The short answer

UK virtual receptionist services fall into three groups. Traditional human answering services put a trained person on your line and typically charge £49 to £250 a month on a plan. AI receptionists answer with software and charge by the call or the minute, often with a free or very low entry tier. Hybrid providers sell both. As of 4 September 2026, published entry prices run from £0 for a limited AI tier to £115 a month or more for human cover including evenings and weekends. The right choice depends far more on your call volume and whether your callers need a person than on the headline rate.

The single most useful thing to know before you start

Most UK answering services do not publish their prices.

Checked on 4 September 2026: Moneypenny, alldayPA and JAM all require a contact form and a callback before they will tell you what they charge. Face for Business, Smith.ai and Ruby Receptionists publish full rate cards. Voco publishes its pay-as-you-go rate.

This matters more than it sounds. If you are shortlisting four providers on a Tuesday evening, three of them requiring a phone call is a real cost, and it makes genuine comparison almost impossible. It is not a reason to rule anyone out, because a tailored quote can beat a published rate for a complex requirement. But start by asking every provider on your list for three things in writing: a per-minute or per-call rate, a monthly minimum, and an out-of-hours rate. How fast they answer tells you something useful in itself.

The three types, and who each suits

Traditional human answering services

A trained person answers in your company name, takes a message or transfers the call, and over time learns your business. UK examples include Moneypenny, alldayPA, JAM and Face for Business.

Best for: businesses where the caller relationship is the product, where enquiries are few and high value, and where an unusual call needs judgement rather than a script. A solicitor's first conversation with a bereaved client is not a scripted call.

The trade-off: a monthly plan you pay whether the phone rings or not, cover that often stops at 6pm unless you pay more, and a queue when several people ring at once.

AI receptionists

Software answers the call, follows the rules you set, captures the details you need and books into your diary. It answers on the first ring, answers several calls at once, and costs the same at 2am as at 2pm.

Best for: businesses with call volume that spikes, enquiries that arrive out of hours, and a repeatable set of questions worth asking every caller. Emergency trades, lettings maintenance lines and clinics with a full appointment book all fit this shape.

The trade-off: it does not build a relationship the way a person does, and a genuinely unusual call needs a route to a human.

Providers that sell both

Some providers sell an AI product and a human product side by side, at very different prices. Smith.ai is the clearest example: its AI receptionist starts free, while its human virtual receptionist service starts at $300 a month. If you are quoted a price by a provider like this, check which product it refers to before you compare it against anything.

What providers actually charge

Every figure below was taken from the provider's own pricing page on 4 September 2026. Prices change, so check before you decide.

Providers that publish

Face for Business. Taster from £49 a month for core business hours. Message Only from £99. Inclusive Minutes from £115, which adds evening and weekend cover, appointment booking and CRM integrations. No setup or onboarding fees, billed by the second rather than rounded up, 7-day free trial. Sales and nuisance calls are not charged on Inclusive Minutes or Message Only, but are on Taster.
Smith.ai, AI receptionist. Free at $0 a month for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. Pro at $150 a month covering 75 to 300 calls at $2.00 down to $1.67 a call. Enterprise at $500 a month covering 300 to 1,000 or more. Billed in US dollars. Their separate human virtual receptionist service costs considerably more, starting at $300 a month for 30 calls.
Ruby Receptionists. Human receptionists, with tiers sold by minutes rather than named plans. $250 a month for 50 minutes, an effective $5.00 a minute. $395 for 100 minutes. $720 for 200. $1,725 for 500. 24/7 included, no activation or setup fees, and Ruby states that optional AI enhancements are included in every plan at no extra cost. Billed in US dollars.
Voco. 29p a minute ex VAT on pay as you go, no monthly fee, no contract. Monthly plans available.

Providers that quote on request

Moneypenny. No published rate card.
alldayPA. No published rate card.
JAM. No published rate card. Pricing is quoted on request.

