How much does an AI receptionist cost in Australia?
As at October 2026, Australian AI phone receptionists publish plans from A$99 to A$499 a month, some with a setup fee from $990, while human answering services charge about $2.70–3.99 a call on top of a monthly plan. On Autopilot, a Melbourne-based AI consultancy, builds and runs an AI Front Desk that answers website chat, SMS and email enquiries and books appointments, for $1,500 setup plus $199 a month ex GST.
How much does an AI receptionist cost in Australia?
As at October 2026, self-serve AI phone receptionists with published Australian pricing start at A$99 a month with no setup fee, and managed AI phone agents run A$149–499 a month plus setup from $990. A human answering service costs about $2.70–3.99 per call on top of a monthly plan. On Autopilot’s done-for-you AI Front Desk is $1,500 setup plus $199 a month, ex GST.
| Option | Published price (as at October 2026) | What you get | Who sets it up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-serve AI voice receptionist (example: Hey Jodie) | A$99, A$199 or A$399 a month, unlimited minutes, no setup fee, tax added at checkout | Answers calls 24/7, takes messages, books appointments | You |
| Managed AI phone agent (example: Valory) | A$149 a month (100 voice minutes) to A$499 (700 minutes), Enterprise from A$1,299; setup from $990 | The same, configured and maintained for you | The provider |
| Human answering service (examples: Business 1300, Virtual Headquarters) | $48 a month for 15 calls then $3.20 a call, or $80 a month for 20 calls then $3.99 a call, plus GST | Australian operators answer in your business name, take messages, transfer calls | The provider |
| Done-for-you AI front desk (On Autopilot) | $1,500 setup + $199 a month, ex GST, Claude usage included | Website chat, SMS and email enquiries answered, bookings into your calendar, reminders, escalation | We build and run it |
Vendor prices are copied from each provider’s public pricing page on 03/10/2026. They are examples to anchor your budget, not endorsements. Valory does not say whether its prices include GST, so ask before you compare.
What can an AI receptionist do, and what can’t it do?
A good AI receptionist answers every enquiry instantly, answers questions from your own information, qualifies the caller, checks your live calendar, books the appointment and sends a confirmation and reminder. It should not give clinical, legal or financial advice, take payments, invent services you don’t offer or pretend to be human. Its most important skill is knowing when to hand over to a person.
On a typical enquiry, a well-built one:
- Greets the customer in your business’s voice, not a “press 1” menu.
- Answers from a knowledge base you control: services, hours, suburbs, standard call-out or appointment fees.
- Qualifies the job: what they need, where they are, whether it is work you take.
- Checks live availability so it never double-books, then books it.
- Sends a confirmation and a reminder, and logs the details in your CRM.
- Escalates when the customer asks for a person, mentions an emergency or injury, asks about something it has no information on, or the conversation goes around in circles.
Booking is where the price difference sits. A message-taker tells the customer you close at 5. A booking agent puts them in at 4:30. Taking messages is cheap; connecting to your real calendar and CRM costs more to set up and saves far more time.
How does the cost change with business size?
A sole trader with a handful of enquiries a week is usually best on a self-serve tool from A$99 a month or a pay-per-call answering plan. A 2–10 person service business losing after-hours enquiries is where a configured front desk pays off. At 10–50 staff or several sites, the front desk is usually one of several agents, which is when a managed AI retainer makes sense.
- Sole trader: at five or fewer enquiries a week, our AI Front Desk is overkill. A self-serve tool, a $48–80 a month answering plan, or a single $497 Quick Start automation (for example, an instant reply to web enquiries) covers it.
- 2–10 staff: if web, SMS and email enquiries go unanswered after 5pm or while you’re on a job, AI Front Desk at $1,500 setup plus $199 a month is the usual first build.
- 10–50 staff or multi-site: Managed AI Essential, $1,500 a month, runs up to two live agents (say, the front desk plus lead follow-up), and Growth, $2,000 a month, runs up to four and adds one new agent or material improvement each month.
What does On Autopilot charge for an AI receptionist?
On Autopilot’s AI Front Desk costs $1,500 to set up and $199 a month, ex GST, month to month. It answers website chat, SMS and email enquiries after hours, books into your existing calendar, sends reminders and no-show follow-ups, and hands anything tricky to a person. It goes live in 7–10 working days, including a shadow week, and you own the code, prompts and settings.
