What 20 answering services and AI receptionists actually charge.
Published plans, overage, setup and hours for every provider, read from their own pricing pages on October 15, 2026, with the same 300-minute month priced on each.
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Across 20 providers checked on October 15, 2026, a 300-minute month of answering costs a median of $804 CAD with human receptionists (10 services) and $169 CAD with an AI receptionist (10 services). Entry-tier rates run from $0.49 a minute (AI median) to $4.40 a minute (human median). Setup fees, overage rates and whether 24/7 is included move the real bill more than the headline plan price.
Cheapest 300-minute month in the index: Ask Benny at $99. Dearest: Ruby Receptionists at $2,449. 2 of 20 rows cannot be priced this way (quote-only or billed per caller).
The index: 20 providers, one 300-minute month each
Sorted by what a 300-minute month costs on the cheapest published route, in Canadian dollars. Entry plan and overage are quoted as published; the last two columns are computed. Click a source to check the figure yourself.
| Provider | Type | Entry plan, as published | Overage | Setup fee | Hours | Entry rate, CAD/min | 300-minute month, CAD | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ask Benny Canada | AI receptionist | Starter: $99 CAD a month for 300 minutes | $0.45 per extra minute on Starter, $0.40 on Business Pro, $0.35 on Enterprise | None | 24/7 included | $0.33 | $99 Starter plan | askbenny.ca/pricing English and French on every plan; 7-day free trial. |
| Voxara AI Canada | AI receptionist | Solo: $49 CAD a month for 100 minutes | $0.45 per extra minute on Solo, falling to $0.30 on Pro | None | 24/7 included | $0.49 | $99 Starter plan | voxara.ca/pricing |
| ai-receptionist.com Serves the US and Canada | AI receptionist | Essential: $14 USD a month for 75 minutes Canadian page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $0.25 per minute in booster packs that never expire | None | 24/7 included | $0.26 | $100 Essential plan plus 225 extra minutes | ai-receptionist.com/en-ca/pricing Lowest entry price in the index; 7-day trial with 30 live minutes. |
| Dialbox Canada | AI receptionist | Core: $129 CAD a month for 100 calls | No per-minute or overage billing; sustained use over the cap moves you to the next plan | Not published | 24/7 included | $0.43 | $129 Core plan | dialbox.ca/pricing Priced per AI-handled call, bundled with a business phone line; 7-day trial. |
| Polaris Voice Toronto, Ontario | AI receptionist | Essentials: $84 CAD a month for 150 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; Canadian site, treated as CAD. | $0.75 per extra minute on Essentials, $0.50 on Professional, $0.30 on Executive | Not published | 24/7 included | $0.56 | $169 Professional plan | polarisvoice.ca/pricing The page headline says plans from $99; its plan table starts at $84. |
| My AI Front Desk United States | AI receptionist | Business-in-a-Box: $99 USD a month for 200 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $0.25 per extra voice minute, bought as credits | Not published | Nights, weekends and holidays covered | $0.70 | $176 Business-in-a-Box plan plus 100 extra minutes | myaifrontdesk.com/pricing $79 a month on annual billing. Includes SMS, chatbot and form allowances. |
| BotsDontSleep.ai Toronto, Ontario | AI receptionist | No plan: $0.60 CAD per answered minute, billed by the second | $0.60 CAD per answered minute, billed by the second; there is no plan to exceed | $0 | 24/7 included | $0.60 | $180 Pay per minute plan plus 300 extra minutes | botsdontsleep.ai/pricing Our own service, placed in the sort order like every other row. |
| Aria Canada | AI receptionist | Starter: $59 CAD a month for 150 minutes | Not published; the agent pauses when minutes run out unless a minute pack is added | None | 24/7 included | $0.39 | $189 Pro plan | heyaria.ca/pricing English and French; 7-day trial. |
| Smith.ai (AI receptionist) United States | AI receptionist | Pro: $150 USD a month for 75 calls Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $2.00 per call on Pro, $1.67 on Enterprise; a free tier covers 25 calls then $3.00 a call | None | 24/7 included | $0.95 | $284 Pro plan plus 25 extra calls | smith.ai/ai-receptionist Billed per call. Live-agent handoff is a per-call add-on. Included calls are the page's 'about 2 to 3 calls a day' at $2.00. |
| AnswerConnect Receptionists across Canada; US parent | Human receptionists | Entry: $325 CAD a month for 100 minutes | $2.95 per extra minute on Entry, $2.75 on Growth and Standard | $75 on Entry and Standard; none on Growth | 24/7 included | $3.25 | $425 Growth plan | Canadian plans & pricing PDF Rounded up to the next minute; first 30 interactions under 30 seconds free each cycle; call transfer $50 a month. |
