How much does an AI phone assistant cost? 2026 SMB guide

An AI phone assistant costs according to how many calls it handles, what it has to do during the call and which tools it connects to: on the market, the price takes the form of a monthly subscription with included minutes, a per-minute rate or a custom quote. To see whether it pays off, though, the price alone tells you little. Compare it with two numbers: what a person dedicated to the phone costs, and what the calls nobody answers today cost you.

This guide covers the factors that drive the price, the pricing models you will find, the real cost of a receptionist in Italy under the national collective agreement, and a simple way to estimate the value of missed calls. yourang.ai's current prices are on the pricing page: we do not repeat them here, because they change and we want you to always see the ones in force.

What drives the price

The cost of an AI phone assistant does not depend on which "AI model" it uses, but on what it has to do for your business.

Factor	What affects the cost	Question to ask yourself
Call volume	Conversation minutes per month	How many calls do I get and how long are they?
Features	Answering and messages only, or bookings, lead qualification, outbound calls	What should the assistant do besides answering?
Integrations	Calendar, CRM, WhatsApp, email, automations	Where should appointments and data end up?
Languages	One or more languages on the same line	Do I have foreign customers or tourists?
Numbers and lines	Dedicated number, forwarding from your existing number, multiple locations	Do I want to keep my number?
Setup	Ready to use, or to be designed and developed	Do I have technical skills in-house?
Support	Help at launch and with changes	Who updates the script when something changes?

Pricing models on the market

Offers available today in Italy and Europe follow three main models.

Model	How it works	Best for	What to check
Subscription with included minutes	Fixed monthly fee, a bundle of minutes, a rate for extra minutes	SMBs with predictable call volume	Included minutes, extra-minute rate, features included
Pay as you go	You pay per minute of conversation	Variable volumes, technical projects	Telephony, development and maintenance not included in the per-minute price
Custom quote	Price agreed on volumes and customisation	Larger companies, multiple sites, custom integrations	Contract length, setup costs

One difference matters more than the others: a ready-to-use service is configured with your business information, while a developer platform gives you the building blocks to create a voice agent. In the second case the per-minute price is only part of the cost: you also need telephony, development and someone to maintain the agent over time.

What a receptionist costs: running the numbers with the CCNL

The most natural benchmark is the cost of a person whose job is answering the phone. Let's take the most widely used contract for retail and service businesses in Italy, the CCNL Terziario, Distribuzione e Servizi (Confcommercio).

Under this contract a switchboard operator ("addetto al centralino telefonico") is classified at level V, according to Lexplain's guide to job levels. After the renewal of 22 March 2024, the level V monthly minimum (base pay plus cost-of-living allowance) is €1,658.01 gross from November 2025 to October 2026, rising to €1,689.63 from November 2026, according to the pay tables published by Lexplain (Antonio Barbato, labour consultant, 7 October 2024). There are 14 monthly payments a year, for a 40-hour week.

Here is our estimate of the minimum annual cost to the employer for one full-time year:

Item	Basis	Estimated annual amount
Gross pay	€1,658.01 × 14 payments	€23,212
Employer social security (INPS)	About 29% (services sector, up to 50 employees, 2026 contribution tables)	€6,727
Severance pay (TFR)	Annual pay divided by 13.5 (Art. 2120 of the Italian Civil Code)	€1,719
Workplace insurance (INAIL)	About 0.4% for office work	€93
Estimated total		about €31,750 a year

This is a conservative estimate. It leaves out the bilateral bodies and health funds required by the contract, any above-minimum pay, overtime, meal vouchers, holiday cover, training, the workstation and the phone. It is a useful order of magnitude for comparison, not a quote: for your case, ask your payroll consultant.

The overlooked number: hours covered

There is a second number to put next to the cost. A year has 8,760 hours. In Italy a worker works on average about 1,700 hours a year: 1,718 in 2023, according to OECD data reported in this table of annual hours worked by country. A full-time receptionist therefore covers roughly one fifth of the hours in a year.

Evenings, Saturdays, public holidays, lunch breaks, holidays and calls that come in while the receptionist is already on the line all stay uncovered. That is exactly where many missed calls happen.

The hidden cost: calls nobody answers

According to estimates reported by Milano Finanza (29 January 2026), out-of-hours missed calls can account for up to 30% of all calls at Italian micro-businesses. And voicemail does not recover them: in a Moneypenny survey of micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees, 69% of callers who reached voicemail hung up without leaving a message (Moneypenny, 2016).

How to estimate what they cost you

The calculation takes three steps, with your own numbers:

1. Missed calls per month. Check your phone system or business mobile call log. Include out-of-hours calls.
2. Share that would have become customers. Out of ten calls, how many usually turn into a booking, an order or an accepted quote?
3. Average customer value. Your average ticket, or the lifetime value of a customer who comes back.

Monthly cost of missed calls = missed calls × conversion share × average value.

A purely hypothetical example to show the method: a practice that misses 40 calls a month, one in four of which would have become an €80 appointment, leaves 40 × 0.25 × 80 = €800 a month on the table. With your numbers the result may be much higher or much lower, which is exactly why it is worth working out.

The alternatives compared

Option	Indicative cost	Hours covered	What it actually does
Nobody answers / the owner's mobile	No direct cost	Only when someone is free	Missed calls stay missed
Voicemail	Usually included in the phone service	24/7	Records a message, if the caller leaves one
Outsourced answering service with human operators	Monthly fee with included minutes, e.g. from €35 + VAT for 44 minutes in the MySegretaria price list (checked on 3 October 2026)	Service hours (in the example 8:30-19:30, 7 days a week)	Takes messages and, depending on the service, appointments
Employed receptionist	About €31,750 a year estimated minimum (level V, CCNL Terziario)	About 1,700 hours a year	Everything, during the hours they are present and free
AI phone assistant	Subscription or usage: see price lists, for yourang.ai the pricing page	24/7, several calls at once	Answers, informs, books, qualifies, hands over to a person when needed

For a more detailed comparison, read AI phone assistant vs voicemail and AI receptionist vs outsourced call center.

Costs to check before signing

Whatever you are evaluating, ask for a written answer on these points:

• setup and configuration: included or charged separately?
• extra minutes: how much does each minute over the bundle cost, and how will you be warned?
• telephony: are the number and the traffic included?
• integrations: are calendar, CRM and WhatsApp included or paid extras?
• changes: who updates the script when hours, services or prices change, and at what cost?
• minimum term: is there a commitment? How do you cancel?
• data and compliance: where data is processed, how recordings and transcripts are handled, and whether the assistant discloses that it is an AI as the EU AI Act requires.

AI assistant or person? Often both

The receptionist comparison gives you an order of magnitude, but in most small businesses the choice is not either/or. The AI phone assistant covers the uncovered hours, the peaks and the repetitive questions (opening hours, address, availability, bookings); the person focuses on customers on site and on calls that need judgement. The result is fewer missed calls and fewer interruptions, without reorganising your practice or shop.

To see what the assistant does during a call, visit the AI phone assistant page and the integrations with calendars and CRMs. For yourang.ai's costs, with plans and terms always up to date, go to the pricing page; if you want to run the numbers on your case, book a demo.