Receptionist vs AI cost calculator
A receptionist costs far more than the hourly wage on the contract. Add holiday, sick pay, pension, kit and recruitment, and the real bill is bigger again. Put your numbers in below to see the fully-loaded cost of a human against Hey Jodie, and the saving per month and per year.
Your receptionist cost
What you pay per hour, before on-costs.
A full-time receptionist is around 40 hours.
Employer taxes, pension, holiday, sick pay, kit, recruitment.
The plan you would compare against.
A receptionist on 40 hours covers about 24% of the week. Hey Jodie answers 24/7.
of urgent callers will not leave a voicemail. They hang up and call the next number.
Hey Jodie answers day and night, including the evenings and weekends people call.
Calls are answered, the job is booked, and the details land in your inbox.
What a receptionist really costs
The wage on the contract is only part of the bill. On top of the hours you pay for, you carry employer taxes, pension contributions, paid holiday, sick days, a desk, a phone, software and the cost of hiring in the first place. Those on-costs typically add 25 to 40% on top of the wage, so the calculator lets you set your own figure.
Put in what you pay, or would pay, a receptionist an hour before any on-costs.
Add the hours of cover you need a week and the on-cost percentage for employer taxes, pension, holiday, sick pay and equipment.
Choose Basic, Professional or Premium to compare against the live plan price.
See the fully-loaded receptionist cost against Hey Jodie, with the saving per month and per year, then download a one-page report.
Receptionist / year = wage x hours x 52 x (1 + on-costs %); saving = that - your Jodie plan x 12 Why the headline wage understates it
On-costs are not optional
Employer taxes, pension, holiday and sick pay are not extras you can skip - they are part of employing someone. Add equipment and the time spent recruiting and training, and the true cost of a receptionist runs well above the wage you advertise.
A human only covers part of the week
A 40 hour receptionist covers under a quarter of the week. Evenings, weekends, lunch breaks and holidays are still uncovered, so calls outside those hours ring out. A 24/7 AI answers every one of them for a flat fee, with no overtime.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a receptionist really cost? +
A lot more than the hourly wage. Once you add employer taxes, pension, holiday, sick pay, equipment and recruitment, the fully-loaded cost is usually 25 to 40% above the wage. For a full-time receptionist that often runs well into five figures a year. Put your own wage and hours in above for a figure specific to your business.
What are on-costs and overhead? +
On-costs are everything you pay on top of the wage to employ someone: employer taxes, pension contributions, paid holiday, sick pay, a desk and phone, software, and the cost of recruiting and training. A common rule of thumb is 25 to 40% on top of the salary. The calculator uses a 30% default that you can change.
Is an AI receptionist actually cheaper? +
For most businesses, yes, and by a wide margin. Hey Jodie is a flat monthly plan with no holiday, sick pay, pension or recruitment cost, and it answers 24/7 rather than 40 hours a week. The calculator shows the saving per month and per year against your own numbers, so you can see the gap for yourself.
Does an AI replace everything a receptionist does? +
It covers the phone work that loses you jobs when it goes unanswered: taking calls, capturing details, booking appointments, answering common questions and passing urgent ones straight to you. Some businesses keep a person for in-office tasks and use Jodie for the phones, especially out of hours. The calculator compares the call-handling cost of each.
What if I only need part-time cover? +
Set the hours of cover a week to match what you actually pay for and the calculator scales the wage to suit. Even part-time, a human only covers the hours they work, while Jodie answers around the clock. The comparison holds whether you are looking at full-time, part-time or evenings and weekends.
How accurate is this against my real costs? +
It is as accurate as your inputs. The wage, hours and on-cost percentage are yours to set, and the Hey Jodie figure comes straight from the live plan price. The model is deliberately simple and conservative - it counts the direct cost of cover, not the extra value of having every call answered out of hours.
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