0.01 = US$6.00, plus US$3.00 for the number
- Total: US$75.00 a month
- At the Reserve Bank’s 6 November 2026 rate of US$0.69 per A$1: US$75 ÷ 0.69 ≈ A$109 a month, or about 18 cents a minute
The same setup at 3,000 minutes a month
- AI platform: 3,000 × US$0.11 = US$330
- Phone line: 3,000 × US$0.01 = US$30, plus US$3
- Total: US$363 ≈ A$526 a month
On top of that, budget for hosting any integration code, monitoring, recording storage if you keep audio, and maintenance. A common planning figure for software maintenance is 15% to 20% of the build a year; on a $25,000 build that’s $3,750 to $5,000 a year, or about $310 to $420 a month. Our LLM running costs guide explains how model choice and prompt length change the per minute figure.
Subscription or custom: where is the crossover?
At a few hundred minutes a month a subscription is cheaper; at a few thousand, a custom agent can be, once you count the build over three years. This illustration uses the figures above and stated assumptions. It isn’t a quote.
Assumptions: a $25,000 custom build (inside the $15,000 to $40,000 focused agent range), maintenance at 15% a year ($3,750), and the running costs worked out above.
| Monthly minutes | Subscription ($299 plan, 40c overage), 3 years | Custom agent, 3 years | Cheaper on cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 600 | $299 × 36 = $10,764 | $25,000 + (3 × $3,750) + ($109 × 36) ≈ $40,200 | Subscription, by a long way |
| 3,000 | $1,259 × 36 = $45,324 | $25,000 + (3 × $3,750) + ($526 × 36) ≈ $55,190 | Subscription, narrowly |
| 6,000 | ($299 + 5,400 × $0.40) × 36 = $88,524 | $25,000 + (3 × $3,750) + ($1,048 × 36) ≈ $73,980 | Custom |
The 6,000 minute running cost is (6,000 × US$0.11) + (6,000 × US$0.01) + US$3 = US$723, or about A$1,048 a month.
The honest conclusion: on cost alone, most small businesses should start on a subscription. A custom build is worth it when cost isn’t the only issue, for example when the agent must book into a system the subscriptions don’t support, follow triage rules specific to your business, run several call flows, keep recordings and transcripts in infrastructure you control, or hand over to staff in a particular way.
How does it compare with a human receptionist?
A person costs many times more than an AI receptionist, but does a different job. Use award and minimum wage rates rather than vendor claims when you compare.
The floor, using official figures:
- National Minimum Wage from 1 July 2026: $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 for a 38 hour week (Fair Work Ombudsman)
- Annual wage: $1,004.90 × 52 = $52,254.80
- Super guarantee at 12% (ATO): $6,270.58
- Minimum annual cost: about $58,525, before leave loading, workers compensation, payroll tax where it applies, equipment, and any award rate above the minimum
Binary Elements estimates a full time receptionist at roughly $60,000 to $75,000 a year once super, leave and on costs are included, and a 20 hour a week part timer at about half that. And a full time person covers about 38 hours a week, not evenings, weekends or lunch.
What a person does that an AI receptionist shouldn’t:
- Handle complaints, distress and anything that needs empathy or authority
- Make judgement calls on unusual requests and VIP customers
- Do the rest of the job: front desk, payments, admin, stock, follow ups
That’s why most businesses use AI for after hours, overflow and the routine calls, and keep people for the rest. The comparison that matters is usually AI receptionist versus voicemail and missed calls, not AI versus a staff member.
What are the hidden costs?
The monthly fee is rarely the whole bill. Plan for these, whichever option you choose:
| Hidden cost | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Phone system changes | Forwarding rules, porting a number, or connecting your existing phone system; Binary Elements lists phone system integration from $79 a month on its plans |
| Integrations | Calendars, job management, CRM or practice software; often quoted separately on subscriptions, and the main build cost in custom work |
| Overage | Minutes above your plan, especially in busy seasons |
| GST | 10% on top of prices quoted ex GST |
| Call recording and privacy | Recording disclosures, retention settings, and checking where recordings and transcripts are stored |
| Testing and tuning | Time to test with real callers, Australian accents, local place names and noisy lines before going live |
| Ongoing review | Someone checking a sample of calls each week and updating answers, prices and rules |
| Handover failures | The cost of a caller who wanted a person and couldn’t reach one |
How AWLabs approaches AI receptionists
We build custom AI voice agents, so we’re not neutral on build versus buy, and we’ll still tell you when a subscription is the better fit. The first conversation is a Development Consult, where we look at your call volumes, call types and the systems the agent would need to book into. If a custom agent makes sense, a paid Discovery Audit maps the call flows, integrations, recording and privacy design, and you get a fixed price Schedule of Work with three options: The Minimum, The Recommended and The Complete.
