Buyer’s guide · Contractors

AI receptionists for contractors: 15 options compared (2026)

On Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan or Workiz, the AI your software company sells is the first one to try, because it writes the job where your techs already look. Without job software, a general AI receptionist like Upfirst, Goodcall or Dialzara answers 100 calls a month for roughly $70 to $135. Shops with several trucks on ServiceTitan should also price Sameday AI and Avoca. This guide covers AI only. If you’re weighing live people too, our answering service guide compares both.

By Eric Smith, founder of Outfitter AI and a former general contractor · Prices checked October 11, 2026

Who wrote this: Outfitter AI makes Front Desk, one of the 15 AI receptionists in this guide. It gets the same kind of facts as everyone else, and for many shops below we point to something else. Every competitor price and feature comes from that company’s own website, opened October 11, 2026, and is linked. If anything is wrong or out of date, call or text (507) 628-0400 and we’ll fix it.

The short answer: which AI fits your shop

Your jobs live in Jobber

Jobber Receptionist is $29 a month for 30 conversations and books visits from your own online-booking rules. It’s the only software add-on here with a published price.

Your jobs live in Housecall Pro or Workiz

Get a quote on Housecall Pro’s CSR AI or Workiz Genius Answering. Both put the job on the calendar your techs already use; neither publishes a price.

Several trucks on ServiceTitan

Line up ServiceTitan’s Virtual Agent against Sameday AI (from $449 a month) and Avoca (demo only). All three book against technician availability.

No job software, Google or Outlook calendar

Upfirst books estimates onto your calendar for $59.95 a month for 90 calls. Dialzara starts at $29 for 60 minutes if your phone is quieter.

Long calls or lots of repeat customers

Goodcall charges by unique customer, not by minute: $79 a month covers 100 different callers no matter how long they talk.

You run it all from your phone

Outfitter Front Desk is 35¢ a minute with no monthly fee. It says it’s an AI, asks your questions and texts you every call. It pre-schedules a time for you to confirm rather than booking the job, and it doesn’t plug into job software.

The reason to buy any of these is the call nobody picks up. Call-tracking company Invoca found 27% of calls to home-service businesses go unanswered [1]. An AI receptionist is the cheapest way to close that gap, as long as it handles your emergencies the way you would.

Why this guide only covers AI

Live answering services (Ruby, PATLive, MAP and the rest) still have a place, and they’re compared side by side with AI in our answering service guide. This page goes one level deeper on the AI side, because that’s where most of the change is: the job-software companies have all shipped their own AI, new trade-only companies have appeared, and the general tools have dropped to $25 to $100 a month.

What AI does well: it picks up on the first ring at 2 a.m., never puts anyone on hold, asks the same questions every time and costs a fraction of a person. Where it’s weaker: a panicked, elderly or angry caller, a heavy accent on a bad cell connection, or a judgment call about whether a smell of gas means call the utility first. Plan for those calls with a transfer to your phone, and test them before you go live.

Seven things to check before you pick one

Does it book, schedule or just take a message? Three different things get called “booking.” The software add-ons write a job into Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan or Workiz. General AI puts a time on Google or Outlook calendar. Some take the details and leave the time for you to confirm. Pick the one that matches how you actually schedule.
Write-back versus read-only. “Integrates with ServiceTitan” can mean it looks up the customer, or that it creates the job. Ask for a test call that ends with a job you can open in your software.
The emergency path. Find out exactly what happens on a no-heat, burst-pipe or active-leak call: a warm transfer to your on-call cell, a text alert, or a message in a queue. Jobber uses trigger words you choose; Upfirst and Dialzara can transfer to an on-call phone.
How the bill is counted. Per minute (watch 30-second or whole-minute rounding), per call, per conversation, per unique customer, or credits. Then check what doesn’t count: Upfirst skips spam and calls under 15 seconds, Jobber skips calls with no conversation.
The overage rate. A plan that fits February can double in a July heat wave or a hail week. Rosie and Sameday don’t list overage rates; ask.
What it says about itself. Some always say they’re AI, some leave it to your greeting, and some don’t say. See the rules below before you decide.
Languages. Smith.ai, Rosie, Dialzara, Upfirst and Workiz list Spanish. Jobber’s and Housecall Pro’s pages don’t mention languages, so confirm before you count on it.

