Let's be clear up front: there is no single price for an AI phone assistant in a medical practice. Providers package their offers very differently, as a flat monthly fee, by call volume, or per provider. Prices vary significantly depending on the pricing model, usage and feature scope.
So what matters more than one number is understanding the pricing logic: what's included in the base price, what additional usage costs, and what one-time setup costs may apply. This article breaks down the common pricing models and shows what a practice should look at when comparing them.
What pricing models exist?
Most offers come down to a few basic models, often in combination:
- Flat monthly fee: a constant amount per month, regardless of the number of calls. The advantage is predictable costs.
- Tiered by volume: several plan tiers, each with an included allowance of calls or minutes. If you handle more calls, you move up a tier.
- Usage-based, per minute or per call: a lower base price plus an amount per call or minute. This can be cheap at low volumes but hard to predict at high volumes.
- Included allowance plus additional usage: a fixed allowance, for example minutes or hours, is included, and anything beyond it is topped up. This combines predictable base costs with flexibility.
- Per provider, user or location: the price scales with practice size, for example per doctor or per location.
What drives the actual monthly cost?
Within a pricing model, the bill depends mainly on these factors:
- Call volume: the number and length of calls. This is the biggest cost driver in usage- or volume-based plans.
- Practice size: the number of providers, locations and phone numbers.
- Depth of automation: Does the assistant just capture requests, or also book appointments, handle cancellations and answer questions? More automation usually means a higher tier.
- Integrations: Connecting to a calendar or other systems may be tied to higher tiers.
- Included allowance vs. additional usage: How generous is the included allowance, and what does usage beyond it cost?
- Support and service: Priority support or hands-on onboarding is often reserved for higher tiers.
Setup and implementation costs
Beyond the monthly price, one-time costs may apply:
- Setup or implementation fee: Some providers charge a one-time fee for setup and configuration; others don't.
- Configuration effort: Greeting, opening hours, services and workflows need to be set up, either by the practice or together with the provider.
- Telephony setup: Usually call forwarding is enough. A new phone system is generally not required.
Ask specifically whether a setup fee applies and what it covers.
What to compare besides price
The cheapest plan isn't automatically the best. For a medical practice, these matter in particular:
- Data protection: Patient communication is sensitive. Where is data processed and stored, and how is encryption handled?
- Reliability: Availability at peak times and outside opening hours.
- Control over automation: Can the practice decide what runs automatically and what the team confirms first?
- Handoff to the team: How are requests that should not be handled automatically passed to the practice team?
- Structure of requests: Do requests arrive as clearly structured records for the team or in a cluttered inbox?
- Predictable vs. variable costs: How do costs develop as call volume grows?
- Setup effort and ongoing operation: How much work stays with the practice team?
AI assistant, extra staff, or an answering service?
For economic context, it helps to look at the alternatives:
- Extra staff at reception: absorbs peaks but creates ongoing staffing costs and is bound to working hours.
- External answering service: takes calls but often bills per minute or per call and knows the practice's workflows only to a limited degree.
- AI phone assistant: works around the clock, takes several requests at once, and captures them in a structured way. Costs are predictable or usage-based, depending on the model.
Which option pays off depends on each practice's call volume and workflows. There are no reliable blanket comparisons across all practices.
What does Telltone Relay cost?
Telltone Relay is Telltone's AI-assisted request and phone assistant. Its pricing combines a flat monthly fee with an included allowance of voice hours:
- Relay Pro: €99/month, including 10 voice hours per month.
- Relay Max: €299/month, including 30 voice hours per month, for practices with higher usage volume.
Relay has no setup fee. Additional voice hours can be topped up as needed and don't expire. Only voice sessions count against the allowance. Text chat does not.
Relay answers calls via call forwarding. No new phone system is required. Relay can handle several requests at the same time rather than queuing them like a single line.
Relay captures appointment requests, prescription and callback requests, and other administrative matters in a structured way and carries them into Workspace, for your team to confirm or, where you've explicitly enabled it, along an automatic workflow.
Automation is configured per service, so your practice stays in control. Medical advice, diagnoses and treatment decisions remain with qualified medical staff.
When is an AI phone assistant economically worthwhile?
The most reliable calculation is the one you run with your own numbers. Compare the monthly costs:
- the flat monthly fee,
- plus any additional usage beyond the included allowance,
- plus one-time setup costs.
Compare that with what your current handling ties up: interrupted work at reception, time spent on recurring administrative calls, the cost of an external answering service or additional phone capacity.
Be cautious with blanket promises of savings or hours saved. Such numbers depend entirely on the individual practice.
Conclusion
There is no one-size-fits-all price for AI phone assistants in medical practices. But the pricing logic is manageable. If you know the base model, the included allowance, the cost of additional usage and any setup fees, you can compare offers realistically and also weigh data protection, reliability and control over automation.
If you'd like to see what an AI phone assistant would look like for your practice and what it would actually cost, take a look at Telltone Relay for medical practices or book a free consultation.