Smith.ai pricing (2026): AI receptionist per-call rates vs. human receptionist plans, with a worked example

Smith.ai sells two products with two price lists: an AI Receptionist that answers calls and can escalate to a live agent, and a Virtual Receptionist service staffed by people. Both are priced per call, not per minute, the key fact when comparing Smith.ai with a per-minute voice-AI platform. This guide walks through both price lists as of September 8, 2026, then computes a 2,000-call month.

How Smith.ai's pricing model works

AI Receptionist. Three plans (Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing, accessed 2026-09-08):

• Free — "$0 mo." "25 calls/mo ($3.00/call after that)."
• Pro — $150/mo at 75 calls. A volume selector offers "75 150 -10% 300 -17%" calls per month. The page's structured data prices the settings at $150 (75 calls, $2.00/call), $270 (150 calls, $1.80/call), and $500 (300 calls, $1.67/call). Overage is $2.50 / $2.30 / $2.17 per call by setting.
• Enterprise — $500/mo at 300 calls. Settings are "300 500 -4% 1000+": $500 (300 calls, $1.67/call) and $800 (500 calls, $1.60/call); 1,000+ is "Custom." Overage is $2.17 / $2.10 / Custom.

"AI Receptionist is a month-to-month service … If you ever cancel, we need 30 days' notice." Annual and 6-month plans are mentioned but not priced.

Virtual Receptionist (human-staffed). Three plans plus custom (Smith.ai receptionist pricing, accessed 2026-09-08):

• Starter — $300 / month, 30 calls. "Overage: $11.50/call over 30."
• Basic — $810 / month, 90 calls. "Overage: $10.50/call over 90."
• Pro — $2,100 / month, 300 calls. "Overage: $8.50/call over 300."
• Enterprise — "Ask about enterprise pricing."

The human plans carry a "10% discount for subscribing for 12 months," "No setup fees," and 24/7 staffing at no extra charge: "Calls at 2 pm and 2 am cost the same."

What's included vs. billed separately

Sources: AI receptionist pricing, receptionist pricing, AI receptionist product page, accessed 2026-09-08.

Worked example: 2,000 calls a month

Smith.ai meters calls, so take 2,000 answered calls a month, all in English, no add-ons. Every self-serve allotment is 500 calls or less, so most of this workload bills at the overage rate. All arithmetic is illustrative, from displayed prices.

AI Receptionist:

Free: (2,000 − 25) × $3.00 = 1,975 × $3.00 = $5,925/month

Pro, 300-call setting: $500 + (2,000 − 300) × $2.17 = $500 + $3,689 = $4,189/month

Enterprise, 500-call setting: $800 + (2,000 − 500) × $2.10 = $800 + $3,150 = $3,950/month

Enterprise, 1,000+: custom; no published total.

Human Virtual Receptionist:

Pro: $2,100 + (2,000 − 300) × $8.50 = $2,100 + $14,450 = $16,550/month

Basic: $810 + (2,000 − 90) × $10.50 = $810 + $20,055 = $20,865/month

Starter: $300 + (2,000 − 30) × $11.50 = $300 + $22,655 = $22,955/month

A dedicated Spanish line on every call adds 2,000 × $1.00 = $2,000/month.

On the AI product the plan fee is a small share of the total; the overage rate is the price. The human service costs four to six times as much here, in line with Smith.ai's own framing: "Human-only solutions run between $8–10/call" (Smith.ai hybrid page, accessed 2026-09-08).

Gotcha checklist

• A call is a call, regardless of length. A 30-second call and a 15-minute intake each count once. Smith.ai does not publish an average call length.
• Pick the volume setting before comparing. Pro displays as "$150/mo," but that is the 75-call setting; at 300 calls it is $500, the same as Enterprise.
• Overage steps down with volume but never reaches the plan rate. A month that runs over on a small setting can cost more than the next setting up.
• The 10% spam allowance is manual. "Every call answered by your AI Receptionist counts toward your call quota by default."
• Human add-ons stack per call. Booking, recording, notifications, and the Spanish line can add $3 or more to an $8.50–$11.50 overage call.
• HIPAA. A Smith.ai comparison article, updated 2024-01-02, states: "If you need HIPAA compliance, however, then Smith.ai is not yet able to accommodate handling calls for your business." Neither pricing page mentions HIPAA. Confirm directly. (Smith.ai blog, accessed 2026-09-08.)
• Money-back excludes overage. The 30-day guarantee refunds up to $1,000; "Any calls over your plan quota (overage) are not included."

