AI receptionists for dental practices range from $25 a month to $1,500 a month, and the difference is almost never about voice quality. It's about what's actually included before the bill hits. This is a straight breakdown of where the market sits in 2026 — what's bundled, what's billed extra, and how the numbers compare to hiring a human.
The 2026 price bands
AI dental receptionists generally fall into four pricing tiers. Each tier is doing a different job, and confusing them is how practices end up overpaying or — more commonly — paying for something that doesn't actually move the needle.
Tier 1 · $25–$99 / month · "AI answering service"
These are generalist voice bots with a dental veneer. They answer the phone, take a message, and email a transcript to your front desk. They do not write into your PMS, they don't honor provider rules, and they usually cap out at a few hundred minutes a month. They are an upgrade over voicemail. They are not a receptionist.
Tier 2 · $200–$500 / month · Dental-specific AI receptionist
This is the sweet spot for most independent practices. At this tier you should expect: unlimited inbound minutes, real PMS integration with write-back, 24/7 coverage, multilingual support (English + Spanish at minimum), and HIPAA/BAA included. Lila, Arini, Viva, Dentina, and a handful of others compete here. The differences between them at this price point are about scheduling rule fidelity, time-to-live, and the quality of the voice — not bundled features.
Tier 3 · $500–$1,200 / month · Inbound + outbound bundles
At this tier the AI is also making outbound calls — recall reminders for patients overdue on cleaning, reactivation calls for patients who haven't been in over a year, unscheduled-treatment follow-up. The math is straightforward: if your hygienist's chair has open slots, an outbound AI usually pays for itself in the first month.
Tier 4 · $1,500+ / month · Enterprise / DSO
Multi-location DSOs with custom routing, centralized reporting, and dedicated integration work. Pricing here is typically per-location or per-provider and includes a named account team. Not the right fit for a single-location practice.
The hidden costs that change the picture
Headline price is almost never the real price. Build a total-cost-of-ownership figure that includes everything in this list — most "$300/month" plans we've seen come in 30–40% higher all-in by month three.
- Per-minute overage fees. A "1,000 minute" plan sounds generous until you realize a busy practice burns through that in two weeks. Overage rates of $0.10–$0.30 per minute add up fast. Look for unlimited.
- PMS integration fees. One-time setup charges of $500–$2,000 are common. Some vendors charge a recurring "integration maintenance" fee. Some don't.
- Onboarding fees. Implementation packages of $500–$1,500 are routine. Reasonable if there's serious tuning work involved; less reasonable if you're paying for a welcome email.
- SMS / texting add-ons. Two-way SMS is sometimes bundled, sometimes a per-message cost.
- Outbound calling. Often a separate plan at $200–$500 / month on top of inbound.
- Contract minimums. Annual contracts paid up front, with auto-renewal clauses, are common. Always ask about month-to-month options before signing.
AI receptionist vs. hiring in-house: the real cost comparison
A full-time dental front-desk hire in the US costs $46,000–$60,000 per year in salary alone, and $55,000–$75,000 fully loaded with payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead. That's $4,500–$6,200 per month for one person who works one shift, takes sick days, goes home at 5 PM, and needs four to six weeks of training before they're useful.
At the Tier 2 mid-market price band ($200–$500/month), an AI receptionist runs 7–10% of the cost of a single in-house hire — and covers nights, weekends, holidays, overflow, and Spanish-language calls without overtime. It's not a fair comparison because the AI is doing different work. But the bookings it captures during the hours your office is closed are bookings you weren't getting before.
The honest way to think about it: AI receptionists don't replace your front-desk team. They replace the gap between when your team logs off and when they log back on — and the gap between when your team is on a call and when the next call comes in. Practices typically miss 30–40% of incoming calls during business hours alone, and close to 100% after-hours. That's the gap an AI is filling.
What's actually included in a Tier 2 plan
Here's what a reasonable, dental-specific AI receptionist should include for $300–$500 / month, with no asterisks:
- 24/7 inbound call handling with unlimited minutes
- Direct PMS integration and write-back (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve, Denticon, CareStack)
- Real-time scheduling with provider, operatory, and appointment-type rules
- New-patient intake and existing-patient matching
- Emergency triage with warm transfer to staff
- SMS confirmations
- English and Spanish, with automatic language detection
- HIPAA-compliant infrastructure with a signed BAA at the standard tier
- Call recordings, transcripts, and analytics
- Setup in under a week with a forward-deployed engineer
If any of those are billed extra, the headline price isn't the real price.
What Lila costs
Lila's Standard inbound plan is $279/month billed annually ($349 monthly), and Premium is $319/month billed annually ($399 monthly). Both are flat rates with unlimited inbound calls, PMS write-back, HIPAA-compliant infrastructure with a signed BAA, English + Spanish (Premium adds 10+ more languages and two-way SMS), and a 30-day free trial. No per-minute fees. No integration setup charges. No onboarding fee. Outbound calling is a separate plan and we'll quote you based on call volume.
Pricing is on the homepage, and we'll walk you through the math for your specific practice on a demo call.