How much does an answering service cost a UK law firm?

In the UK, answering services publish starting prices from about £15 a month for basic human message-taking up to roughly £100 to £200 a month for plans with more minutes, evening cover or AI features, based on providers' own pages on 18 September 2026. What a law firm actually pays depends on call volume, call length, billing method and out-of-hours needs.

"From" prices are the least useful number on a pricing page. This guide shows the published prices, explains the four ways providers bill so you can compare them fairly, lists the charges that tend to appear after signing, and walks through a worked method for estimating your own monthly cost. It then turns the question round: what is the cost of not answering? For the wider context of what an answering service does and misses, see our pillar guide to law firm answering services in the UK.

What do UK answering services charge?

These are the prices each provider published on its own website when we checked on 18 September 2026. Pricing in this market changes often, and many providers quote individually above their entry plans, so treat this as a snapshot and check the current page before relying on it.

• ReceptionHQ (human): MessageExpress from £15 a month, MyReceptionist from £16, MyAssistant and MyDiary from £30, all plus VAT. Its legal page states 24/7 cover with no after-hours surcharge.
• Connect Communications (human): Classic from £14.99 a month, prices excluding VAT. Diary and Pro plans priced on request.
• Face For Business (human): Taster from £49 a month, Message Only from £99, Inclusive Minutes from £115. Per-second billing. Evening and weekend support is in the higher plans.
• Posh Virtual Receptionists (human): plans from £50 a month, on a 30-day agreement.
• Moneypenny (human): no rate card on the pages we checked. Its own cost guide describes a market range and recommends understanding your call pattern before asking for a quote.
• Jodie (AI): £49, £99 and £199 a month on published tiers, enterprise from £500, excluding tax.

We have not included any provider's quoted price that we did not read on its own site. Third-party comparison pages often repeat older figures.

How do answering services bill?

There are four models, and the same monthly headline can hide very different bills.

Per call. A set number of calls in the plan, then a charge for each call above it. Easy to forecast if your volume is steady. Watch for how "a call" is defined: some count wrong numbers and sales calls, some do not.

Per minute. A bundle of minutes, then a per-minute rate. Fair for short calls, expensive for firms whose callers explain complicated situations. A family enquiry can easily run longer than a plumber's booking. Check whether minutes are rounded up or billed to the second.

Flat monthly. One price regardless of calls, within a fair-use limit. More common with AI services. Read the fair-use terms.

Hybrid. A base fee plus add-ons: evening cover, diary booking, extra questions, call transfers, recordings. This is where the headline price and the bill drift furthest apart.

What hidden costs should a law firm check?

Ask for each of these in writing before signing:

• Out-of-hours cover. Included, an add-on, or only on a higher tier?
• Bank holidays. Some services charge more or treat them as out of hours.
• Call transfers. Is a warm transfer to a fee-earner charged as extra time?
• Extra questions. Entry plans often capture three to five details. Solicitors usually need more. What does a longer script cost?
• Nuisance and sales calls. Are they charged? Some providers state they do not charge for them.
• Setup and training fees. Some charge none; ask.
• Minimum term and notice. Anything from rolling monthly to twelve months.
• Overage rate. The price per call or minute above the bundle. This is the number that decides a busy month.
• Recordings and storage. Included, charged, or not available? How long are they kept?

How do I estimate what an answering service will cost my firm?

You need four numbers, all from your own call log: calls a month that would divert to the service, average call length, the share outside office hours, and how many need a transfer. Then apply them to each shortlisted provider's actual terms.

A worked example, with invented numbers to show the method. A hypothetical three-partner firm expects about 120 diverted calls a month, averaging four minutes, with 30 per cent outside office hours and 20 transfers a month.

• Per-call plan (invented terms): 100 calls included for £120 a month, then £1.20 a call, evening cover £35 extra. Bill: £120 plus £24 of overage plus £35, so £179.
• Per-minute plan (invented terms): 400 minutes for £150, then £1 a minute. The firm uses 480 minutes (120 calls times four minutes) plus about 40 more for transfers. Bill: £150 plus £120 of overage, so £270.
• Flat plan (invented terms): £199 a month, including transfers and out-of-hours answering, with a fair-use limit of 300 calls. Bill: £199.

