AI Receptionist: 24/7 Answering That Sounds Human
Built in-house on more than 20 years of human receptionist expertise.
Abby’s AI Receptionist answers your business calls in your company’s name, around the clock: it greets callers naturally, answers their questions, screens and transfers calls, takes messages and books appointments. Every AI minute counts as half an Abby Minute, and the same subscription covers our U.S.-based human receptionists, so you decide which calls the AI handles and which a person does. Free trial, no setup fee, English and Spanish included.
Listen to a sample call
AI Receptionist
ABBY
What Is an AI Receptionist?
An AI receptionist is a voice assistant that answers your business phone and holds a real conversation with the caller. Instead of a phone tree (“press 1 for sales”) or voicemail, the caller hears a natural voice that understands what they say, answers questions about your business, routes the call to the right person, takes a message or books an appointment. It is available on every call, at any hour, and can handle many callers at once.
Under the hood, an AI receptionist combines three technologies: speech-to-text transcribes what the caller says, a large language model works out what they need and decides how to respond within the rules you set, and text-to-speech speaks the reply in a voice you choose. What makes one AI receptionist better than another is the quality of that training: the questions it can answer, how gracefully it handles the unexpected, and what happens when a caller needs a human.
AI receptionist vs. IVR, voicemail and chatbots
- IVR / phone tree: callers press keys through a fixed menu. An AI receptionist listens and responds in plain language, so nobody shouts “representative” at a menu.
- Voicemail: the caller leaves a message and waits. The AI answers the question, books the appointment or transfers the call right away.
- Chatbot: text on a website. An AI receptionist works on the phone line your customers already call, and Abby also offers live web chat for the website.
- AI answering service: the same thing by another name. Abby’s AI Receptionist is the AI answering service; our answering service page explains the human, automated and AI options side by side.
Abby’s version is built and trained in-house on the call-handling knowledge our human receptionists have gathered over more than 20 years with over 6,200 businesses, which is why it sounds like a receptionist rather than a robot.
Goodbye Robotic Menus. Let Real Conversations Win Calls.
Frustrated callers jabbing numbers, shouting “Representative!”, or giving up altogether…
sound familiar?
Unlike traditional phone trees and rigid AI bots, Abby AI is trained to sound natural and adapt to your callers’ needs. It delivers human-like conversations, answering questions, routing calls, taking messages, and handling custom business workflows.
Frustrated callers jabbing numbers, shouting “Representative!”, or giving up altogether… sound
familiar?
Unlike traditional phone trees and rigid
AI bots, Abby AI is trained to sound natural and adapt to your callers’ needs. It delivers human-like conversations, answering questions, routing calls, taking messages, and handling custom business workflows.
Why businesses switch to Abby AI Receptionist
Abby AI Receptionist keeps callers on the line with real conversations, not keypads.
Bilingual Spanish-Speaking
Benefits of an AI Receptionist
Businesses switch to an AI receptionist for one reason: every call gets answered, at any hour, without adding staff. The benefits below are the ones our clients name most often.
1. Every call answered, 24/7
The AI Receptionist picks up on the first ring at 2 a.m., on holidays and while your team is on another call. There is no hold queue and no after-hours upcharge: 24/7 coverage is part of every plan.
2. Instant answers to routine questions
Hours, directions, pricing, service areas, “do you take my insurance”: the AI answers the questions you have taught it, consistently, so your team only takes the calls that need them.
3. Half-price minutes
A minute of AI answering uses half an Abby Minute. The Essential plan’s 100 Abby Minutes cover 200 minutes of AI calls, so AI stretches the same budget twice as far, and you can mix in human receptionists whenever you want a person on the line.
4. Lead capture and appointment booking
The AI follows your intake script, captures the caller’s details, qualifies the lead and books directly into hundreds of scheduling platforms, then sends you the summary, transcript and recording in the AbbyGO app.
