How much does an AI receptionist for a clinic cost?
It's the first question everyone asks us, and most providers dodge it. Here are the real numbers for an AI receptionist for a clinic, what each part includes and how to tell whether it pays off.
Two parts: a one-time setup and a monthly fee
The price of an AI receptionist splits in two: a one-time setup fee covering go-live, and a monthly fee for the running service. At Noema pricing is tailored to your volume and channels: book a free demo and we'll send a concrete proposal. You're not charged by the hour or per message: you pay for a system that works.
Setup isn't just "switching on a bot": it's integrating it with your calendar, loading your treatments and prices, defining how it escalates to a person and testing it with real cases before go-live.
| Item | When you pay | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Once, at the start | Analysis, loading your treatments and prices, calendar integration, testing and training |
| Monthly fee | Every month | Hosting, maintenance, monitoring, model improvements and support |
| Voice usage | Monthly, for what you use | Call minutes actually handled, at a written per-minute price |
| Third-party usage | Monthly | For example, Meta WhatsApp API messages; itemised in the proposal before you sign |
| Feature changes | When you request them | Quoted separately as a change order; day-to-day support is not billed by the hour |
| Outbound calls and campaigns | Not included | Quoted separately: an outbound minute costs differently and varies by destination |
What the monthly fee includes (and why it's not a licence)
The monthly fee isn't paying for installed software: it's a living service. It covers hosting, maintenance, monitoring so it doesn't go down, model improvements and support when needed. An AI that touches appointments and patients needs someone behind it; if someone sells it to you "and that's it", be wary.
What varies between plans is conversation volume, channels (WhatsApp, voice) and the level of integration. You start with what you need and scale up.
How to tell if it pays off: the 5-minute calculation
Count the calls you miss each month at peak times, lunch hours and after hours. Multiply by the chance they were new patients and by the average value of a patient. If the result beats the monthly fee (and in an average clinic it usually does by a lot) the system pays for itself.
That's why we offer a 90-day result guarantee with a metric we can verify from our own logs: if fewer than 95% of the calls forwarded to the service end in a conversation with the agent, we refund the whole period's maintenance and you can walk away without penalty. Setup is excluded, because those are hours and third-party registrations already spent.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't you publish prices on the website?
Because the number depends on volume and channels, and a price posted without context misleads in both directions. What is fixed is the structure: a one-off setup, a monthly fee, and the voice channel billed on real usage with a written monthly minimum.
Are voice minutes unlimited?
No, and be wary of anyone promising that: every minute carries a provider cost nobody gives away. The voice channel is billed on real usage, so a quiet month costs you less. We break it down in how many minutes you need.
What happens in a month with much higher volume?
You pay more that month and less the next if it drops. That is the good property of usage-based billing: nobody has to guess, up front, a volume that cannot be known before starting.
Is there a lock-in period?
A 12-month contract with 30 days' notice and no exit penalty. Penalising departure would contradict the guarantee: if the system works there is no need to tie anyone in, and if it does not, there should be no way to.
Want the exact number for your clinic?
In 15 minutes we review your call volume and send you a tailored proposal with concrete figures.
Free demo