A low monthly fee only tells you so much. Put your calls through published UK rates and see what per-call, per-minute and flat pricing mean.
Free to use. No signup. Sayora publishes this comparison and is included in the results.
Your call pattern
Start with the calls you would send to the service. The starting numbers are a worked example; change them to yours.
The model gives every main call the length you enter. Rounding a real mix of call lengths can produce a different bill. Use billable interaction time, including any chargeable work after hang-up.
Recurring charges
Selected published plans, checked 15 September 2026. Subscription and call usage only. No tax adjustment, setup or optional extras included in these figures.
40 calls modelled for the month.
Human message-taking
New-customer PAYG
£88.00 / month
Effective cost: £2.20 per incoming call.
40 charged calls × £2.20.
Minimum credit purchase £25.00. Credit pays for calls; it is not an extra monthly fee. Confirm any setup charge.
Published excluding VAT.
Answer.co.uk pricing (opens a new tab)Human virtual receptionist
MyReceptionist: 25 calls
Standard handling calculation
£55.50 / month
Plus Pack charges for longer or customised calls are unpriced here. Confirm that these calls qualify for standard handling (opens a new tab).
Effective cost: £1.39 per incoming call.
£36.00 base + 15 extra calls × £1.30.
No setup fee for MyReceptionist.
Published excluding VAT.
ReceptionHQ pricing (opens a new tab)Human answering
75 minutes
£203.75 / month
Effective cost: £5.09 per incoming call.
£125.00 base + 45 extra minutes × £1.75.
Setup charge not stated for this plan. Confirm with AnswerConnect.
VAT basis not stated on the plans page. Confirm it.
AnswerConnect pricing (opens a new tab)AI receptionist · that’s us
Early access
£49.00 / month
Effective cost: £1.23 per incoming call.
Flat subscription. Unlimited minutes under fair use.
No setup fee. Inbound AI with a callback summary; no live human transfer.
VAT basis not stated on the pricing page. Confirm it.
Sayora pricing (opens a new tab)Effective cost divides the recurring charge by all entered calls, including short calls, and rounds to the nearest penny. It is a calculated average, not the provider’s per-call tariff.
AnswerConnect: 120 billable minutes. Each main call rounds up to 3 minutes; 0 short calls excluded.
ReceptionHQ and AnswerConnect show the lowest recurring charge from the plans in the rate table below. Setup and features can change your choice. Larger bundles and other products are outside this comparison.
The calculator picks the lowest recurring charge from each provider’s listed plans below. It does not choose on setup cost or features. Rates were checked on 15 September 2026; confirm them before buying.
| Included | Monthly | Extra call |
|---|---|---|
| PAYG | £16.00 | £1.35 |
| 25 | £36.00 | £1.30 |
| 50 | £60.00 | £1.30 |
| 100 | £110.00 | £1.30 |
| 200 | £220.00 | £1.25 |
| 300 | £325.00 | £1.25 |
ReceptionHQ MyReceptionist rates and terms (opens a new tab)
| Included | Monthly | Extra minute |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | £45.00 | £1.85 |
| 50 | £89.00 | £1.85 |
| 75 | £125.00 | £1.75 |
| 150 | £205.00 | £1.75 |
| 250 | £245.00 | £1.75 |
| 350 | £395.00 | £1.75 |
ReceptionHQ MyReceptionist has no setup fee. AnswerConnect lists £49.99 setup for Entry and Standard, and none for Growth. Its smaller plans do not state a setup charge on the source page, so the result leaves that unresolved.
ReceptionHQ’s result is for standard handling only. Its terms require a Plus Pack (opens a new tab) for extended calls or customisation beyond standard fields, adding charges to both included and excess calls. Those charges need a quote and are not in the result. The terms give no fixed duration threshold and allow longer calls to move to per-minute MyAssistant pricing.
Answer.co.uk’s new-customer PAYG rate (opens a new tab) is £2.20 per call excluding VAT, with a minimum spend of one call a month. The £25 minimum credit purchase funds calls; unused credit is not added to the monthly usage estimate. Optional SMS costs 10p per message and is excluded. Legacy rates and credit-bundle discounts are also excluded.
Sayora’s early-access plan is a flat subscription with unlimited minutes under fair use. Sayora answers with AI and sends your team the enquiry by text or email. A human service may be the better fit when a caller needs judgement or a live transfer to someone.
ReceptionHQ and Answer.co.uk publish the cited rates excluding VAT. AnswerConnect and Sayora do not state the VAT basis on the pricing pages checked. The calculator uses the displayed amounts without adding or removing tax; the results are not tax-inclusive invoice totals.
Every main call uses the length you enter. AnswerConnect rounds each one up to the next whole minute and excludes the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds per billing cycle. Additional short calls use one minute each. For the per-call estimates, every entered call is chargeable. Check spam exclusions and what counts as billable work with your provider.
To reproduce an invoice, apply the rules to your individual call records. For more on choosing allowances, see the telephone answering service cost guide.
It depends on the service. Answer.co.uk and ReceptionHQ advertise round-the-clock answering without an after-hours surcharge. AnswerConnect includes 24/7 human answering in its plans. Sayora includes it in its AI subscription. Check the hours and any transfer or on-call escalation charges in your written quote.
AnswerConnect rounds each interaction up to a whole minute. A three-minute call uses three billable minutes; three minutes and one second uses four. The calculator applies your chosen length to every main call. An average alone cannot reproduce the bill for a mix of different call lengths.
No. It models subscription and usage charges from selected published plans, with setup shown separately. Tax, optional SMS, transfers, phone diversion, discounts and other work are outside the total. Providers offer different services and larger plans. Compare a written quote and the handling your callers need before choosing.
For overnight cover, start with the out-of-hours buying checklist. If your callers need a person, compare the UK answering-service shortlist.
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