All 15 AI receptionists compared

AI receptionist	Type	Listed starting price	Pricing model	Books or pre-schedules?	Says it’s AI?	Job software it connects to	Best fit
Smith.ai AI Receptionist	AI	Free for 25 calls; Pro $150/mo for 75 calls	Per call	Yes, AI Scheduling (Calendly and others)	Not stated	Not named (Calendly, Clio, Zapier listed)	AI with a live-person option from the same company
Goodcall	AI	$79/mo for 100 unique customers	Per unique customer, minutes not metered	Claimed on its contractor page; test it	Not stated	ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber (its contractor page; pushes caller details)	Long calls and repeat callers
Rosie	AI	$49/mo for 250 min	Minute bundles	Scale plan and up	Not stated	None named (Zapier)	Cheap minutes for a one-truck shop
Dialzara	AI	$29/mo for 60 min	Minute bundles + per-minute overage	Appointment booking (Google, Outlook calendars)	Not stated; greeting is customizable	None named (CRMs via Zapier, Make, webhooks)	Lowest monthly entry price
My AI Front Desk	AI	$99/mo for 200 min ($79 yearly)	Plan + credits	Yes, against your calendar (not named)	Not stated	None named (Zapier)	Calls, texts and website chat in one tool
Upfirst	AI	$24.95/mo for 30 calls	Per call (spam and calls under 15 seconds free)	Yes (Google Calendar, Outlook; Calendly, Acuity)	Not stated	None named (Zapier)	Lowest bill at 100 calls a month
RingCentral AI Receptionist	AI	$49/mo for 100 min ($39 as a RingEX add-on)	Minutes + per-minute overage, 30-second billing	Yes, via your connected calendar	Not stated	None named (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho)	Shops already on a RingCentral phone system
Jobber Receptionist	AI inside job software	$29/mo for 30 conversations (Jobber required)	Add-on, per conversation	Yes, into Jobber	Your choice; Jobber encourages it	Jobber only	Shops already running on Jobber
Housecall Pro CSR AI	AI inside job software	Not published (Housecall Pro from $59/mo yearly)	Optional add-on to Housecall Pro	Yes, onto your Housecall Pro calendar	Your choice in the greeting	Housecall Pro only	Shops already running on Housecall Pro
ServiceTitan AI Virtual Agent	AI inside job software	Not published	Pro product on top of ServiceTitan	Yes, to the dispatch board with live tech availability	Not stated	ServiceTitan only	Multi-truck ServiceTitan shops with CSRs
Workiz Genius Answering	AI inside job software	Not published (sold separately)	Add-on; needs a Workiz Genius Phone plan	Yes, into Workiz (unassigned by default)	Not stated	Workiz only	Shops already running on Workiz
Avoca	AI built for trades	Not published (demo only)	Sales quote	Yes, into job software	Your choice	ServiceTitan named; “widely used” CRMs	Larger trade shops with a call center
Sameday AI	AI built for trades	From $449/mo for 500 min	Minute bundles	Yes, “pro scheduling” into job software	Not stated	ServiceTitan (certified), Housecall Pro, FieldRoutes, AccuLynx, JobNimbus, Service Fusion, Maid Central	Multi-truck shops wanting trade AI at a listed price
ServiceAgent	AI built for trades	Free tier; $49/mo ($39 yearly)	Plan + usage credits	Booking widget and calendar sync (its own CRM)	Not stated	Its own CRM; links a Jobber integration page	A small shop without job software that wants an all-in-one
Outfitter Front Desk	Outfitter (ours)	35¢/min, no monthly fee	Per minute from a prepaid token balance	No. Pre-schedules a time you confirm	Yes, in the greeting on every call	None. Texts and emails every message	Owner-operators without job software

Prices are the lowest plan each company lists on its own pricing or help pages, checked October 11, 2026, before taxes and add-ons. “Not stated” and “not listed” mean we couldn’t find it on the company’s own pages, not that the feature is missing. “Says it’s AI?” is what the company says about its greeting; most let you write your own, so you can add a disclosure to almost any of them.

