UK 2026 — 7 AI Receptionists Ranked

Best AI Receptionist UK 2026: 7 Providers Ranked with Real Prices

By Mathew O'Neill, Founder at Team-Connect · · 18 min read

Disclosure: Team-Connect is our product and is ranked on this page. Most "best AI receptionist" lists are written by the company at the top of them, and this one is no exception, so we have done the thing those lists usually skip: published every provider's real monthly price, stated exactly what that price buys, and written down where each one, including ours, is the wrong choice. Prices verified 5 September 2026 from each provider's own pricing page. No affiliate links.

Seven AI receptionists that answer UK business phones today, compared on the things that decide the bill: what a month costs, how many minutes or calls that covers, whether your call data stays in the UK, and whether you can set it up yourself this afternoon. Team-Connect ranks first for value at £19.99 a month with a UK landline included; Hey Jodie ranks first if you want a flat unlimited fee.

£19.99 to £199 Range of published UK monthly prices, September 2026
The Ranking Compare Prices Provider Reviews What the Price Buys 9-Point Checklist Red Flags FAQ
See the Team-Connect AI Receptionist UK Jump to the Comparison Table
Every provider listed answers UK calls today  ·  Prices are published, not quoted  ·  Weaknesses stated for all seven
The 2026 ranking

The Best AI Receptionists in the UK, Ranked

Ranked on value for a typical UK small business: price against what it buys, UK fit, setup speed and contract terms. One-line verdict on each; full reviews below.

  1. Team-Connect — best value for most UK small businesses. AI answering from £19.99 a month on a no-contract plan that also includes two UK numbers, 250 incoming minutes and SMS credits, with UK-hosted call data. Weakest if you take more than about 40 AI calls a month on the entry plan, because it meters AI minutes rather than offering unlimited. Team-Connect AI Receptionist UK.
  2. Hey Jodie — best flat-fee unlimited plan. £49 a month for unlimited calls, 7 days free, UK-built and self-serve. Weakest if you want a phone number and SMS in the same bill, because it only answers calls you forward to it.
  3. ARROW — best fully managed option for trades. £99 a month all-in, the team builds and trains your receptionist for you in 3 to 7 days. Weakest on price and speed to go live.
  4. IONOS AI Receptionist — best from a large, stable telecoms and hosting brand. Three tiers at £39, £69 and £99 excluding VAT, billed on call allowances. Weakest on UK-specific tuning and on price once VAT is added.
  5. Moneypenny AI Receptionist — best if you want a UK answering incumbent with human receptionists behind the AI. Advertised from £25 a month but priced by quote, and third-party reviews report it being sold alongside a telephone answering subscription. Confirm the standalone price before you sign.
  6. RingCentral AI Receptionist — best if you already run RingCentral. £32 per account per month plus a phone-system seat, so only sensible as an add-on to a phone system you already pay for.
  7. Smith.ai AI Receptionist — best for legal intake and firms on US-style workflows. From about $95 a month in dollars, per-call pricing, human overflow at an extra per-call fee. Weakest on UK fit: US-centric hours, currency and data residency.
Winners by category

Best AI Receptionist UK: Key Findings at a Glance

If you already know what matters most to you, this is the shortcut.

Best Value Overall

Team-Connect AI Receptionist UK — £19.99 a month buys AI answering plus two UK numbers, 250 incoming minutes and SMS and email credits. The only provider on the list where the AI and your business phone line are one bill.

Best Flat Unlimited Plan

Hey Jodie — £49 a month, unlimited calls and minutes, no per-call meter. The right pick once your volume outgrows a metered entry plan and you want a bill that never moves.

Best Fully Managed

ARROW — £99 a month and the vendor does the setup, scripting and training. Aimed squarely at UK trades who want the phone sorted without touching a dashboard.

Best Big-Brand Option

IONOS — £39 to £99 excluding VAT from one of Europe's largest hosting and telecoms groups. Stable, well funded, and a sensible choice if procurement wants a name they recognise.

