AI receptionist services in the UK, compared on price.
We read the published prices of UK AI receptionist services and human answering services on their own websites on 14 November 2026. Here is what each charges, how to compare them fairly, and when each type is the better buy.
What each service
publishes.
Entry prices as stated on each provider's own page. “Price on request” means the page showed no price. Most pages did not say whether VAT is included. Rows are in no particular order of merit.
| Provider | Type | Published price | How it is charged | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnswerAnswer AI receptionist | AI receptionist | £10 a month + 85p per call | Monthly plan plus a per-call charge. Lite £10 (no calls included), Growth £30 (50 calls), Plus £120 (200 calls), Advanced £300 (500 calls); extra calls 85p.Monthly subscription, no long-term commitment. Lite needs a minimum £25 account deposit. Transfer to a live agent from the Growth plan up, at extra cost. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| AnswerPay-as-you-go call answering (human) | Human answering service | £2.20 per call + VAT | Per call, no monthly charge, no call-length limit for new customers.No contract. £25 minimum credit purchase and a minimum of one call a month. Bundle discounts of up to 20% on higher volumes. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| The Answer CentreOutsourced call answering (human) | Human answering service | 99p per call | Per answered call, not per minute.No setup fee. Free out-of-hours voicemail, sent to you by email. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| ReceptionHQMessage-taking and receptionist plans (human) | Human answering service | From £15 a month + VAT | Monthly plan by service level: MessageExpress from £15, MyReceptionist from £19, MyDiary (appointment scheduling) from £30.No long-term contract. 7-day free trial. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| MoneypennyTelephone answering service (human) | Human answering service | Price on request | Tailored quote based on call volumes and hours of coverage.Free trial offered. Schemes of 150 minutes and below: three-month minimum. Larger schemes: six or twelve months. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| MoneypennyAI Receptionist | Hybrid (AI and human) | Price on request | Quote based on what you need.No setup fee, term or trial terms stated on the page. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| TalkaAI receptionist | AI receptionist | £99.99 a month | Monthly allowance. Core £99.99 including 600 minutes, then 24p a minute. Pro Plus £199 with unlimited minutes.14-day free trial. Setup fee and term not stated. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| Virtual ReceptionsVoice AI receptionist | AI receptionist | £169 a month | Monthly allowance. Essentials £169 (600 minutes, then 25p a minute), Growth £259 (1,000 minutes, 21p), Scale £429 (2,000 minutes, 17p).Setup fee listed at £599 on Essentials, shown as free for a limited time. Minimum term not stated. Annual billing 20% off. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| ReseviaAI receptionist and messaging | AI receptionist | £179 a month for AI voice | Monthly plan. Growth £179 includes 500 AI voice minutes plus SMS and WhatsApp allowances. The £69 Essentials plan has no AI voice.Billed monthly, cancel any time. Overage rate not stated. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| NorangoHybrid AI receptionist | Hybrid (AI and human) | £69.95 a month | Monthly allowance. Essential Hybrid £69.95 (60 AI minutes, then 60p), Premier Hybrid £189.95 (200, then 45p), Signature Hybrid £299.95 (500, then 40p). Live agent time £1.50 a minute on Premier and Signature.Free 30-day managed trial. Calendar or CRM integration £295 one-off. Minimum term not stated. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| Down to Earth AIAI receptionist for trades | AI receptionist | £45 a month + £299 setup | Monthly allowance: 100 minutes of talk time, then 20p a minute.£299 one-off setup. No contracts or minimum terms. Extra channels £23 a month each. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| BT BusinessAI Receptionist | AI receptionist | Price on request | Sold in 100-minute bundles, from 100 to 14,000 minutes a month, with per-minute overage options.Monthly rolling. Optional one-hour setup session £150 one-off. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| Focus GroupAila AI Receptionist | AI receptionist | Price not published | Aila includes 100 minutes; Aila Plus includes 250 minutes.Quote via the provider. | Provider's page | 14 November 2026 |
| AxivonManaged AI receptionist (the author of this page) | Managed AI receptionist | From £300 a month | Managed plan including 250 call minutes.A custom build, not a generic plan: tailored to your number, hours, services and booking system, then set up and run for you. | This site | 14 November 2026 |
How to compare
like with like.
Per call, per minute or a monthly allowance
A per-call price does not change with call length. A per-minute allowance does: at two minutes a call, Answer's 85p per call works out at about 42.5p a minute, while Talka's overage rate is 24p a minute. Short calls favour minutes; long calls favour a flat per-call charge. Ask how calls are rounded and whether wrong numbers and sales calls count.
What “24/7” actually covers
Answer describes its human service as 24/7 as standard. The Answer Centre includes an out-of-hours voicemail, which is useful but is not a person answering at night. AI services answer whenever they are switched on; the question is what happens when the caller needs a human at 9pm.
