Front Desk Cost Calculator
Price an in-house receptionist, a live answering service and an AI front desk on the same hours and the same calls, and see the cost per call, per booked appointment and per hour actually covered.
Last updated October 26, 2026 · Free · Nothing stored
How much does a receptionist cost compared with an answering service or AI?
At the US median wage of $18.27 an hour, a 40-hour receptionist costs about $3,547 a month once 12% payroll costs are added, and covers about 36 of 50 open hours after breaks and days off. For 180 calls of 2.5 minutes, PATLive’s 500-minute answering plan costs $759 a month, and published AI front desk plans ran $118.50 to $339. Enter your own hours, calls and prices to see cost per call and per booked appointment.
The wage default is the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook median for receptionists in May 2025 (page last modified 27 August 2026, checked 26 October 2026). Answering service plans and the AI price range come from the provider pricing pages listed in our two cost guides, checked 26 October 2026. Payroll costs, call volume, booking rate, breaks and days off are our placeholders. LLDTEK does not publish a price, so no LLDTEK figure appears here.
Your desk, your numbers
Hours and calls
The same hours and calls are priced for all three options.
Default 50 h · Our assumption. A placeholder: ten hours a day, five days a week. Add up your posted opening hours.
Default 0 h · Your number. Optional. Evenings, early mornings or Sundays you want a voice on the line. Open hours plus these are capped at 168 a week.
Default 180 · Our assumption. A placeholder that matches the worked salon example in our AI receptionist cost guide. Your carrier or VoIP dashboard gives the real count.
Default 2.5 min · Our assumption. A placeholder from the same worked example. Time 20 real calls and take the average.
Default 30% · Our assumption. Our assumption, not a benchmark. Compare a week of call logs with new bookings made by phone.
In-house receptionist
One person on your payroll, at the desk during part of your open hours.
Default $18.27 · Published figure. US median hourly wage for receptionists in May 2025, from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Half earn more and half less; local pay varies.
Default 12% · Our assumption. Our assumption. Employer Social Security and Medicare alone are 7.65% of wages (IRS); unemployment tax and workers' comp vary by state. Add health cover or other benefits if you pay them.
Default 40 h · Our assumption. A full-time shift. The shift is assumed to sit inside your open hours, so it never covers after-hours.
Default 2.5 h · Our assumption. A placeholder: a paid 30-minute break on each of five days. An unpaid lunch left out of paid hours is already counted as uncovered.
Default 10 days · Our assumption. Our assumption for sick days and vacation. The cost assumes these days are paid and nobody covers the phone.
Live answering service
A shared team of people answering your line, billed by the minute or by the call.
Default $759, from PATLive's 500-minute plan. Pick another plan above or type your own quote.
Default 500, from PATLive's 500-minute plan. What the monthly fee covers before overage starts.
Default $1.79, from PATLive's 500-minute plan. Dollars per minute beyond what the plan includes.
AI front desk
Software that answers every call. Enter a range, or the same number twice for one quote.
Default $118.5 · Published figure. Cheapest managed AI plan in our worked example of 180 calls and 450 minutes a month (Goodcall Starter with overage). Published plans run from $29 to $500 a month.
Default $339 · Published figure. Dearest managed AI plan in the same example (Smith.ai AI Receptionist, 150-call tier with overage). Not an LLDTEK price; LLDTEK does not publish one.
180 calls a month over 50 hours a week
In-house receptionist
$3,547a month
- Per call
- $27.40
- Per booking
- $91.32
- Hours covered
- 36 of 50 h/wk
Answers about 129.5 calls. About 50.5 land when nobody is at the desk.
Live answering service
$759a month
- Per call
- $4.22
- Per booking
- $14.06
- Hours covered
- 50 of 50 h/wk
PATLive 500 min. Uses 450 of 500 included min.
AI front desk
$118.50 to $339a month
- Per call
- $0.66 to $1.88
- Per booking
- $2.19 to $6.28
- Hours covered
- 50 of 50 h/wk
A range from published plans in our AI receptionist cost guide, not an LLDTEK price. LLDTEK does not publish one.
The link holds only the numbers on this page. Nothing is sent to us.
