Your customers will ask what it costs before they ask what it does. Price it right and the agent bills every month. Price it wrong and you either scare off small customers or pay for your busiest ones.
The short answer: charge each business a monthly fee plus a price per minute. We suggest $45 to $95 a month, plus $0.35 to $0.55 a minute. You set your own price.
This guide explains why that model works, why per seat and flat rate break, and how to bill it without adding work. (Searchers call this an AI receptionist. We call it a voice AI agent, because it does more than answer.)
Last reviewed: November 6, 2026.
Why not price it per seat?
Because the agent isn't a seat. One agent answers for the whole business, however many people work there.
- Seats don't follow the calls. A two-person contractor can get more calls than a twenty-person accounting firm.
- Seats don't follow your cost. Voice AI costs money for every minute it talks: the speech, the AI and the phone line. Headcount has nothing to do with it.
- Seats hide the value. The customer is buying answered calls, not licenses.
Per seat is how you sell phones. It's the wrong meter for an agent.
Why not per minute only?
It follows your cost, but it has two problems.
- No floor. A quiet month bills a few dollars and still needs the account, the setup and your support.
- Customers watch the meter. If every minute feels like a charge, they send fewer calls to the agent. That's the opposite of what you want.
Why not a flat rate with unlimited calls?
It's the easiest pitch, and you carry all the risk. One busy customer, or one that sends every call to the agent, can cost you more than it pays.
A flat rate only works with a cap. And a flat rate with a cap is a monthly fee with minutes included.
What works: a monthly fee plus a price per minute
- The monthly fee covers what's fixed: the account, the setup and your support.
- The per-minute price follows the work, and your cost with it.
- Both grow with the customer. They pay more only when the agent does more.
| Model | For you | For the customer | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per seat | Predictable | Familiar | Doesn't follow calls or cost |
| Per minute only | Follows your cost | Pays only for use | No floor, and a meter they watch |
| Flat, unlimited | Easy to sell | One known bill | You carry every busy month |
| Monthly plus per minute | A floor, and it follows cost | Starts small, grows with use | Needs one sentence to explain |
Want a more predictable bill? Include a block of minutes in the monthly fee and charge per minute after it. Your customers see the included minutes in their portal, next to what they've used.
What does a customer pay?
Take one business whose agent talks for 200 minutes a month. Check your own customers' call volumes: they vary a lot.
- Low end: $45 + 200 × $0.35 = $115 a month
- Middle: $70 + 200 × $0.45 = $160 a month
- High end: $95 + 200 × $0.55 = $205 a month
Twenty customers at the middle bring in $3,200 a month. Try your own numbers:
Where should I sit in the range?
Toward the low end:
- Small, quiet offices.
- Your first customers, the ones you want as references.
- When it's part of a bigger deal, like a phone system refresh.
Toward the high end:
- Busy lines and after-hours coverage that replaces an answering service.
- Agents that do more on each call: booking appointments, transferring callers, taking detailed messages.
- Customers who want you to set up and tune the agent for them.
Also decide how minutes round. You can bill per second, per 30 seconds or per minute.
How do I bill it without new work?
- One rate card. Set your price per minute and per text once, and choose how minutes round.
- Plans. Create plans with a monthly or yearly price, and pick a default for new customers.
- Usage per customer. Every month shows your billable amount next to our wholesale cost, so you see your margin on each account. Export it to CSV for your billing system.
- Your price, never ours. Your customer's usage card shows their month-to-date cost, minutes used and their per-minute rate, all at your prices.
How do I present the price?
Lead with their missed calls, not your price.
Before a customer turns the agent on, the plugin shows how many calls they missed in the last 30 days and their busiest missed-call times. The numbers come from their own call records, next to your trial offer at your price.
- Ask what a new customer is worth to them. Then put that next to a month of the agent.
- Quote a month, not a minute. "About $160 for a month like yours" lands better than "45 cents a minute."
- Start with a trial. The activation screen carries your offer.
- Bundle it or sell it on its own. A bundle rolls it out to your base fast. A separate line item keeps the value visible every month.
For the setup side, see how a voice AI agent works on NetSapiens. For how providers package it, see what you can charge.
Want to see the numbers in your own portal? Book a demo.
FAQ
How much should I charge for an AI receptionist?
We suggest $45 to $95 a month per business, plus $0.35 to $0.55 a minute. A business whose agent talks for 200 minutes a month pays between $115 and $205. You set your own price.
Should I charge per minute or per seat?
Per minute, with a monthly fee. One agent answers for the whole business, so seats don't match the calls it handles or what it costs to run. A monthly fee gives you a floor, and the per-minute price follows the work.
Can I include minutes in the monthly price?
Yes. Include a block of minutes in the monthly fee and charge per minute after it. Your customers see the included minutes and what they've used in their portal.
Do my customers see what I pay?
No. Your customers see your prices only. Our wholesale cost shows only in your partner portal, next to your billable amount.
Can different customers pay different prices?
Yes. Create more than one plan and assign each customer the plan that fits.
