How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost?

An AI receptionist usually costs a monthly platform fee plus usage for voice minutes, texts, and other actions. Medical Supplai, Cream Digital's AI front desk, costs $500 a month per location, and that $500 becomes a monthly credit pool for AI voice minutes, text messages, and insurance verifications. Each additional location is $197 a month. For comparison, the median receptionist in the US earns $18.27 an hour before benefits.

What do AI receptionists charge for?

Most pricing combines three things:

• A platform fee, monthly, per location or per account.
• Usage: AI voice minutes, text messages, and sometimes actions such as insurance verifications.
• Phone numbers, usually a small monthly fee each.

Two published examples from Cream Digital's own products show both models. Medical Supplai turns its $500 monthly fee into a credit pool that covers voice minutes, texts, and insurance verifications. Lead Supplai, the AI agent platform for leads and follow-up, costs $500 a month for platform access plus usage: AI voice at $0.25 a minute, messages at $0.015 each, and phone numbers at $7 a month.

How does that compare with hiring a receptionist?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median receptionist wage at $18.27 an hour as of May 2025, and $19.01 in physicians' offices. Full time, at 2,080 hours a year, that is about $39,500 in wages for a physician's office. Benefits come on top: in June 2026, benefits averaged 30.0% of employer costs for private industry workers, which would put the total near $56,000. That benefit share is an average for all private workers, not receptionists specifically, so treat the total as an estimate.

Medical Supplai's base price is $6,000 a year per location.

The comparison is useful, but it is not the decision. Most practices do not replace their front desk with AI. They use AI for the calls the team cannot get to, nights, weekends, and rushes, and for the repetitive work that eats the day. The better question is what the calls you miss after hours and the overtime you pay are costing now. For groups with several offices, see rolling out AI across a multi-location practice.

What else should you budget for?

Four costs that are easy to miss:

1. Setup and integration. Connecting to your EHR or practice management system varies by vendor, as covered in whether an AI receptionist can book into your EHR.
2. Scripts and handoff rules. Someone has to write down what the AI says, what it decides, and when it hands off.
3. Review time. Plan for staff to read transcripts for the first few weeks.
4. Compliance paperwork, such as a business associate agreement if the system handles patient information.

How do you estimate your own monthly cost?

Start from your call log:

1. Calls per month the AI will answer, including after hours and overflow.
2. Average call length, in minutes. Multiply for monthly voice minutes.
3. Texts per call, such as confirmations and intake links.
4. Other actions, such as insurance verifications.
5. Compare the total with the plan's included credits, and ask how anything above them is billed.

What should you ask any AI receptionist vendor?

Seven questions: what the monthly fee includes, how overage is billed, whether there is a setup fee, how long the contract runs, which systems it integrates with, whether it will sign a business associate agreement, and how calls reach a person when needed. For a broader comparison with live services, see AI receptionist vs. answering service. Cream Digital builds and runs AI front desks as part of front desk operations.