The working, with your numbers
A month is 52 weeks divided by 12. Calls are assumed to arrive evenly across the hours you want covered, so an option that covers 70% of those hours answers 70% of the calls. Bookings are answered calls times your booking rate.
In-house receptionist
- 40 h × 52 ÷ 12 = 173.3 paid hours a month
- × $18.27 = $3,167 wages
- + 12% taxes and insurance ($380) = $3,547 a month
- Days off: 10 × (40 h ÷ 5) ÷ 52 = 1.5 h a week
- 40 − 2.5 breaks − 1.5 days off = 36 h at the desk; capped at 50 open hours = 36 h covered
- 180 calls × 36 ÷ 50 = 129.5 answered, 38.8 booked
Live answering service
- 180 calls × 2.5 billed min = 450 minutes
- 450 of 500 included min used, none over the plan
- $759 + 0 × $1.79 = $759 a month
- Covers all 50 h, so all 180 calls are answered and 54 booked
AI front desk
- Monthly price you entered: $118.50 to $339
- Covers all 50 h, so all 180 calls are answered and 54 booked
- ÷ 180 calls = $0.66 to $1.88 a call
- ÷ 54 bookings = $2.19 to $6.28 a booking
Reading the result
The in-house figure is usually the largest, but it buys more than phone cover: the same person greets walk-ins, takes payment and settles disputes at the counter, which neither outside option does. The answering service and AI lines cover every hour you ask for, so their cost per call falls as volume rises until a plan runs out and overage starts. Watch the cost per booking most closely. A service that takes a message instead of booking the visit leaves your staff to call back, and that time is not in its price.
What it leaves out
- Hiring, training and covering turnover, and benefits beyond the payroll percentage you enter.
- Answering-service extras such as setup fees, booking add-ons, bilingual lines, after-call work billed as minutes, and taxes. Our answering service cost guide lists the ones providers publish.
- AI plans are also billed per minute, per call or per caller, and a plan that only texts a booking link is cheaper than one that books into your calendar. Price the tier that books, at your volume, and enter that.
- Calls do not arrive evenly. If your gaps fall in your busiest hours, such as lunch, the in-house line misses more calls than shown here.
- The booking rate is the same for all three options. A wrong booking, or a message nobody returns, lowers it in practice.
Every assumption and its source
- Open hours per week
- 50 h
- Our assumption. A placeholder: ten hours a day, five days a week. Add up your posted opening hours.
- After-hours you also want answered
- 0 h
- Your number. Optional. Evenings, early mornings or Sundays you want a voice on the line. Open hours plus these are capped at 168 a week.
- Calls per month in those hours
- 180
- Our assumption. A placeholder that matches the worked salon example in our AI receptionist cost guide. Your carrier or VoIP dashboard gives the real count. Source: LLDTEK guide: How much does an AI receptionist cost?, checked 2026-10-26.
- Average minutes per call
- 2.5 min
- Our assumption. A placeholder from the same worked example. Time 20 real calls and take the average. Source: LLDTEK guide: How much does an AI receptionist cost?, checked 2026-10-26.
- Answered calls that book an appointment
- 30%
- Our assumption. Our assumption, not a benchmark. Compare a week of call logs with new bookings made by phone.
- Hourly wage
- $18.27
- Published figure. US median hourly wage for receptionists in May 2025, from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Half earn more and half less; local pay varies. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Receptionists: median hourly wage $18.27 in May 2025 (page last modified 27 August 2026), checked 2026-10-26.
- Payroll taxes and insurance on top
- 12%
- Our assumption. Our assumption. Employer Social Security and Medicare alone are 7.65% of wages (IRS); unemployment tax and workers' comp vary by state. Add health cover or other benefits if you pay them. Source: IRS Topic 751: employer Social Security 6.2% and Medicare 1.45% of wages, checked 2026-10-26.
- Paid hours per week
- 40 h
- Our assumption. A full-time shift. The shift is assumed to sit inside your open hours, so it never covers after-hours.
- Hours a week on the clock but off the phone
- 2.5 h
- Our assumption. A placeholder: a paid 30-minute break on each of five days. An unpaid lunch left out of paid hours is already counted as uncovered.
