AI receptionist for UK small businesses: what it costs, who sells it and what to check first (2026)

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AI receptionists in the UK at a glance: IONOS and Fasthosts at £39, £69 or £99 a month, Hey Jodie at £49, £99 or £199 with unlimited minutes, Moneypenny from £49 on a quote with human handover, all before VAT

An AI receptionist answers your business phone 24 hours a day, takes messages, books appointments into your calendar and emails you a summary, for £39 to £99 a month before VAT from the UK providers with published prices. It suits sole traders, tradespeople, salons, clinics and small firms that miss calls while working. The two cheapest options, IONOS and Fasthosts, sell the same three tiers; Hey Jodie charges a flat fee with unlimited minutes; Moneypenny adds real people when the AI gets stuck, on a quoted price. This guide compares them, explains what the price includes and lists the UK GDPR checks to make before you divert a single call.

Last updated 22 October 2026. Written by Annie, a search and digital marketing specialist. Prices and features checked on each provider's own UK page on 22 October 2026; I have called the demo lines but have not run any of these services for a business. See the editorial policy.

Key facts

  • What it does: answers calls in a natural voice, answers questions from your website or documents, takes messages, books appointments, forwards urgent calls to you and emails a summary of every call
  • Published UK prices: IONOS and Fasthosts £39, £69 or £99 a month; Hey Jodie £49, £99 or £199; Moneypenny from £49 on a quote. All exclude VAT
  • Free trials: one month at IONOS and Fasthosts, seven days at Hey Jodie, a demo line at Moneypenny
  • Your number: you keep it and forward calls, all the time or only when busy or closed
  • Set-up: under 15 minutes from a dashboard at IONOS, Fasthosts and Hey Jodie; a few days with a named person at Moneypenny
  • Data: IONOS and Fasthosts host call data in EU data centres and say they do not train AI on it; Fasthosts does not record calls; Hey Jodie records calls and is a London company registered with the ICO
AI receptionists in the UK at a glance: IONOS and Fasthosts at £39, £69 or £99 a month, Hey Jodie at £49, £99 or £199 with unlimited minutes, Moneypenny from £49 on a quote with human handover, all before VAT
Four UK AI receptionist providers at a glance. Prices before VAT, checked 22 October 2026.

On this page

What is an AI receptionist?

An AI receptionist is a phone number that an AI agent answers. You forward your existing business number to it, either all the time or only when you are busy or closed. The AI picks up in a voice you choose, holds a normal conversation, and does a short list of jobs: answers common questions using your website or documents, takes a message, books an appointment into Google Calendar or Outlook, or puts the call through to you when it matters. After each call you get an email summary with the caller's details.

It is not a phone menu. There is no "press 1 for sales". The caller just talks, and the better services switch language mid-call, handle several callers at once and refuse to guess when they do not know an answer. The weak spots are the same as any voice agent: an unusual accent, a caller who talks over it, and anything outside the brief you gave it. Fasthosts says UK small businesses miss between 15% and 40% of their calls each week; that is the gap these services are selling into.

How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK?

Between £39 and £199 a month before VAT for a self-service plan, and from £49 on a quote for a managed one. The price is set by how many calls you take and what the AI is allowed to do, not by the quality of the voice. Three pricing models are in use:

  • Calls included, then a price per call. IONOS and Fasthosts: £39 a month for 30 calls then £0.49 a call, £69 for 100 calls then £0.39 a call, or £99 for unlimited calls. A wrong number costs the same as a booking.
  • Flat fee, unlimited minutes, features by tier. Hey Jodie: £49 a month answers and takes messages; £99 adds appointment booking, call transfers and team members; £199 adds Zapier integrations and priority support.
  • Quoted, with real people behind the AI. Moneypenny: "from £49 a month", priced after a call about what you need, with its own receptionists available 24/7 to take over when the AI hands off.

Add 20% VAT to every figure. Watch for two extras: the per-call overage on the cheaper IONOS and Fasthosts tiers, and the fact that appointment booking only arrives on the £69 tier there and the £99 tier at Hey Jodie. If booking is the point, the entry price is £69, not £39. For how this sits against the other ways to pay for an AI agent, see how much AI agents cost in the UK.

IONOS, Fasthosts, Hey Jodie and Moneypenny compared

These four publish UK prices or a UK starting price on their own pages. IONOS and Fasthosts sell the same product on the same three tiers, so the choice between them is about which company you would rather deal with. Prices exclude VAT and were checked on 22 October 2026.

ProviderPrice a month (excl. VAT)Calls or minutesBooks appointmentsTransfers callsTrialData and recording
IONOS AI Receptionist£39, £69 or £9930 then £0.49 a call; 100 then £0.39; unlimitedFrom £69 (Google, Outlook, Cal.com, Calendly)1, 5 or unlimited forwardings1 month free; 30-day money-backEU data centres; says data is never used for AI training or shared
Fasthosts AI Receptionist£39, £69 or £9930 then £0.49 a call; 100 then £0.39; unlimitedFrom £69 (Google, Outlook, Cal.com, Calendly)All tiers1 month free; cancel online any timeEU data centres; calls not recorded; summaries kept, no AI training on your data
Hey Jodie£49, £99 or £199Unlimited minutes on every planFrom £99From £997 days free, no cardLondon company, ICO registered; calls are recorded with transcripts in the app
Moneypenny AI ReceptionistFrom £49, on a quoteBuilt around what you needYes, with Calendly, HubSpot and Salesforce linksYes, to you or to a Moneypenny receptionist 24/7Demo lines by sector; no self-serve trialUK-based since 2000; encrypted, GDPR-compliant, audit logs

