AI Receptionist That Answers Every Call, Day and Night
ChatMaxima's AI receptionist picks up your business calls 24/7, answers questions from your own website and documents, books appointments in Google Calendar and saves every caller to your contacts. No hold music, no voicemail, no missed bookings.
A Virtual Receptionist That Never Sends a Caller to Voicemail
An AI receptionist, also called an AI virtual receptionist or AI phone receptionist, is a voice agent that answers your phone the way a trained front-desk person would. It greets the caller, understands what they need in natural speech, answers from your own information and takes the next step: books the appointment, takes the details or logs the request for your team.
Unlike a person, it never takes a break and answers at 2 AM as well as at 2 PM, and costs a fraction of a full-time receptionist or a live answering service. Unlike a "press 1" phone menu, callers just say what they want.
Everything Your Front Desk Does on the Phone, Without the Queue
Answers on every voice channel
Picks up calls to your own Twilio phone number, WhatsApp calls to your WhatsApp Business number, and voice calls from a widget on your website, all with the same agent.
Answers from your knowledge base
Train it on your website, documents and FAQs so it gives callers your real hours, prices, services and policies, not generic answers.
Books appointments on the call
Checks open times in Google Calendar and books the slot while the caller is still on the line.
Captures every caller
Saves the caller's name, phone number and email to your contacts, so every call becomes a lead or customer record your team can follow up.
Works with your tools
Logs requests to Google Sheets, sends emails, looks up Shopify and WooCommerce orders, and calls your own systems through MCP servers, all set up in ChatMaxima Studio.
Every call in your inbox
Each call lands in your inbox as a transcript, next to your WhatsApp, Instagram and web chats, with call reports for total, answered and missed calls and talk time.
Set Up Your AI Receptionist in Four Steps
- Start from a template. Clone the FrontDesk voice agent or an industry template, or build your own call flow in ChatMaxima Studio.
- Teach it your business. Add your website, documents and FAQs as knowledge, and write how it should greet callers, including telling them they are speaking with an AI assistant.
- Connect your calendar and tools. Link Google Calendar for bookings, choose a voice and language, and add any lookups the calls need.
- Connect your phone line. Point your Twilio number at ChatMaxima, switch your WhatsApp number to bot mode, or add the voice widget to your website. To keep your existing number, forward calls to the AI number from your phone system, all day or only after hours.
Test the agent with real questions before you forward live calls, and review the first week of transcripts to fill gaps in its knowledge.
AI Receptionists for Every Business That Lives on the Phone
Medical offices
Book and reschedule visits and answer questions about hours, location and services, while clinical questions stay with your staff. Read our guide to the medical virtual receptionist.
Dental practices
Fill the chair with bookings taken during lunch, after hours and when the front desk is busy with patients. Start from the DentAssist voice agent.
HVAC, plumbing and contractors
Answer while your team is on a job, take the address and problem, and book the visit. Start from the service appointment scheduler.
Property management
Log maintenance requests, answer tenant questions and book viewings at any hour. Start from the property concierge voice agent.
Med spas, salons and vets
Book treatments and appointments and answer pricing questions. See the med spa and vet clinic voice templates.
Small businesses
Stop losing callers to voicemail without hiring a full-time receptionist. Read how an AI receptionist for small business works.
What the AI Receptionist Does Today, and What It Does Not
Know the limits before you forward your calls.
| On a call, can it... | Today |
|---|---|
| Answer inbound calls 24/7 | Yes |
| Answer questions from your website and documents | Yes |
| Book an appointment | Yes, in Google Calendar |
| Save the caller's details | Yes, name, phone and email to your contacts |
| Transfer a live call to a person | No. Unresolved calls reach your inbox with the transcript for a callback |
| Make outbound calls (callbacks, reminders) | No, inbound calls only |
| Send a text or WhatsApp confirmation after the call | Not yet |
| Take calls only outside opening hours | Set call forwarding in your phone system |
What an AI Receptionist Costs
A flat plan, a pack of voice minutes and your own phone line. No per-call fees from ChatMaxima.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| ChatMaxima plan | From $19/month |
| Voice Calls add-on | $50/month for 2,000 minutes, or $100/month for 5,000 minutes |
| Phone line (your own Twilio number) | About $1.15/month plus $0.0085 a minute for US inbound calls, billed by Twilio |
| Speech recognition and voice | Roughly $0.02 a minute on your own provider key |
| Example: 300 calls a month, 3 minutes each | About $96/month in total |
For comparison, the median US receptionist earns $38,010 a year, about $3,170 a month before benefits (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). See how AI compares with live operators at different call volumes in AI answering service vs live answering service, and all plans on the pricing page.
Learn More About AI Receptionists
Also see AI voice agents and WhatsApp Business voice calling.
Stop Sending Callers to Voicemail
Answer every call, book appointments on the spot and see every conversation in one inbox, from about $96 a month for 300 calls.
Start 7-Day Free Trial Book a DemoAI Receptionist: Frequently Asked Questions
An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers your business calls, talks with callers in natural speech, answers their questions from your own information and takes the next step, such as booking an appointment or saving their details. It works around the clock, so callers are not sent to voicemail.
Not today. The AI receptionist handles the call itself and does not transfer a live call to a team member. Calls it cannot resolve arrive in your inbox with the caller's details and the full transcript, so your team can call back.
The AI receptionist answers on a Twilio phone number you own. Keep your existing number and forward calls to the AI number from your phone system, for example after hours, at lunch or when every line is busy. It can also answer WhatsApp calls on your WhatsApp Business number and voice calls from a widget on your website.
Many. You choose a speech-to-speech model or separate speech recognition and voice models from providers such as OpenAI, Gemini, Deepgram, ElevenLabs and Cartesia, and the language support follows the model you pick.
Yes, for scheduling and routine questions such as hours, location and services. Keep clinical questions, symptoms, results and emergencies with your staff. If you handle protected health information, ask us about a business associate agreement (BAA) before you go live and collect only the details you need on the call.
A ChatMaxima plan starts at $19/month and voice minutes come from the Voice Calls add-on: $50/month for 2,000 minutes or $100/month for 5,000 minutes. Your phone line runs on your own Twilio number (about $1.15/month plus $0.0085 a minute for US inbound calls, billed by Twilio), and speech recognition and voice run on your own provider key at roughly $0.02 a minute. A business taking 300 three-minute calls a month pays about $96 in total.
Yes. Connect Google Calendar and the AI receptionist checks open times and books the appointment while the caller is still on the line, then saves the caller's name, phone number and email to your contacts.
Yes. It answers 24/7. For after-hours cover only, set call forwarding in your own phone system to send calls to the AI number outside opening hours; ChatMaxima does not switch calls by time of day.
No. It answers inbound calls only. It does not make callbacks, reminder calls or other outbound calls, and it does not send a text or WhatsApp confirmation after the call. Send reminders as WhatsApp or email messages from ChatMaxima instead.
A virtual receptionist is usually a person working remotely, or a live answering service, billed per minute or per call. An AI receptionist is software that answers every call instantly at a fraction of the cost, but it cannot use human judgement on unusual calls. Many businesses let AI handle the routine calls and keep people for the rest.