ElevenLabs Reception Pricing, Reviewed

If you've spent any time this month comparing AI receptionists, the market just got one more entry, and it's not a small one. On September 16, 2026, ElevenLabs — the voice-AI company whose text-to-speech models already power customer-service calls for companies like Klarna and Deutsche Telekom — launched Reception, a self-serve AI receptionist aimed squarely at the same small businesses NoMissedCall sells to: home services, salons, real estate offices, professional services (ElevenLabs, launch post). We dug into ElevenLabs Reception pricing because the $29 headline number hides most of the real cost.

NoMissedCall is our product, so read the comparisons below with that in mind. We've tried to be specific and link every number back to the vendor's own page rather than take anyone's word for it, including ours.

What ElevenLabs actually launched

Reception answers inbound calls around the clock, answers questions about the business, checks a calendar, books or reschedules appointments, and sends a summary, transcript and recording afterward. Setup is built around scanning the business's own website to pull services, prices, hours, locations and staff names, with ElevenLabs saying configuration takes "minutes" and no technical background (ElevenLabs, launch post). Coverage at launch named home services, professional services, real estate and property management, and salons and studios as the core use cases — effectively NoMissedCall's and Rosie's exact buyer (Inc., ElevenLabs launch announcement).

Reception isn't the only one landing this quarter

This matters more because of timing. Reception launched into a market where nearly every phone-adjacent company is shipping an AI receptionist within weeks of each other. Intermedia launched its own AI Receptionist on September 10, 2026, native to its Unite and Contact Center products, currently in open beta with general availability expected in October and no price published for either tier (Intermedia, press release). BT Business followed on October 2, 2026 in the UK with a 24/7 AI call-handling service as the first product in its new "AI from BT" portfolio, offering customizable voice and accent options (Telecoms Tech News). Zoom did the same in July with a standalone Virtual Agent Receptionist priced just under $30 a month, which we covered when it launched (see our breakdown of what Zoom's 100 minutes actually buys).

None of these four products is a side feature anymore — they're each a named, separately priced line item. For a small business owner, that's good news: more competition at this price band means more pressure on everyone, including NoMissedCall, to publish clearer numbers and fewer surprises. It also means the research gets stale fast. Whatever you read about any of these vendors, including this post, is worth re-checking against the vendor's own pricing page before you commit a card.

ElevenLabs Reception pricing: credits, not minutes

The headline number everywhere is "$29 a month." The detail that matters is what that $29 actually buys, and ElevenLabs' own billing documentation is specific about it. We fetched it directly rather than relying on press coverage:

Source: ElevenLabs Reception billing docs, fetched October 2, 2026. Annual billing is offered at roughly two months' discount on any paid tier.

A "credit" tracks closely to a phone minute in ElevenLabs' own framing, which means the entry plan is really $29 for about 75 minutes of talk time — not unlimited calls, and not a flat monthly fee the way the headline reads. Worth noticing too: Basic allows exactly one call at a time. A second caller while the first is still on the line does not get answered by Reception; what happens to them isn't specified on the pricing page.

What that overage actually costs a busy month

Here's the part a $29 sticker price doesn't show. Say a plumbing business on Basic has a month where callers use 150 minutes instead of 75 — not unusual after a cold snap or a marketing push. That's 75 credits over, at $0.45 each: $33.75 on top of the $29 base, for a real bill of $62.75. Double your call volume again to 300 minutes and Basic's overage alone is $101.25, before the base fee. Upgrading tiers lowers the per-credit rate but raises the floor — Premium's $199 buys 1,000 credits before its cheaper $0.30 rate kicks in.

Compare that to the two vendors in this space that don't meter overage at all: NoMissedCall's Pro plan gives 250 minutes a month, and if you run out, the AI simply pauses and tells new callers it's temporarily unavailable until the billing date resets — your own phone (if you use ring-first) keeps ringing the whole time, and there's no overage invoice (NoMissedCall Help Center). Clara makes a similar trade from the other direction: its pricing page states plainly that every plan answers unlimited calls with no per-call or per-minute charge on top (heyitsclara.com) — though it also doesn't publish a minute allowance in either direction, so there's nothing to check that claim against.

How the four stack up

All four figures below are read directly from each vendor's own pricing page, fetched October 2, 2026, except NoMissedCall's, which is described by minutes rather than a dollar figure since store billing varies by platform.

Sources: ElevenLabs, Rosie, Clara, NoMissedCall Help Center.

Genuinely good about Reception

ElevenLabs' core strength is the voice stack itself — it's one of the few companies in this category that builds the underlying speech models rather than licensing someone else's, and that shows up in call quality. The website-scan setup is a real convenience if your business info is already accurate online, and 20 concurrent calls on the free trial is generous for testing load before you commit a card. Plus and Premium's multi-number, multi-line setup also suits a business running more than one location from day one, something Rosie and Clara don't price for as directly.

