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A human receptionist at $40,000/yr fully-loaded costs over $4,000/mo. An AI receptionist handling the same call volume costs under $300/mo to run. This calculator shows the exact break-even month and 3-year NPV of making the switch, using real voice AI cost data from Scouq's production deployments across 35 callers.
Break-even timeline
Fully recovered in month 2 of operation.
Monthly savings switching to AI
$4,389/mo
Current fully-loaded cost
$4,585/mo
AI receptionist ops cost
$196/mo
Annual savings
$52,668
Break-even
Month 2
+$132,061
at 8% discount rate
The AI receptionist creates positive economic value over 3 years after the $8,000 build cost.
HR cost: Annual salary x 1.31 (BLS employer cost multiplier, Q4 2025) / 12 = monthly fully-loaded cost.
Voice AI cost: $40/mo base hosting (CPX31 pro-rated) + (calls x duration x $0.13/min). The $0.13/min is Scouq's observed Modal Vapi billing rate.
Build cost: $8,000. Scouq Quick Build tier for a single-use-case scheduling agent with 2 integrations (~66h at $150/hr blended rate).
NPV: PV = sum(m=1..36) [savings / (1 + 0.08/12)^m] minus $8,000 build cost.
We scope your specific call types, integration requirements, and escalation rules, then give you a fixed-price proposal. No hourly surprise billing.
Related: Missed Call Cost Calculator . Lead Response ROI Calculator
Fully-loaded HR cost
We multiply your salary by 1.31x, the BLS employer cost multiplier for wages plus payroll taxes and benefits (Q4 2025). A $40K salary costs $52,400/yr fully-loaded, or $4,367/mo.
Voice AI cost model
We use $0.13/min for voice AI call handling, the observed Modal Vapi billing rate on Scouq's 35-caller production system. That is our real bill, not an estimate from vendor pricing pages.
Break-even calculation
Break-even month = build cost / monthly savings. Build cost is $8,000 for a single-use-case AI receptionist (Scouq Quick Build tier). This is Scouq's actual pricing basis.
3-year NPV
We discount future savings at 8% annual (0.67%/mo), a conservative hurdle rate for small business capital. NPV above 0 means the AI receptionist creates real financial value.