Best With Human Backup

Moneypenny AI Receptionist — the one UK answering incumbent with a full AI product, trained on its own call history, with live receptionists available behind it. Quote-based, so budget for a sales call.

Best for Legal Intake

Smith.ai — polished intake, CRM integrations and a Clio connection that law firms rate highly. Dollar pricing and US hours make it a considered choice rather than a default for a UK firm.

Prices and plan details on this page were checked against each provider's own published pricing on 5 September 2026 and will be re-verified quarterly. If a price has changed, tell us and we will correct it.

How we ranked

How We Ranked the Best AI Receptionists in the UK

An AI receptionist is software that answers your business line itself, holds a conversation, works out what the caller wants, then books, takes a message or transfers. That is a different product from a telephone answering service, where a human in a call centre picks up. Several famous UK "receptionist" brands are answering services first, and some now sell an AI product alongside. We have only included providers where an AI answers the call as the primary product.

We scored each provider on six things. First, the published monthly price, and we excluded anyone whose pricing is quote-only with no published figure at all. Second, what that price actually buys: minutes, calls, or unlimited, because a £19.99 plan with 30 minutes and a £49 plan with unlimited minutes are different products aimed at different volumes. Third, UK fit: British voices, UK number formats, UK data hosting. Fourth, whether you can set it up yourself the same day or must wait for onboarding. Fifth, contract terms and whether you can leave after a month. Sixth, how the captured lead reaches you and how fast.

We did not score on brand size, funding or review-site star counts, all of which are gamed in this category. We have run our own product against every provider's public pricing, terms and documentation, called several of them, and stated the weaknesses of our own service in the same terms we use for everyone else's.

Head to head

UK AI Receptionist Comparison Table: 7 Providers, September 2026

Scroll sideways on mobile. Prices are the provider's published entry price for the AI product; where a provider only quotes, we say so.

Factor Team-Connect Hey Jodie ARROW IONOS Moneypenny AI RingCentral AI Smith.ai
Entry price (AI plan) £19.99/mo £49/mo £99/mo £39/mo ex VAT From £25/mo advertised, quote-based £32/mo + phone seat From $95/mo (USD)
What the entry price buys 30 AI minutes, 250 incoming minutes, 2 UK numbers, 20 SMS, 50 emails Unlimited calls and minutes Managed receptionist, all-in Call allowance per tier Not published AI answering on your RingCentral numbers Around 50 to 60 calls
Higher tiers £79.99 (250 AI min), £199.99 (750 AI min); AI packs from £34.99/150 min £99, £199; Enterprise from £500 Single plan £69, £99 ex VAT Quote Per account Up to about $800/mo
Pricing model Metered AI minutes, buy-once top-ups never expire Flat unlimited Flat all-in Call allowance Quote, reports of per-call charges Per account plus seats Per call, overage per call
UK phone number included Yes, 2 numbers, porting available No, forward your own No, forward your own Partial, via IONOS telephony No Yes, via seat No
Built and tuned for UK callers Yes, British voices, UK postcodes Yes Yes Partial, European product Yes Partial, global product No, US-centric
UK-hosted call data Yes Ask Ask EU Yes Ask US
24/7 answering Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Live transfer to a human Yes, to your mobile or team Yes, to you Yes, to you Yes Yes, to their receptionists, extra cost Yes Yes, to their agents, per-call fee
Appointment booking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes
Lead summary to you SMS + email after every call, transcript in dashboard Text + email Email, SMS, WhatsApp Email Email, app In RingCentral Email, CRM sync
Self-serve setup Yes, same day Yes, minutes No, managed, 3 to 7 days Yes No, sales call Yes, if on RingCentral Partial, setup step
Contract Monthly rolling, no contract Monthly, no contract Monthly Monthly Monthly, terms by quote Per RingCentral plan Monthly, annual price-lock option
Free trial No, cancel after month one 7 days, no card Yes Varies By arrangement Via RingCentral Limited free tier

Team-Connect data from our own pricing. Competitor data from each provider's published pricing page, checked 5 September 2026. "Ask" means the provider does not publish where call audio and transcripts are stored; request it in writing before signing if you are in a regulated sector.