5. Unlimited simultaneous calls
A marketing campaign, a storm or a Monday morning rush does not create a busy signal. The AI answers every caller at once, and scales with your call volume without a hiring plan.
6. Consistent brand voice
Every caller hears the same greeting, tone and accuracy. You choose the voice, the name it uses and how formal it sounds, and update its knowledge any time your business changes.
7. Insight into every call
Transcripts, AI summaries, sentiment scores and recordings for every conversation, searchable in the AbbyGO mobile app and web portal, so you know what callers asked for and how each call went.
AI Technology
Our AI Receptionist Technology
Abby’s AI Receptionist is secure, reliable, and always on.
Answers frequently asked questions
Screens and routes calls
Performs warm transfers
Schedules appointments
Integrates with existing platforms
Discover the Abby Difference
Setting Up the AI Receptionist to Take Your Calls
When you sign up for Abby’s AI Receptionist, your business information, FAQs, and call handling instructions are provided to the AI Receptionist. Your information can be updated at any time.
Once the AI receptionist is set up, it can begin taking your calls. It can adapt to your callers’ questions and needs. Ongoing auditing allows for adjustments to your AI Receptionist, constantly improving responses and service quality.
How Abby’s AI Receptionist Works
- Tell us about your business. In a short onboarding call, our team captures your greeting, the questions callers ask most, who calls should go to, what to collect from new leads, your booking calendar and what to do after hours. This is the “prompting” that makes the AI sound like your receptionist.
- Forward your line. Keep your phone number and provider. Forward calls to Abby all day, after hours only, or just when your lines are busy.
- The AI answers in your name. It greets the caller, answers their question, screens and transfers the call, takes a message or books the appointment, in English or Spanish, on the same number.
- Human handoff when it matters. For the calls you flag (new legal matters, patients in distress, VIP clients) or when a caller asks for a person, the AI warm-transfers to one of our U.S.-based human receptionists or to your team, on the same call.
- You get the summary. Within moments the transcript, AI summary, sentiment score and recording arrive by text, email and in the AbbyGO app and my.abby.com portal, where you can call or text the caller back.
- It keeps improving. Our in-house Quality Assurance team reviews real conversations and refines how your calls are handled, and you can update FAQs, transfer rules and hours at any time.
Setup is that one call plus forwarding your number: no hardware, no new phone system and no setup fee.
What Runs Behind Abby’s AI Receptionist
An AI receptionist is only as good as three things: how accurately it hears, how well it reasons, and how natural it sounds. Abby runs each on the best component available, then trains the whole on more than 20 years of real receptionist calls.
Hearing: Deepgram Flux
Real-time speech recognition built for live conversation, so callers can interrupt, change their mind or speak with an accent without being misheard. Abby has partnered with Deepgram since 2025.
Understanding: the latest OpenAI models, with automatic failover to Anthropic
The language model works out what each caller needs and follows your call handling instructions. If the primary model is unavailable, calls fail over to Anthropic’s models automatically, so an outage at one provider does not stop your phones. We adopt newer models as they are released.
Speaking: ElevenLabs
Natural, low-latency speech in the voice you choose, in English and Spanish. We are extending the same automatic failover to speech recognition and voice, so no single provider can take the AI Receptionist offline.
What Abby adds
Call-handling training from more than 20 years and over 6,200 businesses, an in-house Quality Assurance team that reviews real conversations, a handoff to a human receptionist on the same call, and call data stored in the United States.
Frontier speech, language and voice models cost real money for every minute they run, and so does the human team behind them. That is why Abby’s AI minute is priced where it is. When a tool is priced at a few cents a minute, ask which speech and language models it runs, what happens when one of them goes down, and who answers when the AI cannot.
