Guide · Updated 11 September 2026
Human call answering costs about £1.10 to £2.20 a call plus VAT, or £25 to £60 a month plus VAT for 25 to 50 calls. AI answering starts at £10 a month plus 85p a call, and flat AI plans are around £49 a month. Which is cheapest for you depends on one number: how many calls you miss.
Every price below comes from the provider’s own website, checked on 11 September 2026. Sources are linked. Written by While You Work, which sells an AI answering service, so we show where others are cheaper.
Pricing models
No or low monthly fee, then a price for every call answered. Answer.co.uk charges £2.20 a call plus VAT for human answering. Cheapest if you miss very few calls, and you pay for sales calls too.
A monthly fee that includes a set number of calls, with extra calls charged on top. ReceptionHQ’s message-taking bundles are £25 for 25 calls up to £85 for 100, plus VAT.
One price whatever your volume, up to a fair-use limit. Jodie is £49 plus VAT with unlimited minutes. While You Work is £49 including VAT for up to 150 answered calls.
Published prices
| Provider and plan | Who answers | Published price | VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReceptionHQ MessageExpress | Human, message-taking | £15 a month + £1.10 a call, or 25 calls £25, 50 calls £49, 100 calls £85 | Plus VAT |
| ReceptionHQ MyReceptionist | Human, with call transfers | £16 a month + £1.35 a call, or 25 calls £36, 50 calls £60, 100 calls £110 | Plus VAT |
| Answer.co.uk pay as you go | Human | £2.20 a call, no monthly fee, £25 minimum credit | Plus VAT |
| Answer.co.uk AI | AI | £10 a month + 85p a call, or 50 calls for £30 a month | Not stated |
| Jodie | AI | £49, £99 or £199 a month, unlimited minutes | Plus VAT |
| Moneypenny | Human and AI | Receptionists by quote. AI Receptionist from £25 a month | Not stated |
| While You Work | AI, set up per trade | £49 a month, up to 150 answered calls | Includes VAT |
Worked examples
The cheapest published plan for each volume, with VAT added where the provider prices plus VAT. This is the monthly bill a sole trader who is not VAT registered would actually pay.
| Provider | 20 calls | 50 calls | 100 calls | Plan used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ReceptionHQ MessageExpress | £30.00 | £58.80 | £102.00 | 25-call, 50-call and 100-call bundles, plus VAT |
| ReceptionHQ MyReceptionist | £43.20 | £72.00 | £132.00 | 25-call, 50-call and 100-call bundles, plus VAT |
| Answer.co.uk pay as you go | £52.80 | £132.00 | £264.00 | £2.20 a call, plus VAT |
| Answer.co.uk AI | £27.00* | £30.00* | £72.50* | Lite at 20 calls, then 50-call plan plus 85p a call. *VAT not stated |
| Jodie Basic | £58.80 | £58.80 | £58.80 | £49 plus VAT, unlimited minutes |
| While You Work | £49.00 | £49.00 | £49.00 | Includes VAT, up to 150 answered calls |
Read the small print
| VAT | Many providers quote prices plus VAT. A sole trader who is not VAT registered pays 20% more than the headline. |
| Extra calls | Bundles charge for every call over the allowance, typically £1.10 to £1.30 a call for human answering. |
| Minimum credit | Pay-as-you-go services may ask for credit up front, for example £25. |
| Call length | Per-minute plans and fair-use limits on call length make long calls cost more. |
| Out of hours | Some services charge extra for evenings and weekends. Check that 24/7 is included. |
| Transfers and texts | Call transfers, SMS messages and extra numbers can be priced separately. |
| Contract and notice | Check for minimum terms and notice periods before you sign up. |
Is it worth it?
Monthly fee divided by the value of an average job tells you how many extra jobs a month the service needs to win to pay for itself. At £49 and a £150 job, it is one job every three months.
Most sole traders miss far more calls than that. Try our missed-calls calculator with your own numbers.
Human or AI
A person is better when every call needs judgement, or calls must be transferred to a team. AI is better value when you mainly need the details taken and passed on, because it answers every call at once, 24 hours a day, for one price.
See how the options compare service by service on our alternatives page, or read how our call answering service works.
Questions
Human call answering in the UK costs about £1.10 to £2.20 a call plus VAT, or bundles of £25 to £60 a month plus VAT for 25 to 50 calls. AI answering starts at £10 a month plus 85p a call, and flat AI plans are around £49 a month. Prices checked 11 September 2026.
It depends on how many calls you miss. For about 20 calls a month, pay-as-you-go AI or a small human bundle is cheapest, at roughly £27 to £30 a month. Up to roughly 60 to 70 calls, a pay-per-call AI bundle can still be cheapest. Above that, and against any human service from about 40 calls, a flat plan such as While You Work at £49 including VAT works out cheaper.
Per call is cheaper if you miss only a few calls a month. A flat fee beats human answering from about 40 calls a month and pay-per-call AI from about 60 to 70, and it costs the same in a busy week as a quiet one.
Often not. ReceptionHQ, Answer.co.uk and Jodie publish prices plus VAT. While You Work’s £49 includes VAT. If you are not VAT registered, add 20% to any price quoted plus VAT.
Employing a part-time receptionist costs from around £900 a month and covers only their hours. A virtual receptionist service costs from about £25 to £130 a month for a sole trader’s call volumes, and AI services answer 24 hours a day.
Usually, yes. At 50 calls a month, human answering on published UK prices costs about £59 to £132 including VAT. AI plans cost about £30 to £59.
Take the value of one job and the number of missed calls that would have become work. If one extra job a month is worth more than the monthly fee, the service pays for itself. Our home page has a calculator for this.
Prices change. We re-check this page regularly, but always confirm the current price with the provider before you sign up. All trademarks belong to their owners.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Lines go live for each trade by 31 October 2026, or a full refund.