Things the table cannot show. IONOS offers up to 10 voices and Fasthosts up to 8, both with 30 or more languages, and both let you upload documents or point the AI at your website so it answers from your own content. The £99 tier at both adds a website call button and API links to HubSpot, Salesforce and Zendesk. Hey Jodie's plans all include an iOS and Android app with transcripts and a follow-up text to every caller, and its enterprise tier starts at £500 a month. Moneypenny is the only one of the four that puts a person on the line when the AI senses frustration or is asked for a human, and it says its AI costs up to 65% less than its people-first answering service. Other UK sellers, including Answer.co.uk, Team-Connect and RingCentral's add-on for its phone plans, publish prices too; check the booking and transfer features before comparing on price alone.

Which AI receptionist is best for a UK small business?

  • You take fewer than 30 calls a month and want the cheapest proper option: IONOS or Fasthosts at £39, and use the free month to count your real call volume.
  • You want bookings in your diary and a predictable bill: Hey Jodie at £99 with unlimited minutes, or IONOS and Fasthosts at £69 if you take under 100 calls.
  • Your calls carry money or distress, such as a law firm, a clinic or an emergency trade: Moneypenny, because a real receptionist can take over, or any of the others with transfer rules set so that anything unusual comes straight to you.
  • You do not want to set anything up yourself: Moneypenny, which assigns a named person to build your call flows.

Whichever you pick, call its demo line first with the three questions your customers ask most. The demo numbers are on each provider's page, and five minutes of listening tells you more than any feature list.

Is an AI receptionist legal in the UK? The GDPR checks

Yes, with the same obligations as any supplier that handles your callers' personal data. You are the data controller; the provider is your processor. Before you divert calls, check four things. This is not legal advice; AI agents and UK GDPR has the full checklist.

  1. Tell callers they are talking to an AI. Put it in the greeting. Being open about automated processing is part of UK GDPR transparency, and callers who know can ask for a person.
  2. Know where the data goes. IONOS and Fasthosts name EU data centres; Hey Jodie is a UK company with a data processing addendum on its site; Moneypenny is UK-based. Ask any provider that does not say.
  3. Decide about recording. Fasthosts keeps no audio, only a written summary. Hey Jodie records every call. Recording is lawful with a proper basis and notice, but a summary-only service is simpler to justify.
  4. Do a DPIA if callers share health, legal or financial details. A dental practice or a solicitor's office is handling special category or sensitive data on every call, and a short data protection impact assessment is expected before an AI processes it.

How to set one up in an afternoon

  1. Start the free trial and paste in your website address so the AI learns your services, hours and prices.
  2. Pick a voice and write the greeting in your own words, including that it is an AI assistant.
  3. Connect your calendar if your plan includes booking, and set opening hours and appointment types.
  4. Set the transfer rules: which topics come straight to you, and which get a message.
  5. Call it yourself five times with awkward questions, then forward your number only out of hours for the first week.

For more jobs worth handing to an agent, and the order to try them in, see AI for small business in the UK.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an AI receptionist cost?

In the UK, £39 to £199 a month before VAT for a self-service plan. IONOS and Fasthosts charge £39 for 30 calls, £69 for 100 and £99 for unlimited; Hey Jodie charges £49, £99 or £199 with unlimited minutes; Moneypenny starts from £49 on a quote. Appointment booking usually needs the middle tier, so budget £69 to £99 if you want calls booked into your diary.

Which AI receptionist service is the best in the UK?

For most small businesses, IONOS or Fasthosts at £69 is the best balance of price, booking and a free month to test. Hey Jodie suits anyone who wants unlimited minutes and an app. Moneypenny is the pick where calls are too important to leave to an AI alone, because its own receptionists can take over. Call the demo lines before deciding.

Is an AI receptionist legit?

Yes. The services compared here are sold by established companies: IONOS and Fasthosts are hosting firms with millions of customers, Moneypenny has answered calls for UK businesses since 2000 and Hey Jodie is a registered UK company. The technology works well for routine calls and less well for unusual accents, interruptions and anything outside its brief, which is why the better services hand off to a person or take a message rather than guess.

Can I keep my existing phone number?

Yes. Every service here works by call forwarding. You keep your number, the provider gives you a new one to divert to, and you choose when to divert: all the time, only when busy, or only outside opening hours. There is nothing to port and you can switch the divert off at any time.

Will callers know they are speaking to an AI?

Only if you tell them, and you should. Put it in the greeting. UK GDPR expects you to be open about automated processing, and a caller who knows can ask for a person, which the better services handle by transferring the call or taking a message.

Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human one?

By a wide margin for the phone-answering part of the job. A plan with unlimited calls costs £99 to £199 a month, against a full-time salary plus employer National Insurance and pension for a human receptionist. Moneypenny says its AI costs up to 65% less than its people-first service. What the AI cannot do is greet visitors, sign for parcels or judge a difficult caller the way an experienced person can.

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