How to read the pricing models

Three models dominate, and they are not directly comparable.

Per minute. You pay for talk time. Good if your calls are short, bad if callers ramble. Watch for rounding: some providers round every call up to the next minute, so a 20-second call costs a full minute. Face for Business bills by the second, which is unusually fair.

Per call. You pay a flat rate per call regardless of length. Good if calls are long, bad if you get a lot of wrong numbers, because a 25-second misdial costs the same as a six-minute booking.

Monthly bundle. A fixed fee buys a set number of calls or minutes, with an overage rate beyond it. Predictable, but unused allowance is usually lost at the end of the month, and the overage rate is where the bill surprises you.

A worked example

Take a business handling 40 calls a month averaging two minutes, so 80 minutes of talk time, with a quarter of the calls arriving out of hours.

On a per-minute rate of 29p, that is roughly £23 a month.
On Face for Business's Taster plan at £49, out-of-hours calls are not covered, so you would need Inclusive Minutes at £115 or above.
On Ruby, 80 minutes exceeds the 50-minute tier, so you would be on the 100-minute tier at $395.
On Smith.ai's free AI tier, 40 calls exceeds the 25 included, so 15 overage calls at $3.00, which is $45. Their Pro plan would be $150 a month.

Two of those four put a human on the line and two do not, so read the numbers with that in mind. If your callers need a person, you are not choosing on price.

Run your own version of this. Count last month's calls and their average length rather than estimating, because most people guess high on volume and low on duration. Voco’s missed call calculator will do that arithmetic on your own numbers.

Six things to compare that are not price

Hours actually covered. Ask specifically about evenings, weekends and bank holidays, and whether they cost more.
What happens when several people ring at once. A human service queues. Ask how long.
Industry knowledge. Can the service triage an emergency on your definition of emergency, not a generic one?
Data handling. Where do call recordings sit, under which jurisdiction, and for how long? Get it in writing, particularly if you are in a regulated sector.
Integrations. Does it write into the system you already use, or does someone retype everything?
Exit terms. Notice period, number porting, and what happens to your call data when you leave.

Which suits which business

Sole trader or one-person business. A monthly plan is often dead weight. Per-minute with no minimum usually wins, unless your callers expect a person.

Two to ten staff. This is where it gets genuinely close. Model both. If a meaningful share of calls arrive out of hours, the AI option tends to pull ahead because out-of-hours cover is where human plans get expensive.

Multi-site or high volume. Bundles start to win on unit cost, but check the overage rate and whether unused allowance rolls over.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a virtual receptionist cost in the UK?

Published entry prices as of 4 September 2026 range from £0 for a limited AI tier to £115 a month or more for human cover including evenings and weekends. Voco charges 29p a minute with no monthly fee. Many UK providers do not publish prices at all and quote on request.

Is an AI receptionist as good as a human one?

For structured calls, an AI receptionist answers faster, handles several calls at once and costs less. For calls needing judgement, empathy or an unscripted conversation, a person is better. Most businesses have both kinds of call, which is why the honest answer depends on the mix.

Can I try one before committing?

Face for Business offers a 7-day free trial. Smith.ai has a free AI tier covering 25 calls a month, and Ruby offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Pay-as-you-go services let you load a small amount of credit and stop whenever you like. Make five scripted test calls to any shortlisted provider before you sign.

What happens to calls out of hours?

This varies more than anything else. Some plans cover business hours only, some charge a premium for evenings and weekends, and some charge one rate at every hour. Ask for the out-of-hours rate specifically.

Do virtual receptionist services work with my CRM?

Some do, usually on higher plans. Ask which systems specifically, and whether the integration writes records automatically or emails a summary that someone retypes.

Prices in this article were checked on 4 September 2026 against each provider's own public pricing page. Providers change prices without notice; verify before you buy.

Virtual Receptionist Comparison UK 2026: 7 Providers Compared