- Days off a year on days you are open
- 10 days
- Our assumption. Our assumption for sick days and vacation. The cost assumes these days are paid and nobody covers the phone.
- Monthly plan fee
- $759
- Published figure. PATLive's 500-minute plan, from its published pricing. Source: PATLive pricing, checked 2026-10-26.
- Included in the plan
- 500
- Published figure. Minutes or calls the fee covers, depending on how the plan bills. Source: PATLive pricing, checked 2026-10-26.
- Rate over the plan
- $1.79
- Published figure. PATLive's published rate per minute over its 500-minute plan. Source: PATLive pricing, checked 2026-10-26.
- Monthly price, low end
- $118.5
- Published figure. Cheapest managed AI plan in our worked example of 180 calls and 450 minutes a month (Goodcall Starter with overage). Published plans run from $29 to $500 a month. Source: LLDTEK guide: How much does an AI receptionist cost?, checked 2026-10-26.
- Monthly price, high end
- $339
- Published figure. Dearest managed AI plan in the same example (Smith.ai AI Receptionist, 150-call tier with overage). Not an LLDTEK price; LLDTEK does not publish one. Source: LLDTEK guide: How much does an AI receptionist cost?, checked 2026-10-26.
Answering service plans come from each provider's own pricing page as listed in our answering service cost guide, checked 2026-10-26. Plans without a published overage rate, such as Ruby's, are left out rather than guessed. Prices change, so open the provider's page before you budget.
How to compare the cost of a receptionist, an answering service and an AI front desk
01
Set the hours and calls
Add up your open hours and any after-hours you want answered. Take calls per month and average call length from your carrier or VoIP dashboard, and the share of answered calls that book.
02
Price each option
Enter the receptionist’s wage, payroll costs, paid hours, breaks and days off. Pick a published answering plan or type a quote, and enter the monthly price of the AI plan that books into your calendar.
03
Compare per booking, not per month
Read the monthly cost, cost per call, cost per booked appointment and hours covered for each option, with the arithmetic printed underneath.
Common questions
How much does a receptionist cost per month?
At the BLS median of $18.27 an hour, 40 paid hours a week comes to $3,166.80 a month in wages (40 × 52 ÷ 12 = 173.3 hours). Employer Social Security and Medicare add 7.65%, about $242, before unemployment tax, workers’ comp and any benefits. The calculator uses 12% for all payroll costs as a placeholder you can change.
What is the median receptionist salary?
$38,010 a year, or $18.27 an hour, in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $13.83 an hour and the highest-paid 10 percent more than $24.01.
What does a medical receptionist earn?
The BLS does not list medical receptionists separately in its receptionist pay figures, but it gives a median of $19.00 an hour for receptionists in healthcare and social assistance in May 2025, against $16.57 in personal care services such as salons. Enter the rate you would actually pay.
How much does an answering service cost?
On the price lists we checked on 26 October 2026, live answering and virtual receptionist plans cost $99 to $250 a month for 50 minutes and $649 to $1,725 for 500 minutes. Overage, rounding and add-ons such as booking change the bill, so price the plan against your own call volume.
Why does the in-house receptionist cover fewer hours?
One person covers only their shift, minus breaks and days off, and the shift sits inside your open hours. An answering service or AI front desk covers every hour you ask for, including evenings. Calls that land when nobody is at the desk are counted as unanswered.
Is an AI front desk cheaper than a receptionist?
Per call, usually, on published plans. But a receptionist also greets walk-ins, takes payment and handles disputes at the counter. Many businesses keep the person and send overflow and after-hours calls to an outside line, which you can model by lowering the hours and calls here.
Why is there no LLDTEK price in the calculator?
LLDTEK does not publish a price. We quote after a 30-minute demo against your real call volume. The AI range in the calculator comes from other vendors’ published plans, so you can compare before you talk to anyone.
Does this calculator store what I enter?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser. The share link holds only the numbers on the page, and nothing is sent to LLDTEK.
See it against your book
Bring the numbers. We will price the calls your desk misses.
On a 30-minute demo we look at your call pattern and opening hours, show the front-desk agent answering and booking into the calendar you already use, and tell you plainly if a person or a published plan is the better buy at your volume.