Contractor growth · After-hours
HVAC answering service cost, live and AI
Every list of the best HVAC answering service on page one is written by a company that sells one, and none shows what a busy month costs. This puts the published plans side by side and does the arithmetic for 200 calls.
WritingBy Landon LittleOctober 10, 20268 min read
The short answer
An HVAC company can have its phones covered three ways: a live answering service billed by the minute or the call, an AI answering service billed by the month, the minute or the customer, or the AI receptionist inside the field-service software it already uses. All of them answer at night. What separates them is what happens on the call, a message or a booked job, and how the bill moves when the weather turns.
Live answering services, from their own pricing pages
| Service | Entry plan | About 200 calls (600 minutes) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialty Answering Service | $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute | About $783 (500-minute plan at $649 plus 100 minutes at $1.34) | 14-day free trial; has an HVAC answering page |
| PATLive | $49 a month plus $2.99 a minute | About $938 (500-minute plan at $759 plus 100 minutes at $1.79) | After-hours answering in every plan |
| Posh | $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute | About $1,170 (500-minute plan at $975 plus 100 minutes at $1.95) | After-hours at no additional cost |
| Abby | $165 a month for 50 minutes | About $1,656 (500-minute plan at $1,380, overage at the plan's per-minute rate) | Human or AI; minutes double when you choose AI |
| Ruby | $250 a month for 50 minutes | $1,725 covers 500 minutes; overage not stated | No extra fees for coverage during certain periods |
| Smith.ai (human receptionists) | $300 a month for 30 calls | About $1,965 (90-call plan at $810 plus 110 calls at $10.50) | Billed per call |
| AnswerForce, Nexa, MAP Communications, Answer Pro | Not published | Not published | No plan price on the pages we could read |
AI answering services, from their own pricing pages
| Service | Entry plan | About 200 calls | What it counts | Books into |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hey Jodie | $49 a month (Basic) | $49 (all plans list unlimited minutes) | Plan tier | Not stated per plan; other tools via Zapier |
| Goodcall | $79 a month for 100 unique customers | $129 (Growth, 500 unique customers) | Unique callers, not minutes | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Rosie | $49 a month for 250 minutes | $149 (Scale, 1,000 minutes; the plan that books on your calendar) | Minutes | Your calendar, on Scale and up |
| My AI Front Desk | $99 a month for 200 voice minutes | $99 plus overage credits (credit rate not stated) | Minutes, then credits | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Upfirst | $24.95 a month for 30 calls | $159.95 (Pro, 300 calls) | Calls | Google, Outlook, Clio, Acuity, Calendly, Square |
| NextPhone | $199 a month (Pro) | $199 (unlimited calls) | Plan tier | Google, Outlook and more; CRM updates on Growth at $299 |
| Smith.ai AI receptionist | $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | About $385 (150-call plan at $270 plus 50 calls at $2.30) | Calls | Scheduling tools such as Calendly |
| Local Call AI | $297 a month for 250 minutes | About $420 (250 minutes plus 350 at $0.35) | Minutes | Your calendar; Jobber and JobNimbus on Connected at $497 |
| Jobber AI Receptionist | $29 a month add-on | $29 plus your Jobber plan; usage limits not listed | Add-on | Jobber |
| Nova Solutions AI receptionist | $199 a month flat | $199 (no minute or call cap) | Flat | ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or Google Calendar |
Two notes on reading this table. The cheapest plans often leave out booking: Rosie's $49 plan sends an appointment link by text, and calendar booking starts on its $149 plan. And a plan that counts minutes or calls will cost more in July than in April, while a flat plan will not.
What the guides claim, and how solid each is
| Source | What it claims | Who wrote it | How solid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housecall Pro, how much does an answering service cost (May 11, modified July 30, 2026) | Many small-business plans $135 to $400 a month | Housecall Pro, which sells field-service software | Vendor estimate, no data published |
| Carly, HVAC answering service options and costs (October 7, 2026) | Live services roughly $777 to $1,965 a month at 200 calls; Jobber's AI add-on $29 | Carly, an AI answering vendor that names itself the pick | Built from published prices, like this post; vendor-written |
| Aira, AI answering service for HVAC contractors | Live services $2.50 to $7.00 a call, $200 to $350 or more a month | Aira, an AI answering vendor | Vendor estimate; sits below the 200-call totals in the published rates |
The rankings deserve a warning of their own. On Google's first page for these searches on October 10, 2026, the best-of lists from Retell AI, Dapta and NextPhone each put their own product first, and Carly's cost guide names Carly as the pick. That does not make them wrong, but it is not a test.
