How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK? Honest pricing maths

It is four o'clock on a Thursday. You are halfway through a job, or a consultation, or a lunch service that has just got busy, and the phone buzzes with a number you do not recognise. You let it ring out. Most owners who live on the phone know that moment, and most have wondered what it would cost to have someone cover it properly.

The honest answer starts with the law, because the cheapest person you can hire still has a legal minimum. From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. Everything below builds from that figure, so you can swap in your own numbers.

What does a human receptionist cost at the lowest legal pay?

At minimum wage, a part-time receptionist working 20 hours a week costs about £1,102 a month in wages alone. That is 1,040 hours a year at £12.71, which comes to £13,218 a year, or £1,101.53 a month.

Employer National Insurance is on top. For 2026 to 2027 the rate is 15% on pay above a £5,000 secondary threshold, which would be about £103 a month here. Many small employers can offset this with the £10,500 Employment Allowance, so check whether you are eligible before you count it.

Holiday matters too. A worker on a five-day week is entitled to at least 28 days of paid leave a year, and part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks pro rata. Pension contributions, sick pay and training come on top, and someone has to cover the phone when your receptionist is away.

None of this makes a person a bad choice. A person can greet customers, take deliveries and read a room. But 20 hours a week of cover leaves 148 hours of every week with nobody answering.

How much does an AI receptionist cost on VolaVoice?

VolaVoice has three listed plans, all on rolling monthly billing with no setup fee and no per-minute charges. VolaVoice does not add VAT.

• Quiet: £49 a month, 150 included minutes.
• Line (recommended): £99 a month, 320 included minutes.
• Busy: £289 a month, 1,000 included minutes.

Spam calls and calls under ten seconds do not use your minutes. Businesses with more than one location or much higher volumes are quoted individually under a Custom plan.

The real comparison is not a wage against a subscription, it is the hours your phone goes unanswered today.

How many calls do the included minutes cover?

It depends on how long your calls last, so treat the next numbers as an illustration, not a measurement. If your calls averaged two minutes, 150 minutes would cover about 75 calls a month, 320 minutes about 160 calls, and 1,000 minutes about 500 calls.

A quiet salon or a sole trader may sit comfortably on the first plan. A restaurant that takes enquiries all through service will want to check its real call volume before choosing. The simplest way to find out is to hear the receptionist answer a call and try your own questions.

How do you work out which plan you need?

Count before you buy. For one normal week, note every call that reaches your phone or goes to voicemail, and roughly how long each lasted. Your phone bill or call log will give you most of it. Multiply that week by four and compare the total in minutes with the plan allowances above.

Leave some room, because busy weeks happen. The 80% notice is there so a quiet month does not turn into a surprise, and you can move up a plan at any point. Start from your own numbers rather than from the plan that sounds right.

What happens when the minutes run out?

Unused minutes do not roll over, and they reset when your plan renews each month. You get an email and a dashboard notice when you reach 80% of your minutes.

If you use them all, the AI stops answering and forwards calls to your own transfer number. If you have not set one, callers hear a message saying you cannot take calls right now. Upgrading takes effect immediately, so you can switch answering back on the same day.

What does the free trial involve?

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial of up to 150 minutes. The trial begins when your phone number goes live, not when you sign up. You add a card to start, but nothing is charged until the 14 days end. If you do not cancel before then, you move onto the plan you chose and pay its monthly price.

How does this compare with an answering service?

An answering service is another option, and it is a different one. We compared the two in a separate piece, AI phone answering vs a traditional answering service in the UK. In short, a service uses people to take messages, while an AI receptionist answers from the facts you approve and passes the rest to you.

So what is the honest takeaway?

On price alone, an AI receptionist costs a fraction of even a minimum-wage part-time hire: from £49 a month against about £1,100. But the two are not like for like. VolaVoice answers calls, answers questions from information you have approved, and takes booking requests that your team then confirms. It does not take payment over the phone, send text messages or make outbound calls, and it cannot greet someone at your door.

If your problem is calls going unanswered while your hands are full, the sums favour trying it. You can read the full plan details and start with the free trial before you commit to anything.