How ThunderPhone prices differ

ThunderPhone publishes one all-in per-minute engine rate — speech recognition, language model, and voice included — pay as you go with no subscription, seat fee, or included-call block: Spark 2¢/minute, Bolt 5¢/minute, Storm 9¢/minute (unpacked in ThunderPhone pricing explained). Premium voice or language paths add up to 3¢/minute, hold bills a flat 2¢/minute, and telephony depends on setup.

Per-call and per-minute prices cannot be converted without an assumption, so here it is: 5 connected minutes per call. Then 2,000 calls = 10,000 minutes:

Spark: 10,000 × $0.02 = $200/month (10¢ per 5-minute call)

Bolt: 10,000 × $0.05 = $500/month (25¢ per call)

Storm: 10,000 × $0.09 = $900/month (45¢ per call)

A premium language path on every minute adds 10,000 × $0.03 = $300.

At 2 minutes per call the ThunderPhone totals fall to $80–$360; at 10 minutes they rise to $400–$1,800. Smith.ai's totals do not move with call length. Run the numbers for your own average.

The honest flip side: Smith.ai's human service is a different product. If you need a person to answer, take messages, and make judgment calls with no configuration work on your side, the human plans are the right buy. The AI Receptionist also bundles onboarding and a live-agent safety net that a platform leaves to you. ThunderPhone is GDPR and HIPAA compliant — its published pricing lists no compliance add-on fee — and customers remain responsible for configuring their workflows, data handling, recordings, and notices for their own obligations.

FAQ

How much does Smith.ai's AI Receptionist cost?

$0 for 25 calls a month, then $3.00 per call; Pro $150–$500/month for 75–300 calls; Enterprise $500–$800/month for 300–500 calls, custom above 1,000. Overage is $2.50–$2.10 per call by tier. Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing, accessed 2026-09-08.

How much does Smith.ai's human receptionist service cost?

$300/month for 30 calls, $810 for 90, or $2,100 for 300, with overage at $11.50, $10.50, and $8.50 per call. Add-ons such as appointment booking ($1.50) and a Spanish line ($1.00) bill per call; a 12-month term earns 10% off. Smith.ai receptionist pricing, accessed 2026-09-08.

Does Smith.ai charge per minute or per call?

Per call, on both products. Call length does not change the bill. Known-spammer calls are filtered before the AI answers and do not count; on the human plans, spam and unsolicited sales calls are not charged when forwarded lines pass Caller ID. Both pricing pages, accessed 2026-09-08.

What would 2,000 calls a month cost on Smith.ai?

About $3,950 on the AI Enterprise 500-call setting, $4,189 on AI Pro's 300-call setting, or $16,550 on the human Pro plan, at displayed prices; the 1,000+ tier is custom. For contrast, ThunderPhone's all-in rates put the same workload at $200/$500/$900 by engine, assuming 5 minutes per call, illustratively.

Sources and freshness

All Smith.ai figures were read from the linked first-party pages on September 8, 2026; ThunderPhone figures reflect its published pricing as of September 1, 2026. This guide is documentation-based — no Smith.ai account, invoice, or live call was tested. Two points deserve care. The AI Receptionist page is a volume slider: the visible "$150/mo" and "$500/mo" cards are the lowest Pro and Enterprise settings; the $270 and $800 totals come from the page's structured data and per-call table, which also describes the 500-call setting as "$1.50/call" while the table shows $1.60 ($800 ÷ 500); this guide uses $1.60. The HIPAA statement is from an article last updated January 2024, not a current policy page. Confirm anything that matters against Smith.ai's live pages before relying on it.