The short answer
Hiring a receptionist is the right call when the front desk is part of your service. An AI receptionist is the better fit when the problem is calls nobody answers. The cost gap is large, but cost is not the only question. Hours covered, call type and what a missed call costs you matter as much.
This page is about one decision: an employee at your desk or an AI on your phone. It puts numbers on the hire using US government data, compares coverage and the work each does better, and shows how the two work together. For a remote human service (a virtual receptionist or answering service) and vendor prices, read AI receptionist vs virtual receptionist. For the payback arithmetic on missed calls, read is an AI receptionist worth it.
What a receptionist costs: wages
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes wages for receptionists and information clerks in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. Here are the May 2025 figures:
| Area | Median hourly wage | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $18.27 | $38,010 |
| Massachusetts | $21.09 | $43,870 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area | $21.12 | $43,930 |
A median is the middle: half of receptionists earn more, half earn less. The annual figures assume full-time, year-round work. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook lists the typical entry requirement for the job as a high school diploma or equivalent, and describes the work as answering phones, taking messages, greeting visitors and scheduling appointments.
Those are wages. They are not what the hire costs you.
What a receptionist costs: the employer’s total
BLS also publishes Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). For private industry in June 2026, the average employer paid $46.89 per hour worked in total compensation. Of that, $32.82 (70.0 percent) was wages and salaries and $14.07 (30.0 percent) was benefits.
The benefits break down like this, per hour worked:
| Component | Per hour worked | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Paid leave | $3.54 | 7.5% |
| Insurance | $3.69 | 7.9% |
| Retirement and savings | $1.57 | 3.3% |
| Supplemental pay (bonuses, overtime) | $1.88 | 4.0% |
| Legally required (Social Security and Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation) | $3.40 | 7.2% |
For office and administrative support jobs in private industry, which includes receptionists, BLS lists total compensation of $36.73 per hour, with $25.22 in wages (68.7 percent) and $11.51 in benefits (31.3 percent).
Read the percentages carefully. Benefits are about 30 percent of the total cost, not 30 percent on top of the wage. Measured against the wage, they add about 43 percent for private industry overall ($14.07 on $32.82) and about 46 percent for office and administrative jobs ($11.51 on $25.22).
A worked example (for illustration)
This applies that office and administrative share to the BLS median wages. It is a rough estimate, not a quote and not a result from any business.
| Wage (BLS median) | Estimated total cost at 31.3% benefits | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $38,010 | about $55,300 a year |
| Boston area | $43,930 | about $63,900 a year |
The arithmetic: divide the wage by 0.687 (the wage share of total compensation). Your own cost depends on the benefits you actually offer. A part-time hire, or a small employer that offers fewer benefits, will land lower. A hire with family health coverage will land higher.
The ECEC figures count wages and benefits only. They leave out the cost of recruiting, training, a desk and phone, software, and your time managing the person. Add those when you budget.
What an AI receptionist costs
Next to a salary, an AI plan is a small line. Published self-serve plans from Dialzara and Rosie ran $29-$349 a month in October 2026, depending on minutes, and Dialzara lists a done-for-you tier from $1,500 a month, by quote. Even the done-for-you price is about a third of the monthly cost of the national median hire in the example above (about $4,600). The full vendor table, with cost for the same 100 calls, is in AI receptionist vs virtual receptionist.
Our own prices: setup costs from $900, and phone answering is from $299/month (about 300 minutes). See what an AI chatbot or AI receptionist costs for what is and is not included.
Not included in our prices: third-party software subscriptions (billed at cost), SMS carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) and message fees, and AI usage above the plan allowance.
Coverage: the hours a person cannot work
Cost is only half of it. A full-time employee works about 40 hours. There are 168 hours in a week, so one person covers about a quarter of them, and less after breaks, vacations and sick days. The rest goes to voicemail unless you add another hire, an answering service or an AI.
This is where an AI receptionist changes the picture. It answers at 2am, on Sunday, on holidays and when the line is busy. If you need that, see after-hours answering and overflow call answering.
