What does an answering service cost in 2026? The pricing models, worked through.

What an answering service costs depends less on who you choose than on how you're billed. An agency that charges per call can be the cheapest option for a business with ten calls a month and the most expensive for one with two hundred. So this guide starts with the pricing models and ends with worked examples you can hold your own numbers against.

The Danish market figures are ranges from public price lists we went through in October 2026. They're in Danish kroner excluding VAT, which is how the industry shows them. Noa Voice's Danish price is shown both ways.

01Per call

The classic model for human answering services: a fixed monthly fee, plus an amount for each call the operator takes. The monthly fee is typically DKK 295–600, and each call costs DKK 8–14 excl. VAT.

It's a fair model with few calls: ten calls a month typically cost DKK 375–740 excl. VAT. But the bill grows with every call – including wrong numbers and sales calls. And the price usually covers office hours only, so always ask what evenings, weekends and holidays cost.

02A fixed monthly fee with a number of calls

Many agencies also sell packages: a fixed monthly amount with a set number of calls, and a price for each call beyond that. In the price lists we've seen, the smallest packages cost around DKK 400–600 for 10–20 calls, and a package with 100–150 calls around DKK 2,000 excl. VAT. If the operator also has to book appointments in your calendar, that's usually a bigger, pricier package – at the top end we've seen around DKK 5,500 a month excl. VAT.

03AI by the minute

An AI answering service is almost always billed in minutes: a monthly price with a number of minutes, and a per-minute price beyond that. Entry plans from the AI services that publish their prices range from about DKK 600 to 3,000 a month excl. VAT with 150–600 minutes, and extra minutes typically cost DKK 1.50–1.80. Some charge a setup fee the size of a month's subscription, and several don't show a price at all.

At Telenoa it's Noa Voice, in two tiers with the same features and 300 minutes: Basis at €93 a month incl. VAT and Pro at €133, where Noa answers faster and is smarter. After that it's €0.27 per minute with Basis and €0.33 with Pro, up to a cap you set (€65 by default). Once the cap is reached, Noa only takes messages for the rest of the month. No per-call fee, no setup fee, no evening surcharge and no lock-in.

04Four worked examples

Here are the models side by side for four businesses with different call volumes, in Danish kroner. For per-call answering we use the category range. For Noa Voice we assume 2 minutes per call.

• With very few calls a per-call agency can be cheaper. A low monthly fee is hard to beat for ten office-hours calls a month.
• With the priciest agencies, Noa Voice Basis is cheaper from the first call, and with the cheapest it turns at about 33 calls a month. The per-call total climbs, while Noa Voice's price stays put until the 300 minutes are used.
• With many calls you pay for extra minutes – never more than the cap you've agreed to.
• Evenings and weekends aren't in the agency figures. If many calls come outside office hours, the gap is bigger than the table shows.

05What isn't on the price list

• Is the price incl. or excl. VAT?
• What do evening, weekend and holiday calls cost?
• Is there a setup fee, a lock-in or a notice period?
• Can they book straight into your system – and does that cost extra?
• What do you get afterwards: a short message or the whole conversation?
• What happens when you go over the package?

06Set the price against what you lose

The cheapest answering service is the one that costs less than the calls you'd otherwise lose. The missed-call guide shows how to count them, and the missed-call calculator gives you a quick estimate. To see how it works in practice, read about the AI answering service or what Noa does for trades.