| Posh Virtual Receptionists United States; Canadian price list | Human receptionists | Vogue: $130 CAD a month for 50 minutes | CAD 2.30 per minute on the base plan, falling to CAD 1.90 at 1,000 minutes | Not published | 24/7 included | $2.60 | $630 Luxurious plan plus 100 extra minutes | posh.com/pricing (Canadian list, effective Jan 1, 2026) |
| PATLive United States | Human receptionists | 50 minutes: $99 USD a month for 50 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $2.29 per extra minute on the 50-minute plan, falling to $1.79 at 500 minutes | Not stated | 24/7 included | $2.81 | $680 300 minutes plan | patlive.com/pricing Bills only the time a receptionist is live on the call. Larger plans to 5,000 minutes published. |
| Property Answer Kingston, Ontario | Human receptionists | Starter: $219.95 CAD a month for 50 minutes | $2.49 per extra minute on Starter, $2.20 on Standard, $2.05 on Premium | One-time set-up charge; amount not published | After-hours and weekend cover from Standard up | $4.40 | $700 Standard plan plus 100 extra minutes | propertyanswer.ca/pricing-plans Minutes billed in 6-second increments. Built for property managers but open to any business. |
| Davinci Virtual United States | Human receptionists | Business 50: $129 USD a month for 50 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $1.75 per extra minute on Business, $2.50 on Premium | $95 one time for live receptionist service | 24/7 availability stated; no hours window published | $3.66 | $804 Business 50 plan plus 250 extra minutes | davincivirtual.com live receptionists Its live-receptionist page states 24/7 availability without naming a staffed hours window. Overage and setup are from its receptionist FAQ. |
| Moneypenny United Kingdom; US operation (VoiceNation now redirects here) | Human, AI option | 50 minutes: $165 USD a month for 50 minutes US page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $2.28 per extra minute at 50 minutes, falling to $1.67 at 500 | Not published | 24/7 service listed on every plan | $4.68 | $870 200 minutes plan plus 100 extra minutes | moneypenny.com/us/pricing Per-call plans also published: 25 calls for $69 a month, $2.49 per extra call. |
| Abby Connect United States | Human, AI option | Starter: $165 USD a month for 50 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | Billed at the plan's own per-minute rate (plan price divided by included minutes) | None | 24/7 included | $4.68 | $1,276 Professional plan plus 100 extra minutes | abby.com/pricing One Abby Minute buys one human minute or two AI minutes. |
| Smith.ai (live receptionists) United States | Human, AI option | Starter: $300 USD a month for 30 calls Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | $11.50, $10.50 or $8.50 per call above the bundle, by plan | None | 24/7 included | $4.73 | $1,299 Basic plan plus 10 extra calls | smith.ai/pricing Billed per call, not per minute. Appointment booking $1.50 a call and recording $0.25 a call are extra. |
| Ruby Receptionists United States | Human receptionists | 50 minutes: $250 USD a month for 50 minutes Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | Not published | None | 24/7 included | $7.10 | $2,449 500 minutes plan | ruby.com/pricing AI enhancements included in every plan at no extra cost. |
| Goodcall United States | AI receptionist | Starter: $79 USD a month for 100 unique callers Page shows $ without naming the currency; treated as USD. | 79¢ per extra unique caller on Starter, 26¢ on Growth, 15¢ on Scale | Not published | Answers every hour, per the page | n/a | n/a | goodcall.com/pricing Billed per unique phone number per month, not per minute or call, so it cannot be converted to a minute rate. |
| Nexa United States | Human, AI option | Quote only; 100, 300 and 500-minute plans listed without prices | Charged at the plan's base rate, which is not published | Charged; amount not published | 24/7 included | not published | not published | nexa.com/pricing Plans of 100, 300 and 500 minutes are listed without prices. Third-party reviews estimate about US$239 for 100 minutes. |
What the numbers say
The gap between the two models is not the per-minute rate alone; it is what you pay for minutes you do not use. Every human-staffed service in the index sells a monthly bundle, and the bundle fee is due whether the phone rings or not. Seven of the ten also publish or define a per-minute overage, from $1.67 to $3.30, for the calls that arrive after the bundle runs out, which is where a quiet quarter followed by a busy month produces the invoice nobody expected.
