PATLive pricing starts at $49/month (pay per use at $2.99/min), then $99/month for 50 minutes, up to $1,499/month for 1,000 minutes and larger plans that reach 5,000 minutes. Past the plan, each extra minute costs $1.69 to $2.29 a minute, and taxes and fees are extra.
That makes PATLive one of the more openly priced live services. NextPhone, our AI receptionist, is from $199/month, flat. This post shows which PATLive plan to buy at your volume and where the flat fee starts to win.
Disclosure: NextPhone is our product. Method: we read PATLive's pricing page, FAQ and terms on November 4, 2026, and the plan prices here match them. We have not tested PATLive's service, placed calls to it or seen a customer's invoice. The bills below are arithmetic on published numbers. Some comparison pages still show PATLive at $250 for 75 minutes or with a higher overage: neither appears on PATLive's own page as of that date.
Which PATLive plan should you buy?
PATLive publishes the prices but not the point where each plan stops being the cheapest. We worked those out from its plan prices and overage rates.
| Plan | Price | Past the plan | Cheapest when your month is | Calls at 3 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NextPhone Pro (our product) | $199/month for unlimited inbound calls | No overage | Any volume, cheaper than PATLive from about 42 calls | Unlimited |
| PATLive pay as you go | $49/month plus $2.99 a minute | Same rate | Under 17 minutes | Up to 5 |
| PATLive 50 | $99/month for 50 minutes | $2.29 a minute | 17 to 89 minutes | 6 to 29 |
| PATLive 100 | $189/month for 100 minutes | $2.09 a minute | 90 to 176 minutes | 30 to 58 |
| PATLive 200 | $349/month for 200 minutes | $1.99 a minute | 177 to 265 minutes | 59 to 88 |
| PATLive 300 | $479/month for 300 minutes | $1.89 a minute | 266 to 448 minutes | 89 to 149 |
| PATLive 500 | $759/month for 500 minutes | $1.79 a minute | 449 to 913 minutes | 150 to 304 |
| PATLive 1,000 | $1,499/month for 1,000 minutes | $1.69 a minute | 914 minutes and up, to the next plan | 305 and up |
Prices from patlive.com/pricing. The ranges are our arithmetic, not PATLive's. PATLive's page also lists plans of 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 minutes at $2,899 to $6,899 a month, read November 4, 2026.
Three things follow from that table.
Pay as you go is rarely the cheap option. The base fee plus $2.99 a minute passes the 50-minute plan at 17 minutes, which is about six calls. Use it for a line that barely rings.
The most popular plan has a narrow range. PATLive calls the 200-minute plan its most popular, and it is the cheapest choice only from 177 to 265 minutes. Under that, the 100-minute plan plus overage costs less.
Near a breakpoint, the choice hardly matters. The difference there is a few dollars, so pick by your typical month.
The 2.5-minute assumption
PATLive labels the 50-minute plan "about 20 calls" and the 200-minute plan "about 80 calls", which works out to 2.5 minutes a call. Our Price Index uses 3 minutes for every vendor. At 3 minutes, those plans cover 16 and 66 calls. If your calls include intake questions, check your own average before you trust a label.
What PATLive really costs: worked bills
First, four volumes at the Price Index's 3-minute call:
| Provider | 12 calls (36 min) | 60 calls (180 min) | 120 calls (360 min) | 250 calls (750 min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NextPhone AI receptionist | $199 Pro, $5.53/min | $199 Pro, $1.11/min | $199 Pro, $0.55/min | $199 Pro, $0.27/min |
PATLive Live answering service patlive.com/pricing, read Nov 2, 2026 | $99 50 minutes, $2.75/min | $349 200 minutes, $1.94/min | $592.40 300 minutes, $1.65/min | $1,206.50 500 minutes, $1.61/min |
Here is each month written out at both call lengths.
12 calls a month
A side business or a line that rarely rings. This one goes to PATLive.
- NextPhone Pro: $199.
- PATLive at 2.5 or 3 minutes a call: 30 to 36 minutes, inside $99/month for 50 minutes. Total: $99.
PATLive is $100 a month less, with a person on every call.
60 calls a month
About three calls a working day, typical of a small office or a solo tradesperson.
- NextPhone Pro: $199.
- PATLive at 2.5 minutes a call: 150 minutes. $189/month for 100 minutes plus 50 extra minutes at $2.09 a minute adds $104.50. Total: $293.50.
- PATLive at 3 minutes a call: 180 minutes. The 100-minute plan with overage would be $356.20, so $349/month for 200 minutes is cheaper. Total: $349.
120 calls a month
A busy small firm or a contractor in season.
- NextPhone Pro: $199.
- PATLive at 2.5 minutes a call: 300 minutes, exactly $479/month for 300 minutes. Total: $479.
- PATLive at 3 minutes a call: 360 minutes. The same plan plus 60 extra minutes at $1.89 a minute adds $113.40. Total: $592.40.