AI Only, Human Only, or Both: One Plan, Half-Price AI Minutes
Most providers sell an AI product and a human service separately. Abby sells one subscription that you use three ways: just the AI Receptionist, just human receptionists, or a mix you can change at any time. Usage is measured in Abby Minutes: a minute with a human receptionist uses one Abby Minute, a minute with the AI Receptionist uses half. A mixed call bills each portion at its own rate.
| AI Receptionist | Human receptionists | Human + AI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | High call volumes, after-hours coverage, routine questions, message taking and booking | Complex, sensitive or high-value calls: legal intake, patient calls, sales conversations | Speed on routine calls and a person on the calls that matter |
| Availability | 24/7, unlimited simultaneous calls | 24/7 with custom answering hours, no weekend or after-hours upcharge | 24/7 |
| How usage is billed | 1 minute of call = 0.5 Abby Minute | 1 minute of call = 1 Abby Minute | Each portion of a call at its own rate |
| Appointment scheduling | Books directly into hundreds of scheduling platforms | Books through Calendly | Both |
| Languages | English and Spanish on one number | English and Spanish | English and Spanish |
| Learn more | You are here | Human Receptionist | Human + AI |
Example: on the Essential plan ($329/mo, 100 Abby Minutes) you could take 200 minutes of AI-answered calls, 100 minutes of human-answered calls, or something like 60 human minutes plus 80 AI minutes. Every plan includes the AbbyGO app and portal, transcripts and summaries, bilingual answering and a free trial with no setup fee. See pricing for all four plans.
FEATURES
Abby AI Receptionist’s Unrivaled Service Features
Never Miss a Call
24/7 AI Receptionist can answer calls simultaneously, no matter the volume.
No Hold Times
Abby’s AI Receptionist doesn’t need to put a caller on hold to track down information. There are no hold times, and the AI receptionist always answers within 1 ring.
Customized for Your Business
Conversational, Human-Like Receptionist
Callers feel like they’re talking to a human, replacing automated phone systems and enhancing service.
Answers Frequently Asked Questions
Built with your business information and FAQs, reducing errors and increasing efficiency.
Call Routing & Transfer
Can route and transfer calls according to your call handling instructions.
Appointment Scheduling
Can schedule appointments day or night, improving lead intake and increasing revenue.
Fast Set Up
Efficient, easy to follow onboarding process ensures Abby AI Receptionist can start taking calls quickly.
Industry Customization
Abby’s AI Receptionist understands industry nuance and adjusts to your business’ needs.
AbbyGO Mobile App & Portal
Access to call details, such as AI-generated call summaries, transcripts, recordings, customer sentiment scores, and more.
Integrations
Customer insights and data can be integrated with your existing workflows.
Backed by Humans
If the AI should encounter a question or situation that requires the human touch, the AI will route your caller to a live human receptionist.
Bilingual Spanish-Speaking
Serve Spanish-speaking callers with confidence. Our AI Receptionist answers fluently and professionally in both English and Spanish.
Real-Time Call Insights
AI Receptionist for Small Business
An AI receptionist for small business solves a specific problem: the owner is the receptionist. Calls come in while you are with a customer, on a job site or after hours, and every one that goes to voicemail is a lead that calls the next name on the list. Abby’s AI Receptionist answers those calls the way a front-desk employee would, for a fraction of a salary, and the Starter plan ($165/mo, 50 Abby Minutes, which covers up to 100 minutes of AI calls) is sized for a business that gets a handful of calls a day.
What small businesses use it for
- Solo owners and trades: answer while you work, qualify the lead, book the estimate.
- Offices with one receptionist: overflow, lunch breaks, sick days and every call after 5 p.m.
- Clinics and practices: appointment requests, directions and insurance questions answered 24/7, with urgent calls transferred to a person.
- Growing teams: a consistent first impression across every location and time zone, without a call center.
Built for your industry
The AI is trained on the vocabulary and workflows of your field. See how it answers for law firms, dental practices, healthcare, chiropractors, home services, accounting firms, financial services, beauty and wellness and business services, or listen to the industry demos below.
TESTIMONIALS
ABBY INTEGRATIONS
Bring Abby into Your Existing Workflow
Streamline your customer communications with Abby AI Receptionist PLUS custom integrations that seamlessly sync with your existing workflows. Stay connected to your callers, the Abby way.