Full reviews

The 7 Best AI Receptionists in the UK Reviewed

Who each one is for, what it costs in practice, and where it falls down.

Rank 1 · Best value overall

Team-Connect

From £19.99/mo · AI answering

Team-Connect is our own product, built in Macclesfield and run by DadLink Technologies Limited. It is the only provider on this page where the AI receptionist and your business phone line are the same subscription. The Lite plan at £19.99 a month includes two UK numbers (a landline and an SMS-capable mobile), 250 incoming minutes, 30 AI minutes, 20 SMS credits and 50 email credits. Pro at £79.99 raises that to 250 AI minutes and 750 incoming minutes across three numbers; Enterprise at £199.99 gives 750 AI minutes, 1,500 incoming minutes and ten numbers. Annual billing takes 25% off. If you run out of AI minutes you buy a pack (150 minutes for £34.99, 500 for £99.99, 1,000 for £169.99) and unused minutes never expire.

The AI answers in a British voice, takes the caller's name, number and reason for calling, books into your calendar, and can transfer urgent calls to your mobile mid-conversation. After every call you get an SMS and an email summary, and the full transcript sits in your dashboard. Call data, recordings and transcripts are processed and stored in the UK. Setup is self-serve and most customers are live the same day.

Where it wins

  • Lowest published price for real AI answering in the UK
  • UK numbers, SMS and email credits in the same bill
  • UK-hosted data with a DPA available for regulated sectors
  • Buy-once AI minute packs that never expire
  • Monthly rolling, no contract, same-day self-serve setup

Where it loses

  • AI minutes are metered, not unlimited; 30 minutes covers roughly 15 to 25 typical calls
  • Above about 40 AI calls a month Lite stops being the cheapest option (see the price reality section)
  • No free trial: you pay for month one and cancel if it is not right
  • Transfers go to your own team; there is no vendor-staffed human overflow desk
  • The £9.99 Starter plan is a landline only and includes no AI answering
Verdict: the best value for sole traders and small teams taking up to a few dozen AI-answered calls a month who also want a proper UK business number. Read the full product page: AI Receptionist UK, or see AI receptionist pricing in detail.
Rank 2 · Best flat unlimited plan

Hey Jodie

£49 / £99 / £199 per month

Hey Jodie is a UK-built AI receptionist that does one thing cleanly: you forward your calls, Jodie answers 24/7, asks your qualifying questions, books or takes the message, and texts you the details. Every plan includes unlimited calls and minutes with no per-call meter, which makes the bill completely predictable. Basic is £49, Professional £99 and Premium £199, with an Enterprise tier from £500 for API access and integrations. There is a 7-day free trial with no card required, month-to-month billing and no setup fee.

The trade-off is scope. Jodie only answers calls you forward to it; it does not supply your phone number, SMS marketing or a business landline, so you keep paying your existing provider for those. If your volume is high enough that a metered plan would cost more than £49, or you simply want a fixed bill, this is the plan to beat.

Where it wins

  • Unlimited calls and minutes on every plan
  • 7 days free, no card, live in minutes
  • UK-built and tuned for UK service businesses
  • Very simple: forward, answer, text summary

Where it loses

  • £49 is two and a half times Team-Connect Lite for a low-volume business
  • No phone numbers, SMS or landline included
  • Data hosting location not clearly published; ask
Verdict: the right choice once you take more than about 40 AI calls a month and want a fixed bill, or if you already have a phone system you are happy with and only need the answering layer.
Rank 3 · Best fully managed for trades

ARROW

£99 per month, all-in

ARROW sells a fully managed AI receptionist aimed at UK trades. You book an onboarding call, the team builds and trains the receptionist (named Bow) around your business, and it goes live in 3 to 7 days. It answers 24/7, books jobs, captures leads and can follow up by email, SMS or WhatsApp. The price is a flat £99 a month with a free trial advertised.

This is the option for a busy tradesperson who does not want to configure anything. The cost of that convenience is the price, five times Team-Connect Lite and double Hey Jodie, and the wait to go live. If you are comfortable with a dashboard, the self-serve providers above give you the same core capability for less.

