How much does an AI receptionist cost?

Almost every confusing quote you will get is confusing because it mixes these together or leaves one out.

The software fee is what you pay whoever built the thing. It is usually monthly and usually tied to volume, either conversations or messages. The message fee is what Meta charges to send on WhatsApp, and it is charged to whoever owns the WhatsApp Business account, which should be you. The setup is the work done once: connecting your number, writing what the assistant knows, wiring it to your calendar or your price list.

Ask any vendor to split their quote into those three. If they will not, that is the answer.

$49 a month covers up to 1,000 conversations. It answers questions, books and moves appointments, and works in Arabic, English, French and M3arrab, which is Arabic typed in Latin letters.

$149 a month covers up to 6,000 conversations and adds the follow up: when somebody asks for a slot you do not have, it asks whether they want to be told if one opens, and comes back once if it does. Once, and never again if they say no.

Setup is free and there is no contract. These are Lebanon prices. The Gulf is quoted separately because the message rates are different.

This part is not ours and we do not mark it up. WhatsApp bills per message, in categories, and the rate depends on the country of the person you are messaging. Rates change, so any specific figure written on a page like this one is out of date by the time you read it. Check Meta's own rate card for your country before you budget.

Two things about the structure are worth knowing, because they decide your bill more than the rate does. When a customer messages you first, replying inside the service window costs nothing. And a conversation you start, such as a reminder or a follow up, is charged. So a receptionist that answers people who came to you is cheap to run, and one that goes out and messages lists is not.

This is also the practical argument against buying anything that sends bulk messages. The cost lands on you, and so does the block if people report it.

The honest comparison is not against another piece of software. It is against the hours somebody currently spends on WhatsApp answering the same six questions, and the bookings you lose because nobody replied at 9pm.

If you take one booking a month you would otherwise have missed, the $49 has paid for itself in most businesses. That is arithmetic, not a claim about your business, and you are better placed than us to do it.