Product Demo
Experience Abby’s AI Receptionist in Action
Abby’s AI receptionist is an extension of your business. It handles calls according to your instructions, operates within your industry’s standards, and answers calls with your brand voice. Listen to a demo to hear Abby AI receptionist taking calls like yours!
Legal Services
AI RECEPTIONIST
Home Services
AI RECEPTIONIST
Business Services
AI RECEPTIONIST
Financial Services
AI RECEPTIONIST
Healthcare
AI RECEPTIONIST
Beauty & Wellness
AI RECEPTIONIST
What Does an AI Receptionist Cost?
Abby’s AI Receptionist is included in every Abby plan; there is no separate AI product to buy. Plans are priced by Abby Minutes per month, and a minute of AI answering uses half an Abby Minute:
| Plan | Price per month | Abby Minutes | Up to this much AI answering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $165 | 50 | 100 minutes |
| Essential | $329 | 100 | 200 minutes |
| Professional | $599 | 200 | 400 minutes |
| Growth | $1,380 | 500 | 1,000 minutes |
| Enterprise | On request | Custom | Custom |
Overage is billed at your plan’s Abby Minute rate, plans are month-to-month and you can move up a plan at any time. Bilingual answering, 24/7 coverage, appointment booking, the AbbyGO app and portal, transcripts and summaries are all included; nothing is billed per call or per feature.
Try the AI Receptionist free
Every plan starts with a free trial and no setup fee. Onboarding is one short call, forwarding your number takes minutes, and you hear the AI answering your real calls before you pay anything. Start your free trial or speak to an expert if you would like help choosing the mix of human and AI answering.
PRICING
STARTER
BEST FOR
Small offices catching overflow or after-hours calls
essential
BEST FOR
A solid baseline for most small businesses
PROFESSIONAL
BEST FOR
Growing teams that need full-time coverage
Most Popular
Growth
BEST FOR
High-volume coverage with support and bulk savings
ENTERPRISE
Need more than the Growth Plan?
We build custom plans fit for your business needs.
BEST FOR
Higher call volumes and tailored workflows beyond Growth
Overage is billed at your plan's Abby Minute rate. You can move up a plan at any time.
No Setup Fee
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Free Trial On Every Plan
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24/7 Coverage
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Human Quality Assurance
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20+ Year Reputation
•
1,000+ Integrations
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US-Based
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Month-To-Month
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No Setup Fee
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Free Trial On Every Plan
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24/7 Coverage
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Human Quality Assurance
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20+ Year Reputation
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1,000+ Integrations
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US-Based
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Month-To-Month
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THE HUMAN + AI ADVANTAGE
How Abby Minutes Work
Usage on every plan is measured in Abby Minutes, which cover both Human and AI answering. Overage is billed at your plan's Abby Minute rate. You can move up a plan at any time.
Human Answering
1 Abby Minute = 1 minute
AI Answering
1 Abby Minute = 2 minutes
goes 2× further
Human + AI Answering
ON THE SAME CALL
The AI portion bills at the AI rate, the human portion at the human rate.
Example of Abby Minutes: Professional Plan
Abby minutes cover both Human and AI answering. The more you use AI, the further your plan will stretch.
ALL HUMAN
200
minutes answered
200 Human Minutes
A MIX OF BOTH
300
minutes answered
100 Human Minutes + 200 AI Minutes
ALL AI
400
minutes answered
400 AI Minutes
Abby vs. Smith.ai vs. AI-Only Tools: AI Receptionist Services Compared
Shopping for an AI receptionist usually means comparing two kinds of provider: receptionist services that answer with an AI receptionist and human receptionists on the same plan (Abby, and Smith.ai with separate AI-first and human-first plans), and AI-only tools such as Rosie and My AI Front Desk that sell software minutes with no people behind them. The differences that matter are how you pay, whether human receptionists are part of the plan, where those receptionists work, which models run the AI, and what happens on the calls the AI should not take alone.