What a 100-call month costs on each

Every company here counts usage differently, so the sticker price doesn’t compare. Here is one month, 100 calls averaging 3 minutes, priced on each AI receptionist that publishes enough to work it out.

Upfirst

$69.95

Premium (90 calls, $59.95) + 10 calls at $1

Goodcall

$79

Starter, if no more than 100 different people call

Jobber Receptionist

$84.30

$29 for 30 conversations + 70 at $0.79, plus your Jobber subscription

Outfitter Front Desk

$105

300 minutes at 35¢

ServiceAgent

$119

Growth plan, 6,000 credits (about 400 voice minutes), billed monthly

My AI Front Desk

$124

$99 plan (200 minutes) + 100 minutes at $0.25

Dialzara

$135

Pro (220 minutes, $99) + 80 minutes at $0.45

Rosie

$149

Scale plan (1,000 minutes); 300 minutes is over the $49 plan and no overage rate is listed

RingCentral AI Receptionist

$149

Standalone, 100 minutes ($49) + 200 minutes at $0.50

Smith.ai AI Receptionist

$212.50

Pro, 75 calls ($150) + 25 calls at $2.50

Sameday AI

$449

Launch plan (500 minutes)

An example, not a quote: 100 calls in a month at about 3 minutes each (300 minutes), priced with each company’s listed plans and overage rates on October 11, 2026. Goodcall assumes no more than 100 different callers. Jobber’s figure leaves out the Jobber subscription it requires. Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Workiz and Avoca don’t publish prices, so they aren’t shown. Taxes and add-ons are left out, and your own call length changes everything.

Three things stand out. Most AI options land between $70 and $150 for this month, a small fraction of what live answering costs. The software add-on from Jobber is cheap per call, but it only exists on top of a Jobber subscription. And the trade-only AI that books into ServiceTitan starts around $450, which makes sense at several hundred calls a month and not at 100.

Each AI receptionist, in plain terms

General AI receptionists

Built for any small business: salons, law offices, clinics and trades alike. They are the cheapest way in, mostly $25 to $150 a month at small-shop volume, and they all take a message and text it to you. Most can put a time on Google or Outlook calendar. What they don’t bring is trade knowledge: you write the questions, the emergency rules and what never to promise. None of them list booking straight into Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan on their pricing pages.

Smith.ai AI Receptionist AI

Price: Free plan: 25 real calls a month, then $3.00 a call. Pro: $150 a month for 75 calls ($2.00 a call), extra calls $2.50; larger Pro tiers of 150 and 300 calls cost less per call. Enterprise from $500 a month ($1.67 a call). Month to month, 30 days’ notice to cancel. Known spam numbers are filtered before the AI answers. source

The AI side of a company better known for live receptionists, and the one general option here where a call can be handed to a North America-based person (that add-on’s price isn’t listed). English and Spanish are included on every plan. Its AI receptionist pages name Calendly for scheduling and Clio, Zapier, Salesforce and HubSpot for connections, but no contractor software. Per-call billing means a 9-minute caller costs the same as a 1-minute one, which helps if your calls run long.

Good fit: Shops that want AI on most calls and the option to add people later without switching companies. Not ideal: Tight budgets at 100+ calls a month; per-call pricing runs well above per-minute options for short calls.

Goodcall AI

Price: Starter $79 a month for 100 unique customers (79¢ each after), Growth $129 for 500 (26¢ after), Scale $299 for 2,000 (15¢ after); Enterprise by quote. “We never meter minutes.” Call history kept 30 days on Starter, 90 on Growth, unlimited on Scale. You can build a free demo agent and pay when you add a number. Its contractor page quotes $59 a month ($41 yearly); we used the pricing page. source

Bills by how many different people call, not by minutes or calls, so a customer who calls three times about the same leak counts once. Its contractor page says it pushes caller details into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber after each call and syncs confirmed jobs into the dispatch calendar; its pricing page names only Zapier. Ask for a test booking to land in your software during the trial. Goodcall’s own pages disagree on the starting price, so confirm it at signup.

Good fit: Shops with chatty callers or lots of repeat customers, where per-minute billing would sting. Not ideal: Anyone who needs jobs in their software on day one without testing it first.