Where it wins

  • Vendor does all setup, scripting and training
  • Built specifically for UK trades
  • WhatsApp follow-up as well as SMS and email

Where it loses

  • Highest entry price of the UK-built options
  • 3 to 7 days to go live versus same day elsewhere
  • Single plan; no cheaper tier for low volume
Verdict: pick ARROW if you would rather pay £99 than spend an hour in a dashboard, and you can wait a week.
Rank 4 · Best big-brand option

IONOS AI Receptionist

£39 / £69 / £99 per month ex VAT

IONOS is one of Europe's largest web hosting and telecoms groups and sells an AI receptionist in three tiers at £39, £69 and £99 a month excluding VAT, billed on call allowances rather than minutes. It is self-serve, answers 24/7, books appointments and emails you the outcome. The appeal is stability: a large listed company that is not going anywhere, which matters if procurement or a cautious partner is signing off.

The weaknesses are UK tuning and the true price. It is a European product rather than a UK-native one, so test it with strong regional accents before committing, and remember that £39 excluding VAT is £46.80 including, which puts it close to Hey Jodie's unlimited plan for a capped allowance.

Where it wins

  • Large, stable, well-known brand
  • Self-serve, three clear tiers
  • EU data handling under GDPR

Where it loses

  • Prices quoted ex VAT; add 20%
  • Call allowances, not unlimited
  • Less UK-specific than the British-built options
Verdict: a safe, unexciting choice for businesses that want a household name on the invoice.
Rank 5 · Best with human backup

Moneypenny AI Receptionist

Advertised from £25 per month, quote-based

Moneypenny is the UK's best-known telephone answering brand, based in Wrexham, and the one incumbent with a full AI receptionist product. It is trained on the company's own history of real business calls, works 24/7, takes messages, books appointments and qualifies leads, and can escalate to Moneypenny's live receptionists when a caller needs a person. The UK page advertises it from £25 a month.

The catch is that the pricing is by quote, and several independent reviews report the AI being sold alongside a telephone answering subscription with per-call charges above the plan, rather than as a standalone £25 product. We could not confirm the standalone price without a sales call, so treat the £25 figure as a starting point and get the total monthly cost, including any required answering plan and overage rates, in writing before you sign.

Where it wins

  • Trusted UK brand with two decades of call handling
  • Live human receptionists behind the AI
  • UK-based, UK data

Where it loses

  • Quote-based; true monthly cost not published
  • Reports of bundling with an answering subscription
  • Onboarding through a sales process, not same day
Verdict: worth a call if you want human receptionists as a fallback from a name you trust, provided you pin down the real total before committing.
Rank 6 · Best if you already use RingCentral

RingCentral AI Receptionist

£32 per account per month, plus a phone-system seat

RingCentral's AI Receptionist is an add-on to its cloud phone system, priced at £32 per account per month on top of the seat you already pay for. Inside a RingCentral estate it is well integrated: it answers on your existing numbers, routes to your extensions and logs into the same admin console. Outside one, it makes little sense, because you would be buying a whole phone system to get the receptionist.

Where it wins

  • Seamless if you are already a RingCentral customer
  • Answers on your existing numbers and extensions

Where it loses

  • Requires a RingCentral phone seat, so the true cost is £32 plus the seat
  • Global product, not UK-tuned
  • Not a standalone purchase
Verdict: an easy yes for existing RingCentral customers and a no for everyone else.
Rank 7 · Best for legal intake

Smith.ai AI Receptionist

From about $95 per month (USD)

Smith.ai blends an AI receptionist with a live human intake team and has a strong reputation with law firms, financial services and agencies in North America. The AI product starts at around $95 a month for roughly 50 to 60 calls, with per-call pricing and per-call overage, and complex calls can be warm-transferred to a human agent for an additional per-call fee. Intake scripting, lead qualification and CRM integrations (Clio in particular) are polished.

