What Handled saves you. In dollars.
Put your own numbers in and hit recalculate. You get a link you can send to anyone. Every figure we compare against is public and listed at the bottom of this page.
saved per year · $2,351/mo
A receptionist: $2,900/mo, wages plus payroll tax and benefits · Handled Pro: $549/mo
saved per year · $1,251/mo
Service: 1,200 min × $1.50/min = $1,800/mo · Handled Pro: $549/mo
enter your own estimate above
We don't know what share of your calls go unanswered, and we don't publish a figure for it. Enter your own estimate above and recalculate.
// the plan that fits · 1,200 min/mo
Handled Pro at $549/mo, includes 1,500 minutes. Set up in minutes, answering as soon as you forward your line.
Want the other side of the sum? How much an AI receptionist costs in 2026 puts every published price in this market side by side, including the ones cheaper than Handled.
// where the numbers come from
- Hiring a receptionist
- $2,900/mo. US government wage data (job code 43-4171) puts the middle wage at $16.42/hr, over 40 hours a week and 4.33 weeks a month. Payroll tax and benefits push the real cost to about $4,100/mo. We use the lower number.
- Answering service
- $1.50 a minute, the middle of the published prices at Ruby, Smith.ai and AnswerConnect ($1.25–$1.85 a minute, 2026).
- Average call length
- 3 minutes, typical for calls coming in to a service business.
- Calls you stop missing
- You set the percentage, and it applies to ALL your monthly calls: the share that goes unanswered today AND would have booked. We don't suggest a figure and don't publish one: leave it blank until you have your own estimate. Every dollar figure in that card is your input multiplied out, not a statistic.
- Which plan we picked
- Chosen by minutes: 500 or under is Starter, 1,500 or under is Pro, anything above that is Industry.
- What's not in these numbers
- The $500 setup, any minutes past your plan, and the time you get back. None of them are counted here.