Our Smith.ai review in one line: it is a solid, well-priced answering service if most of your leads phone you, and an expensive one if they mostly come through your website. Smith.ai sells two things: an AI receptionist billed per call, with a free tier, and a human virtual receptionist team billed per call from $300 a month. Both answer the phone 24/7, screen and qualify callers, book appointments and push the details into your CRM.
This Smith.ai review covers how the pricing works at realistic call volumes, what the service does well, where it falls short, how it compares to Ruby, and which alternatives make sense. We make a product in a neighboring category, the KissMySkills AI Receptionist. It is a website chat widget, not a phone service, so it does not replace Smith.ai. We say where each one fits and where it does not.
Prices checked October 2026 on smith.ai and the other vendors' own pricing pages. Plans change often, so check again before you sign.
Smith.ai in one minute
Smith.ai is a US answering service for small businesses, with a strong following among law firms, home services, healthcare practices and agencies. You forward your business line to Smith.ai, and every call is answered by either an AI receptionist or a live agent, depending on the plan you buy.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: an AI voice agent answers first. It can qualify leads, schedule appointments, record and transcribe calls, and hand off complex calls to a live North America-based receptionist.
- Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists: live, staffed agents answer 24/7. They screen, qualify and do intake, transfer calls to you, and log everything into your tools.
The thing that makes Smith.ai different from most competitors is the billing unit. You pay per call, not per minute. A rambling ten-minute caller costs the same as a two-minute one. Smith.ai also says it does not charge for spam calls.
Smith.ai pricing: AI receptionist vs virtual (human) receptionist plans
AI Receptionist plans
| Plan | Monthly price | Included calls | Extra calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25 | $3.00 per call |
| Pro | From $150 | From 75, with bigger bundles available | About $2.00 to $2.17 per call |
| Enterprise | From $500 | From 300 up to 1,000+ | About $1.67 to $2.10 per call |
Every AI tier includes 24/7 answering, call recording, transcription, lead qualification, AI scheduling, integrations and analytics. Pro adds onboarding and live support; Enterprise adds full-service setup, custom prompting and multi-location support.
Virtual (human) receptionist plans
| Plan | Monthly price | Included calls | Extra calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $300 | 30 | $11.50 per call |
| Basic | $810 | 90 | $10.50 per call |
| Pro | $2,100 | 300 | $8.50 per call |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Human plans include lead screening, qualification and intake, one free CRM integration and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Extras are billed per call: appointment booking ($1.50), a bilingual Spanish line ($1.00), payment collection ($1.00), SMS notifications ($0.50), recording and transcription ($0.25), and additional CRM integrations ($0.50).
What that means at real volumes
Here is the human service at three monthly call volumes, using list prices and no add-ons:
- 50 calls: Starter at $300 plus 20 extra calls at $11.50 = about $530 a month.
- 200 calls: Basic at $810 plus 110 extra calls at $10.50 = about $1,965 a month, a little under the $2,100 Pro plan.
- 500 calls: Pro at $2,100 plus 200 extra calls at $8.50 = about $3,800 a month.
Add appointment booking on half of those calls and you add another $37 to $375. The AI receptionist is far cheaper: 50 calls on the free tier plus overage is roughly $75, and 200 calls sit within the Pro range. That gap is the main decision you are making with Smith.ai: do your callers need a person, or is a well-trained AI with a human fallback good enough?
What it does well
- Per-call billing is easy to predict. You know what a call costs. Long calls from chatty clients do not blow up the bill the way per-minute plans can.
- AI first, human backup. The AI receptionist can transfer complex calls to a live agent any time, day or night. Few cheap AI phone tools offer that.
- Real intake, not just messages. Agents qualify leads, run your intake questions and push the result into your CRM, which matters a lot for law firms and service businesses.
- Bilingual coverage. A Spanish line is available as a per-call add-on.
- A free AI tier. Twenty-five calls a month at $0 is enough to test the AI receptionist on real callers before you pay.
- Low commitment. No setup fees on the human plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Complaints and limits
Here is what to watch for, based on how the plans are built:
- Human plans get expensive fast. At $8.50 to $11.50 per extra call, a busy month can cost far more than a part-time hire would. Watch your volume for a month before you pick a tier.
- Add-ons stack up. Booking, bilingual, SMS, payments and extra integrations are each billed per call. A quote that looks like $810 can become $1,000+ once you switch on what you actually need.
- It is still the phone. Smith.ai answers calls. A visitor who lands on your website at 11pm, reads your pricing page and has one quick question will often not call at all. That inquiry never reaches Smith.ai.
- Scripts need maintenance. Any answering service is only as good as the instructions you give it. If your services, prices or hours change and nobody updates the script, callers get stale answers.
- AI voice is not for every caller. Some clients, especially in legal and medical settings, hang up on a bot. Test the AI tier on your real callers before you move everything to it.
Smith.ai vs Ruby
Ruby is the other big name in US virtual receptionists, and the comparison usually comes down to billing.
| Smith.ai | Ruby | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per call | Per minute |
| Entry plan | $300 for 30 calls (human); AI from $0 | $250 for 50 minutes |
| Mid plan | $810 for 90 calls | $720 for 200 minutes |
| Larger plan | $2,100 for 300 calls | $1,725 for 500 minutes |
| AI option | Full AI receptionist with human handoff | Transcripts and sentiment analysis included |
| Bilingual | Spanish line as add-on | Spanish and bilingual answering available |
| Website chat | Not the core product | Live chat plans from $143 for 10 chats |
Ruby receptionist pricing is better for businesses with short, simple calls: if your average call is under two minutes, 200 minutes stretches a long way. Smith.ai is better when calls are long, like legal intake or detailed service quotes, because a 12-minute call still counts as one. Ruby also sells human-staffed live chat, which is worth a look if you want people, not AI, on your website.
