What does an AI phone assistant cost in 2026?

Updated: September 2026

Anyone considering an AI phone assistant sees prices that are hard to compare: a subscription per month, an amount per minute, a one-off sum for custom work. That is because a phone assistant has three different cost items. Below you read what they are, what the market charges, how to work out the call costs for your business and what to look for in a quote.

The short answer

Three cost items: one-off building and set-up (voice, conversation rules, integration with calendar or planning), call costs per minute for speech technology and phone traffic, and optional maintenance. Off-the-shelf services rent from a few tens to a few hundred euros per month, plus minutes. Custom work that knows your business and talks to your systems runs in the market from roughly €3,000 to €25,000 one-off; the minutes cost roughly ten to fifty cents, depending on voice and telephony. At the blue thing you get a fixed price for a first, clearly scoped version after a free introductory call, and we always state the cost per minute up front.

What makes up the price

A phone assistant is more than a voice that answers. The price is determined by five parts:

The voice and the speech technology: how natural it sounds, how well it understands Dutch with the background noise of a workshop or a van, and how fast it answers.
The conversation rules: what it may answer, when it puts a call through, which questions it asks for a call-back request. This is the most work and the most value.
The integrations: calendar or planning package for appointments, CRM or accounting to know who is calling, WhatsApp or text for the confirmation.
The telephony: a number you forward to, or an integration with your existing switchboard.
The testing: an afternoon of calling with real situations from your business before the assistant goes live.

Off the shelf or custom?

Off-the-shelf services come in kinds, from simple answering services that take a message to subscriptions with a basic assistant you set up yourself. They start fast and are cheap per month, and they work fine if you mainly want every call answered. You notice the limits as soon as the assistant needs to know something about your business: whether the car is ready, when the engineer is coming, which slots are free.

Custom work costs more one-off, but the assistant is built around your business: it knows your services, talks to your planning and applies your rules for emergencies. In the Dutch market you see roughly €3,000 to €25,000 for that, depending on the number of integrations and how much the assistant may handle itself. What an assistant should and should not do outside office hours is covered in a separate article.

Call costs per minute: a worked example

The minutes are the item most often underestimated. Say your business gets a hundred calls a week that the assistant answers, two minutes per call on average. That is 200 minutes a week, about 800 a month. At thirty cents per minute that costs 240 euros a month; at fifteen cents it is 120 euros and at fifty cents 400 euros. The amounts per minute differ per provider and depend on the voice, the speech recognition and whether telephony is included.

Two things bring those costs down: short calls (an assistant that prepares a call-back request after three questions instead of chatting on) and a clear choice of which calls it answers, for example only outside office hours or only when nobody picks up within twenty seconds.

What it delivers

Against the costs stands what a missed call costs today. A new customer who gets the voicemail often calls the next one on the list. With the calculator on this site you work out in a minute what missed calls cost in jobs per year, with your own numbers. Put that next to the minutes and the one-off price and you know whether it pays off.

What to look for in a quote

Six questions every quote for a phone assistant should answer:

Does the assistant say in the first sentence that it is an assistant? If not, that is a reason to walk away.
What happens in an emergency, and who decides which words count as an emergency?
Is the price per minute inclusive of telephony, or does the phone traffic come on top?
Who adjusts the conversation rules when your services or opening hours change, and what does that cost?
What is the notice period and what happens to your number and your data if you stop?
Can you hear it before you sign? A demo with your kind of calls says more than a brochure.

What it costs with us

At the blue thing you get a fixed price for a first, clearly scoped version after a free introductory call of at most 30 minutes: one amount, clear boundaries, the cost per minute stated alongside. Maintenance and updates are optional afterwards from €195 per month, cancellable monthly. The phone assistant page has a call demo where you can hear what such a conversation sounds like.

Want to know first whether it pays off for you? The Work Scan (€495 excluding VAT) calculates how many calls you miss now and what an assistant catches. If you then have us build it, that amount is credited in full.

Frequently asked questions

Do I also pay for calls that lead to nothing?

Yes, the minutes always count. That is why an assistant that is short and to the point is cheaper than one that chats on, and why you decide beforehand which calls it answers.

Can I keep my own phone number?

Yes. Usually you forward your existing number to the assistant, for example only outside office hours or when nobody answers. Your customers call the same number as always.

What if it suddenly gets busy?

An assistant takes several calls at once, so nobody gets an engaged tone. The minutes do rise with it; a busy weekend shows up on the bill. That is why we always state the cost per minute up front.

Can I hear it first?

Yes. The phone assistant page has a call demo. With a quote we also let you hear a conversation with your kind of questions, before you sign anything.

Want to know what a phone assistant costs for you?

Tell us in a short introductory call how many calls you miss today and what the assistant needs to do. You get a fixed price, with the cost per minute alongside.

Request an introductory call