Senior engineers lead every build, and you get updates every Tuesday and Friday, Sydney time. See our AI voice agents and AI receptionists service for how we design call flows, handover and call recording, our AI agent cost guide for wider agent pricing, or software for trades businesses if you’re a tradie weighing platform phone add-ons against a custom agent.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI receptionist cost per month in Australia?
Advertised small business plans are mostly in the $150 to $400 a month range at the time of writing. Binary Elements, for example, lists plans at $149 a month with 200 minutes and $299 a month with 600 minutes, and reports Siptalk at 27.5 cents a minute with a typical spend of about $400 a month. Check whether GST, overage and integrations are included.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human receptionist?
On cost, yes, by a wide margin. A full time employee on the National Minimum Wage of $26.44 an hour costs about $58,500 a year including 12% super, before leave, payroll costs and any award rate above the minimum. A busy AI receptionist plan might cost a few thousand dollars a year. But a person handles judgement, upset callers and office work that an AI shouldn't, so compare the tasks, not just the price.
How much does it cost per minute to run an AI voice agent?
On voice platforms, the AI part typically costs US$0.07 to US$0.31 a minute depending on the model and voice; Retell AI lists that range at the time of writing. Add the phone line, such as Twilio's listed US$0.01 a minute to receive calls on an Australian local number. At US$0.69 per A$1, a typical setup works out at roughly 15 to 20 cents a minute in Australian dollars.
How much does it cost to build a custom AI receptionist?
Published Australian figures put a simple AI receptionist or booking agent at about $5,000 to $10,000 (Flowtivity), and a focused agent build at $15,000 to $40,000 (Sand Labs). Integrations with job management or practice software, multiple call flows, warm transfer and call recording handling move a project to the top of that range or beyond.
Can an AI receptionist book jobs into ServiceM8 or our practice software?
Usually, if the system has an API that allows creating bookings and reading availability. ServiceM8 publishes a REST API, for example. Some subscription receptionists integrate with popular calendars and job systems out of the box; a custom build is needed when your system or booking rules aren't supported.
Is it legal for an AI receptionist to record calls in Australia?
Call recording is governed by federal telecommunications law and state and territory surveillance or listening device laws, which differ. The safe design is to tell every caller at the start that the call is recorded and why. Get legal advice for your situation; our AI voice agents page explains how we design for it.
What is the best AI receptionist for a small business in Australia?
For most small businesses using a few hundred minutes a month, a subscription AI receptionist in the $150 to $400 a month range is the best value. There is no single best product, so compare plans on included minutes, overage, GST and whether they book into your calendar or job system. A custom voice agent becomes the better choice when your booking rules or software aren't supported.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a busy business taking 3,000 minutes of calls a month?
On the example plans in this guide, about $1,259 a month on a $299 plan with 40 cent overage, or roughly $825 on pure per minute pricing at 27.5 cents. A custom voice agent handling the same 3,000 minutes costs about $526 a month in platform and phone charges, but needs a build first. Over three years the subscription still edges ahead at this volume; at around 6,000 minutes, custom wins.
What does a custom AI receptionist cost to run after it is built?
Plan for platform and phone charges of roughly 15 to 20 cents a minute, plus maintenance of about 15% to 20% of the build each year. On a $25,000 build that maintenance is $3,750 to $5,000 a year, or about $310 to $420 a month. Add hosting for the integration code, monitoring, recording storage if you keep audio, and staff time to review a sample of calls each week.
These figures are market ranges, not quotes and not what AWLabs charges. Every AWLabs build is priced after our Discovery Audit.
Sources
- What an AI receptionist actually costs in Australia (updated 4 November 2026), Binary Elements
- AI agent cost and pricing guide Australia 2026, Flowtivity
- Custom AI development 2026: costs, Australia pricing and picking a partner, Sand Labs
- Retell AI pricing, Retell AI
- Twilio voice pricing for Australia, Twilio
- Minimum wages, Fair Work Ombudsman
- Super guarantee percentage, Australian Taxation Office
- Exchange rates, Reserve Bank of Australia