Rosie AI

Price: Professional $49 a month for 250 minutes, Scale $149 for 1,000, Growth $299 for 2,000. Calendar booking and live or warm transfers start on Scale. Overage rate not listed. 7-day free trial, cancel anytime; yearly billing gives two months free. source

A low-cost general AI receptionist that answers in English and Spanish on every plan. The $49 plan takes messages; booking and transfers to your phone need the $149 Scale plan. Its pricing page names Zapier for connections, not any contractor software, and doesn’t list an overage rate, so ask what happens when a storm week blows through 250 minutes.

Good fit: An owner-operator who mostly wants messages taken and texted, at the lowest flat price. Not ideal: Shops that need live transfers on the cheap plan, or jobs written into field-service software.

Dialzara AI

Price: Business Lite $29 a month for 60 minutes ($0.48 a minute after), Pro $99 for 220 ($0.45), Plus $199 for 500 ($0.40), Elite $349 for 1,000 ($0.35). No setup fees; 7-day free trial; a one-on-one onboarding call is included with every paid plan. source

A general small-business AI receptionist that answers in English and Spanish. Its FAQ says Google Calendar and Outlook are supported natively and that it can warm-transfer an emergency to an on-call teammate’s cell. The setup call helps if you don’t want to write prompts yourself. It also sells outbound calling plans, which fall under different rules (see below).

Good fit: Very light call volume, or a shop testing AI for the first time. Not ideal: Busy months on the entry plan; 60 minutes is roughly 20 calls.

My AI Front Desk AI

Price: Business-in-a-Box $99 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly: 200 voice minutes, 100 chatbot conversations and 400 texts. Extra minutes are 25 credits each at 1 cent a credit ($0.25 a minute). 7-day free trial, no contracts. source

Bundles a phone AI with a website chatbot, two-way texting and a simple CRM, and lists 20+ languages. The home page says it books against your live calendar but doesn’t name which calendars; the named integrations are property-management systems, and everything else goes through Zapier. Credits make the bill a little harder to predict than a flat per-minute rate.

Good fit: Owners who want one inexpensive tool for phone, web chat and texting. Not ideal: Shops that want trade-specific intake built in.

Upfirst AI

Price: Starter $24.95 a month for 30 calls ($1.50 each after), Premium $59.95 for 90 ($1.00), Pro $159.95 for 300 ($0.75), Scale $299.95 for 600 ($0.70); 20% off yearly (annual is non-refundable). Extra agents $9.95 a month each. 14-day free trial, no credit card. source

A general AI receptionist with trade pages of its own; its roofing page describes estimate booking on the first call and customizable emergency handling, from transferring to an on-call person to texting you the details. Every plan answers in English, Spanish and 30+ other languages. Spam and calls under 15 seconds don’t count, which matters for trades that get a lot of robocalls. Connections to job software go through Zapier, not a direct booking link.

Good fit: A small shop on Google or Outlook calendar that wants the lowest predictable bill. Not ideal: Shops that schedule everything in Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan.

RingCentral AI Receptionist AI

Price: Standalone from $49 a month with 100 minutes; as an add-on to a RingEX phone plan, from $39 with 100 minutes. Extra minutes $0.50 each, pay as you go, or buy bundles. Call time is rounded up to 30-second increments. 14-day free trial. source

The AI receptionist from a big business-phone company. It can be bought on its own, but it fits best if your office already runs on RingCentral. It schedules and reschedules through a connected calendar, asks your intake questions, sends texts and routes complicated calls to a team member. Integrations listed are sales CRMs, not contractor software. At $0.50 a minute after 100 minutes, a busy month gets expensive fast.

Good fit: A shop with an office line on RingCentral that wants overflow answered by the same system. Not ideal: High call volume; the per-minute overage is the highest of the general options.

AI inside your job software

Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan and Workiz each sell their own AI that answers calls and writes the job into the same system your techs work from. That tight fit is the whole point, and the catch is that they only make sense if you already pay for that software. Only Jobber publishes the add-on price.

