Every provider publishes a price and every provider measures it differently. One bills per call, one per minute, one per month with a call cap, and the cheapest line on any of their pages is the one that runs out first. This page puts them on one table, in one currency, with the fine print written out, so a trade business can compare them in a minute instead of an afternoon.
The short version
- Live answering starts at $30 to $39 a month for about 15 answered calls, then each extra call is billed. A business using one through the month typically pays $300 to $2,500.[1][3][4]
- Off-the-shelf AI receptionists run $99 to $699 a month, setup from nothing to about $1,000. A published Australian plan: $149 for 60 calls, $449 for 400.[1][2]
- A part-time receptionist is about $35,000 a year once super and leave are counted, roughly $2,500 to $3,500 a month.[1]
- One recovered job pays for a year of most lines. A Perth plumbing callout is $250 to $700 and a ducted air conditioning install $8,400 to $23,100.[5][6]
- The price is the easy part. What separates the options is what happens to the call after "hello": a message, a transfer, or a booked job.
The table
Australian dollars, as published by each provider in October 2026. Monthly figures are the plan price before any overage. GST treatment varies by provider, so check the plan page before comparing two lines on a single number.
| Option | Published cost | What is included | What a 9pm burst-pipe call gets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail (do nothing) | $0 | Whatever your phone plan already does | A beep. Most callers hang up and ring the next listing. |
| Live answering, entry plan | $30 – $39 / mo | About 15 answered calls, extra calls billed on top[3][4] | A person takes a message, if the plan covers after hours. |
| Live answering, in use | $300 – $2,500 / mo | Typical monthly spend once call volume and hours of cover are real[1] | A message or a transfer to your mobile. No quote, no booking. |
| AI receptionist, off the shelf | $99 – $699 / mo | Setup $0 to about $1,000. Budget $99 to $300 for normal trade volume[1] | Answers 24/7, takes details, books if you configured it to. |
| AI receptionist, published AU plan | $149 / $249 / $449 / mo | 60 / 150 / 400 calls, extra calls $2.49 / $1.99 / $1.49, setup quoted separately[2] | Same as above. Overage keeps running with no ceiling. |
| Part-time receptionist, employed | ≈ $35,000 / yr | About $2,500 to $3,500 a month with 12% super and leave[1] | Nothing. They went home at five. |
| Missed call text back + triage, done for you (us) | $999 setup, $197 / mo | Audit, build, management. No per-call charge. Founding price; standard setup $1,500 | A text from your number within a minute, the job and suburb captured, booked into the diary. |
Our own line is on the table so the comparison is not rigged. It is the most expensive setup fee on the page, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. An answering service sells coverage by the month. We audit the business, build the system and run it. Different purchases.
What the monthly price hides
Call caps. The $30 to $39 entry plans cover about 15 answered calls. A trade business that misses 30 calls a month is already past the cap in the second week, and the real bill is the per-call rate, which is rarely on the front page.
Per-call overage with no ceiling. The published AI plan bills every call past the allowance at $1.49 to $2.49 and says plainly there is no customer-set cap.[2] A busy February for an air conditioning business can double the invoice. Ask every provider the same question before signing: what happens to the bill when I go over.
Hours of cover. The cheap end of live answering is business hours. The 9pm call, the one that is actually worth money to a plumber, sits in the after-hours tier.
Setup. AI receptionists range from nothing to about $1,000 to set up, and the free ones are the ones you configure yourself.[1] Nobody at a self-serve tool knows your call-out radius or which jobs are worth waking you for, so "free setup" means the setup is your evening.
Minutes versus calls. Some AI products meter minutes, some meter calls. A tradie's customer talks for three or four minutes about a leak. Per-minute metering at that length can cost more than per-call. Work it out on your own average, not theirs.
What a real month costs: 15, 60 and 120 calls
The table above is the front-page price. This one is the bill. Three call volumes, each line worked from the provider's own published plan and allowance, so the plan that looks cheapest at 15 calls can be compared with what it costs when the phone actually rings.
| Option | About 15 calls | About 60 calls | About 120 calls | Per answered call at 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | $0 | $0 | $0 | Nothing answered. The cost is the jobs below. |
| Live answering, OfficeHQ plans[3][7] | $39 (15-call plan) | $185 for the 50-call plan, then excess calls at a rate the site does not publish | Quote only | $3.70 at 50 calls, before excess. Prices plus GST. |
| AI receptionist, AiDial plans[2] | $149 (Core, 60 included) | $149 | $249 (Scale, 150 included), or $298.40 if you stay on Core and pay 60 × $2.49 | $2.48. At 15 calls it is $9.93, because the allowance is paid for whether you use it or not. |
| Missed call text back, done for you (us) | $197 | $197 | $197 | $3.28, falling to $1.64 at 120. No per-call charge, so a busy February costs the same as a quiet June. |
| Part-time receptionist, employed[1] | ≈ $2,900 | ≈ $2,900 | ≈ $2,900 | $48. Business hours only. |
Three things fall out of that. The cheapest line at 15 calls, the $39 live plan, is not the cheapest at 60, because the next plan up is $185 and the excess rate past 50 is not on the public page. The metered AI plan is the cheapest at exactly 60 and gets dearer either side: dearer per call below the allowance, dearer in total above it. And a flat fee only wins once volume is real, which is why we put ours on the page at every volume rather than at the one where it looks best.
Run your own volume through it. Count the missed calls on your phone log for a fortnight, double it, and read down that column.
