Usually a lot — especially if you need real 24/7 coverage. The AI vs answering service cost gap comes from the billing model: live answering services bill per minute, and rates typically climb for nights, weekends, and holidays. Ava is $297/month flat, unlimited calls, with no time-of-day surcharges.
A live service's invoice scales with three things you can't control:
Contractors who've used live services often report monthly bills that run well into the high hundreds or more once true round-the-clock coverage is added. Exact rates vary by provider and plan, so get quotes for your own comparison — but the structure is always the same: the meter runs whenever your customers talk.
A flat AI plan inverts that. The 7 AM "car trapped in the garage" call and the 11 PM "door won't close" call cost the same as a Tuesday-afternoon price shopper: nothing extra. High-volume months don't move your invoice by a dollar.
The honest way to compare: take your current or quoted live-service cost per month, divide by the calls it actually handles, and look at your per-booked-call cost. Then do the same at $297 flat with every call answered. For most shops with normal volume, the flat plan lands far cheaper per booked job — and it gets relatively cheaper every time call volume spikes, which is when the jobs are most valuable.
One caveat: if your shop takes only a handful of calls a week and never after hours, a bare-bones per-minute plan can look cheap on paper. Just make sure you're comparing the same coverage hours. For a full side-by-side of AI, live services, and hiring in-house, see the answering service cost comparison.
Call the live demo and have Ava call you now — hear exactly what your customers will hear when they call your shop.