The $199 covers hosting, Claude API usage, the SMS gateway, monitoring, knowledge base updates (new prices, holiday hours) and regular review of the conversation logs. It is built on Anthropic’s Claude, and we run the same stack in our own businesses, including DotVA’s website lead pipeline (see our case studies).
One limit: AI Front Desk handles written enquiries, not live voice calls. If most of your enquiries arrive by phone, a voice tool or a human answering service from the table above may be the better first buy, and we will tell you that on the free 30-minute AI audit. Every other price is on our pricing page.
Is an AI receptionist worth it for your business?
It is worth it when the enquiries you miss are worth more than it costs. Count your missed calls and unanswered after-hours enquiries for two weeks, estimate how many would have booked, and multiply by the gross profit on an average job. If that monthly figure is several times the monthly fee, it pays. If you rarely miss an enquiry, wait.
Fill in your own numbers:
- A. Missed calls and unanswered enquiries a week (your phone log shows missed calls)
- B. The share of those that would have booked, as a fraction (a quarter is 0.25)
- C. Gross profit on an average job, in dollars
- Monthly value at risk = A × 4.33 weeks × B × C
Illustration only, with made-up numbers rather than client data: 4 missed enquiries a week, a quarter of which would have booked, at $250 gross profit a job, is 4 × 4.33 × 0.25 × $250, or about $1,080 a month. Against $199 a month, that pays. At one missed enquiry a fortnight, it does not.
To see how a human answering service compares at your call volume, read our AI receptionist vs human answering service comparison. For modelled savings across 12 common admin tasks, see our AI Cost Index, and for the wider decision, whether AI automation is worth it for a small Australian business.
Sources
- Hey Jodie, AI receptionist pricing for Australian businesses (checked 03/10/2026)
- Valory, AI phone agent pricing (checked 03/10/2026)
- Business 1300, virtual receptionist plans (checked 03/10/2026)
- Virtual Headquarters, call answering pricing (checked 03/10/2026)
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, small business and the Privacy Act (checked 03/10/2026)
Other questions people ask
Can AI answer my phone and book appointments?
Yes. A voice AI receptionist answers calls around the clock, checks your live calendar and books the appointment, then texts a confirmation. Good ones hand the call to a person when the caller is upset, has an emergency or asks for something outside their rules. Before you sign up, check it connects to your booking system: a tool that only takes messages saves far less time. On Autopilot's AI Front Desk is text only: it handles website chat, SMS and email, not phone calls.
Will callers know they are talking to AI?
Many will, and it should say so if asked. Voice agents still mishear names, addresses and trade terms more often than text; test them on recordings of real calls. Pretending to be a person erodes trust quickly. Introduce it as your business's AI assistant, give callers an easy way to reach a human, and tell them if calls are recorded. On Autopilot's AI Front Desk introduces itself as an AI assistant from the first message.
Is there a setup fee as well as the monthly fee?
It depends who does the setup. Self-serve tools such as Hey Jodie list no setup fee, but you write the answers and connect the calendar yourself. Managed providers charge for it: Valory's published setup starts from $990. On Autopilot's AI Front Desk setup is $1,500, which covers the knowledge base, calendar connection, testing and the first month of tuning.
Does an AI receptionist work with Cliniko or ServiceM8?
Many do, so check before you buy. On Autopilot's AI Front Desk books directly into Cliniko, ServiceM8, Nookal, Cal.com, Calendly and Google Calendar, so there is no second calendar to manage. For clinics it books the appointment but does not give clinical advice or discuss Medicare item numbers or rebates; billing is confirmed at the practice.
Do privacy rules apply to an AI receptionist?
If you are a health service provider, yes, whatever your turnover: the Privacy Act and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles cover you. Most other businesses with annual turnover of $3 million or less are exempt, but good practice is the same either way: tell people how their details are used, collect only what you need, and keep sensitive information out of the AI.
Want this built for your business?
Book a free 30-minute AI audit call with Jenn Yang. We map where your time goes, name the first systems worth building and give you fixed AUD prices. No obligation.
Book a free AI auditOr have us run it for you, end to end: On Autopilot is Australia's outsourced AI department.