The trade-offs

The honest problems are the ones the pricing page itself discloses. One concurrent call on the $29 tier is a real constraint for any shop that gets two calls at once — a lunchtime rush, a slow-draining basement during a storm. Metered overage means your bill is genuinely unpredictable month to month, the opposite of what most small business owners want from a phone line. And a brand-new consumer-facing product from a company whose track record is API infrastructure and creator tools, not small-business software support, is worth factoring into how much hand-holding you should expect if something breaks.

The disclosure question this launch reopens

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state and change — check with a lawyer about your own situation before relying on anything here.

ElevenLabs' own CEO, Mati Staniszewski, told TechCrunch on September 24, 2026 that businesses using AI voice agents should tell callers they're talking to one, saying "the common pattern is you don't want to feel cheated on that call" (TechCrunch). Notably, ElevenLabs' own Reception launch material makes no caller-facing disclosure statement of its own (ElevenLabs, launch post) — the obligation, as things stand, falls on the business running it, not the platform.

Federally, the FCC's February 2024 Declaratory Ruling found that AI-generated voices count as "artificial" under the TCPA, which brings them under existing consent rules, but a specific requirement to announce "this is an AI" at the start of a call remains a proposed rule, not yet finalized (FCC). Several states — Texas among them — already require some form of disclosure. None of this is specific to Reception; it applies to any AI receptionist, NoMissedCall included.

Where rivals beat us, plainly

Clara's flat, unlimited-calls pricing is a genuinely simpler promise than any minutes-based plan, NoMissedCall's included — if your call volume is unpredictable, not having to think about a cap is worth something, even without a published minute number to verify it against. Rosie's $49 entry tier includes automatic spam detection from the first dollar; on NoMissedCall, spam filtering is a Premium-tier feature. And Reception's free 14-day trial with 20 concurrent calls is a lower-risk way to test call quality before paying anyone than most of this category offers.

So which one should you actually pick

If your call volume is low and predictable — one or two calls a day — Reception's Basic plan at $29 is the cheapest entry point in this list, as long as you're comfortable with one call at a time and a metered bill if a busy month hits. If you want a flat number with no overage math, ever, Clara's unlimited-calls plan is the simplest promise, though you're trusting a page that doesn't publish what "unlimited" is actually built to handle. If you want the most mature feature set at this exact price band with native mobile apps and visible spam filtering from the entry tier, Rosie and NoMissedCall are built for that specific shop. None of these is wrong; they're optimized for different anxieties — price unpredictability, call volume, or platform maturity. Know which one is yours before you pick.

For more on how NoMissedCall's own minutes and spam tools work, see the Help Center, and for a wider look at which AI receptionists actually run from a phone rather than a browser tab, read The Best AI Receptionist Apps You Can Actually Run From Your Phone.

Frequently asked questions

What is ElevenLabs Reception pricing?

Reception has three paid tiers, verified on ElevenLabs' own billing docs: Basic $29/month for 75 credits with 1 phone number and 1 concurrent call, Plus $79/month for 275 credits with 3 numbers and 3 concurrent calls, and Premium $199/month for 1,000 credits with 5 numbers and 10 concurrent calls (ElevenLabs, billing docs). A 14-day free trial includes 30 phone minutes or 60 web minutes. Annual billing saves roughly two months.

What happens if Reception runs out of included credits?

Unlike a hard cap, Reception keeps answering and bills overage per credit: $0.45 on Basic, $0.38 on Plus, $0.30 on Premium (ElevenLabs, billing docs). A credit tracks closely to a phone minute, so a busy month can cost noticeably more than the sticker price. NoMissedCall and Clara both avoid a per-minute overage charge, though in different ways — see the comparison above.

Is Clara's "unlimited calls" plan really unlimited?

Clara's pricing page states every plan answers unlimited calls with no per-call or per-minute charge on top of the plan price (heyitsclara.com). It does not publish a minute allowance in either direction, so there's no public number to check that claim against — worth asking directly before you rely on it for a high-call-volume shop.

Do I have to tell callers they're talking to an AI receptionist?

This is general information, not legal advice, and rules vary by state and change — check with a lawyer about your own situation. Federally, the FCC's February 2024 ruling classified AI-generated voices as "artificial" under the TCPA, which triggers existing consent rules, but a specific call-opening disclosure requirement is still a proposed rule, not yet final (FCC). Texas and a handful of other states already require disclosure in some circumstances. ElevenLabs' own CEO has publicly said businesses should tell callers, even where it isn't yet mandatory (TechCrunch, 24 Sept 2026).

Does Reception have a mobile app?

We could not find a dedicated Reception management app for iOS or Android. ElevenLabs' existing mobile apps are for its voice-generation and Reader products, not for running a receptionist (elevenlabs.io/mobile). Reception appears to be configured and monitored from a web dashboard. Rosie, Clara and NoMissedCall all ship native receptionist apps.

Try it on your own phone

No Missed Call is an AI receptionist that answers your business line 24/7, books appointments straight into your calendar, and sends you a transcript and summary of every call. Setup takes minutes from your phone, and there is a 7-day free trial.

Download on the App Store  ·  Get it on Google Play  ·  Read the Help Center