Jobber Receptionist AI inside job software

Price: $29 a month for 30 conversations, $0.79 each after; included with unlimited use on Jobber’s Plus plan ($399 a month yearly or $499 monthly for 5 users). Jobber plans start at $29 a month yearly ($49 monthly) for Core. Needs a Jobber dedicated phone number (US, Canada, UK); your existing number can forward to it. source

Answers calls and texts, books visits using your Jobber online booking settings, and can look up, reschedule or cancel appointments. You pick trigger words such as “emergency” or “urgent” that either transfer the call or text the caller a callback link. Spam and calls with no real conversation don’t count toward the 30. Jobber doesn’t require an AI disclosure but encourages telling callers, and tells you to check local recording rules. Its help article doesn’t list languages.

Good fit: Any shop already on Jobber. It’s the cheapest way to get calls booked straight into job software. Not ideal: Shops not on Jobber; the software costs more than the receptionist.

Housecall Pro CSR AI AI inside job software

Price: CSR AI is an optional add-on and its price isn’t published. Housecall Pro plans are Basic $59, Essentials $149 and Max $299 a month billed yearly ($79, $189 and $329 monthly). 14-day free trial, no credit card. source

Answers calls and website chats 24/7 and books jobs onto your Housecall Pro calendar based on your availability and service settings. If a caller wants a person, it takes their details and transfers to a number you choose or to a Housecall Pro Assist rep. You decide whether the greeting says it’s AI. The feature page doesn’t mention emergencies or Spanish, and text answering is listed as coming soon.

Good fit: Shops on Housecall Pro. Get the add-on quote before you look anywhere else. Not ideal: Shops that need Spanish-speaking callers handled today; confirm it first.

ServiceTitan AI Virtual Agent AI inside job software

Price: Not published. It’s sold as a ServiceTitan Pro product alongside Contact Center Pro, on top of a ServiceTitan subscription. source

Books straight to the dispatch board using real-time technician availability, job type, location and skills; confirms and reschedules appointments; and books maintenance visits as recurring services on a member’s profile. It recognizes existing customers and members and transfers to a live CSR when a person is needed. It also answers by text. Languages and hours aren’t stated.

Good fit: Established ServiceTitan shops that want overflow and after-hours calls booked without adding CSRs. Not ideal: Small shops; ServiceTitan itself is sized for bigger operations.

Workiz Genius Answering AI inside job software

Price: Not published. Workiz plans (Standard, Pro, Ultimate) are priced on request, and Genius Answering is “sold separately”. Its FAQ says a Genius Phone plan is required and pay-as-you-go charges are possible. source

Answers calls, texts, emails, lead sources and web forms, and books, reschedules or cancels jobs in Workiz. New jobs land as unassigned appointments unless you turn on auto-assignment, and availability follows your online booking settings. English and Spanish are supported (Spanish is turned on in settings). Live transfer to your team is listed for business hours, so check how after-hours emergencies are handled.

Good fit: Workiz users who want calls booked into the same schedule their techs use. Not ideal: Shops that want a published price before a sales call.

AI built for trades

Independent companies that only serve home-service businesses. They come with trade vocabulary and emergency routing already in mind. The ones that book into ServiceTitan and similar systems are priced for shops with several trucks, from about $450 a month or by demo. Two cheaper options here (ServiceAgent and ours) suit owner-operators.

Avoca AI built for trades

Price: Not published; pricing follows a 20-minute live demo. source

AI built for home services; its inbound page lists HVAC, plumbing, pest control, remodeling, roofing, garage doors, electrical, restoration and more. Emergency calls are routed to your on-call tech immediately. The page names a deep ServiceTitan integration and says it works with other common CRMs and scheduling systems without naming them. Whether callers are told it’s AI is, in its words, “entirely yours.”

Good fit: Shops with dispatchers who want AI to take booking off their CSRs. Not ideal: Owner-operators; it’s sold to larger companies by demo.

Sameday AI AI built for trades

Price: Launch from $449 a month with 500 minutes and up to 3 locations; Scale from $789 with 1,000 minutes, unlimited locations and voice cloning; Enterprise custom, with multilingual voices. Overage, setup fees, contract and trial aren’t stated. source

Trade-only AI; its pricing page lists HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, landscaping, garage door, locksmith, solar and cleaning. “Pro scheduling” into ServiceTitan and similar systems is included from the first plan. Its home page names ServiceTitan (certified app), Housecall Pro, FieldRoutes, AccuLynx, JobNimbus, Service Fusion and Maid Central. Other languages are listed only on Enterprise.

