What a UK telephone answering service costs

Four charging models, and who each one suits

Subscription plus per call

Plan with an included allowance

Bundles with an excess rate

Quoted on your usage

Every figure here was read on the provider's own page on 15 August 2026 and is reproduced, not estimated. Arithmetic in this guide is our own multiplication of those published rates, shown so you can check it, and it excludes VAT treatment, which most providers do not state.

The costs that sit outside the headline

• Message delivery. Answer4u is the only provider here that publishes a per-message charge, at £0.11 per email and £0.17 per SMS receiving number. If three people want the message, that is three charges.
• The phone number. JAM prices a virtual phone system at a stated £5 to £10 a month. ReceptionHQ prices call diversion, voicemail to email and IVR menus at £10 a month each and additional local, London or 0800 numbers at £5 a month, all plus VAT. If you need a number as well as an answering service, price the pair rather than the plan.
• Excess calls. £2.99 a call above a Pocket Receptionist allowance, £1.75 above an Answer4u bundle. A marketing campaign that triples your calls for a month is where a plan gets expensive.
• Call transfers. JAM states specifically that it does not charge a connection fee when you accept a transferred call, which implies the practice exists elsewhere. Ask.

What counts as a call

This is the single most important question on the whole purchase and almost nobody publishes an answer to it. Does a wrong number count? A cold sales call? A caller who hangs up after ten seconds? A call that lasts four minutes because your customer wanted to explain a fault? On a per-call model these questions decide your bill, and on an allowance model they decide whether you blow through the allowance. Get the definition in writing before you sign, and ask specifically how sales and nuisance calls are treated.

Work out your own number first

1. Count the calls you actually miss, not the calls you receive. Your phone system or mobile will tell you, and the number is usually smaller than the fear.
2. Decide the hours you want covered. Nights and weekends are where the price is, and several of these providers sell out of hours only.
3. Multiply your missed call count against two models: subscription plus per call, and the cheapest allowance plan that covers you. The crossover is usually somewhere between twenty and forty calls a month.
4. Ask each shortlisted provider what happens in the month you double, because the answer decides whether the cheap model stays cheap.