Comparison
CoveredLine vs Smith.ai
Smith.ai is the upmarket pick, and it is priced per call: its AI Receptionist Pro plan starts at $150/mo at $2.00 a call, with custom AI prompting included on its $500 Enterprise tier. CoveredLine is priced per minute from $29/mo, and trains itself on your website on every plan. Which is right depends mostly on how long your average call runs.
See CoveredLine alternatives to Smith.ai- Entry monthly price (paid plan)
- CoveredLine
- $29/mo
- Smith.ai
- $150/mo Pro
- Pricing model
- CoveredLine
- Per minute ($0.35/min overage)
- Smith.ai
- Per call ($1.60-2.00; overage $2.10-2.50)On per-call pricing a 30-second call and a 10-minute call cost the same. The trade runs both ways: short calls spend a whole call, long ones spend only one.
- Books appointments into your calendar
- CoveredLine
- Google, Apple iCloud, Cal.com or any CalDAV calendar
- Smith.ai
- Via scheduling integrations
- Custom AI training
- CoveredLine
- Included - learns your website
- Smith.ai
- Custom AI prompting on Enterprise ($500+/mo)
- Self-serve setup in minutes
- CoveredLine
- Live during signup
- Smith.ai
- Onboarding-led; dedicated onboarding on Pro
- Cap what overage can cost you
- CoveredLine
- Optional monthly spend cap, plus alerts at 80% and 100% of included minutes - every plan
- Smith.ai
- 25 AI-answered calls a month on the free plan, then $3.00 per callTheir AI Receptionist pricing page publishes a per-call rate for each plan. A spend cap or an approaching-limit alert is not listed on it.
- Change your plan yourself
- CoveredLine
- Upgrade, downgrade, switch to annual or cancel in the dashboard - every plan; upgrades apply immediately and are prorated
- Smith.ai
- Plan changes by email to their support team, billed on the new plan from the next monthTheir AI Receptionist pricing page says "If you would like to change your plan, just email support@smith.ai. We'll start billing for your new plan the next month."
- A text to your business number lands in your inbox
- CoveredLine
- Every plan, no monthly allowance - captured, summarized and listed with your voicemails
- Smith.ai
- Not listed on their AI Receptionist pricing page
- Team logins included
- CoveredLine
- 1 on Solo; 3 from Team ($69), 6 from Pro ($129), 15 from Max ($199) - with owner, admin and member roles
- Smith.ai
- Not listed on their AI Receptionist pricing page
| Feature | CoveredLine | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
Entry monthly price (paid plan) | $29/mo | $150/mo Pro |
Pricing model | Per minute ($0.35/min overage) | Per call ($1.60-2.00; overage $2.10-2.50) On per-call pricing a 30-second call and a 10-minute call cost the same. The trade runs both ways: short calls spend a whole call, long ones spend only one. |
Books appointments into your calendar | Google, Apple iCloud, Cal.com or any CalDAV calendar | Via scheduling integrations |
Custom AI training | Included - learns your website | Custom AI prompting on Enterprise ($500+/mo) |
Self-serve setup in minutes | Live during signup | Onboarding-led; dedicated onboarding on Pro |
Cap what overage can cost you | Optional monthly spend cap, plus alerts at 80% and 100% of included minutes - every plan | 25 AI-answered calls a month on the free plan, then $3.00 per call Their AI Receptionist pricing page publishes a per-call rate for each plan. A spend cap or an approaching-limit alert is not listed on it. |
Change your plan yourself | Upgrade, downgrade, switch to annual or cancel in the dashboard - every plan; upgrades apply immediately and are prorated | Plan changes by email to their support team, billed on the new plan from the next month Their AI Receptionist pricing page says "If you would like to change your plan, just email support@smith.ai. We'll start billing for your new plan the next month." |
A text to your business number lands in your inbox | Every plan, no monthly allowance - captured, summarized and listed with your voicemails | Not listed on their AI Receptionist pricing page |
Team logins included | 1 on Solo; 3 from Team ($69), 6 from Pro ($129), 15 from Max ($199) - with owner, admin and member roles | Not listed on their AI Receptionist pricing page |
The same growth, a smoother bill
Watch monthly spend climb with usage, and see the moment a rigid plan jumps in price.
Modeled from Smith.ai's own published pricing and CoveredLine's own pricing, rounded to the nearest dollar. Average call length assumed at 3 minutes, with 1.25 calls per unique caller per month, 1.5 texts per unique caller per month and 0.5 website chats per unique caller per month, at one location with one phone number. A charge a provider does not publish is counted as $0. Smith.ai bills every answered call, and lets a customer remove up to 10% of calls marked as spam; that allowance is not applied here. Its website chat is a separate, human-staffed product and is not included in its bar. CoveredLine includes website chat on every plan and bills texts past a plan's allowance at 5 cents each.
Why CoveredLine.
No per-call math on short calls
Smith.ai’s paid plans start at $150/mo with calls at $1.60-2.00 each and overage up to $2.50. We meter talk time instead, so a quick “are you open today?” costs cents.
Custom training at every price
Smith.ai includes custom AI prompting on its Enterprise tier, from $500/mo. Our receptionist trains itself on your website during signup - the same custom knowledge at every price, including $29.
Answering, booking, and transfer from $29
The core receptionist job - answer 24/7, book real calendar slots, text links, route urgent calls to your own team - is complete on our cheapest plan. You add budget only when you add call volume.
Private by design
Call recording is off by default with a spoken consent notice; texting stays in the transactional TCPA lane; every business’s data is row-isolated; transcripts are never used to train models.
On pricing
Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist: a Free plan (25 calls/mo, then $3.00/call); Pro from $150/mo (75 calls at $2.00/call, 150 calls for $270, 300 calls for $500, overage $2.17-2.50/call); and Enterprise from $500/mo (300 calls at $1.67/call, 500 calls for $800, overage $2.10-2.17/call), with custom AI prompting included on Enterprise. Ours: $29, $69, $129 and $199 per month, per-minute metering ($0.35/min overage), training included at every price.
The verdict
If you need every call answered, booked, and routed without per-call pricing, CoveredLine does the job from $29 with nothing to configure - and a short call costs cents rather than $2.00 flat. Smith.ai’s paid AI plans start at $150/mo, with custom AI prompting on its $500 Enterprise tier.
Sources
More head-to-head comparisons
Hear CoveredLine take your kind of call.
We are finishing setup before opening new accounts. Join the waitlist and we will tell you when we open.
Comparison based on publicly available information as of September 16, 2026. Feature and pricing details for other companies on this page were gathered from each company's own publicly available website and may have changed since publication; confirm current details directly with the provider before deciding. Product names, logos and trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners, and their use here does not imply any endorsement, sponsorship or affiliation. If anything here is out of date, please let us know.