Good fit: Shops with several trucks on ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or a roofing CRM, and enough calls to use 500 minutes. Not ideal: Shops with light volume; $449 is a lot for 100 calls.

ServiceAgent AI built for trades

Price: Launch $0 a month (pay as you go); Core $49 ($39 yearly) with 2,000 credits; Growth $119 ($95 yearly) with 6,000 credits; Franchise $349 ($279 yearly) with 20,000. An AI voice minute uses 15 credits. Payment and ad fees vary by plan. source

A front office for small trades: CRM, booking widget, texting, payments and an AI voice agent paid for with credits (15 per voice minute, so Core’s 2,000 credits cover about 133 minutes). The pricing page links to a Jobber integration page; Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan appear only in its comparison pages. Credits make the monthly cost harder to forecast than a per-call plan.

Good fit: An owner-operator who wants a cheap CRM and AI phone in one system. Not ideal: Shops already settled on another job software and happy with it.

Outfitter Front Desk Outfitter (ours)

Price: 35 cents a minute from prepaid tokens (1 token = 1 cent). Free to join, no contract. $35 buys 3,500 tokens; tokens never expire. Setting it up and calling it for your messages are free. source

Our product, so weigh this one accordingly. It answers the calls you miss (your number forwards on no-answer, or you publish a new local number) and says it’s an AI assistant at the start of every call. You train it in a phone interview: your services, the questions to ask, what never to promise. It marks urgent calls and texts and emails you every message with a transcript. It doesn’t book jobs: it pre-schedules a time that you confirm, and it won’t quote a price or promise a same-day visit unless you told it to. It can use a natural voice or a clone of yours, made only from a recording you make yourself. It doesn’t connect to job software, and there are no live people behind it.

Good fit: A 1 to 10 person shop with no job software, run from the owner’s phone. Not ideal: Shops that want jobs booked straight into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or Jobber, or a live person on the line.

The rules: telling callers it’s AI, and recording calls

This isn’t legal advice, and state rules on AI are changing fast. Here is what the laws we opened actually say:

Utah requires a business using generative AI with a consumer to say so when the person clearly asks whether they’re talking to a human. People in regulated occupations must disclose up front, out loud, in “high-risk” interactions, meaning ones that collect sensitive health, financial or biometric data or give advice people rely on for big decisions. An AI that says it’s AI at the start of the call is protected by the law’s safe harbor. Fines run up to $2,500 per violation [3].
Maine makes it an unfair trade practice to use an AI chatbot in trade or commerce in a way that could lead a reasonable consumer to think they’re talking to a person, unless the consumer is told clearly and conspicuously that they aren’t [5].
California bars using a bot online to mislead someone about its artificial identity in order to drive a sale, unless the bot discloses that it’s a bot [4]. The law is written for online bots; don’t count on a phone call being outside it.
Recording. Federal law allows recording when one party to the call consents [7], but some states require every party’s consent. California’s law covers confidential calls recorded “without the consent of all parties” [6], and the Digital Media Law Project lists California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington as all-party states [8]. Every AI receptionist here records or transcribes calls to work, so a line in the greeting covers you wherever the caller is.
Calls the AI places. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so robocalls using them need the same prior consent as any robocall [2]. That’s about outbound calls, such as reminders or follow-ups the AI dials, not an AI answering calls that come in.

The vendors split on disclosure. Jobber doesn’t require it but encourages it [20], Housecall Pro lets you choose in the greeting [22], Avoca calls it “entirely yours” [30], and Outfitter’s Front Desk always says it [34]. The simplest safe setup for any of them is a greeting like “Thanks for calling Ridgeline Plumbing, this is the AI assistant, and this call may be recorded.” Callers mostly want the leak fixed; they don’t mind.

