Answering Service Costs, Without the Spin
Live call answering is priced as a monthly base plus a per-call rate. We ran these plans for years; here is exactly how the pricing works, what ours looked like, and what we sell now: voice to email, free with your number.
Pricing Facts First
How Answering Services Price
A monthly base tier plus a per-call rate above the included allowance. Some bill per minute instead.
The Per-Call Reality
Overruns of a few dollars per call are where bills grow. Our retired plans charged $2.80–$5.50.
Our Historical Rates
We published $30–$190/month plans for years. See the real numbers below — no longer for sale.
What We Sell Now
Business numbers with voice to email. The answering is included free.
Voice to Email: $0 Extra
Included free on 1300, 1800, call tracking and Hosted PBX plans.
Numbers From $10/mo
Month-to-month, per-second call billing, no lock-in contracts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an answering service cost per call?
Per-call overruns at live answering services typically run a few dollars per call once the included allowance is spent. Our own retired plans charged between $2.80 and $5.50 per additional call, depending on the tier.
Why did Simple Telecom stop selling live answering plans?
We ran live answering for years and retired it from sale because in 2026 our customers prefer voice to email — the enquiries arriving down the live-answer path are steered there. The rates below are our historical prices, kept published because real pricing information is hard to find.
What does Simple Telecom charge now?
Voice to email is included free with Simple Telecom 1300, 1800, call tracking and Hosted PBX plans. Numbers start at $10 per month, calls are billed per second, and there are no lock-in contracts.
Is there a setup fee or contract?
No setup fee on our number plans and no lock-in — service is month-to-month. For the current plan rates, see our 1300 number pricing and live call answering pricing alternatives on this site.
Ready for the option that won?
Get a Number with Voice to EmailStraight answer first: Simple Telecom no longer sells live call answering plans. We ran them for years, retired the service from sale, and now steer the businesses that arrive on this page toward voice to email, which is included free with our number plans. Because honest pricing information for answering services is genuinely hard to find, this page keeps two useful things: how the pricing model works, and what our own plans costed.
How Live Answering Services Price
Live answering — whether plain message-taking or a virtual receptionist — is priced on three lines:
- Monthly base tier with an included number of answered calls.
- Per-call overrun rate for every call above the allowance (some bureaus bill per minute instead — always check which).
- Extras: extra numbers, routing, scripted responses.
Typical Answering Service Rates in Australia
Specialist bureaus typically advertise entry plans from the mid-$20s per month. Per-call overruns generally run a few dollars per call, and realistic monthly bills for an active business land well above the entry tier once overruns start. Contracts and notice periods vary by provider — check them before signing.
What Our Own Retired Plans Costed
These were the Simple Telecom live answering rates until the service was retired from sale. They are published here as real-world reference — not as an offer:
| Plan type | Monthly | Included calls | Per extra call | |---|---|---|---| | Simple Answering (Casual → Heavy) | $30 – $150 | 10 – 60 | $3.20 – $2.80 | | Tele Receptionist (Casual → Heavy) | $35 – $180 | 10 – 60 | $3.60 – $3.20 | | Batphone after-hours (Standard/Heavy) | $50 – $140 | 10 – 30 | $5.50 – $5.00 | | Tele Clerk message-taking (Standard/Heavy) | $80 – $190 | 20 – 50 | $4.20 – $4.00 |
All plans were month-to-month with SMS and email notifications. Note how the per-call overruns work: a business taking 30 extra calls a month on the casual plan was paying about $96 above the base — the trap most first-time buyers miss.
What Simple Telecom Sells Now
The flat-cost alternative that our customers chose when we retired the operator plans: voice to email, included free with every Simple Telecom 1300 number, 1800 number, call tracking and Hosted PBX plan.
- Numbers from $10 per month, no lock-in contracts.
- Calls billed per second — no rounded-up minutes.
- Every missed call: recording emailed to one address or many, transcription on many plans.
- Set your own greetings and mailboxes; change everything in the online console.
Current number pricing lives on our 1300 number pricing page, and the full cost model is explained on our live answering service cost guide. Questions about switching? Call the team on 1300 858 751.