Alternatives
Goodcall
An AI phone agent billed by unique customers rather than calls or minutes. Plans start at $79 a month per agent for 100 unique customers, with unlimited minutes and $0.50 per extra customer. Good for businesses with repeat callers. No live human backup.
Dialzara
An AI phone receptionist billed per minute, from $29 a month for 60 minutes up to $349 for 1,000 minutes, with a 7-day free trial. It covers booking, routing, CRM and calendar integration, and English plus Spanish. A cheap way to stop missing calls if you can live without a human fallback.
My AI Front Desk
One plan at $99 a month ($79 billed yearly) with 200 voice minutes, overage at $0.25 a minute, plus web chat, two-way SMS and a built-in CRM. It is a broad bundle for the price; check that the chat and CRM pieces are good enough before relying on them.
Website chat receptionist
If many of your inquiries start on your website, a chat receptionist catches the people who would never pick up the phone. This is the category our AI Receptionist sits in. It answers visitors from the knowledge base you give it, takes contact details and appointment requests, and passes everything else to your team. Leads land in KMS AI CRM automatically. It does not answer phone calls, so it works next to Smith.ai, not instead of it.
| Service | Channel | Pricing model | Human backup | CRM integration | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Phone | Per call, free tier | Yes, live transfer | Yes | Service firms that want AI with a human safety net |
| Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists | Phone | Per call, from $300 | Humans answer | Yes, one free | Law firms and high-value intake calls |
| Ruby | Phone, live chat | Per minute, from $250 | Humans answer | Yes | Short calls, brand-sensitive businesses |
| Goodcall | Phone | Per unique customer, from $79 | No | Yes | Repeat callers, local services |
| Dialzara | Phone | Per minute, from $29 | No | Yes | Low budget, low volume |
| My AI Front Desk | Phone, chat, SMS | Flat $99 plus minutes | No | Built-in CRM | Owners who want one bundle |
| KissMySkills AI Receptionist | Website chat only | Part of All-Access, $15/month | Hands off to your team | Leads go to KMS AI CRM | Businesses whose leads start online |
Phone vs website: where your inquiries actually come from
Before you pay anyone, spend one week counting. For every new inquiry, note how it arrived: phone call, voicemail, contact form, email, website chat, social message. Most owners guess wrong. A plumber may find 80% of new jobs come by phone. A law firm or a dental office may find half its first contacts start on the website, often outside business hours, from people who want to check a fact before they call.
Then match the tool to the channel:
- Mostly phone: Smith.ai, Ruby or an AI phone agent. Do not try to push phone people into chat.
- Mostly website: a website chat receptionist answers questions instantly and turns visitors into leads at a fraction of a per-call price.
- A real mix: use both. A phone service for callers and a chat widget for web visitors, with both feeding one CRM, so nobody falls through the gap.
For a deeper look at the tradeoffs, read our guide to AI answering services vs human answering services, our overview of AI receptionists for small business, and the AI call center software guide if you are already at call-center volume.
Verdict
Is Smith.ai legit? Yes. It is an established US answering service with public pricing, a free AI tier and a money-back guarantee on human plans. Smith.ai and Ruby win on phone answering, live human backup, call transfers and bilingual agents. If most of your leads phone you, use one of them; start with Smith.ai's free AI tier to see how your callers react, and move to human plans only for calls where a mistake is expensive.
If your leads mostly arrive through your website, a phone service will not catch them. That is the gap our AI Receptionist fills: it answers web visitors from your own knowledge base and sends the leads to your CRM. It is part of the KissMySkills All-Access subscription at $15 a month or $129 a year, together with KMS AI CRM and the other tools, and it works with Claude and ChatGPT through the KissMySkills connector.
FAQ
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
AI phone receptionists range from free tiers (Smith.ai gives 25 calls a month at $0) to about $29 to $350 a month for small businesses, billed per call, per minute or per unique customer. Website chat receptionists are usually cheaper; the KissMySkills AI Receptionist is part of the $15 a month All-Access subscription. Human receptionist services start around $250 to $300 a month.
Can AI answer phone calls?
Yes. Tools like Smith.ai AI Receptionist, Goodcall, Dialzara and My AI Front Desk answer phone calls with an AI voice, take messages, qualify leads and book appointments. Some, like Smith.ai, can transfer complex calls to a human. The KissMySkills AI Receptionist does not answer phone calls; it works as a chat widget on your website.
Is an AI receptionist worth it?
It is worth it when you are missing inquiries: calls that go to voicemail or website visitors who leave without asking. Count how many you lose in a week and what one new customer is worth. If one saved lead a month pays for the tool, it is worth it. If your calls are complex, sensitive or high-value, a human service or AI with human backup is the safer choice.
Is Smith.ai legit?
Yes. Smith.ai is an established US answering service with published per-call pricing, a free AI receptionist tier, 24/7 live agents on its human plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Catch the leads that never call. Add the AI Receptionist chat widget to your site, train it on your FAQ, and let it send new leads straight to your CRM.