How to test an AI receptionist before you trust it

Pull last month’s missed calls. Count them, note the hours, and note how long your real calls run. That tells you whether per-minute, per-call or per-customer pricing suits you.
Give it your intake list. Name, address, the problem in the caller’s words, how urgent, how they heard of you. Add your never-promise list: no prices, no same-day, no start dates. Our contractor phone script is a starting point.
Forward on no-answer only. Your phone rings first and the AI gets what you miss. How to forward business calls has the carrier codes.
Make four test calls. A routine estimate, a true emergency at 11 p.m., a caller who rambles and won’t give an address, and a vendor or sub who isn’t a customer. Check what reaches your phone and how fast.
Check the booking end to end. If it claims to book, open your job software or calendar and confirm the job is there with the right address, time and notes. If it only reads your data, you’ll find out here.
Read a week of transcripts. Look for invented answers, missed urgency and callers who hung up. Fix the instructions, then decide.

Common questions

How much does an AI receptionist cost for a contractor?

On the plans we checked in October 2026, general AI receptionists start at $24.95 to $99 a month, and a 100-call month at about 3 minutes a call came to roughly $70 to $215 depending on the company. Jobber's add-on is $29 a month for 30 conversations on top of Jobber. Trade-only AI that books into ServiceTitan starts at $449 a month or is quoted after a demo. Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan and Workiz don't publish their AI prices.

Can an AI receptionist book jobs into Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan?

The software companies' own AI can: Jobber Receptionist books into Jobber, Housecall Pro's CSR AI books onto the Housecall Pro calendar, ServiceTitan's Virtual Agent books to the dispatch board and Workiz Genius Answering books into Workiz. Sameday AI and Avoca also book into ServiceTitan and other systems. Most general AI receptionists only book onto Google or Outlook calendar, so ask for a test booking before you sign.

Do I have to tell callers they're talking to an AI?

In some states, yes. Utah requires it when a caller clearly asks, and up front in certain high-risk conversations. Maine treats an AI chatbot that could pass for a person without a clear notice as an unfair trade practice. California bans bots that hide what they are to make a sale online. Having the AI say it's an AI assistant at the start of every call meets all of these and costs you nothing.

Is it legal for an AI receptionist to record calls?

Federal law allows recording with one party's consent, but California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington and several other states require everyone on the call to agree. Because AI receptionists record or transcribe to work, the safe move is a short recording notice in the greeting. This isn't legal advice; check with a lawyer if you work in an all-party state.

Can an AI receptionist handle emergency calls?

It can recognize and route them if you set it up to. Jobber uses trigger words like emergency or urgent to transfer the call or text a callback link, Upfirst and Dialzara can transfer to an on-call phone, and Avoca routes emergencies to your on-call tech. Make a fake emergency call yourself during the trial and time how long it takes to reach you.

What's the cheapest AI receptionist for a small contractor?

By entry price, Upfirst at $24.95 a month for 30 calls and Dialzara at $29 for 60 minutes. For a 100-call month, Upfirst came to $69.95 and Goodcall to $79 if no more than 100 different people call. Outfitter Front Desk has no monthly fee and is 35 cents a minute. Check the overage rate against your busiest month, not your slowest.

Should I use an AI receptionist or a live answering service?

For most small shops, AI covers routine calls and after-hours overflow for a fraction of the price. Live people are better with upset or confused callers and judgment calls. Many owners use AI with a transfer to their own cell for emergencies. Our answering service guide compares live services and AI side by side.

If you’re the shop Front Desk was built for

No job software, the business line rings your cell, and you’d rather confirm a time than lose the caller. Front Desk answers what you miss, says it’s an AI assistant, asks the questions you taught it and texts and emails you every message. 35¢ a minute from prepaid tokens, free to join, no contract.

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Sources and how we compared

We compared AI receptionists a 1 to 25 person home-service company would realistically consider: general small-business AI, the AI sold inside contractor job software, and AI built only for trades. Live answering services are covered in our separate answering service guide. Prices, plans and features come from each company’s own pricing, feature or help pages, opened October 11, 2026; we didn’t use third-party price lists, and where a company’s own pages disagree we say so and use the pricing page. Where a company doesn’t publish something we say “not published” or “not stated”. We left out developer voice platforms that aren’t ready-made receptionists, and Numa, which focuses on car dealerships. Legal points come from the statutes and FCC documents linked below.

Last updated October 11, 2026. Prices change; if something here is out of date, call or text (507) 628-0400 and we’ll fix it.