For law firms
AI receptionist vs answering service: cost and what each does
An answering service puts people on your calls; an AI receptionist puts an AI on them. Below, Ruby, LEX Reception and PATLive use people and charge by the minute; the AI services charge per call (Smith.ai) or a flat monthly price (NextPhone, Intake Gateway).
$149 a month, flat. First month free. Every answered call included. Cancel any time. About 8 hours of a receptionist’s pay (US median, BLS May 2025).
Call the number we give you from your own phone and hear the agent take an intake — up to 15 minutes of test calls, before you add a card. First month free: a 30-day free trial, every answered call included, one trial per firm. Card on file, nothing charged before day 31. No setup fee. Month to month.
Updated
Who answers, and how each one charges
Each competitor cell links to the vendor page it was read on, with the date.
| Service | AI or human | Published price | Per-call or per-minute charges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai (AI Receptionist) | AI first, with human-first and hybrid options. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Free: $0 a month for 25 calls. Pro: $150 a month for 75 calls ($2.00 a call). Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Per call: $3.00 a call past the free plan's 25; on paid plans, overage is charged per real call. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 |
| Ruby | Live people. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | $250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Per receptionist minute; minutes past the plan are billed at an overage rate these pages do not publish. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 |
| Answering Legal | Not stated by the vendor on the pages read; a customer testimonial mentions “a live operator”. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 2, 2026 |
| LEX Reception | Live receptionists; it says it does “not use AI in answering phones”. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | Per minute, rounded up to the next minute; minutes past the plan are charged per minute, at a rate this page does not publish. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 |
| PATLive | Live people; it says it “does not use AI to answer calls”. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | $49 a month with no included minutes (pay as you go); $99 a month for 50 minutes, up to $6,899 for 5,000. Plus taxes and fees. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | Per receptionist minute: $2.99 a minute on pay as you go; past a plan's minutes, $2.29 down to $1.49 a minute. No charge for after-call notes or wrap-up. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 |
| Alert Communications | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 7, 2026 |
| Abby Connect | Live people, AI, or a mix of both chosen per call type. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | $165 a month for 50 Abby Minutes, $329 for 100, $599 for 200, $1,380 for 500; Enterprise plans are custom. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 | Per Abby Minute: a human minute is 1 Abby Minute, an AI minute half of one; minutes past the plan are billed at the plan’s Abby Minute rate, which this page does not publish in dollars. Source, read Oct 7, 2026 |
| Posh | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| AnswerConnect | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| Solvea | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| Dapta | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| Upfirst | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| Dialzara | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 9, 2026 |
| Lexidesk | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 |
| Gabbyville | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 |
| Quo (Sona) | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 |
| Trillet | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 | Not published on the page linked Source, read Oct 10, 2026 |
| NextPhone | AI. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | $199 a month, flat, with unlimited calls. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 | None: no per-minute charges and no per-call fees. Source, read Oct 2, 2026 |
| Intake Gateway | AI. Our pricing | $149 a month. Our pricing | None: every answered call is included, and fair use is a guide of up to 100 answered calls a month for one firm’s own line, not a cap. Our pricing |
Intake Gateway: one plan, $149 a month, every answered call included. Fair use is a guide of up to 100 answered calls a month for one firm’s own line, not a cap: nothing meters your calls or cuts them off at that number. If you are consistently and substantially above it, we may get in touch to agree terms that fit that volume, and if we cannot agree any, the Terms of Service let either side end the plan.
Prices in US dollars a month, as each vendor publishes them, read on the vendor’s own page linked beside each fact on the date shown. “Not published on the page linked” means that page did not state it; the vendor may state it elsewhere. “Not confirmed” means the fact is past its monthly re-read. We re-read every source monthly and correct or remove a fact we can no longer confirm. A vendor who finds a fact out of date can write to contact@intakegateway.com.
Names are their owners’ trademarks; no affiliation.
Questions
What firms ask when they weigh an AI against an answering service.
Does any of these cost less than Intake Gateway?
Price is not the reason to pick us. Smith.ai’s free plan costs less than our $149 a month for a firm with few calls; NextPhone, at $199 a month, costs more.
Does it replace my receptionist?
Only if you want it to. It answers whenever you route calls to it: only after hours, only when you don’t answer, or all the time. Forwarding only after hours means you keep answering in the day and your agent takes nights and weekends.
How is it different from a generic AI receptionist?
A generic AI receptionist takes a message. This one runs a personal-injury intake: what happened and when, the injuries and treatment, who is responsible, whether an adjuster has already called, and the questions that only matter for that kind of case. Urgent cases are offered a live transfer to you, in the hours you allow transfers. Connect Clio and it checks conflicts while the caller is on the line; connect a Cal.com calendar and an ordinary case’s consultation is booked, or requested where your calendar asks you to confirm, instead of promised a callback.
Do callers know it is an AI?
Every call opens with a fixed disclosure, sent as the agent’s opening line rather than composed on the call: the caller is speaking with an AI assistant and not an attorney, the call is recorded and transcribed, staying on the line is consent, and anyone who would rather not be recorded can hang up.
Is there a contract, or a setup fee?
Neither. Plans are month to month. You cancel from the billing page in your account; if you cannot reach it, one email to the address in the footer does the same thing, and nobody has to approve it. Either way it takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, and the agent keeps answering until then, so there is never a gap in coverage you did not ask for.
Is there a call limit?
No. Every answered call is included and nothing is billed per call. Fair use is a guide of up to 100 answered calls a month for one firm’s own line, not a cap: nothing meters your calls or cuts them off at that number. If you are consistently and substantially above it, we may get in touch to agree terms that fit that volume, and if we cannot agree any, the Terms of Service let either side end the plan.
First month free, then $149 a month
- Confirm your email: we send a link that signs you in, no password.
- Set up your agent: tell us about your firm, then call your number and hear it.
- Forward your calls to your number and add a card at checkout; the first month is free.
Try it on your own line
One plan, $149 a month, every answered call included. First month free: a 30-day free trial, every answered call included, one trial per firm. Card on file, nothing charged before day 31.