The new math of answering the phone

An AI receptionist costs roughly 1/10th of a full-time hire.

Cost per minute
$0.07–$0.31
AI receptionist / month
≈ $340
Full-time hire / month
$3K–$5K
Monthly cost to answer the phones
AI receptionist: about $340/month. Full-time receptionist: $3,000–$5,000/month.
AI receptionist — pay per minute Full-time receptionist — salary
Based on ~50 calls/day at 4 min each (≈4,200 min/month) at $0.08/min. Sources: Retell AI, Cekura AI, Teneo.ai.