Solo practitioners
Keep a first response available when the owner is serving a client or off the clock.
Independent tool overview
Reception by ElevenAgents: features, pricing and alternatives
Reception by ElevenAgents is an AI phone receptionist for answering routine inbound calls, booking appointments and routing requests outside or alongside staffed hours.
Visit the official Reception site ↗
- Vendor
- ElevenAgents / ElevenLabs
- Channel
- Inbound telephone
- Trial
- 14 days, no card advertised
- Billing
- Included call minutes plus overage
Overview
What Reception is
The current Reception.ai site describes a hosted service that uses a business’s hours, answers, booking availability and routing rules. It can answer around the clock, create appointments during a call and send transcripts or summaries for follow-up. It targets home services, professional services, automotive and wellness businesses, and includes multi-location options on its higher plan. The product is separate from building a custom voice agent from ElevenLabs APIs.
A business still needs to map exceptions: urgent calls, callers who want a person, duplicate bookings, cancellation rules and questions the agent cannot safely answer. For legal, healthcare or other sensitive intake, verify the actual agreement, required compliance features and whether recordings are appropriate before forwarding live calls. The site advertises a 14-day no-card trial and monthly plans with included phone minutes and per-minute overages; confirm the billing cycle shown at checkout. The web page also uses examples of customer outcomes, which should not be assumed for a new office.
Use cases
Who Reception is best for
The strongest fit depends on the job you need the product to complete, not the size of its feature list.
Appointment-driven offices
Convert routine inquiries into calendar bookings after verifying availability rules.
Multi-location teams
Route callers by branch and use shared rules across several offices.
Learn by doing
Newest guides
Explore the latest step-by-step AI guides from The Rundown University.
Capabilities
Core Reception features
24/7 call answering
Responds to inbound calls based on the business information provided.
Calendar booking
Checks availability and writes an appointment while the caller is on the line.
Call records
Plans list transcripts, recordings and summaries for review.
Routing and integrations
Can pass requests to people and connect through Zapier, webhooks or MCP.
Voice and language choices
The pricing page advertises a voice library and more than 70 languages.
Process
How the Reception workflow works
Step 1
Enter business facts
Provide opening hours, services, service areas, booking rules and a concise answer library.
Step 2
Connect phone and calendar
Assign or forward a number, connect scheduling and test timezone, double-booking and cancellation behavior.
Step 3
Set escalation rules
Define when to transfer, record a message or ask a human to call back.
Step 4
Review trial calls
Listen to varied real-world samples with permission, correct the knowledge base and monitor minutes and overages.
Cost
Reception pricing and free plan
The visible monthly selector on Reception.ai lists a free 14-day trial, Basic at $29/month, Plus at $79/month and Premium at $199/month, plus tax. Included minutes and overages differ. Verify the selected billing term and phone-service eligibility at signup.
Trial
Free for 14 days
No-card trial of the receptionist.
- 30 phone minutes per month shown on the trial card
- One phone number; three knowledge sources
Basic
$29/month + tax
Solo plan with one line and one concurrent call.
- 75 included phone minutes per month
- $0.45 per overage minute
Plus
$79/month + tax
Growing-office plan.
- 275 included phone minutes; three numbers
- Up to three simultaneous calls; $0.38 per overage minute
Premium
$199/month + tax
Higher-volume and multi-location plan.
- 1,000 included phone minutes; five numbers
- Up to ten simultaneous calls; $0.30 per overage minute
Pricing checked . Check current pricing at the source ↗
Assessment
Reception strengths and limitations
Where it stands out
- Published minutes and overage rates help estimate a realistic phone budget.
- Booking and summaries connect answered calls to useful follow-up.
- A short trial supports testing actual caller questions before switching coverage.
What to consider
- Call quality depends on correct business facts, connected calendar data and escalation paths.
- Overage charges can grow if calls are long or traffic spikes.
- Sensitive customer data and recording practices need business-specific review.
Compare
Reception alternatives
The right alternative depends on the specific output, workflow, controls and budget your project requires.
Business Operations
Retell AI
Build a more customized phone agent on a developer-oriented voice platform.
Explore Retell AI →Sales
Vapi
Compare a configurable voice-agent stack when engineering control is essential.
Explore Vapi →Content Creator
ElevenLabs Studio Agents
Explore ElevenLabs’ broader agent-building tools instead of the ready-made receptionist.
Explore ElevenLabs Studio Agents →Questions
Reception FAQs
Can Reception book appointments?
Yes. The product page says it checks real availability and writes bookings into a connected schedule.
Is there a free trial?
The pricing page advertises 14 days without a credit card and shows 30 phone minutes on the trial card.
What happens after included minutes?
The current Basic, Plus and Premium cards list per-minute overage prices; usage beyond the allowance can increase the bill.
Does it replace a human receptionist?
It can cover routine calls and scheduling, but the vendor itself notes it does not perform in-person duties. Keep a human escalation path for exceptions.
Bottom line
Our Reception verdict
Reception is a practical pilot for a small business losing routine calls or after-hours bookings. Test the exact intake and calendar workflow, compare the monthly call-minute bill with recovered value, and retain human handling for complex or sensitive conversations.
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