Vocapable, US local number included
$49 a month
Starter: 250 AI minutes included, about 240 used. No additional AI time.
Transfers, non-AI waiting time and taxes are extra and listed on the pricing page.
Free tool · cost
What would answering
your calls cost?
Type a normal month of calls. The tool prices it on Vocapable’s published plans and, with your own figures, on a per-minute answering service and a person at a desk.
Free, no sign-up. The arithmetic runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Vocapable with your own Twilio account
$39 a month
Starter: 250 AI minutes included. Twilio bills your number and carrier minutes separately.
A per-minute answering service
$240 a month
Your base plus calls × minutes × the per-minute rate you entered.
A person at the desk
$3,120 a month
Wages only: hourly × hours a week × 52 ÷ 12. Taxes, benefits, breaks and the hours nobody is at the desk are not included.
How the calculator prices a month
The Vocapable figures come from the same pricing module that renders the pricing page. For every plan it takes your calls, applies the 30-second minimum to each one, adds up the AI seconds, subtracts the plan's included minutes and prices the remainder at that plan's additional-minute rate. The cheapest total wins, so a busy month can land on Business or Scale even though Starter is $49.
Two Vocapable figures appear because there are two phone arrangements. The managed plans include one standard US local number and the carrier service for AI-answered calls, which is why their price is a little higher. The BYO plans assume you already run a Twilio account: the subscription is lower, and Twilio bills your number and carrier minutes directly with no Vocapable markup.
The two comparisons are yours to fill in
The answering-service and hiring columns start with placeholders, not market rates, because a quote is specific to the vendor, the plan and the month. Paste in the base and per-minute figures from the quote you were given. If the service bills per call or per receptionist minute with rounding, the cheapest-receptionist guide works through those units with dated sources.
The desk column is wages only. It is there because the honest comparison for a business that misses calls is often not another service but the cost of someone sitting by the phone, and that figure is bigger than the wage once taxes, benefits and the hours the desk is empty are counted. Enter the wage you would pay; the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the national figures for receptionists if you want a reference point.
What the figure leaves out, on purpose
- Transfer legs and waiting time on the managed plans, which are billed per started minute at the rates on the pricing page.
- Your Twilio invoice on the BYO plans.
- Taxes, and any outbound calling, which is a separate product with its own plans.
If your month is unusual, change the inputs and watch the plan move. A long average call length pushes the total toward the larger allowances; many short calls stay on Starter for longer than most people expect.
Questions about this tool
Which Vocapable price does the calculator use?
The published receptionist plans. It prices your month on every tier with the per-second metering and the per-call minimum from the rate card, then shows the cheapest tier that covers it, once with a US local number included and once with your own Twilio account. The same pricing module produces the pricing page.
Where do the answering-service and hiring figures come from?
From you. The starting values are placeholders, not market rates. Replace them with the quote you were given and the wage you would pay, and the tool does the arithmetic in front of you.
What is not in the Vocapable figure?
Taxes, transfer legs and non-AI waiting time on the managed plans, and your Twilio bill on the BYO plans. The pricing page lists every rate; this tool prices AI-answered calls only.
Put a receptionist on the line.
Start with your website, review every answer, and keep your existing number.