Every price in that example is made up to show the arithmetic; none belongs to a real provider. The point is the shape. Here the per-minute plan, which looked cheapest on its headline, is the most expensive, because this firm's callers talk for four minutes and transfers add time. Change one assumption, say two-minute calls, and the per-minute plan drops to about £150 and becomes the cheapest. That is why your own log matters more than any comparison table.

Plug in the real rates from each provider's quote and the ranking often changes. Firms with long, complicated calls tend to find per-minute plans cost more than they expected; firms with many short calls find the reverse.

Is a human or an AI answering service cheaper?

At the entry level, published prices overlap: both can be found under £50 a month. Above that, flat AI pricing usually becomes cheaper per call as volume rises, while human services scale with each call or minute. Cost is only one axis, though. The comparison on warmth, consistency and legal context is in virtual receptionists for law firms: human, AI or both, and what AI does on a real call is in AI receptionists for law firms.

How does it compare with hiring a receptionist?

The National Careers Service puts receptionist salaries at £18,000 to £22,000 a year, before National Insurance, pension, holiday cover and equipment. That is far more than any answering plan, but it buys far more: a person who knows your clients, greets visitors, manages post and diaries, and does a dozen jobs that are described in legal receptionist duties. An answering service is usually a complement to a receptionist, covering overflow and out of hours, rather than a replacement.

What does it cost not to answer?

This is the number that decides whether any of the above is worth paying. It is specific to your firm, so the method matters more than any benchmark. Count, from two weeks of call logs, how many calls from new numbers went unanswered and never rang back. Multiply by your own estimate of how many would have instructed you, and by your average fee per matter.

Hypothetically, if a firm loses eight such callers a month, one in four would have instructed, and the average matter is worth £1,500 in fees, that is £3,000 a month of work that went elsewhere. Those figures are invented to show the arithmetic. We go through the method in detail, with the traps, in what missed enquiries cost a law firm.

For context on the daytime picture, the 2024 Clio Legal Trends Report secret-shopper study found only 40 per cent of the 500 firms it contacted answered the phone. Those were US firms, so use it as a prompt to check your own log rather than as a UK figure.

The price of an answering service is on its website. The price of not answering is in your call log, and only you can read it.

Is out-of-hours cover worth paying extra for?

Only if your callers ring then. Crime, family, immigration and housing practices usually see evening and weekend calls; some commercial practices see almost none. Your call log shows it. If you need it, compare providers that include it with those that charge extra; the difference can be larger than the base fee. Options are compared in after-hours answering for law firms.

How do I compare quotes fairly?

Put every quote into the same table with the same assumed month: your calls, your average length, your out-of-hours share, your transfers. Add every add-on you would actually use. Then add one line that pricing pages never include: the time your fee-earners will spend reading and acting on messages. A cheaper service whose messages need a second call to the client can cost more in fee-earner time than it saves.

Finally, ask each shortlisted provider for three sample messages from calls like yours, with names removed. Price the message, not the minute. A message a fee-earner can act on straight away is worth more than two that each need a clarifying call back, and that difference never appears on an invoice. Keep the samples; they are also the standard to hold the provider to after the first month.

Where does WasilX fit?

WasilX is not an answering service. Cam, our AI Engagement Coordinator, takes calls on the firm's line at any hour, says it is AI, asks the firm's own qualifying questions, books the call back and sends the firm a summary. If you would like to compare it against the quotes you already have, we are happy to go through them with you.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an answering service cost per month in the UK? Published starting prices on UK providers' own pages on 18 September 2026 ranged from about £15 a month for basic message-taking to £100 or more for plans with more minutes and evening cover. The bill depends on your call volume and billing model. Prices change often.

Is it cheaper to pay per call or per minute? It depends on how long your calls are. Firms with short calls often do better per minute; firms whose callers explain complicated situations often do better per call or on a flat fee. Estimate using your own call log.

Do answering services charge extra for evenings and weekends? Some include it on every plan, others charge an add-on or only include it on higher tiers. Check the provider's current pricing page and ask about bank holidays.

Is an answering service cheaper than a receptionist? Yes, by a wide margin, but it does much less. The National Careers Service puts receptionist salaries at £18,000 to £22,000 a year. Most firms use an answering service alongside a receptionist rather than instead of one.

What hidden costs should I look for? Overage rates, out-of-hours add-ons, charges for transfers, extra questions, recordings and setup, and the minimum contract term. Ask for each in writing before you sign.