"Your AI Must Be Expensive" -- What an AI Receptionist Actually Costs

"AI" tends to sound expensive before anyone hears an actual number -- it conjures images of enterprise software with opaque, sales-call-only pricing. So it's a completely reasonable assumption to walk in with. Here's the actual number, and what it's being compared against.

What Linea Costs

Linea's audiology pricing starts at $600 USD per location per month. Every location gets:

• 24/7 coverage, including evenings, weekends, and holidays
• Live integration with CounselEar or Blueprint OMS (Sycle also supported)
• Instant call summaries and transcripts
• Month-to-month billing with no long-term contract

Multi-location groups pay less per site as they scale: 10% off at two to four locations, 20% off at five or more. There's no long-term contract -- it's a month-to-month subscription, so you're never locked in. We walk through exactly what's included for your clinic, and what it would cost, on a demo call.

What It's Actually Being Compared To

The "must be expensive" assumption usually comes from comparing an AI receptionist to doing nothing, which costs $0 on paper. The more useful comparison is against what clinics are actually paying today to solve the same problem.

Versus a Full-Time Front Desk Hire

A full-time receptionist costs $35,000–$55,000 per year in salary alone, before payroll tax, benefits, vacation, sick days, and training time. And that person still can't cover 24/7 -- they can only be on the phone during their shift, one call at a time. Linea's audiology pricing starts at roughly $7,200/year per location, covering every hour of every day, with no turnover to manage.

Versus an Overseas Answering Service

This is the comparison most audiology clinic owners have direct experience with. Overseas call centre agents typically run $1,200–$2,400 per month per location -- and that's for inconsistent quality, agents unfamiliar with hearing care, and appointments that still need to be manually entered into your system afterward. One clinic owner described it directly: "We were spending over $2,400 a month on overseas call centre agents... the quality was a constant problem. Since switching to Linea, that cost is gone." Linea starts at $600/month per location with direct booking, and one CounselEar clinic that had been paying over $2,000 a month for outsourced virtual agents now pays less than half of that.

Versus the Cost of Missed Calls

The most important comparison isn't against another vendor -- it's against the calls you're already losing. 85% of callers who reach voicemail never call back. For a clinic booking even a handful of new patients per month at typical audiology appointment values, one or two additional patients booked because the phone was actually answered can cover the entire monthly cost.

Ask What's Included, Whoever You Choose

Whichever vendor you evaluate, ask the same three questions: what's included in the monthly price, how usage is counted, and what happens in a month when call volume spikes. We're happy to answer all three for your clinic on a demo call.

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Related: The True Cost of Missed Calls for Service Businesses · AI for Multi-Location Audiology Practices · I Already Have Front Desk Staff -- Why Do I Need an AI? · AI Receptionist for Audiology Clinics