What a person does better
An AI receptionist handles repeat calls well. A person is better at:
- Upset, frightened or grieving callers. Tone and judgment matter here, and a script does not supply them.
- Requests that fit no list. A custom job, a favor for a regular client, a complaint about a bill.
- Anyone physically present. Greeting a walk-in, taking a payment, handing over a package, calming a waiting room.
- Judgment about whom to interrupt you for. The right call at dinner is a decision, not a rule.
- Several tasks at once. A person also files, orders supplies, checks people in and notices that the printer is jammed.
- Relationships. Callers who have dealt with the same person for years.
Some jobs belong to a person by default. In a clinic, the person at the desk handles clinical questions and checks patients in. In a law firm, staff handle legal questions. This is not legal advice, but an assistant that books and takes messages is a different job from one that advises.
What an AI receptionist does better
- Hours. Every hour of the week, with no sick days.
- Repeat questions. Hours, service area, whether you do a type of job.
- Consistency. The same greeting and the same questions on every call.
- Volume. A person can only take one call at a time. Ask any vendor how many simultaneous calls the plan handles.
- Records. A name, number, reason and summary after every call.
It has limits too. It can give a wrong answer, mishear a name or loop on an unusual question. Pick a setup with approved answers, a clear handoff and a weekly review of call summaries. We say the same in is an AI receptionist worth it, and does AI phone answering sound human covers what callers notice.
AI receptionist vs human receptionist: the comparison table
| Human receptionist (employee) | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost basis | Wage plus benefits (about 30% of total pay cost), plus hiring and training | Setup plus a monthly plan, with minute allowances |
| US median wage | $38,010 a year | Not applicable |
| Boston-area median wage | $43,930 a year | Not applicable |
| Hours covered | About 40 of 168 a week | All 168 |
| Calls at the same moment | One at a time | Depends on the setup; ask the vendor |
| Upset or unusual callers | Strong | Weak; hands off to a person |
| In-person work | Yes | No |
| Booking | Yes, in your system | Yes, if connected to a calendar |
| Time to start | Recruiting, hiring and training | Setup, then a test phase |
| Records after each call | Notes, if written | Summary on every call |
| Main risk | Gaps in coverage, turnover | Wrong answers, awkward calls |
Hybrid setups that work
You do not have to pick one. These are four ways to split the work, and each one is a decision about which calls go where.
- Person by day, AI after hours. The receptionist runs the desk. The AI answers evenings, weekends and holidays, books or takes a message, and sends a summary in the morning.
- Person first, AI for overflow. The AI picks up when the person is on another call, at lunch or out sick.
- AI first, person for flagged calls. The AI answers every call and takes the details. Callers who ask for a person, or whose request matches a rule you wrote, reach a person or get a callback. Whether that is a live transfer or an alert depends on your phone setup, and we agree it in the written scope.
- AI on the phone, person on everything else. If the phone takes up most of the receptionist’s day, an AI can free the person for in-person work, scheduling and follow-up.
If the AI books appointments, it needs access to your calendar or booking tool. See AI appointment booking.
How to decide
Use these questions, in order.
- How many calls go unanswered each week, and what is a job worth? If missed calls cost you more than a plan, start with AI.
- How much of the receptionist’s day is the phone? If it is most of the day, AI can take a lot of that. If it is a small part, a hire is mostly about the desk.
- Do you need the hours outside your open times? A person alone cannot give you those.
- Are your calls routine or sensitive? Sensitive calls point to a person first.
- Can you afford a hire now? The annual cost above is a commitment. A monthly AI plan you can cancel is a smaller one.
A low-risk way to start: keep (or hire) the person for the desk, put the AI on after-hours and overflow, and review a month of call summaries before you change anything else.
Where Magnet Mint fits
We set up AI phone answering with answers you approve, a spoken AI disclosure and a handoff to a person or a message. If you want to try it yourself, PhoneAnswer is our self-serve AI receptionist. If you want it built for you, CallReply is our done-for-you AI phone agent. Not sure which setup fits your calls? Ask for a free demo and we will tell you honestly whether a hire, an AI, or both make sense.
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