Metered AI receptionists sell call bundles: $150 a month for 75 calls, $270 for 150, $500 for 300, $800 for 500, and an overage rate on every call past the bundle. VocalizeCloud is $99 a month plus the minutes you actually talk, whatever the call count does. Here is the math at real volumes, including the two where they beat us.
Assumptions, stated plainly: 2.5 minutes per answered call, our Standard voice tier at 19 cents a minute, and their published bundle price at each volume. Longer calls cost more on our side; more calls cost more on theirs. The first two rows are the ones where they honestly win, and the first is free.
| Calls per month | Metered bundles | VocalizeCloud |
|---|---|---|
| 25 calls (~63 min) | $0 - their free plan covers it | $111 ($99 + $12 minutes) |
| 75 calls (~188 min) | $150 bundle | $135 ($99 + $36) |
| 150 calls (~375 min) | $270 bundle | $170 ($99 + $71) |
| 300 calls (~750 min) | $500 bundle | $242 ($99 + $143) |
| 500 calls (~1,250 min) | $800 bundle | $337 ($99 + $238) |
| Human answering | A separate human-staffed product: $300/mo for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300 - roughly $8.50 to $11.50 a call | We do not sell human answering. Transfers go to your own team under your written policy, at no per-transfer fee |
| When you grow | You outgrow bundles and re-shop tiers | The flat part never moves; only minutes scale |
Sources and honesty. Metered figures are Smith.ai's published AI receptionist pricing, read from their site on 2026-07-28: a Free plan at $0 for 25 calls a month, Pro at $150 for 75 calls, $270 for 150 and $500 for 300, and Enterprise at $500 for 300, $800 for 500 and a custom quote above 1,000. Overage runs from $2.10 to $3.00 a call depending on the tier. Their human-staffed answering is a separate product at $300 a month for 30 calls, $810 for 90 and $2,100 for 300. Two things worth knowing if you check for yourself: their AI prices sit behind a call-volume selector, so the card shows a different headline number until you pick the volume we quote, and their page carries no effective date, so it can move without notice. Check smith.ai before deciding. Corrected 2026-07-28: an earlier version of this page said their AI product charged about $3 every time a caller reached a human, and quoted a $95 entry bundle and a $2.40 overage. None of those are accurate. Their AI product has no per-call human-transfer fee at all, and the plan structure has changed. The claim was ours to check and we got it wrong, so it is gone rather than quietly reworded. Our figures are the published VocalizeCloud price and voice rates, live in the stack builder. Out of date? Email care@worldvc.business and we will correct it within a week. Also read: flat pricing vs revenue-share AI and published vs quote-gated suites.
Seven days, thirty minutes of talk time, no card. If it does not answer your phone better than voicemail, walk away and the trial simply ends.