Cost guide · 2026
In 2026, a med-spa AI front desk runs $197/mo (USD) for missed-call text-back and $497/mo (USD) for the full AI receptionist across phone, WhatsApp, and DMs, plus a one-time setup of $250–$750. For comparison, a full-time receptionist costs $2,800–$4,500/mo. Because the average med-spa first visit is worth ~$527 (AmSpa), a single recovered consult usually covers the whole month.
| Plan | Monthly | Setup (one-time) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text-Back | $197 | $250 | Every missed call gets an instant, personal text that books or qualifies the lead. The fastest way to prove ROI on your own call logs. |
| AI Front Desk | $497 | $750 | The full receptionist, day and night, across phone, WhatsApp, Instagram/Facebook DM and web chat. Books into your scheduler, qualifies, and escalates hot leads to a human. |
| + Reviews & Reactivation | +$300 | - | Optional add-on: automated post-visit review requests plus a monthly campaign that re-books dormant clients. |
All prices USD. Annual prepay = pay 10 months, get 12 (~$4,970/yr on the Front Desk). No long-term contract. 30-day money-back.
AI-receptionist pricing across the market generally sits between $50 and $1,500/mo. Where a given product lands comes down to four things: how many channels it covers (phone is harder than chat), whether it books appointments or just answers, how deeply it integrates with your scheduler and CRM, and whether it's trained on your specific business or runs a generic script. Cheap tools tend to be web-chat only and untrained; the ones that actually move revenue answer the phone, know your menu, and book the consult.
The honest way to judge cost is against the leads you're losing today, not against zero. A med spa that misses even 10 inquiries a month, books 35% of recovered consults, and earns ~$527 on a first visit recovers roughly $2,200/mo - and that ignores the 3.5x higher lifetime value of a member ($5,166 vs $1,495). At $497/mo, the Front Desk pays for itself on the first recovered consult and the rest is margin.
You already paid for the lead in ad spend. A missed call doesn't just cost the $527 visit - it hands the $5,000 client to the clinic that answered first.
| Option | Typical monthly | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| AI front desk | $497 | Every channel, day and night, books consults |
| Full-time receptionist | $2,800–4,500 | One shift, one line, in-person |
| Answering service | $300–1,200 | Mostly takes messages |
| DIY website chatbot | $0–200 | Web chat only, usually untrained |
See the full feature-by-feature breakdown in the comparison guide.
For most, yes. The math is simple: at ~$527 per first visit, recovering a single missed consult covers a month of service. A solo or small clinic is also where a missed call hurts most, because there's no second person to catch the phone while you're with a client.
There's a one-time setup ($250 for Text-Back, $750 for the full Front Desk) that covers training the AI on your treatments, pricing, and booking software. No per-minute call charges and no long-term contract. Founding clinics get setup waived.
Start with Text-Back at $197/mo. It recovers your missed calls via instant SMS and proves ROI on your own call logs within 30 days, then you can upgrade to the full Front Desk on the same number.
A full-time med-spa receptionist costs roughly $2,800–4,500/mo (USD) plus benefits, training, and turnover, and still only covers one shift on one line. The AI front desk starts at $497/mo, answers every channel day and night, and never quits. Most clinics run both.