Compare AI Phone Answering in the United Kingdom

How we compare AI phone answering

We list 8 AI phone answering services sold to UK businesses. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor publishes a floor for its largest tier rather than a price, we treat it as a floor and build no plan out of it.

The calculator asks for calls a month and your average call length, and multiplies the two into minutes. For each vendor it costs the published plans, picks the cheapest one whose allowance covers that usage, and adds the vendor's published overage rate where one exists. Above the top published plan it shows a quote rather than an invented figure. Commission does not change the order.

Minutes or calls: the unit AI phone answering bills in

The monthly prices sit in one column while being counted in different things. Some vendors meter talk time in minutes, some meter answered calls, and some meter nothing and charge a flat fee however hard the phone rings.

What each entry price includes, in the vendor's own terms:

• ARROW: 150 minutes
• Clara: No fixed cap (fair use applies)
• Hey Jodie: Unlimited minutes
• LucroVox: 100 calls, 500 min (Starter) up to 2,000 calls, 10,000 min (Enterprise)
• Ringmere: 150 call minutes (Starter), 240 (Growth), 700 (Pro)
• Simple Phones: Up to 100 calls a month (Basic), 500 (Advanced), 2,500 (Premium)
• Team-Connect: 30 AI minutes (Lite), 250 (Business Pro), 750 (Enterprise)

Hold your call volume still and change only the average call length: the minute-metered bills climb once longer calls use up the allowance, while the bills metered only on calls, and the flat-fee ones, stay where they were. Long quote calls burn a minute allowance; short "are you open today" calls waste a per-call tier. Which service is cheapest for you depends on how long your calls run, not just how many arrive.

You do not have to guess the length. Business mobile and VoIP accounts itemise inbound calls with a duration. Take a normal month, count only the calls the AI would actually take (missed, out of hours, unknown numbers), and divide. Ask the vendor what counts as a minute, because ringing, hold and whole-minute rounding are not obviously talk time.

What AI phone answering charges when the allowance runs out

Exceeding your allowance is several different events, not one event with different prices:

• ARROW: 50p a minute (confirmed by the vendor)
• Clara: None, no allowance to exceed
• Hey Jodie: None, minutes are unlimited
• LucroVox: Not published, though the terms say it is charged
• Ringmere: £0.25 a minute (Starter, Growth), £0.20 (Pro)
• Simple Phones: None. Service stops at the call cap
• Team-Connect: Prepaid packs from £34.99 for 150 minutes

A per-minute charge is a bigger invoice you can see afterwards. A prepaid pack means the smallest step past your allowance is a whole pack. A cutoff means calls stop being answered in your best week of the year. And where the rate is not published, get it in writing before you sign. Size the plan against a busy month, not an average one.

UK numbers and sterling pricing for AI phone answering

A UK caller reads the number before anything else. An unfamiliar or overseas prefix is the one that goes unanswered when your receptionist rings back an hour later. Vendors take different positions, and it is not a feature tick:

• ARROW: Yes, UK only, or keep your own
• Clara: Yes, a Clara number, or forward yours
• Hey Jodie: No, you forward your existing number
• LucroVox: Not stated; forward your existing number
• Ringmere: Yes, free UK number, or keep yours
• Simple Phones: Yes, included (UK and Australia covered)
• Team-Connect: Yes, 2 to 10 UK numbers by plan

Forwarding your existing number is a real advantage if it is printed on a van and four directory listings. A supplied number is the advantage if you want a second line.

Currency is not cosmetic either. Simple Phones' local pricing row reads No, US dollars (converted here). A subscription set in US dollars moves with the exchange rate even when the vendor changes nothing, and your card issuer may add a fee. The other rows read as sterling rate cards. Check the VAT basis while you are there, because a rate card can be quoted either way: Ringmere states its basis alongside its currency, Yes, GBP excluding VAT.

Transfers, bookings and the limits of AI phone answering

Every service here that states its hours answers around the clock, and the answering is done by AI, not by a person. What separates them is what happens when the caller needs one:

• ARROW: Yes, to you, or takes a message
• Clara: No, not on any plan you can buy
• Hey Jodie: Yes, on Professional and above. Not on Basic.
• LucroVox: Yes, to your team, or takes a message
• Ringmere: No, email escalation only
• Simple Phones: Yes, to your team or other numbers
• Team-Connect: Yes, live transfer listed on Lite

Transfer to whom is the second question. Team-Connect is the only row that lists vendor-supplied humans, and only on one tier: Yes, on Enterprise only. Everywhere else, any handoff reaches you or your own team. If you were shopping for a traditional answering bureau with staff on the end of it, that is the distinction that matters most.

Booking avoids the callback entirely, and for a plumber or a dental practice a booked slot is the outcome:

Call recording and UK GDPR when AI phone answering picks up

An AI receptionist transcribes by design. The call is captured, converted to text, run through a model, stored and pushed on to you. A recording of a customer call is personal data, and so is the transcript. Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you, not the vendor, decide why the call is processed, and you carry the duty to tell callers. The fixes are ordinary: an announcement at the start of the call, a line in your privacy notice, and a real answer to why the recording exists.

Then it travels. Integrations copy the transcript into other systems, so every hop is another copy of a customer's voice. None of this is legal advice. Put these questions to the vendor in writing before you sign, and set the answers beside the ICO's guidance or your own adviser:

• How are callers told, in what words, and does the announcement play before the AI starts listening?
• How long are recordings and transcripts kept, and can you set that? Indefinite retention by default is the thing to change on day one.
• Where is the audio stored and processed, and by which sub-processors?
• Is there a written processor agreement, and does it cover deletion on termination?
• Can one caller's record be found and deleted on request?

Test all of it with real calls before you commit:

Ring your own line during the trial, ask the awkward question a real customer would ask, then read the transcript it produced.