250 calls a month
Several staff, or a business buying leads.
- NextPhone Pro: $199.
- PATLive at 2.5 minutes a call: 625 minutes. $759/month for 500 minutes plus 125 extra minutes at $1.79 a minute adds $223.75. Total: $982.75.
- PATLive at 3 minutes a call: 750 minutes. The same plan plus 250 extra minutes adds $447.50. Total: $1,206.50.
At 3 minutes a call, the difference is $1,008 a month against NextPhone Pro, or $12,090 a year.
Where the lines cross
Against NextPhone Pro at $199, PATLive is cheaper up to 34 calls a month at 3 minutes, or 41 calls at 2.5 minutes.
CRM sync is on NextPhone's $299 Growth plan, and PATLive lists apps and integrations on every plan. If you need that, compare against $299: PATLive is cheaper up to 50 calls at 3 minutes, or 61 at 2.5 minutes.
The busy month
Say you normally run 65 calls at 3 minutes on $349/month for 200 minutes, and one month brings 150 calls, or 450 minutes.
- NextPhone Pro: $199.
- Stay on the PATLive plan: 250 extra minutes at $1.99 a minute adds $497.50. Total: $846.50.
- Upgrade to the PATLive 500-minute plan: PATLive's terms charge a one-time fee equal to the difference in plan prices, and recalculate your minutes at the new rate. Total: $759. A downgrade takes effect at your next billing cycle.
PATLive handles this well. You can move up for the busy month and back down afterwards, without a multi-month commitment.
The billing terms that change the bill
| Term | NextPhone | PATLive |
|---|---|---|
| How a call is billed | Flat monthly subscription, unlimited inbound calls. No usage meter | Per minute, 6 seconds, with a 1-minute minimum per call |
| Beyond talk time | Nothing; call length does not change the bill | Hold during lookups and transfer attempts; queue time and time after the receptionist disconnects are not billed |
| Spam | Not billed separately (no per-call or per-minute charge) | No exemption for spam calls (spam chats are free) |
| Setup fee | None | None ("doesn't charge setup fees"; the terms allow one) |
| Contract | Monthly or annual; renews automatically unless cancelled 24 hours before renewal; no prorated refunds | Month-to-month |
| Trial | 7 days | 14 days, card required, converts automatically |
| Your number | Forward your existing line, use a NextPhone number, or port your number in for free | Yours while the account is open. Port out before you cancel, or it becomes PATLive's property. Porting in or out is free |
PATLive's terms (patlive.com/terms-of-use), FAQ and pricing page, read November 4, 2026.
Rounding. After the first minute, PATLive bills in 6-second steps. That is gentler than a service that rounds every call to the next full minute, and it adds very little on a normal call.
The one-minute minimum. The first minute bills in full, so a 10-second wrong number costs a full minute. On the 200-minute plan, past the allowance, that is $1.99 a minute. Twenty of those in a month add 20 minutes, or $39.80.
Spam. PATLive's terms say spam chats are not billed and make no such promise for calls. Its team may block numbers that repeatedly send spam to lower your costs. So a new spam number will likely count until it is blocked.
Hold time. Some pages say hold time is free at PATLive. Its terms say otherwise: time a receptionist puts a caller on hold to look something up or attempt a transfer is included in the billable minute. Say 40 of your calls get a transfer attempt with 45 seconds of hold. That is 30 minutes, or $59.70 at the 200-minute plan's overage rate. Time spent in queue and time after the receptionist disconnects are not billed, which is fair.
No rollover. Package minutes expire each month. On the 200-minute plan, a 120-minute month still costs $349.
Taxes and pass-through fees. The pricing page says taxes and government fees are extra, and the terms say a cost recovery fee or a compliance fee may be added to invoices. PATLive publishes no amount, so we left these out of every bill above. Ask for a sample invoice, because your real total will be somewhat higher than these numbers.
Your number. PATLive's terms say you own any number provisioned through it while the account is active. Numbers still on the account at cancellation become PATLive's and may not be available again. Porting out is free, so complete the port first and cancel after.
Advertising. The terms ask you to tell PATLive in advance about TV, radio or similar activity that will spike calls, and allow it to throttle or redirect calls if an unplanned surge affects other customers. It can also refuse a free trial tied to a short-term campaign. If you are about to spend on ads, raise this before you start.
Texting and extra numbers. The optional phone system includes one number and 100 texts. Extra numbers cost $5 a month, and business texting needs a one-time $50 registration fee.
Spanish. Bilingual answering costs nothing extra, but you have to request it. Spanish runs 8am to 10pm Eastern, 365 days a year, and English runs 24/7. NextPhone answers in up to 3 of its 14 languages per line, at any hour.
PATLive earns credit for a lot of this. There are no contracts, the pricing page lists no setup fee, nights and weekends cost the same, and scheduling, intake and dispatch are on every plan. It also says plainly that it does not use AI to answer calls, which is what some buyers want.