What to check before you sign
- Where the booking lands. A message in your inbox is not a job on the board. Ask whether it books straight into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or whatever your dispatcher runs.
- The 2 am no-heat call. Ask exactly what happens: a text to the on-call tech, a live transfer, or a message for the morning.
- The heat-wave bill. Price your busiest month, not your average one, on the plan's billing unit.
- What counts. Ask whether spam, wrong numbers and existing customers calling about an open job count against your minutes or calls.
- Who answers. Human, AI, or AI with a human fallback, and whether that changes after hours.
Where Nova fits
Nova's AI receptionist is $199 a month flat, with no setup fee and no minute cap. It answers by voice at any hour, asks your qualifying questions, books the job into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or Google Calendar, and texts back a missed call within 60 seconds. Missed-call text-back on its own is $99 a month. It also comes with an HVAC website; the wider vendor table, beyond HVAC, is on what an AI receptionist costs.
Sources
- Pricing pages read on October 10, 2026: Specialty Answering Service, Goodcall, Rosie, My AI Front Desk, Hey Jodie, NextPhone, Upfirst and Local Call AI.
- Pricing pages read on October 9, 2026: PATLive, Posh, Abby, Ruby, Smith.ai receptionists and Smith.ai AI receptionist. Jobber's $29 add-on was read on Jobber's pricing page on October 6, 2026.
- Guides read on October 10, 2026: Housecall Pro, Carly and Aira.
- The 200-call column assumes three minutes a call and is our arithmetic from each vendor's published rates, using the cheapest published plan that covers the volume. Prices change, so check each vendor's page before you buy.
Questions this post answers
- How much does an HVAC answering service cost?
- Entry plans on the pricing pages we read in October 2026 start at $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute (Specialty Answering Service), $49 plus $2.99 a minute (PATLive) and $65 plus $2.30 a minute (Posh). AI answering plans start between $24.95 and $199 a month, and Smith.ai has a free 25-call plan. At about 200 calls a month, live services come to roughly $783 to $1,965 and AI services to roughly $49 to $420, by our arithmetic from their published rates.
- How much does an after-hours answering service for HVAC cost?
- The same as daytime on the pages we read: none listed an after-hours surcharge, and PATLive, Posh and Ruby include after-hours coverage in the plan price. What costs more after hours is volume, because a heat wave or a cold snap sends calls at night and every one uses minutes. Nova's AI receptionist covers nights and weekends inside its $199 flat monthly.
- Is there an AI answering service for HVAC?
- Yes, several. On their own pricing pages: Upfirst from $24.95 a month for 30 calls, Hey Jodie from $49, Goodcall from $79, My AI Front Desk $99 for 200 minutes, Rosie $149 for 1,000 minutes with calendar booking, NextPhone $199 with unlimited calls, Local Call AI from $297, and Jobber's AI Receptionist as a $29 add-on to a Jobber plan. Nova's is $199 a month flat and books into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or Google Calendar.
- What is the best HVAC answering service?
- There is no honest single answer, and the lists on page one are written by vendors that rank themselves first. Check four things: whether it books into your field-service software, how it handles a no-heat call at 2 am, what a heat-wave month costs on its billing unit, and whether spam and existing-customer calls count against your minutes.
- How much does an answering service typically cost?
- Housecall Pro's 2026 guide puts many small-business plans at $135 to $400 a month. The published plans we read start at $44 a month plus per-minute charges for live answering and $24.95 to $199 a month for AI answering, and a 200-call month costs several times the entry price on a per-minute plan.
- Is an answering service worth it for an HVAC company?
- It depends on what a missed call costs you, which is your number, not ours. Compare a busy month's bill on the plan you are considering with the value of the jobs that would otherwise go to voicemail. Nova's missed-call calculator lets you put in your own call volume and job value.
Want the AI receptionist this post describes?
The AI receptionist is $199 a month flat, with no per-minute billing and no setup fee. Missed-call text-back on its own is $99 a month and is included from the Growth website tier.
Building in this trade? See HVAC websites, or see pricing.