# A receptionist, an answering service, or an AI receptionist? > A receptionist in Delhi costs ₹10,000 to ₹22,500 a month and covers office hours. Outsourced answering services quote about ₹4,000 to ₹12,000 a month and read from a script. Brand Bakery's AI Receptionist answers day and night, books into your calendar and logs every call, for ₹10,000 a month after a ₹30,000 setup, with 1,000 minutes included. - Page: https://www.brandbakery.tech/ai-receptionist-vs-answering-service - Last updated: 2026-10-21 Breadcrumb: [Home](https://www.brandbakery.tech/) > [Pricing](https://www.brandbakery.tech/pricing) > AI receptionist vs answering service ## Side by side - **Monthly cost.** A receptionist or answering service: Receptionist in Delhi: ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 for a fresher, ₹15,000 to ₹22,500 experienced. Answering service: about ₹4,000 to ₹12,000. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: ₹10,000 a month after a ₹30,000 setup, with 1,000 minutes, then ₹9 a minute. No GST added. - **Hours.** A receptionist or answering service: Office hours for a receptionist, minus breaks and leave. Services vary by plan. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Day and night, every day of the week. - **Knows your business.** A receptionist or answering service: A receptionist learns it over months. A service reads your script. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Answers from the fees, timings and rules you approve, updated when they change. - **Bookings.** A receptionist or answering service: A receptionist books. A service often takes a message for a callback. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Books, moves and cancels in your calendar during the call. - **Languages.** A receptionist or answering service: The ones they speak. Services are often English first. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Hindi, English and other Indian languages. - **Records.** A receptionist or answering service: Whatever gets written down, or the service's message log. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Every call logged, sent to your sheet or WhatsApp. - **When someone leaves.** A receptionist or answering service: Notice period, hiring and training again. Brand Bakery AI Receptionist: Nothing to rehire. Retraining is part of the monthly fee. Sources: [WorkIndia, receptionist jobs in Delhi, checked 21 October 2026](https://www.workindia.in/receptionist-jobs-in-delhi/); [Caller.digital, AI receptionist India 2026 (a vendor's estimate for Tier-1 cities), checked 21 October 2026](https://caller.digital/blog/ai-receptionist-india-2026). Salaries are before PF and the cost of hiring again. Answering service prices in India are rarely published, so the range is one vendor's estimate. Ask any service for its after-hours and per-call rates. ## Where a person still wins - Greeting visitors at the desk, handling payments and paperwork - Upset callers and complaints that need judgment - Regulars who expect to talk to someone they know ## The setup we recommend Keep your receptionist for the desk and the people in front of them. Let the AI Receptionist take the calls they cannot: the rush hour, lunch, after closing and Sundays. Your front desk starts the next morning with every caller logged and every booking already in the calendar. ## For clinics and doctors The AI Receptionist is the only service we offer clinics. It is a flat monthly fee, never tied to patients or bookings. It says it is the clinic's AI assistant at the start of every call, gives no medical advice, and never asks patients for reviews or offers discounts, in line with the NMC guidelines of 6 October 2026. ## Questions ### Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring a receptionist? The AI Receptionist is ₹10,000 a month after a ₹30,000 setup, with 1,000 minutes, while a receptionist in Delhi is ₹10,000 to ₹22,500 a month before PF. It also answers after closing and on Sundays. Most businesses keep their receptionist for the desk and add the AI for the phone. ### How is an AI receptionist different from a call answering service? An answering service puts a person from another company on your calls, usually reading a script and taking messages. The AI Receptionist answers from material you approve, books into your calendar during the call and logs every call for your team. ### Will callers know they are talking to an AI? Yes. Every call starts with the AI saying it is an AI assistant, and a notice that the call is recorded. ### What happens when the AI cannot answer? It takes the caller's details and passes the call or a message to your staff, so your team sees who called and why. ### Can clinics use it? Yes. It is the only service we offer clinics: a flat monthly fee, never tied to patients, with no medical advice and no review requests or discounts, in line with the NMC guidelines of 6 October 2026. ## Start Request a callback at https://www.brandbakery.tech/contact?service=ai-employees. Every price: https://www.brandbakery.tech/pricing. --- Brand Bakery is a design-first digital studio in New Delhi. Start an enquiry at https://www.brandbakery.tech/contact or email support@brandbakery.tech. This is the Markdown copy of https://www.brandbakery.tech/ai-receptionist-vs-answering-service; the site index for language models is https://www.brandbakery.tech/llms.txt.