The short answer: most small UK businesses pay somewhere between £40 and £400 a month for an AI receptionist, depending on how many minutes of calls it answers. Busy multi-site teams pay more, but still a fraction of the cost of staffing phones around the clock.
The longer answer depends on four things, and it is worth understanding each before you compare quotes.
What you actually pay for
1. A platform or plan fee
Most AI receptionist providers charge a monthly fee for the software. With Narvin this is £0 on Free, £99 on Pro and £199 on Growing. The plans differ only by how many calls can run at the same time (1, 3 or 10) and included storage — every feature is on every plan.
2. Usage, usually per minute
The AI listens, thinks and speaks in real time, and that has a cost per minute. Narvin draws usage from prepaid credits at typically £0.42 per minute. When comparing providers, check exactly what their per-minute rate includes — some bill speech recognition, the language model, the voice and telephony separately, often in US dollars.
3. Phone numbers and carrier charges
You need a phone number for callers to ring. With Narvin you buy it in the dashboard, on a Twilio account we manage for you. Many businesses simply forward their existing line to the new number, so customers see no change; any forwarding charges come from your current phone provider.
4. Setup and onboarding
Some providers charge a setup fee; others are self-serve. With Narvin you can build an agent yourself from a template on the Free plan, or have our team help with scripts, integrations and go-live checks.
Three worked examples
All examples use the standard rate of £0.42 per minute and exclude VAT.
| Business | Plan | Calls a month | Minutes | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader testing after-hours cover | Free (£0) | About 50 × 2 min | 100 | £42 |
| Dental clinic, overflow and after-hours | Pro (£99) | About 250 × 2 min | 500 | £309 |
| Letting agency, three lines plus reminder campaigns | Growing (£199) | About 1,000 × 2 min | 2,000 | £1,039 |
How to estimate your own cost
Use this simple formula:
Monthly cost = plan fee + (calls per month × average call length in minutes × rate per minute)
Your phone system or carrier bill will tell you roughly how many calls you take and how long they last. If you only want the AI to answer when you are closed or busy, count only those calls — often a third or less of the total.
How it compares with the alternatives
- A full-time receptionist costs a salary plus employer National Insurance and pension contributions, and still needs cover for lunch, holidays and sickness. They are irreplaceable for warm, in-person work — but expensive for answering the same ten questions all day.
- A human answering service usually charges per call or per minute. It is good for taking messages, but usually cannot book into your calendar or answer detailed questions about your services.
- An AI receptionist answers every call at once, at any hour, books appointments into your calendar and sends structured summaries to your team.
Many businesses combine them: the AI handles every call first, and anything sensitive or complex is passed to a person through a callback or ticket.
Five ways to keep the cost down
- Start with overflow and after-hours only. You pay only for calls you would otherwise miss.
- Keep the script focused. Clear instructions make calls shorter and outcomes better.
- Upload your FAQs. Answering from your documents avoids long back-and-forth.
- Review transcripts weekly. Fix the questions that cause long calls.
- Ask about fixed-rate pricing once your volume is high and steady — it is easier to budget.
The bottom line
For most UK small businesses, an AI receptionist costs less than a part-time member of staff and answers around the clock. Start on a free plan, measure a month of real calls, and decide with your own numbers rather than a sales estimate. The business case shows which KPIs to track during that month.
