For a New Zealand small business taking about 80 calls a month, an AI receptionist costs roughly $98 to $149 a month, a human answering service roughly $285 to $463 a month, and a part-time receptionist at least $2,000 a month before on-costs. All figures are NZD excluding GST. This guide shows where each number comes from, what you get for it, and when each option is the right call.
What it costs to employ a receptionist
Tahatū, the government's career navigator, lists receptionist pay at $24 to $34 an hour, with a wider range from $24 up to $43. Tahatū's pay figures are drawn from Stats NZ census data, the Integrated Data Infrastructure and Inland Revenue data, and it describes them as an estimate. The bottom of that range sits just above the adult minimum wage of $23.95 an hour, which has applied since 1 April 2026.
Using the low end of that range, our arithmetic looks like this:
- Part-time, 20 hours a week at $24: $480 a week, or about $2,080 a month.
- Full-time, 40 hours a week at $24: $960 a week, or about $4,160 a month.
- Full-time, 40 hours a week at $34: $1,360 a week, or about $5,890 a month.
Those are wages only. Add KiwiSaver employer contributions, ACC levies, annual and sick leave, recruitment time, and cover for the days they are away. A receptionist also answers one call at a time, during the hours they are rostered. Evenings, weekends and public holidays are not covered unless you pay for them.
What you get that nothing else on this page gives you: a person at the front desk. They greet walk-ins, chase invoices, tidy the diary, and do the hundred small jobs that are not phone calls. If you need that, a receptionist is not a phone-answering cost. It is a staff member, and the comparison below is not the right one.
What a human answering service costs
An answering service is a team of operators, usually in a call centre, who answer in your business name, follow your script, and send you the message. Three New Zealand price lists, as published on 11 September 2026:
- Spark Business Receptionist Plus: $150 excluding GST a month for 75 minutes of answered calls, then $2.50 excluding GST per minute. Each call carries a minimum one-minute charge. The service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you do not need any other Spark product to buy it.
- Virtual Assistant NZ: message-taking plans at $65 a month for up to 20 calls, $149 for up to 50, and $285 for up to 100. Plans that also take bookings and update your CRM are $149, $249 and $449 for the same call bands. There is a one-off setup charge of $60 plus GST.
- ReceptionHQ NZ: message taking from $19 a month on a pay-per-call basis, and diary or assistant services from $49 a month on a pay-per-minute basis, with setup from $50. Prices exclude GST. The per-call and per-minute rates themselves are not shown on the pricing page.
The pattern is the same everywhere: a low entry price, then a meter. Per-call or per-minute charges are where the real cost sits, so the monthly bill follows your call volume. The other limit is knowledge. The operator has your script, not your business, so anything off-script becomes a message for you to return.
What an AI receptionist costs
An AI receptionist is software that answers in your business name, holds a conversation, answers from a knowledge base you control, books appointments, and transfers calls you define as urgent. It works around the clock and takes several calls at once.
KiwiAgent's pricing, in NZD excluding GST:
- Free pilot: 30 minutes of answering a month, set up for you, no card.
- Starter: $49 a month for 100 minutes, roughly 40 calls, with one NZ number included and up to 3 calls at once.
- Pro: $149 a month for 300 minutes, roughly 120 calls, with three numbers and up to 10 calls at once.
- Business: $349 a month for 800 minutes, roughly 320 calls, with up to 25 calls at once.
- Extra minutes: a flat $0.49 a minute on any paid plan.
Other providers selling into New Zealand publish plans from $49 a month with unlimited minutes to $199 a month for 200 minutes, and one starts at $497 a month. We compare them, with links to each pricing page, in our roundup of AI receptionists in NZ.
Worked example: 80 calls a month
Assume 80 calls a month at an average of two and a half minutes each, which is 200 minutes. Here is what each option costs at that volume, using the published prices above. GST is excluded throughout.
| Option | Monthly cost at 80 calls | How it is worked out | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part-time receptionist | About $2,080 plus on-costs | 20 hours a week at $24 an hour | Business hours, one call at a time |
| Spark Business Receptionist Plus | $462.50 | $150 base plus 125 extra minutes at $2.50 | 24/7, message and transfer |
| Virtual Assistant NZ, messages only | $285 | Up to 100 calls plan | As per plan |
| Virtual Assistant NZ, with bookings | $449 | Up to 100 calls plan | As per plan |
| KiwiAgent Starter with overage | $98 | $49 base plus 100 extra minutes at $0.49 | 24/7, answers, books, transfers |
| KiwiAgent Pro | $149 | 200 minutes inside the 300 included | 24/7, 100 minutes spare |
Change the assumptions and the ranking can move. If your calls run long, the per-minute options cost more and the receptionist's fixed cost looks better. If you take 20 calls a month, the cheapest answering-service plan and the AI free tier are both close to nothing. Put your own numbers into our cost calculator rather than trusting ours.
What you get, beyond the price
| Employed receptionist | Human answering service | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Your staff member | A call-centre operator | Software, in your business name |
| Hours | Rostered hours | Business hours or 24/7 by plan | 24/7 |
| Calls at once | One | Several | Several |
| Knows your business | Deeply, over time | The script | Whatever you put in the knowledge base |
| Books appointments | Yes | On higher plans | Yes |
| Does non-phone work | Yes | No | No |
| Cost model | Wages plus on-costs | Base fee plus per call or minute | Monthly plan with included minutes |
When each one is the right choice
- Hire a receptionist when you need a person at the desk for reasons beyond the phone: walk-in customers, admin, invoicing, a face for the practice. The phone is a bonus.
- Use a human answering service when your callers must hear a person, your call volume is steady enough to budget the meter, and most calls are simple messages.
- Use an AI receptionist when you miss calls because you are working, you want evenings and weekends covered without carrying the phone, and you want callers to get answers and bookings rather than a message slip.
- Combine them if you have a receptionist already. Let the AI take overflow, lunch, and after hours, so the person at the desk is not also the person who never gets a break.
A note on the numbers
Every price above was read from the provider's own public page on 11 September 2026 and is linked so you can check it. Prices change, and GST treatment differs between pages, so confirm before you sign anything. Our own prices are on our pricing page, and our AI receptionist pricing guide goes deeper on what drives the cost.
Next step
If the AI column looks right for you, talk to the demo agent on our homepage to hear how it handles a call, then tell us about your business. We set up a free pilot with 30 minutes a month, so you can run your own 80-call month before you pay for one.