AI receptionist for small business: what it handles in chats and DMs, and what it costs
Yevhen Kurapov, co-founder · Updated Oct 19, 2026
ChatPal is an AI receptionist for chats and DMs, not phone calls. In your website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram it answers from your price list and policies, books in Google Calendar, Calendly or Altegio, sends reminders, saves leads and hands chats to you. Plans run $0 to $120 a month; a part-time receptionist costs about $1,580.
An AI receptionist answers what a front desk answers all day (prices, opening hours, parking, "anything free on Saturday?") and books the appointment. ChatPal is that receptionist for chats and DMs: your website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Telegram. It doesn't answer phone calls, voicemail or text messages. If most of your clients pick up the phone, a voice AI receptionist is the right tool, and the section on phones below names three with their prices.
What it handles
Everything here is on every ChatPal plan, the free one included.
- Questions, from your own material. You give it your price list, services and policies, as a PDF, Word or text file or your website's pages. It answers from them in the client's language. When the answer isn't there, it says it doesn't have that information rather than guessing.
- Booking, moving and cancelling. Connected to Google Calendar, Calendly or Altegio, it offers real free times, takes a name and phone number (an email on Calendly), and books. Later the client can move or cancel in the chat: on Google Calendar and Altegio it finds the booking by phone number, on Calendly by email. Booking works in the website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram.
- Reminders. A message before the appointment, sent in the chat the client booked in, except on Messenger. When a booking is moved or cancelled in the chat, its reminder follows.
- Leads. Lead capture is on from the start and collects a name and phone number. A client who leaves a number or email, or writes on a messenger and looks ready to buy, appears under Leads with a line on what they want.
- Handing over to you. With hand-off on, a client who asks for a person goes to your inbox. You reply from ChatPal, and your reply reaches them on the channel they used.
- Alerts. A booking alerts the workspace owner and admins, and a hand-off or a new lead alerts everyone on your team, by email or Telegram.
What stays with you: phone calls, voice messages and videos (it ignores them), and opening a conversation, because on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram the client writes first. In the website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram it reads photos, up to 4 per message, but whether you can do what's in the picture is your call.
An example booking conversation
We wrote this from the booking instructions ChatPal's assistant runs on; it is not a recorded chat. The business is a made-up massage studio with two therapists, Lauren and Mia, each on their own Google Calendar. Deep tissue massage is set up in ChatPal as a 60-minute service at $95 that both of them offer, and the studio's uploaded FAQ mentions free parking. A client writes on Instagram on a Thursday at 10:40 pm.
Client: Hi! How much is a deep tissue massage, and is there parking?
Assistant: A deep tissue massage is $95 for 60 minutes, and there's free parking behind the building. Would you like me to book one for you here?
Client: Yes please, Saturday morning? Anyone is fine.
Assistant: Here are Saturday's free times. Pick one below, or type another day and time that suits you.
[Card: Saturday, October 24 · 9:00 · 10:30 · 11:00 · 13:30 · Sun, Oct 25 · More times]
Client: Saturday, October 24 at 10:30
Assistant: What name and phone number should I book it under?
Client: Emma Clarke, 512 555 0147
Assistant: Book a deep tissue massage on Saturday, October 24 at 10:30 am for Emma Clarke, +1 512 555 0147?
[Card: Yes, book it · Change number]
Client: Yes, book it
Assistant: You're booked, Emma: deep tissue massage with Mia, Saturday, October 24, 10:30-11:30 am.
Why each turn looks like that:
- The first reply answers both questions and offers to book. The price and length come from the service set up in ChatPal, the parking line from the FAQ. Without a parking note, it would say it doesn't have that detail. After any price question, its instructions end with an offer to book right in the chat.
- "Anyone is fine" skips a question. With two therapists it would otherwise ask who first, naming both. "Anyone" searches both calendars, books whoever is least busy that day, and names her in the confirmation.
- The times are real. Each therapist's bookable hours, minus everything already in her Google Calendar. On Instagram they arrive as buttons under the message, so the text doesn't repeat them.
- One confirmation, only because of the phone number. The number had no country code, so the assistant added the studio's own and asked once. Typed with +1, it would have booked on that turn.
The booking lands in Mia's calendar, the owner gets a booking alert, and Emma's number is saved on her lead. On Friday at 10:30 am the reminder the studio set up arrives in the same Instagram chat:
Assistant: Hi Emma Clarke, a reminder that your appointment is tomorrow at 10:30. If you need to move it, just reply here.
Emma last wrote less than 12 hours earlier. On Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta limits what a business can send once about 24 hours have passed since the client's last message, so a reminder sent later than that may not arrive.
If she then asks for a person, and the studio has hand-off on, the chat goes to its inbox:
Client: Could I ask someone about massage during pregnancy first?
