In short
An AI voice agent answers or makes phone calls and holds a spoken conversation to do a defined job, such as taking details, answering common questions or booking an appointment. Pricing across the market varies a great deal, so it helps to understand the parts that make up the bill before comparing quotes.
Echo One’s published plans
| Starter, £49 per month | 500 credits a month (about 500 call minutes), 2 AI receptionists, 1 phone number, 5 team members. |
|---|---|
| Growth, £149 per month | 2,000 credits a month (about 2,000 call minutes), 5 AI receptionists, 3 phone numbers, 15 team members, outbound campaigns 5 calls at a time, custom API and webhook actions. |
| Scale, £399 per month | 6,000 credits a month (about 6,000 call minutes), 20 AI receptionists, 10 phone numbers, 50 team members, outbound campaigns 10 calls at a time, custom API and webhook actions, single sign-on and custom roles. |
What drives the cost
Minutes are the biggest variable. Every second of a live call uses speech recognition, a language model and a synthetic voice, and those services are charged by usage behind the scenes. Most providers either bundle a monthly allowance of minutes or credits, or charge per minute on top of a base fee. Check what happens when you go over the allowance.
Phone numbers come next. You may want a new local or national number for the agent, or to divert your existing number to it when the desk is busy or closed. More numbers usually means a higher plan.
Integrations make the agent useful and are where costs vary most. An agent that only takes a message is simple. One that checks a live diary, writes to your CRM, raises a task and sends a confirmation text needs those connections built and tested.
Set-up covers writing the script and rules: what the agent may say, what it must not, when it hands over to a person, and what it records. This is often where a project succeeds or fails.
How to estimate the minutes you need
Start with your call logs. Count the calls you want the agent to handle in a typical month, such as out-of-hours calls and overflow when every line is busy, and multiply by an average call length. Many routine calls are short, but check your own data. Allow headroom for busy months and for outbound reminders if you plan to run them.
If you have 300 out-of-hours calls a month averaging two minutes, that is about 600 minutes, which sits above a 500-minute allowance and inside a 2,000-minute one. Your own figures will differ.
Costs that are easy to miss
Your staff’s time to agree the script and test it before launch. Someone’s time each week in the first month to listen to calls and adjust the rules. Call recording and transcript storage, which should follow your retention policy under UK GDPR. And the cost of changes when your services, prices or opening hours change.
Compare these with what the missed calls cost you today. The free calculator at /ai-roi-calculator can help you size the admin side.
When this matters
Relevant when you are pricing up an AI receptionist or comparing voice agent quotes. Echo One’s plans are published on /echo-one, and New Era AI scopes integration work separately when it goes beyond the standard set-up.
Questions
What is the cheapest Echo One plan?
Starter at £49 per month, with 500 credits (about 500 call minutes), 2 AI receptionists and 1 phone number.
Are Echo One prices in pounds?
Yes. Published plans are in GBP: £49, £149 and £399 per month.
Is set-up included?
Standard set-up is part of getting started. Configuration and integration work that goes beyond the standard set-up, such as connecting a specific CRM or booking system, is scoped separately.
Can we keep our existing phone number?
Usually yes. A common approach is to divert your existing number to the agent out of hours or when lines are busy. The details depend on your current phone provider.