For a UK small business the fit is weaker: pricing is in dollars, support and agents run on US hours, and data residency questions need asking up front. It is on this list because UK firms searching for an AI receptionist will meet the name, and because for a law firm running US-style intake it may still be the right tool.

Where it wins

  • Best-in-class legal intake and Clio integration
  • AI plus human agents in one service

Where it loses

  • Dollar pricing, US hours, US data hosting
  • Per-call model gets expensive on busy months
  • Not tuned for British callers
Verdict: shortlist it if you are a professional-services firm with high-value intake and existing US-facing workflows; otherwise choose a UK-built option.
What the price actually buys

Cheapest Is Not Always Cheapest: Cost Per Call at Real Volumes

Headline prices mislead because the plans include different amounts of answering. Here is what each costs at three realistic monthly volumes, assuming a typical AI call lasts about 1.5 minutes.

Sole trader · 15 calls a month
£19.99

Team-Connect Lite covers this comfortably inside 30 AI minutes and includes your landline. Hey Jodie costs £49, IONOS £46.80 with VAT, ARROW £99. About £1.33 per answered call, and you have a business number for nothing extra.

Small team · 60 calls a month
£49

Hey Jodie Basic is the cheapest here: unlimited, so 60 calls cost £49. Team-Connect Lite would need a top-up (£19.99 + £34.99 pack = £54.98) or a move to Pro at £79.99. This is the volume where a flat unlimited plan starts to win.

Busy clinic · 200 calls a month
£49 to £79.99

Hey Jodie stays at £49. Team-Connect Pro at £79.99 covers about 165 calls in 250 AI minutes plus three numbers and 750 landline minutes; the extra £30 buys the phone system. Per-call providers like Smith.ai run past £150 at this volume.

The pattern is simple. Below roughly 40 AI-answered calls a month, a metered plan with a bundled phone line is the cheapest way to get answered. Above that, a flat unlimited plan wins on the answering alone, and the question becomes whether you also want your numbers, SMS and landline minutes on the same bill. Work out your real monthly volume from your current call log before you compare anyone's headline price, ours included.

Use this on anyone, including us

How to Choose an AI Receptionist in the UK: 9-Point Checklist

Nine questions that expose the difference between a demo and a product. Ask every vendor all nine before you sign.

How many minutes or calls are included, and what happens at the limit?

Get the number and the overage rate in writing. A cheap plan with expensive overage can cost more than an unlimited plan by month two.

Where is the call audio processed and where are transcripts stored?

UK, EU or US. If you are legal, medical or financial, you need a UK GDPR data processing agreement and a straight answer.

Can I hear it handle a strong regional accent before I pay?

Call the demo line with a Glaswegian, Geordie or Brummie colleague. A product tuned on American speech will show it within a minute.

What does the caller hear when the AI cannot help?

It should transfer to a named number, take a message and confirm, or offer a callback. It should never loop or hang up.

How fast does the lead reach me, and by what channel?

SMS within seconds is the standard. Email-only means you find out about the emergency call when you next open your inbox.

Do I need a new number, or does it work on my existing one?

All good providers accept forwarding. The better ones also give you numbers and can port yours in, so the AI can be your whole line, not just the overflow.

Can I set it up and change it myself?

If every script change needs a support ticket, you will stop making changes. Look for a dashboard where you edit the greeting and questions directly.

What is the contract, and how do I leave?

Monthly rolling with cancellation in the dashboard is the benchmark. Be wary of anything that needs a phone call to cancel.

Who is actually behind the product?

A registered UK company with a real address, a phone number that a human answers, and a public roadmap. Resellers of white-labelled US platforms rarely have all three.

Watch for these

Red Flags When Choosing a UK AI Receptionist

"From £X" with no plan behind it. A starting price that does not correspond to a plan you can actually buy for that money is the most common trick in this category. If the cheapest plan does not include AI answering, the AI does not start at that price. We have made this mistake ourselves in older copy and corrected it: Team-Connect AI answering starts at £19.99, not at the £9.99 landline plan.

Star ratings without a source. A 4.9 rating from thousands of reviews that you cannot find on any independent site is a self-published number. Look for the review platform and read the negative ones.