| Abby | Smith.ai | Rosie (AI only) | My AI Front Desk (AI only) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per Abby Minute; AI minutes count as half | Per call: Starter $300/mo for 30 calls, overage $8.50 to $11.50 per call | Per-minute bundles | Per-minute bundle plus credits for overage |
| Entry plan | $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes (up to 100 AI minutes) | $300/mo for 30 calls | $49/mo for 250 minutes; $149 for 1,000; $299 for 2,000 | $99/mo ($79 billed annually) for 200 voice minutes; the $20 plan includes no voice minutes |
| Price per AI minute | $1.65 on Starter down to $1.38 on Growth | Per call, not per minute | About $0.20 on the $49 plan, $0.15 on the $299 plan | About $0.50 on the $99 plan; $0.25 per minute over |
| AI Receptionist | Yes: built and trained in-house, answers, books and transfers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Speech, language and voice models | Deepgram Flux, the latest OpenAI models with automatic failover to Anthropic, ElevenLabs; trained in-house | Not published on its pricing page | Not published on its pricing page | Not published on its pricing page |
| Human receptionists | Yes: U.S.-based, 100 percent of them in the office in Las Vegas, none from home | Yes, 24/7, working from home (its careers page: “from the comfort of your home office”) | None | None |
| When the AI cannot handle the call | Warm handoff to an Abby human receptionist or to your team, on the same call | Transfer to your team (human receptionists on the human-first plans) | $49 plan sends an appointment link by text; live and warm transfers start at the $149 plan | Not described on its pricing page |
| Onboarding and account management | Onboarding call, dedicated team, Client Success Manager, in-house Quality Assurance | Onboarding by Smith.ai after sign-up | Self-serve sign-up | Self-serve sign-up |
| Human + AI on one plan | Yes: any mix, change it any time | AI-first and human-first plans, chosen with a toggle on its pricing page | No | No |
| Appointment booking | Included | $1.50 per call add-on | Appointment links by text on the $49 plan | Not described on its pricing page |
| Spanish | Included on every plan | $1.00 per call add-on | Not stated on its pricing page | Not stated on its pricing page |
| 24/7 answering | Included, no upcharge; human or AI | Included | AI only | AI only |
| Trial | Free trial and no setup fee on every plan | 30-day money-back guarantee, no setup fee | 7-day free trial | 7-day free trial |
| Contract | Month-to-month | Month-to-month; 10 percent off for 12 months | Not stated on its pricing page | “No contracts” per its pricing page |
The AI-only tools are cheap per minute for a reason: there are no human receptionists, no in-office team, no onboarding call and no Client Success Manager; where a handoff exists it reaches only your own phone; and none of the three publishes which speech and language models it runs. Abby’s AI minute costs more because it runs on named frontier models with automatic failover, is trained and quality-checked in-house, and comes with a human receptionist on the same plan for the calls that need one.
Competitor details are taken from smith.ai/pricing and smith.ai/careers as published on September 2, 2026, and from heyrosie.com/pricing and myaifrontdesk.com/pricing as published on September 3, 2026; check their sites for current terms. For a longer read, see Abby vs Smith.ai and the best virtual receptionist services compared, which also covers Ruby and AnswerConnect (neither offers an AI receptionist), or go straight to our pricing page.
FAQS
Your AI Receptionist Questions Answered
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is a voice assistant that answers your business phone, holds a natural conversation with the caller, answers questions about your business, screens and transfers calls, takes messages and books appointments. Abby’s AI Receptionist is built in-house on more than 20 years of human receptionist experience and answers 24/7 in your business name.
How does Abby’s AI Receptionist work?
During a short onboarding call we give the AI your greeting, FAQs, transfer rules, intake questions and calendar. You forward your phone line to Abby, and the AI answers each call, follows your instructions and sends you the transcript, summary and recording in the AbbyGO app. You can update its knowledge at any time.
Does the AI Receptionist sound human?