AI receptionists are cheaper per minute, but most of them have copied the bundle. Ask Benny, Voxara, Polaris Voice, Aria, ai-receptionist.com and My AI Front Desk all sell minute pools with overage; Dialbox sells call pools; Goodcall bills per unique caller. The only pure per-minute option in the index is ours, at $0.60 CAD billed by the second with no plan, which is why it sits in the middle of the AI group on a steady 300-minute month and at the bottom of the group when volume is uneven.
Three things to check before comparing any two rows: the currency (11 providers show a dollar sign without naming it), the hours (Davinci's live receptionists work 8 am to 8 pm Eastern on weekdays; the rest list 24/7 or after-hours cover), and the setup fee (AnswerConnect, Davinci and Property Answer charge one; most do not).
Method
- Sources. Each provider's own pricing page or rate sheet, read on 2026-10-15. Nexa publishes no prices and is shown as quote-only. Nothing is taken from review sites.
- Entry rate. The first plan that includes minutes, divided by its included minutes. Pay-as-you-go tiers with zero minutes are skipped.
- 300-minute month. The cheapest published route to 300 answered minutes: entry plan plus overage, or the next plan up, whichever is lower. Where no overage is published, the smallest plan that includes the minutes. Setup fees and taxes excluded.
- Currency. CAD where the provider states it. Unlabelled dollar signs on US sites are treated as USD and converted at the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4196 on 2026-10-15; the published figure is always shown unconverted beside it.
- Calls to minutes. Per-call plans assume 3-minute calls. Change that assumption and the Smith.ai and Dialbox rows move; nothing else does.
Cite this page
If you use this data, link to this page. The figures are re-read every quarter and the link lets your readers check the current version and the source behind every row.
BotsDontSleep.ai, "Answering Service Price Index 2026 (Canada)", https://botsdontsleep.ai/answering-service-price-index, checked 2026-10-15.
Found a figure that has changed? Email support@botsdontsleep.ai with the provider's page and we will update the row and the checked date.
Price index FAQs
Frequently asked
- How much does an answering service cost in Canada in 2026?
- For a 300-minute month, the human-staffed services in this index with published prices range from $425 to $2,449 CAD, with a median of $804. The 10 AI receptionists range lower, with a median of $169 CAD for the same minutes. Both figures exclude setup fees and taxes.
- What is the average per-minute rate for a live answering service?
- At each provider's entry tier, the median effective rate across the human-staffed services is $4.40 CAD per minute (plan price divided by included minutes). Published overage rates on those plans run from about $1.75 to $2.95 a minute. AI receptionists have a median entry rate of $0.49 CAD per minute.
- Which answering services publish Canadian-dollar pricing?
- AnswerConnect (a Canadian rate sheet), Posh (a Canadian price list effective January 1, 2026), Property Answer, Ask Benny, Voxara, Dialbox, Aria and BotsDontSleep.ai state CAD. Ruby, PATLive, Abby Connect, Moneypenny, Davinci, Smith.ai, My AI Front Desk, Goodcall and ai-receptionist.com show a dollar sign without naming the currency; the index treats those as US dollars and converts them for the computed columns only. Polaris Voice is unlabelled too, but it is a Toronto company with its data in Canada, so it is treated as CAD.
- How were per-call plans converted to minutes?
- Smith.ai and Dialbox price per call rather than per minute. The index assumes an average call of 3 minutes, so a 100-call plan is treated as 300 minutes. Goodcall bills per unique caller per month, which cannot be converted, so its computed columns show n/a.
- Why does the 300-minute month sometimes use a bigger plan than the entry tier?
- Because that is the cheapest published way to get the minutes. Where a provider publishes an overage rate, the index takes the lower of 'entry plan plus overage' and the next plan up. Where no overage is published (Ruby, Aria, Dialbox), it uses the smallest plan that includes the minutes, since there is no published price for going over.
- How often is the index updated, and can I cite it?
- Figures are re-read every quarter and the checked date is printed in the table caption; the current data was read 2026-10-15 at a USD/CAD rate of 1.4196 (Bank of Canada, 2026-10-15). You can quote any figure with a link to this page. Each row also links to the provider's own pricing page so a reader can verify the number at source.
Related pages
The answering service cost page works through real call volumes on each billing model, the AI receptionist in Canada page covers the Canadian AI providers in more depth, and each provider's name above links to a side-by-side comparison where we have one. Our own rate is on the pricing page.
Last updated 2026-10-15. Next scheduled re-read: January 2027.
Price your own call volume
Tell us your monthly calls and we will send the same 300-minute arithmetic for your numbers, on every provider in the index.