How much does an AI receptionist cost in Canada?

Gala starts at $129 CAD a month with 250 minutes included. Here is what that buys, what the alternatives cost, and the fees to watch for.

The short answer: an AI receptionist for a Canadian service business costs between $129 and $439 CAD a month at Gavion, depending on how many minutes, users and voice agents you need. There is no setup fee, extra minutes are billed at $0.37 to $0.33 a minute, and annual billing takes 15% off.

The longer answer depends on what you are comparing it to. A human receptionist in Québec costs about ten times more and covers a fraction of the hours. Answering services and virtual receptionists bill by the minute or by the call, which is cheap at very low volumes and expensive the moment the phone actually rings. This page puts the real numbers side by side, with sources.

What Gala costs, plan by plan

Gala the Receptionist answers calls, texts and emails 24/7, qualifies the caller, books into your Google or Outlook calendar, screens spam and transfers real emergencies. Every tier has the same features; tiers differ only by included minutes, users and voice agents. Prices are in Canadian dollars, before GST and QST.

PlanPer monthMinutesUsersVoice agentsOverage
Essential$12925031 voice agent$0.37/min
Advanced$24950052 voice agents$0.35/min
Enterprise$4391,00073 voice agents$0.33/min

Annual billing takes a further 15% off, paid in one payment up front. Add-ons: an additional user is $22 a month on the Receptionist ($39 on the Admin Assistant, with volume discounts), and an additional voice agent with its own number is $10 a month.

Gala the Administrative Assistant includes the full Receptionist and adds quoting from a photo or an address, a full CRM and document handling. It runs from $279 to $659 CAD a month:

The Admin Assistant tiers

PlanPer monthMinutesUsersQuotesOverage
Essential$27925035 quotes/mo$0.42/min
Advanced$429500515 quotes/mo$0.40/min
Enterprise$6591,0007Unlimited quotes$0.38/min

Receivables follow-up and team dispatch are coming soon on the Admin Assistant; they are not live today and are not part of what you pay for.

What a human receptionist costs in Québec

Job Bank, Government of Canada publishes wages for receptionists (NOC 14101) in Québec: $16.60 an hour at the low end, $20.00 at the median and $27.00 at the high end, for the 2023-2024 reference period. At Québec's standard 35-hour week, that is 1,820 hours a year.

Low ($16.60/h)
$30,212 a year
Median ($20.00/h)
$36,400 a year, about $3,033 a month
High ($27.00/h)
$49,140 a year

Those are wages only. Add employer contributions, vacation pay, benefits, a desk and a replacement when the person is sick or on holiday. And the coverage is 35 hours a week, during business hours, one call at a time. Your callers do not stop at 5 p.m., and a plumbing emergency does not wait for Monday.

To be fair to the human: a receptionist does more than answer the phone. If you need someone physically at a front desk, this is not the comparison to make. If you need the phone answered, booked and followed up, it is.

What answering services and virtual receptionists cost

Most alternatives to hiring are billed by usage: per minute, per call, or as a bundle of minutes. Published entry prices from each vendor's own site, checked on the dates shown on our comparison pages:

Two things to notice. Prices are often in US dollars even for services sold in Canada, and included usage is small: 50 minutes is a common entry point. At $2.30 a minute, 100 minutes at Posh comes to $295 CAD ($65 base plus minutes). Gala's entry plan is $129 with 250 minutes included.

The costs that are not on the price tag

When does it pay for itself?

Measure it in jobs, not months. The three answers below come from our FAQ; the calculator does the arithmetic with your own numbers.

Is it worth it for a business with fewer than five employees?

Run the math on your own numbers instead of an industry average. Multiply the average value of a signed job by the number of calls you don't pick up in a month — on site, driving, at supper. If that figure clears CA$129, one recovered job covers the subscription. Micro-businesses are exactly where the gap is widest, because nobody else is answering.

How long does it take to see ROI?

Payback is measured in jobs, not months. On the CA$129 Essentielle plan, a single call that turns into a job worth more than CA$129 pays for the month. On the CA$279 Assistant Administratif, add the receivables effect: one CA$1,500 invoice collected four weeks earlier changes your month. Measure over three months, not three days.

What's the cost of doing nothing?

A missed call is a customer dialling the next company on their list. Run it for one month: unanswered calls × your usual close rate × average job value. Add the receivables sitting past 60 days. That number is your cost of doing nothing, and you can verify it against your own records.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a setup fee?

No. Every Gala plan is $0 setup. If you want hands-on help building and validating your knowledge base, onboarding assistance is available as an optional package.

What do extra minutes cost?

$0.37 a minute on the entry Receptionist plan, $0.33 on the top one, billed to the next full minute. The Admin Assistant plans run $0.38 to $0.42 a minute.

Are prices in Canadian dollars, and do they include taxes?

Prices are in Canadian dollars and exclude GST and QST. Many competing services publish US-dollar prices, which is worth checking before comparing.

Is annual billing cheaper?

Yes. Annual billing takes 15% off the monthly price, paid in a single payment at the start of the term. The entry Receptionist plan comes to $1,315.80 a year that way.

See the plans, then run your own numbers. See pricing · ROI calculator

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Contact: contact@gavion.ai · +1 (514) 534-1298 · +1 (855) 505-0607 (toll-free) · Québec, Canada · Service across Canada in English and French.