01
In-house receptionist
Hourly wage × paid hours a week × 52 ÷ 12, plus overhead as a share of wages. Defaults: the BLS median receptionist wage, 40 hours, and 46% for benefits, from BLS employer cost data.
Free tool
Receptionist cost calculator: staff vs answering service vs AI.
See what answering your calls costs each month with a hired receptionist, a human answering service, or InsertChat’s AI receptionist, and which InsertChat plan fits your call volume.
A full-time receptionist at the BLS median wage of $18.27 an hour costs about $4,624 a month once you add 46% for benefits. A human answering service such as Ruby lists 500 minutes for $1,725 a month. InsertChat’s AI receptionist starts at $98 a month on Pro, with 5,000 credits shared by calls and chat.
Receptionist cost calculator
Compare the monthly cost of answering your calls.
Defaults come from the sources listed under “How it works.” Change any number to match your payroll, your quotes, or your call log.
Calls you want answered.
From your call log.
Default: BLS median for receptionists.
A week has 168 hours.
Default: BLS employer cost data.
Example rate; depends on your AI model.
Monthly cost to answer your calls
- In-house receptionist$4,624/mo
40 of 168 hours a week covered
- Answering service · Ruby’s listed plans$1,725/mo
500-minute plan for 360 minutes
- InsertChat AI receptionist$98/mo
Pro: 4,320 of 5,000 credits for 360 billable minutes
Pro fits your calls and costs about $1,627 less a month than the answering service, with 680 credits left for chat, email, SMS, and WhatsApp.
Hear the AI receptionist answer your own calls before you pay. Try Pro free for 7 days with 500 credits.
Start my free trialInsertChat rounds each call up to whole minutes; answering service minutes stay unrounded. Excludes extra phone numbers, SMS and WhatsApp charges, and taxes. Ruby pricing · How it works
How the receptionist cost calculator works
Each option is priced the way it bills: wages for staff, minutes for an answering service, and credits for InsertChat. Defaults come from the sources below; change any of them to match your quotes.
02
Human answering service
Calls × average minutes. With Ruby’s listed plans, the calculator picks the smallest plan that covers your minutes; above 500 minutes no price is listed. Or enter your own quote as a per-minute rate plus a monthly fee.
03
InsertChat AI receptionist
Each call rounds up to whole minutes, with a one-minute minimum, then uses credits at your AI model’s rate. The calculator recommends the lowest-priced plan whose monthly credits cover your calls.
- The 12 credits per minute default is the pricing page estimator’s example rate. Your rate depends on the AI model you choose.
- Answering service minutes aren’t rounded, because services set their own billing increments. That keeps the comparison from overstating their cost.
- Left out: extra InsertChat phone numbers ($10 a month each), SMS and WhatsApp charges, recruiting and training, and taxes.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Receptionists: Median hourly wage for receptionists: $18.27 in May 2025, checked October 13, 2026.
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4: Private-industry office and administrative support workers, June 2026: $25.22 in wages and $11.51 in benefits per hour worked, so benefits add about 46% to wages. Checked October 13, 2026.
- Ruby pricing: Virtual receptionist plans: 50 minutes for $250, 100 minutes for $395, 200 minutes for $720, 500 minutes for $1,725 a month, checked October 13, 2026. No overage rate is listed.
- InsertChat pricing: Plan prices and monthly credits: Pro $98 with 5,000 credits, Growth $198 with 10,000 credits, Scale $498 with 25,000 credits, Enterprise from $998 with 50,000 credits.
Worked example: 120 calls a month
120 calls a month at 3 minutes each, with the default wage, overhead, Ruby plans, and credit rate. Swap in your own numbers above.
| In-house receptionist, 40 hours a week | $4,624 a month ($3,167 in wages) |
|---|---|
| Ruby, 360 minutes | $1,725 a month on the 500-minute plan |
| InsertChat, 360 billable minutes | 4,320 credits: Pro at $98 a month |
Pro leaves 680 credits for website chat, email, SMS, and WhatsApp. These are example inputs, not a quote.
What each option gives you
Swipe horizontally to compare →
| Compared | In-house receptionist | Human answering service | InsertChat AI receptionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Your employee | The service’s receptionists | An AI assistant trained on your business knowledge, with your team taking over when needed |
| Hours covered | The hours you schedule and pay for | Depends on the service and plan | Any hours you route to it: always, after hours, or when your team doesn’t pick up |
| How it’s billed | Wages, benefits, and overhead, whether the phone rings or not | By minutes or calls; Ruby lists monthly minute plans | A monthly plan with AI credits; calls round up to whole minutes |
| Other channels | Whatever else they handle between calls | Varies; Ruby lists separate live chat plans | Website chat, email, SMS, and WhatsApp in the same inbox and credits |
Ruby details from its public pricing page, checked October 13, 2026.
Which option costs the least?
In the worked example, InsertChat costs less than either alternative by a wide margin. A hired receptionist costs the same whether the phone rings or not, an answering service bill grows with your minutes, and InsertChat moves up a plan only when your calls outgrow its monthly credits.
What does round-the-clock coverage cost with staff?
A week has 168 hours, so covering all of them takes 4.2 full-time 40-hour schedules before breaks, sick days, and vacations. At the default wage and overhead, that’s about $19,419 a month. InsertChat answers any hours you route to it on the same plan.
At the BLS median wage of $18.27 an hour (May 2025), 40 hours a week comes to about $3,167 a month in wages. Adding 46% for benefits, based on BLS employer cost data for office and administrative support workers, brings it to about $4,624. Recruiting, training, and equipment come on top.
It depends on the service and plan. Ruby’s pricing page lists receptionist plans from $250 for 50 minutes to $1,725 for 500 minutes (checked October 13, 2026), or $5.00 down to $3.45 a minute if you use every minute. Ask each service about overage and billing increments.
It depends on call length and your AI model’s credits per minute. At the example rate of 12 credits a minute, Pro’s 5,000 monthly credits cover about 416 billable minutes, or 138 three-minute calls, before any chat or email.
It can take the calls a person can’t: after hours, during lunch, and when the line is busy. You can keep staff for in-person work and complex calls and route overflow and after-hours calls to InsertChat. Your team takes over in the shared inbox whenever a conversation needs a person.
InsertChat rounds each call up to a whole minute, with a one-minute minimum, so the calculator does too. Answering services set their own billing increments, which the calculator doesn’t assume. Leaving their minutes unrounded keeps it from overstating their cost.
Yes. Annual plans cost ten monthly payments, paid upfront, so Pro works out to $81.67 a month. The calculator shows monthly prices; the pricing page lists both.
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