Assistant: Our team has your message and will reply here in this chat.
No promised reply time and no follow-up question. The assistant stays silent in that chat until someone clicks Return to AI. For eight booking situations, including a fully booked day, two locations and a cancellation cutoff, see booking chatbot examples.
Where a phone AI receptionist is still the right tool
ChatPal answers typed messages only. A voice AI receptionist fits better when:
- most new clients call rather than write, as in many trades and clinics with an older clientele;
- callers need a person on the line straight away, and the call has to be transferred live;
- you mostly miss calls while your hands are busy, and your Instagram and website chat are quiet.
Three voice AI receptionists with published prices, checked on 19 October 2026:
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist: free for 25 calls a month; Pro from $150 a month for 75 calls, month to month. A complex call can be transferred to its live receptionists.
- Rosie: $49 a month for 250 minutes. Booking straight onto your calendar starts on Scale, $149 a month for 1,000 minutes. Every plan includes a website chat widget.
- Goodcall: $79 a month for 100 different callers, then 79¢ each, with no charge per minute.
Salons on Booksy, Vagaro, Fresha or Treatwell can also try the AI their booking system sells, which mostly answers the phone or texts; our salon chatbot comparison covers them. Plenty of small businesses need both a voice tool on the phone line and ChatPal in the DMs. For how these compare with a human answering service, read AI receptionist vs answering service vs chatbot.
What it costs: a worked example
The wage and plan prices below are published figures. The rest are assumptions for a small service business; swap in your own.
- 150 new conversations a month, about 5 a day.
- On the phone, each one is a 3-minute call from a different person.
- In chat, each one takes 5 assistant replies, as in the example above: the answer, the times, the name and number, the confirmation and the booking.
- A part-time receptionist works 20 hours a week at the US median receptionist wage, $18.27 an hour (May 2025), before employer taxes.
| Option | What it answers | Plan at this volume | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part-time receptionist | Phone, walk-ins and messages, 20 hours a week | 20 hours × $18.27 × 52 weeks ÷ 12 | about $1,583 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Phone calls, any hour | Pro, 150-call tier at $1.80 a call | about $270 |
| Rosie | Phone calls, any hour, plus a website chat | Scale: 450 minutes needed, 1,000 included | $149 |
| Goodcall | Phone calls, any hour | Starter: 100 callers included, 50 more at 79¢ | $118.50 |
| ChatPal | Website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram, any hour | Standard: 750 replies needed, 1,500 included | $50 |
What the table leaves out:
- A person does more. A receptionist greets clients at the door, takes the phone and the awkward complaint, and works the hours you pay for. The software answers at 10:40 pm and on Sunday.
- Most businesses get both calls and messages. Then the fair comparison is a voice tool plus ChatPal: Rosie Scale and ChatPal Standard come to $199 a month at these numbers, about an eighth of the part-time wage.
- Small volumes cost nothing. At 5 replies a conversation, ChatPal's free plan (100 replies a month) covers about 20 conversations. Your own test chats count toward the limit too.
- Your time. Count a few hours to write down services, prices and rules, and a few minutes a day for the first two weeks reading its answers.
For a step-by-step version of this sum based on your own message count and hours, see what answering messages costs a salon.
How to set it up
- Describe the business. On your first sign-in, the Setup page asks for your website or a short description. Click Let's get started and ChatPal drafts the assistant's instructions and welcome message.
- Add your price list and policies. Open Knowledge and upload them on the Files tab (PDF, Word, text or Markdown), or add your site on Website & links. Write down what clients ask most: prices, durations, parking, the cancellation rule.
- Connect the calendar. Under Integrations, choose Google Calendar, Calendly or Altegio; one can be active per assistant. For Google Calendar, click Connect Google Calendar and tick every permission, add your services, fill in a card per practitioner with their calendar and hours, then turn on Take bookings with this assistant. The full walkthrough is in how to book appointments from Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram.
- Add a reminder. In Configuration, open the Automation tab, click Add reminder under Reminders and choose Before appointment. Enter 1440 under Offset (minutes) for the day before, keep Fixed reminder, write the Message template and click Create. None is sent until you add one. The template behind the example above:
Hi {{customerName}}, a reminder that your appointment is tomorrow at {{appointmentTime}}. If you need to move it, just reply here.
- Switch on hand-off. In Configuration, open the Handoff & leads tab and turn on Hand off to a human when needed. Lead capture is on the same tab. To choose email or Telegram for each alert, click the bell next to your name, then See all and Preferences.
- Connect the channels. From Integrations: Chat Widget for your website, then Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram, each from its own page. A number already in the WhatsApp Business app can stay there with Connect and keep the app.
- Test it before clients do. Open Playground, ask the ten questions you hear most, then book, move and cancel a test appointment and check your calendar. Each test reply counts toward your monthly messages.