What one missed job is worth, so the table has a denominator
A monthly fee only means something next to the job it saves. These are current Perth prices for the jobs that come in by phone.[5][6]
| Job | Perth price | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing emergency callout | $250 – $700 | A year of an entry live-answering plan |
| Hot water system replacement | $1,450 – $4,300 | A year of a mid-tier AI receptionist |
| Split system air conditioning install | $1,250 – $4,725 | A year of a mid-tier AI receptionist |
| Ducted air conditioning install | $8,400 – $23,100 | Any line on this page, several times over |
That is why the cheapest option is rarely voicemail. Voicemail costs nothing a month and one ducted install a year. The calculator below runs this on your own call volume and job value; the standalone version has the presets and the maths written out in full.
What are your missed calls costing you?
Start from a trade preset, then drag each slider to match your business.
Lost per week is calls missed × close rate × job value. The 60% recovery figure is an assumption, not a Perth measurement. Your real numbers come out of a fortnight of your own call logs, or the audit.
How to pick, by the shape of your business
- Under 20 calls a month, mostly business hours, jobs under $500: an entry live plan at $30 to $39, or a self-serve AI product under $150. Keep it simple.
- 20 to 60 calls a month, some after hours, jobs $500 to $5,000: an AI receptionist in the $149 to $300 band, set up to book rather than just take messages, or missed call text back. Either way, insist on a transfer rule for genuine emergencies.
- 60 or more calls a month, after-hours work that pays, jobs over $5,000: stop comparing monthly fees. One missed ducted install costs more than any option here for a year. Buy whatever books the job, and measure booked jobs, not answered calls.
- You already have office staff: the gap is after five and on weekends. Add the after-hours piece only. Paying $300 a month to answer calls your admin already answers is the most common waste on this list.
If you are a Perth HVAC business specifically, the HVAC answering service comparison walks the same options against a 40-degree day. For the difference between an answering service and an AI receptionist in what each actually does at 2am, see the AI receptionist for Perth tradies guide.
How this page is built
Every figure comes from a provider's published plan page or a published Australian pricing guide, listed under Sources with the date it was last checked. Nothing is estimated, averaged across countries, or converted from another currency. US pricing guides are deliberately excluded, because US providers, US wages and US dollars tell an Australian tradie nothing.
The page is refreshed every quarter. The next check is due January 2027. If a provider changes a price in between, email hello@flatoutautomations.com with the plan page and it will be corrected and credited.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an answering service cost in Australia?
Entry live-answering plans start around $30 to $39 a month for roughly 15 answered calls, with each extra call billed on top. A business using a live service through the month typically pays $300 to $2,500 a month depending on call volume and hours of cover. Those are published Australian figures as at October 2026.
How much does an AI receptionist cost in Australia?
Off-the-shelf AI receptionist products sit between $99 and $699 a month, with setup from nothing to about $1,000. One published Australian plan runs $149 a month for 60 calls, $249 for 150 and $449 for 400, with extra calls at $1.49 to $2.49 each. A trade business with normal call volume should budget $99 to $300 a month plus $0 to $500 setup.
What does an answering service cost at 60 calls a month?
From published Australian plans in October 2026: a live answering service runs $185 a month for a 50-call plan plus an unpublished excess rate for the extra ten, a metered AI receptionist runs $149 with 60 calls included, and done-for-you missed call text back is a flat $197 with no per-call charge. The $39 entry live plan is the cheapest line at 15 calls but is not the cheapest at 60.
Is an answering service cheaper than hiring a receptionist?
By a wide margin. A part-time receptionist costs about $35,000 a year once the 12% super guarantee and leave are counted, which is roughly $2,500 to $3,500 a month. Every outsourced option on this page is cheaper. Whether it is better depends on what happens to the call after it is answered.
What is the cheapest way to stop missing calls?
Missed call text back, where an unanswered call triggers a text from your own number within about a minute asking what the job is and which suburb. It costs less than a live service at volume because nothing is billed per call, and the customer gets a reply while they are still looking at their phone instead of ringing the next listing.
Are these prices inclusive of GST?
They are quoted as each provider publishes them. Some Australian providers show prices excluding GST, some including. Check the fine print on the plan page before comparing two providers on a single number, and ask what happens to the bill when you go over the included calls.
How often is this page updated?
Quarterly. Every figure traces to a published plan or article listed under Sources, with the date each was last checked. If a provider changes a price between refreshes, email hello@flatoutautomations.com and it will be corrected.
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these. All seven were opened and checked on 8 and 11 October 2026.
- Basic Solutions — AI receptionist cost in Australia, 2026 pricing guide. AI receptionist monthly bands and setup, typical live answering service spend, and the part-time receptionist comparison including super.
- AiDial — Pricing. Published Australian AI receptionist plans: Core $149 for 60 calls, Scale $249 for 150, Max $449 for 400, extra calls $2.49, $1.99 and $1.49, setup specified in the statement of work.
- OfficeHQ — Call answering plans, 2026. Entry live answering at $39 a month for 15 answered calls.
- Alltel — Virtual receptionist. Australian-based live answering with monthly plans from $30.
- What's The Damage — Plumber cost Perth 2026. Emergency callout and hot water replacement ranges.
- What's The Damage — Air conditioning cost Perth 2026. Split and ducted supply-and-install ranges.
- OfficeHQ — Pricing. MyReceptionist 15 at $39 for 15 calls and MyReceptionist 50 at $185, both plus GST; no public excess-call rate. Checked 11 October 2026.
The same options run against a 40-degree day and a ducted quote.
RelatedAI receptionist for Perth tradiesWhat an AI receptionist does at 2am that a message service cannot.
Free toolMissed call calculatorYour call volume, your job value, what the gap is costing a month.
More for Perth trade businesses: every article and free tool.