Quote-only pricing for a software product. Software has a price. A sales call to learn what an AI receptionist costs usually means the price depends on what the salesperson thinks you will pay, or that the AI is bundled with something you did not ask for.

Dollar pricing on a UK page. It tells you where the product was built, where the support team wakes up and, often, where your call audio goes.

No live demo number. If you cannot ring the receptionist and hear it before you pay, the vendor is not confident you would.

Cancellation by phone or email only. If you cannot cancel where you signed up, expect to be talked out of it.

Common questions

Best AI Receptionist UK: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best AI receptionist in the UK in 2026?

For most UK small businesses taking up to around 40 AI-answered calls a month, Team-Connect is the best value at £19.99 a month including a UK landline number, SMS credits and 30 AI minutes. For businesses taking more calls than that and wanting a flat unlimited fee, Hey Jodie at £49 a month is the strongest alternative. Trades that want the setup done for them should look at ARROW at £99 a month.

How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK?

Published UK prices in September 2026 run from £19.99 a month (Team-Connect Lite, 30 AI minutes) to around £199 a month for high-volume plans. Hey Jodie charges £49, £99 and £199 for unlimited calls. IONOS charges £39, £69 and £99 excluding VAT on call allowances. ARROW is £99 all-in. Moneypenny advertises its AI Receptionist from £25 but prices by quote. Smith.ai starts at about 95 US dollars a month.

Is a cheaper AI receptionist worse?

Not necessarily. The cheaper plans are cheaper because they include fewer minutes or calls, not because the AI is worse. A £19.99 plan with 30 AI minutes is excellent value for a sole trader taking 15 to 25 calls a month, and poor value for a busy clinic taking 200. Match the included minutes or calls to your real volume before comparing headline prices.

Do AI receptionists understand British accents?

The UK-built services on this list (Team-Connect, Hey Jodie, ARROW, Moneypenny) are trained and tested on British callers and handle regional accents, UK postcodes and UK phone number formats. US-built services work in the UK but are tuned for American callers, dollar pricing and US business hours, so test them with a strong regional accent before committing.

Is my call data stored in the UK?

It depends on the provider. Team-Connect processes and stores call data, recordings and transcripts in the UK. Other providers vary and some route audio through US-hosted speech services. If you are in a regulated sector such as legal, healthcare or financial services, ask each vendor where audio is processed, where transcripts are stored and whether a UK GDPR data processing agreement is available.

Can an AI receptionist transfer urgent calls to a human?

Yes, all seven providers on this list offer live transfer to your mobile or team for calls that need a person. Moneypenny and Smith.ai can also hand off to their own human receptionists at an extra per-call cost. Team-Connect, Hey Jodie, ARROW and IONOS transfer to your own staff.

Can I keep my existing business phone number?

Yes. Every provider reviewed works by forwarding your existing landline or mobile to the AI. Team-Connect also includes UK landline numbers in every plan and can port your existing number in, so you can run your whole business line through it rather than only the overflow.

Which AI receptionist offers a free trial?

Hey Jodie offers 7 days free with no card required, and ARROW advertises a free trial. Team-Connect does not offer a free trial: plans are monthly rolling with no contract, so you can cancel after the first month if it is not right for you. Moneypenny and Smith.ai require a sales conversation or setup before service starts.

How did you rank these AI receptionists?

We ranked on value for a typical UK small business: published monthly price against what that price actually buys (minutes or calls), UK voice and data hosting, whether you can set it up yourself the same day, contract terms, and how quickly captured leads reach you. Team-Connect is our own product and is included with its weaknesses stated. We have no affiliate relationships with any provider listed.

Choosing Your AI Receptionist

If you take a few dozen calls a month and want your business number, SMS and AI answering on one bill, start with the Team-Connect AI Receptionist UK at £19.99 a month, no contract. If you take more than that and want a flat fee, trial Hey Jodie. If you want it built for you and can wait a week, call ARROW. Whichever you pick, ring the demo line first and ask the nine questions above.

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