Yes. It speaks in a natural, conversational voice, understands accents, dialects and interruptions, and adapts to what the caller says instead of reading a script. You choose the voice and tone that fits your brand. Listen to the industry demos on this page to hear it.
What happens if the AI cannot answer a question?
It hands the call to a person. You decide the rules: the AI can warm-transfer to one of Abby’s U.S.-based human receptionists or to your team, on the same call, whenever a caller asks for a person or raises something you have marked as human-only. Callers are never stuck in a loop.
Can I use the AI Receptionist together with human receptionists?
Yes. Abby is one subscription used three ways: just the AI Receptionist, just human receptionists, or a mix you can change at any time. A minute with the AI uses half an Abby Minute and a minute with a human receptionist uses one, so routing routine calls to the AI stretches the same plan further.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Abby plans start at $165 a month for 50 Abby Minutes (up to 100 minutes of AI answering) and go up to $1,380 a month for 500 Abby Minutes, with Enterprise plans on request. Overage is billed at your plan’s Abby Minute rate, plans are month-to-month, and every plan includes a free trial with no setup fee.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. Every Abby plan starts with a free trial and no setup fee. You forward your number, hear the AI Receptionist answering your real calls, and only then decide whether to continue. See how the free trial works.
How long does setup take?
Onboarding is one short call to capture your greeting, FAQs, transfer rules and calendar, and forwarding your existing number takes minutes. No hardware or new phone system is required, and there is no setup fee.
Does the AI Receptionist speak Spanish?
Yes. It answers in English and Spanish on your existing business number and detects the caller’s language automatically. Bilingual answering is included on every plan.
Can the AI Receptionist book appointments?
Yes. It books directly into hundreds of scheduling platforms, including Google Calendar, Calendly and Acuity, following the availability and rules you set. Human receptionists on your plan book through Calendly.
Is my callers’ data secure?
Yes. Abby’s AI is built and trained in-house on best-in-class speech, language and voice models under our own security controls; call data is stored securely in the United States, and it is never sold or shared. Recordings, transcripts and summaries are available only to you in the AbbyGO app and portal.
What technology runs Abby’s AI Receptionist, and what happens if a provider goes down?
Abby’s AI Receptionist runs on Deepgram Flux for real-time speech recognition, the latest OpenAI models for understanding, and ElevenLabs for voice, trained in-house on more than 20 years of receptionist calls. If the primary language model is unavailable, calls fail over to Anthropic’s models automatically, and the same redundancy is being extended to speech recognition and voice. Every plan also includes human receptionists, so a person can take the call whenever the AI should not.
How does Abby compare with low-cost AI-only receptionist tools like Rosie or My AI Front Desk?
They cost less per minute (about $0.20 to $0.50 on their published plans, against $1.38 to $1.65 for Abby’s AI minute) and they leave out what makes that price possible: no human receptionists at all, no in-office team, self-serve setup instead of an onboarding call and a Client Success Manager, a handoff that reaches only your own phone where one is offered, and no published word on which speech and language models they run. Abby’s AI runs on Deepgram Flux, the latest OpenAI models with automatic failover to Anthropic and ElevenLabs, is trained and quality-checked in-house, and shares its plan with human receptionists who take the calls the AI should not.
How is Abby’s AI Receptionist different from Smith.ai’s?
Abby bills per Abby Minute with AI minutes at half rate, includes human receptionists who all work in the office in Las Vegas, Spanish and appointment booking on the same plan, and starts at $165 a month with a free trial. Smith.ai bills per call from $300 a month with booking and Spanish as per-call add-ons, asks you to choose an AI-first or a human-first plan, and staffs work-from-home receptionists (its published pricing and careers pages as of September 2026).
Start Your Free AI Receptionist Trial
Hear Abby’s AI Receptionist answering your real calls before you pay anything: free trial, no setup fee, month-to-month, plans from $165/mo. Add human receptionists to the same plan whenever you want a person on the line.