Your own AI answering service, working 24/7

An answering service picks up your business calls when you can't, so callers reach a voice instead of voicemail. Traditional services are call centers where a receptionist follows your script, takes a message and bills by the minute or by the call. An AI answering service like NextPhone answers every call itself, 24/7, answers questions, books appointments and transfers urgent calls to your team.

At 100 calls a month, live answering services with published prices cost $180 to $1,160 (low end ReceptionHQ, message-taking only, no transfers). The median is $444, read from their own pricing pages on November 2, 2026 (25 of 27 providers; the other 2 earlier). Most bill by the minute and charge $1.28 to $5.40 for each minute past the plan, so your busiest month costs the most. NextPhone is $199 a month on Pro, flat, with unlimited inbound calls.

The one that answers every call and gets the work done on it, at a price that does not climb with your volume. NextPhone is built for that: it books appointments, asks your intake questions and transfers urgent calls for a flat $199 a month. If every caller must hear a person first, a live service such as Ruby or PATLive fits, at per-minute prices.

For most businesses it is, on cost and on what gets done during the call. AI answers every call at once with no hold queue, books into your calendar and costs the same in a busy month. A person is better when a caller needs judgment, and NextPhone transfers those callers to your team.

Every call, 24/7, at the same price, with no after-hours surcharge. You can also send it only your overflow and after-hours calls and keep answering yourself during the day.

It does both during the call. It books into Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity, Cal.com or OnceHub against your real availability. You decide what counts as urgent, and those callers are transferred to your team. Everything else is handled and summarized.

You keep it. Forward your existing number to NextPhone, which takes a couple of minutes with any carrier, or take a new local number. Turn forwarding off any time and your line rings as before.

A summary by text and email within seconds of the caller hanging up, with the transcript and the recording. Calls are labeled by outcome, such as new lead, appointment booked or spam. On Growth the details also go into your CRM.

NextPhone screens them and labels them as spam, and they cost nothing because there is no per-minute meter. On per-minute plans spam is billed like any other call unless the service exempts it: PATLive bills spam calls, and Ruby offers an opt-in robocall filter.

Set up NextPhone first, test it with a call, then point your call forwarding to it. Setup takes about 5 minutes, or we do it for you on Growth. Check your current contract before you cancel: Ruby's renews every 30 days, and Smith.ai asks for 30 days notice before the billing cycle ends.