Smith.ai pricing (2026): when flat beats per-call

What Smith.ai actually charges, verified June 2026

Smith.ai publishes its AI Receptionist pricing openly, which already sets it apart in a market where many vendors quote privately. We verified these numbers on Smith.ai's own pricing page in June 2026. There are two tracks: month-to-month self-service plans with per-call overage, and annual managed plans sized for higher volume with no overage.

Both tracks carry a 30-day money-back guarantee capped at $1,000, and the self-service plans have no setup fee. The number that matters most for the math below: every call past your plan's allotment bills at $2.40, and any call that gets handed to one of Smith.ai's live human agents adds $3 on top, on every plan.

• Starter (self-serve) — $95/month for roughly 2 calls a day, about 60 a month (as of June 2026); $2.40 per extra call; $3 per live-agent handoff
• Basic (self-serve) — $270/month for roughly 5 calls a day, about 150 a month (as of June 2026); same $2.40 overage and $3 handoff fee
• Pro (self-serve) — $800/month for roughly 15 calls a day, about 450 a month (as of June 2026); same overage and handoff fees
• Managed (annual contract) — $500, $1,000, or $2,000/month for roughly 10, 25, or 55 calls a day (as of June 2026); no per-call overage, and AI training is included (it's a $2,000 add-on on the monthly plans); $3 live-agent handoff still applies

The 100-call month, worked out on every tier

A hundred inbound calls a month — about five per business day — is a normal month for a small trade business with steady advertising. Here is what that month costs on each self-service tier, using Smith.ai's published allotments.

On Starter at $95, roughly 60 calls are included, so 40 calls bill at $2.40 each: $96 in overage, $191 total. On Basic at $270, all 100 calls fit inside the roughly 150 included, so you pay $270 flat. On Pro at $800, you pay $800 for capacity you aren't using. Basic is the right tier at this volume, and $270 for 100 answered calls is honest value — about $2.70 a call.

Now add the handoff fee. If one caller in five asks for a human — common when callers want to negotiate price or describe a complicated job — that's 20 handoffs at $3, another $60. A realistic 100-call month lands between $251 and $330 depending on tier and handoffs. Not unreasonable. The catch isn't the rate; it's what happens when volume moves.

What Smith.ai is genuinely good at

Smith.ai is one of the most credible names in this category, and the strengths are real. The live-agent hybrid is the standout: when the AI hits something it can't handle, a trained human receptionist can take over the call. Almost no AI-only service offers that, and for businesses where a fumbled call costs a client, it's worth the $3 fee.

It's also genuinely self-serve — you can sign up and be answering calls the same week without a sales call — and it integrates with a long list of CRMs, calendars, and intake tools. The published pricing, no setup fee, and money-back guarantee make it a low-risk trial. At scale, the managed annual tiers remove overage entirely for offices that can forecast volume.

Who it fits best: law firms, agencies, and professional offices with steady, predictable call volume all year, an existing intake process, and someone on staff comfortable configuring software. If that's you, Smith.ai deserves a place on your shortlist.

Where per-call billing surprises a seasonal trade

Per-call pricing has one structural property a pool builder, landscaper, or HVAC contractor should think hard about: your bill peaks exactly when your season does. Take a pool company that gets 60 calls a month from November through February and 250 in May.

On Starter, the winter months cost $95 — and May costs $95 plus 190 overage calls at $2.40, or $551. Nearly six times the slow-month bill, arriving in the same month your crews are at their busiest. Upgrade to Basic and May still runs $510 ($270 plus 100 overage calls), while you pay $270 in January for capacity you don't use. The managed annual plans remove overage, but you're committing $500 to $2,000 a month, billed annually, sized to your peak — all year.

None of this is hidden; Smith.ai's pricing page is clear. But per-call billing quietly changes your incentives. When every call is a line item, you start deciding which lines to forward and which hours to cover, and the calls you screen out in the busy season are the most valuable calls of your year. One named client's documented outcome shows what full coverage looks like in season: Family Pools, a pool company, cut voicemails by roughly 88% and captured every lead once every call was answered; the write-up is in our results section.

The flat-rate alternative, with the honest trade-offs

The other model is a flat monthly rate for unlimited answering: the bill in May matches the bill in January, and there's no reason to ration coverage. Several vendors price this way at very different levels of service, from inexpensive DIY tools to managed systems. All prices below were verified on the vendors' own pricing pages in June 2026.

Full disclosure on our own entry: Power2Network costs more than every DIY tool on this list, and more than Smith.ai's lower tiers in a slow month. The flat-rate math only favors P2N above roughly 230–245 calls a month against Smith.ai's self-serve tiers — before handoff fees — or when the value of follow-up, reviews, and pipeline work matters as much as the answering. If you take ten calls a week, buy Rosie or Goodcall instead. One client's documented outcome: a motorsports shop's agent Maya handled 258 calls with 116 contacts and a 98% answer rate in roughly two months; the full numbers are in our results section.

• Rosie — $49/month for 250 minutes, $149 for 1,000, $299 for 2,000, 7-day free trial (as of June 2026); simple AI answering with booking on higher tiers; best for very-low-volume businesses that want the cheapest credible coverage
• Goodcall — $79 to $249/month per agent with unlimited minutes, billed per unique caller past plan caps at $0.50 each (as of June 2026); flat-feeling pricing and quick setup; best for DIY owners with mostly repeat callers
• Jobber AI Receptionist — $99/month add-on, included at no extra cost on the Plus plan (as of June 2026); books straight into Jobber; best for businesses already running their operations on Jobber
• Ruby — $250/month for 50 receptionist minutes up to $1,725 for 500, per-minute overage applies but isn't published on the pricing page (as of June 2026); warm, well-trained human receptionists; best for businesses that specifically want a human voice and have light volume
• Avoca — pricing is quote-only (as of June 2026); enterprise-grade call platform with deep ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro integration; best for $3M+ shops with an existing CSR team to augment
• Power2Network — $1,000 one-time build plus $499/month flat, unlimited answering, cancel any month, carrier/usage costs passed through at cost (as of June 2026); an AI workforce rather than a receptionist: 24/7 voice and chat answering plus booking, follow-up, review requests, and pipeline, managed by a named human; best for trade businesses where a single missed call is a $5,000–$50,000 job and call volume swings with the season

Pick Smith.ai if — pick a flat-rate managed service if

Both models are legitimate. The right one depends on the shape of your call volume and how much of the work beyond answering you want handled.

Whichever way you go, run your own numbers first: pull three months of call logs — your slowest and your busiest — and price each vendor against both. The answer is usually obvious within ten minutes.

• Pick Smith.ai if: your call volume is steady year-round; you want human receptionists as a backstop behind the AI; you're comfortable self-configuring; you want to trial with a money-back guarantee before committing
• Pick Smith.ai if: you're an office practice — legal, accounting, agency — where intake quality matters more than seasonal cost swings
• Pick a flat-rate managed service if: your trade is seasonal and a per-call bill would triple in your best month; you'd rather every call get answered without thinking about the meter
• Pick a flat-rate managed service if: you want booking, follow-up, reviews, and pipeline handled in the same system, with a named human accountable for it — not just the phone answered
• Pick a cheap DIY tool (Rosie, Goodcall) if: you take fewer than a couple of calls a day and just need messages taken — paying $499/month for that volume doesn't pencil out