What does an AI phone assistant really cost?

For companies in Germany, an AI phone assistant costs between EUR 0 and 1,290 in base fees per month, plus 0.08 to 0.49 euros per minute or call beyond the included volume. Setup costs nothing or up to EUR 1,990, depending on the provider. What you end up paying depends on your monthly call volume and on the integration with your calendar and CRM. Sources: pricing pages of sipgate, IONOS, fonio, Placetel and flowlite.ai, all retrieved September 22, 2026

B&S offers AI assistants and works with flowlite.ai for phone assistants, which is also listed in the table. The figures below come from the providers' public pricing pages, not from our own offer.

What prices do the providers list?

The table shows the smallest plan with included volume for each provider and the price beyond it. Aircall bills in US dollars, IONOS shows gross prices, all others net. Parloa and VIER target contact centers and publish no prices. Sources: Parloa and VIER, retrieved September 22, 2026

Provider	Base fee per month	Included	Beyond that	Source
sipgate sona	EUR 0	500 minutes, one phone number, one concurrent call	0.12 euros per minute	sipgate, 2026-09-22
IONOS KI-Telefonassistent	EUR 39 gross (Flex), EUR 69 (Flex Pro), EUR 99 (All-Flat)	30 calls, 100 calls, unlimited	0.49 euros per call (Flex), 0.39 euros (Flex Pro)	IONOS, 2026-09-22
fonio	EUR 99 (Solo) paid annually, EUR 119 paid monthly, EUR 299 (Team)	1,000 minutes and one phone number, in the Team plan 3,600 minutes and three phone numbers	EUR 15 per 100 minutes, EUR 7 per additional phone number, EUR 5 per additional integration	fonio, 2026-09-22
Placetel AI	EUR 79 (Grow) cancelable monthly, EUR 69 with a 24-month term, EUR 149 (Professional)	750 minutes, in the Professional plan 1,500 minutes	EUR 9 per phone number, 0.05 euros per minute of external forwarding	Placetel, 2026-09-22
flowlite.ai	EUR 490 (Empfang), EUR 790 (Empfang Plus), EUR 1,290 (Vertrieb)	300 to 1,000 minutes per package, setup and customization by the provider	0.20 euros per minute, setup normally EUR 990 to 1,990, further customization EUR 140 per hour	flowlite.ai, 2026-09-22
Aircall AI Voice Agent	Phone system from USD 30 per user, at least three users	50 voice agent minutes per month	USD 0.49 per minute, packages from USD 725 for 2,500 minutes	Aircall, 2026-09-22

The providers bill in different units: per minute, per call or per package. A comparison only works with your own volume. And the range is not a price difference for the same product. With sipgate and IONOS you set up the assistant yourself, with flowlite.ai you pay for someone to do it for you and maintain it afterward. Sources: sipgate, flowlite.ai, September 22, 2026

What makes up the price?

• Setup. The self-service providers list no fee on their pricing pages. At flowlite.ai normally EUR 990 to 1,990, in the Vertrieb (sales) package EUR 995. Source: flowlite.ai, September 22, 2026
• Base fee. Includes a volume of minutes or calls. Whether you use it up decides whether the plan is a good deal.
• Minutes or calls beyond that. Between 0.08 euros per minute with fonio in the Team plan and 0.49 euros per call with IONOS Flex. Sources: fonio, IONOS, September 22, 2026
• Phone number. At fonio EUR 7 per additional number, at Placetel EUR 9 per assistant per month. Sources: fonio, Placetel, September 22, 2026
• Calendar and CRM integration. At IONOS, appointment booking is only available from Flex Pro. fonio charges EUR 5 per additional integration per month. Integrations with your own system take development time, at flowlite.ai EUR 140 per hour. Sources: IONOS, fonio, flowlite.ai, September 22, 2026

Which costs are not on the pricing page?

Forwarding. When the assistant transfers a call to an employee, Placetel keeps charging 0.05 euros per minute for external destinations. With other providers it depends on whether forwarding runs through your phone system or through the provider. Source: Placetel, September 22, 2026

Contract term. Placetel charges EUR 10 more per month if you want to cancel monthly instead of committing for 24 months. fonio charges EUR 20 more for monthly instead of annual payment. Sources: Placetel, fonio, September 22, 2026

Your own time. The assistant only knows what you give it: opening hours, services, prices, availability, what it must not say. Nobody writes that in an hour, and it has to be kept up to date.

Data protection and disclosure. You need a data processing agreement with the provider under Art. 28 GDPR and privacy information for callers under Art. 13 GDPR. Since August 2, 2026, Art. 50 of the EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) requires that callers are told they are speaking with an AI. Sources: GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689

VAT. Apart from IONOS, all providers listed quote net prices. You need to account for that when comparing. Source: IONOS, September 22, 2026

How does that compare to an office clerk?

