Smith.ai Alternative for Small Businesses (2026)

If you want a Smith.ai alternative without a per-call bill, Botlery builds a custom AI phone agent for $300 one-time on your own accounts, with no per-call or monthly fee from Botlery; your phone and AI providers bill its minutes to you directly. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist is priced by the call, free for 25 calls a month and from $150 for 75, with live agents behind it, which suits firms that want a person on standby. Botlery builds a free working demo first.

Updated October 2026 · 5 min read · By Rohail Nisar, founder of Botlery

Smith.ai is best known for its live receptionists. Its AI Receptionist is a separate product, billed by the number of calls it answers, that can hand a caller to Smith.ai's live agents when the AI cannot help. Botlery builds an AI phone agent once, on accounts in your name, and charges nothing per call.

Smith.ai AI Receptionist plans, priced per call

Published pricing (checked 7 Oct 2026). Each plan includes a number of answered calls a month, with a higher rate for calls beyond it.

Figures from smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist as displayed on 7 Oct 2026; Enterprise also starts at $500 for 300 calls, and larger volumes are quoted. Every answered call counts by default, though Smith.ai filters known spam numbers and lets AI Receptionist customers remove up to 10% of calls a month. Plans run month to month with 30 days' notice to cancel. Botlery, which sells the alternative, wrote this page.

What 120 calls a month costs

A line taking 120 calls a month, about four a day, sits between Pro's 75- and 150-call tiers. On the 75-call tier that is $150 plus 45 calls at $2.50, or $262.50; on the 150-call tier it is $270. Over a year that is roughly $3,150 to $3,240.

On Botlery's side there is one $300 payment for the build. Those 120 calls are then billed to you by your own phone and AI providers by the minute, at their published rates, so the running cost follows how many calls come in and how long they last, and Botlery adds nothing per call. The build is not repeated in year two.

At the other end, a line with 25 calls a month or fewer fits Smith.ai's Free plan and costs nothing, which no paid build can beat on price.

Billing by the call versus by the minute

Smith.ai bills by the call so that long conversations are not penalised: a twelve-minute intake uses one call from the allowance, the same as a one-minute question. The flip side is that short calls, wrong numbers and any robocalls that get past the filter count too, which is why the spam allowance exists.

An owned agent whose minutes are billed by your providers works the opposite way: brief calls cost very little and long ones more. If your calls are mostly short questions and bookings, that usually favours the owned agent; if most are long consultations, per-call pricing looks better.

A person on standby, or a callback

Smith.ai's AI Receptionist can transfer a caller to the company's 24/7 live agents when the AI cannot help, and it connects natively to tools such as Clio and Calendly. For a law firm, or any business where some callers must reach a person, that safety net is the main reason to choose it; ask Smith.ai how live-agent time is billed before you rely on it.

A Botlery agent hands off differently. It can transfer urgent calls to your own phone, and otherwise saves the caller's details and request to your Google Sheet and emails you, so you call back with the full picture.

When Smith.ai is the better choice

Smith.ai wins if your line is quiet enough for the Free plan, if some callers need a trained person and you want that available around the clock, or if you rely on its native integrations. It is also the easier choice if you want a vendor to run everything month to month.

Testing before you switch

Smith.ai lets you try its AI with test calls before going live. Botlery builds a free working demo on your business that you can ring yourself, and you pay only if you are happy; you can keep Smith.ai answering while you compare. Request a Botlery demo, or read the Ruby and PATLive comparisons if you also use live receptionists. More on how the agent handles calls is under AI phone answering service.

Frequently asked questions