Smith.ai Alternative: Pricing, 30-Day Notice and How to Switch

Smith.ai bills by the call, publishes a per-call overage rate on every plan, and asks for 30 days' notice to cancel its AI Receptionist and Hybrid plans. This page starts with how to leave cleanly, then lays out the current numbers, how calls and spam are counted, and how a per-minute receptionist compares.

How to leave Smith.ai, step by step

Pick your last day of service and count back 30 days if you are on an AI Receptionist or Hybrid plan. Human Virtual Receptionist plans bill through the end of the current monthly cycle.
Submit the cancellation request. For AI Receptionist: Dashboard, then Settings, then Request Cancellation under "Change Plan or Cancel." Smith.ai's help article says the request does not stop service immediately; support contacts you to finish it, and you cannot schedule a future-dated cancellation.
Email [email protected] at the same time, asking for written confirmation of your final billing date.
If Smith.ai holds your number, port it before your end date. Start the port with your new provider. Smith.ai charges no fee to port in or out, though other carriers may, and Smith.ai says porting takes about 7 to 10 business days, with a few hours of downtime during the switch.
If you forward your number instead, change the forwarding at your phone carrier on your switch day.
Use your 10% removal allowance in your last cycle for spam or test calls that were counted.
Check the final invoice against the date Smith.ai confirmed.

Smith.ai's current pricing and terms (checked November 2026)

AI Receptionist plans (AI Receptionist pricing page):

Free: $0 a month for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call.
Pro: $150 a month for 75 calls; each extra call is $2.50. Larger Pro tiers of 150 and 300 calls lower the extra-call rate to $2.30 and $2.17.
Enterprise: $500 a month for 300 calls; each extra call is $2.17. Larger tiers are priced separately.
What counts: every call the AI answers counts toward your quota by default. Calls from known spammers that are filtered before the AI answers do not count, and you may remove up to 10% of your calls from each bill.
Cancelling: the page says: "If you ever cancel, we need 30 days' notice, and then you're done."
Spanish: Smith.ai's June 5, 2025 announcement says Spanish on the AI Receptionist comes at no additional cost.

Hybrid plans (AI plus human) start at about $2.50 a call. The Hybrid page says it is month to month and asks for 30 days' notice to cancel.

Human Virtual Receptionist plans (receptionist pricing page):

Starter: $300 a month for 30 calls, then $11.50 a call.
Basic: $810 a month for 90 calls, then $10.50 a call.
Pro: $2,100 a month for 300 calls, then $8.50 a call.
Spam: spam and wrong numbers do not count when the lines you forward pass Caller ID.
Cancelling: month to month; Smith.ai bills through the end of the current monthly cycle. No notice period is stated.
Extras: a 10% discount for a 12-month commitment, and a dedicated Spanish line at $1.00 a call.

Money-back guarantee (help center, updated January 8, 2026): new clients on Starter, Basic, Pro and Custom plans get 30 days, with refunds up to $1,000; overage is not refunded.

What per-call billing means in practice

A call is billed as one unit whether it lasts 20 seconds or 12 minutes. On AI Pro, a 100-call month costs $150 plus 25 extra calls at $2.50, or $212.50. That is predictable when call volume is steady. It gets expensive when volume jumps for reasons you do not control, such as a wave of robocalls that gets past the filter. Smith.ai's help center says some unwanted callers slip through before the system identifies them, which is why the 10% removal allowance exists.

Per-minute billing works the other way: short calls cost little and long calls cost more. If those same 100 calls average three minutes, that is 300 minutes, which fits our Starter plan at $149.

What customers report

Smith.ai's reviews are strong overall: 4.9 out of 5 across 49 Capterra reviews and 4.8 across 33 G2 reviews for the AI Receptionist. The BBB lists two complaints in the last 12 months, both marked unanswered. Each report below is one customer's account, paraphrased, as shown on the source page in November 2026.

BBB, November 25, 2025. A business says waves of spam calls were counted as billable even after it blocked 163 numbers, leaving "over $300 in overages at $2.20 per call." The complainant says Smith.ai later opened a formal review.
BBB, December 1, 2025. A customer says it cancelled a trial within a week, then found monthly charges of $100.94 going back to June 2025, and was offered a refund by check.
Capterra, September 2, 2026. An attorney with six years on the service gives five stars and says the only complaint is that Smith.ai would not sell a smaller block of calls.

Smith.ai and Keepdesk side by side

	Smith.ai AI Receptionist (checked November 2026)	Keepdesk
How billing is counted	Per call	Per minute
Overage	$3.00 (Free), $2.50 (Pro), $2.17 (Enterprise) per extra call	$0.25 a minute
Cancelling	30 days' notice; request processed manually	From the billing page, same day, no exit fee
Entry price	Pro at $150 for 75 calls	Starter at $149 for 300 minutes

If you want a person answering every call, Smith.ai's human receptionists are a different product; compare those plans on their own terms.

About Keepdesk

Keepdesk is an AI phone receptionist that we set up for you.

Plans. Starter: $149 a month, 300 minutes. Front Desk: $297 a month, 800 minutes, adding calendar booking, live emergency transfer, English and Spanish, and a weekly calls-to-look-at email. Executive: $497 a month, 1,500 minutes, with everything in Front Desk, plus up to three lines, priority phone support, and a monthly tuning call.
Setup. $297 one time, done for you on one 30-minute call. Setup is free if you are switching from another answering service or phone platform, such as Podium, Birdeye, Weave, Thryv or Jobber.
Overage. $0.25 a minute, with a text alert at 80 percent of your plan. Spam, robocalls, hang-ups and calls under 15 seconds are never billed.
Commitment. Month to month, no contract. Cancel from the billing page, same day, no exit fee. We revert your forwarding the same day.
Your number. You keep your number. If you leave, it goes with you, free. Most clients keep their number with their own phone company and forward calls to us.
Support. Our AI assistant, Sam, answers your Keepdesk line 24/7. A real person answers support email within one business day, usually the same day. Same-day help if your line stops working.
How the AI handles callers. It tries twice to understand, then takes a message or transfers. It never invents prices.
Texting. Missed-call text-back is coming soon; it is not available today.
60-day promise. If Keepdesk does not pay for itself in recovered jobs within the first 60 days, cancel and keep the setup work.

Not sure yet? We offer a free missed-call audit: we call your line the way a customer would and show you what we find. Request your free missed-call audit.

Keepdesk was founded by Vince Sandlin, who spent 21 years in commercial flooring in the Dallas area, the last 11 as founder and CEO of a high-volume contracting firm.

Hear a sample call at (469) 535-7496; it answers as a sample garage door company. Start at getkeepdesk.com/start, call us at (945) 523-3430, or email [email protected].

Sources

Every page below was re-opened November 12, 2026.

See plans and start Free missed-call audit