The Entgeltatlas of the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) gives a median gross salary of EUR 4,022 per month for full-time office clerks (Bürokaufleute). The lower quartile is EUR 3,140, the upper quartile EUR 5,188. In Hannover the median is EUR 4,277. Source: Entgeltatlas of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, data as of 2025, retrieved September 22, 2026

On top of that comes the employer's share of social security. For 2026 that is 7.3 percent for health insurance plus half of the supplementary contribution, 9.3 percent for pension insurance, 1.3 percent for unemployment insurance and 1.8 percent for long-term care insurance, about 21 percent in total. So EUR 4,022 gross becomes roughly EUR 4,870 in employer costs per month, not counting vacation, sick leave and the workstation. Source: Contribution rates 2026, Techniker Krankenkasse, retrieved September 22, 2026

The comparison still only goes so far. A volume of 1,000 minutes is just under 17 hours of phone time per month. An office clerk does not spend 160 hours on the phone. They handle invoices, mail and orders. The assistant does not replace a position. It takes the calls nobody answers today and spares your team the interruptions. Calculation based on fonio, September 22, 2026

When does it pay off, and when not?

An example with 300 calls per month at three minutes each, so 900 minutes: with fonio Solo you stay within the included volume at EUR 99. With Placetel you exceed the 750 minutes of Grow and need Professional for EUR 149. With IONOS Flex you pay EUR 39 plus 270 calls at 0.49 euros, so EUR 171.30 gross, and the All-Flat plan at EUR 99 would be cheaper. With flowlite.ai you pay EUR 490 including setup and maintenance. Sources: fonio, Placetel, IONOS, flowlite.ai, September 22, 2026

It pays off if one of these applies: calls are lost because nobody picks up in the evening, at lunchtime or on site. The same questions come in every day, such as appointments, opening hours, prices or delivery status. Appointment booking follows fixed rules and the calendar is digital. Or calls pull your team out of focused work.

It is less suitable if you get few calls with complex requests where advice and relationships matter. If your calendar or customer data is not yet connected digitally, the assistant only takes messages, and an answering machine can do that too. Then the integration is the first step and the assistant the second. And during the first weeks it needs someone in the company who reads through the calls and fine-tunes it.

If you are unsure: for two weeks, count the calls that are lost and the ones that always go the same way. That is the only number you need for the decision.

How we do it at B&S

B&S Ventures from Hannover sets up phone assistants so that a call arrives as a case in the calendar, the CRM or the management system, not as a note. We know the integrations this takes from the systems of our own portfolio companies, which we built ourselves and run every day, such as vendor portals with identity verification, internal boards and mail systems in several languages. We start with one channel and one type of request and expand in stages. The goal is more time for your team, not fewer people.

In the free intro call, we look at your calls and give you an initial direction on whether a self-service plan is enough or an assistant connected to your systems does more for you. After that you receive a proposal for the first stage. More on this under AI assistants, the obligations involved under AI assistants and the GDPR.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an AI phone assistant cost per month?

In the German market, between EUR 0 and 1,290 in base fees per month. sipgate sona is free with 500 minutes, IONOS starts at EUR 39 gross, fonio at EUR 99 net, Placetel AI at EUR 79, flowlite.ai at EUR 490. On top of that come minutes or calls beyond the included volume, a phone number and, depending on the provider, setup. Sources: table above, September 22, 2026

Are there setup costs?

fonio, sipgate, IONOS and Placetel list no setup fee on their pricing pages. At flowlite.ai it is normally EUR 990 to 1,990, and in return the provider handles setup and customization. Your own time for the call script, the knowledge base and testing is needed in both cases. Source: flowlite.ai, September 22, 2026

How does the assistant compare in cost to an office clerk?

According to the Entgeltatlas of the German Federal Employment Agency, a full-time office clerk earns a median of EUR 4,022 gross per month. With the employer's share of social security contributions of about 21 percent, that comes to roughly EUR 4,870. The assistant does not replace an office clerk, though. It takes over answering and sorting calls and gives the clerk time for the rest of the work. Sources: Entgeltatlas, data as of 2025, TK contribution rates 2026

At what call volume does an AI phone assistant pay off?

There is no fixed threshold. It pays off when calls are regularly lost because nobody picks up, or when the same requests keep coming in, such as appointments, opening hours and order status. With a small number of complex conversations with regular customers, it usually does not pay off.

Does the assistant have to say that it is an AI?

Yes. Since August 2, 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires that callers are told when they are speaking with an AI system. The notice belongs in the greeting. Source: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689

Which costs do companies overlook most often?

Forwarding to employees, which some providers bill per minute, the phone number, the integration with calendar and CRM, the surcharge for monthly cancellation and VAT for providers that quote net prices.