Booking or message-taking
Many plans take a message. Booking into your diary usually needs a calendar or practice-system connection, and it is often priced separately: Answer lists scheduling on its Plus and Advanced AI plans, ReceptionHQ sells appointment scheduling as its MyDiary plan, and Norango lists calendar or CRM integration at £295 one-off.
Handover to a person
Check whether a caller can reach a human, on which plan, and at what cost. Answer lists transfers from its Growth AI plan upwards, with extra fees. Norango charges £1.50 a minute for live-agent time on its Premier and Signature plans. Moneypenny says its AI Receptionist can pass calls to your team or to a Moneypenny receptionist.
Setup fees and terms
Down to Earth AI lists £299 one-off. Virtual Receptions lists a £599 setup fee on its Essentials plan, shown as free for a limited time. Moneypenny's telephone answering page sets a three-month minimum for schemes of 150 minutes and below. Read the terms before comparing monthly figures.
The same month,
side by side.
This is an example, not a quote. Assume 100 answered calls in a month, averaging 2 minutes each (200 minutes). Each figure uses only the published prices in the table, picks the provider's cheapest published plan at that volume, and leaves out VAT, setup fees and add-ons. Providers without a published price, or without enough detail to calculate, are left out.
| Provider | Plan used | Example month |
|---|---|---|
| Down to Earth AIAI receptionist | AI Receptionist | £65+ £299 setup listed |
| AnswerAI receptionist | Growth | £72.50 |
| The Answer CentreHuman answering service | Per call | £99 |
| TalkaAI receptionist | Core | £99.99 |
| NorangoHybrid (AI and human) | Essential Hybrid | £153.95 |
| Virtual ReceptionsAI receptionist | Essentials | £169+ £599 setup listed |
| ReseviaAI receptionist | Growth | £179 |
| AnswerHuman answering service | Pay as you go | £220 |
| AxivonAI receptionist | Managed | £300 |
The cheapest line is not the answer on its own. The Answer Centre's total covers live answering with voicemail out of hours; Answer's £2.20 human rate is plus VAT; Axivon's figure includes setting the receptionist up around your booking system and running it. Price the work you need, then compare.
Self-serve or
managed?
A self-serve tool is the better choice when
- you mainly need calls answered and details passed on;
- your services, prices and hours rarely change;
- someone on your team has time to set it up, test it and keep it current;
- your call volume is low enough that a small plan covers it.
In that case, paying for a managed service is paying for work you could do yourself.
A managed service is the better choice when
- calls should end in a booking in your diary, not a message;
- the rules are fiddly: appointment types, lengths, who sees whom;
- you want a clear handover to a person and someone to adjust it;
- nobody in the business has time to own the setup.
If most of your calls need judgement or reassurance, a human answering service may suit you better than either.
This page is written by Axivon. We build and run AI receptionists for UK practices and service businesses: set up around your number, opening hours, services and booking system, then run and adjusted for you. Managed plans start from £300 a month, including 250 call minutes. That is more than most self-serve plans in the table, because it is a different purchase: each receptionist is a custom build tailored to the business, not a generic plan you configure yourself. You can call the demo line on 020 8103 0323 to hear it.
Moneypenny AI and
Moneypenny pricing.
Moneypenny is a UK answering service that people often search for by name, including for its AI receptionist and its pricing. Here is only what its own pages said on 14 November 2026.
- Its pricing page listed no prices.
- Its telephone answering page says pricing is based on your needs, such as call volumes and hours of coverage, and offers a free trial. Schemes of 150 minutes and below have a three-month minimum; larger schemes need six or twelve months.
- Its AI Receptionist page showed no price and asks you to talk to the team for a quote. It says the AI can answer 24/7 when configured, books appointments into your calendar, and can pass calls to your team or a Moneypenny receptionist.
To compare Moneypenny with the rows above, ask for a quote at your own monthly call volume and hours, and ask which tasks and transfers it includes.
How we
checked.
Every price on this page was read from the provider's own public page on 14 November 2026. We recorded only what the page stated, with its link. Where a page showed no price, we say so rather than estimate. We left out providers whose pages we could not read, and we did not use third-party price lists. Prices change: confirm the current terms with the provider before you buy. If a row is out of date, email hello@axivon-ai.com and we will correct it.
- What an AI receptionist costs
- Answering service pricing in the UK
- Virtual receptionist: cost and whether it is worth it
- AI receptionist vs answering service
- AI receptionist vs human receptionist
- Telephone answering services: a buyer's guide
Frequently asked
questions.
The questions people search before choosing an AI receptionist, answered from the published prices above.
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demo.
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