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The comparison, with its sources
Salary, employer National Insurance and pension for three UK receptionists, every figure with its source and date, worked out to the cost of a single call. Beside them, the same call on Evrella, from the plans’ own prices, and what Evrella does not replace.
A 4-minute call. Nobody measures how much of a receptionist’s day is spent on the phone, so the table shows three shares, and they are assumptions.
| Receptionist | 30% of the day on the phone | 40% of the day on the phone | 60% of the day on the phone | The phone’s share only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A GP practice’s receptionist, on NHS terms | £4.32 a call616 calls a month | £3.24 a call822 calls a month | £2.16 a call1,233 calls a month | £1.30 a call |
| A full-time receptionist on the National Living Wage | £3.68 a call643 calls a month | £2.76 a call858 calls a month | £1.84 a call1,287 calls a month | £1.10 a call |
| A part-time receptionist, 20 hours a week | £3.57 a call343 calls a month | £2.68 a call458 calls a month | £1.79 a call686 calls a month | £1.07 a call |
The same 4-minute call on Evrella costs 47.6p to 64p, on Starter, Small business and Business, inside its credits and past them.
Putting a receptionist’s whole cost on her calls overstates the gap: the rest of her day is real work. Counting only the share of her time spent talking, a call costs £1.07 to £1.30, whatever the share.
What each one costs an employer this tax year, before a desk, a phone or a recruiter. Every figure’s source, and the sums, are further down the page.
£2,662 a month
137 hours at the desk a month, after leave and sickness: £19.44 an hour.
A practice doing most of its work for the NHS cannot claim the Employment Allowance.
£2,366 a month
143 hours at the desk a month, after leave and sickness: £16.55 an hour.
If your Employment Allowance covers the National Insurance: £2,118 a month.
£1,225 a month
76.3 hours at the desk a month, after leave and sickness: £16.07 an hour.
If your Employment Allowance covers the National Insurance: £1,122 a month.
Figures as of 27 October 2026.
A 4-minute call spends 16 credits on Starter, Small business and Business. Inside a plan’s credits it costs the plan’s price over its credits; past them, the plan’s own rate a credit.
| Plan | Inside its credits | Past them |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 62.4p | 64p |
| Small business | 47.6p | 56p |
| Business | 49.8p | 48p |
Evrella removes the queue, not the post. She answers the calls nobody can pick up, when every line is busy, at lunch, in the evening and at the weekend, and the routine questions in between. She does not replace the desk: greeting people, taking payments, registrations, repeat prescriptions, scanning and filing, the judgement calls, and the callers she puts through to a person.
People who answer your phone for you, priced by the call or by the minute.
£75 a month for 30 answered calls, £145 for 60, £230 for 100 and £635 for 300; £2.99 for each call past them.
Every plan covers 08:00 to 20:00; nights and weekends are a separate service.
Prices as published, read in October 2026.
From £49 a month, charged by the second.
A 90-day minimum term, then 30 days rolling.
Prices as published, read in October 2026.
No published prices for its plans; 24/7 answering from an additional £35 a month.
Plans are quoted through a form.
Prices as published, read in October 2026.
Every input the sums use: what it is, where it comes from and the month it dates from.
| Figure | Value | Source | Dated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda for Change Band 2, a year (a GP practice’s receptionist on NHS terms) | £25,272 | NHS Employers, Agenda for Change pay scales 2026/27 | April 2026Changes each April |
| National Living Wage, aged 21 and over | £12.71 an hour | GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates | April 2026Changes each April |
| Employer National Insurance rate | 15% | GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 | April 2026Changes each April |
| Employer National Insurance secondary threshold, a year | £5,000 | GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 | April 2026Changes each April |
| Employment Allowance, a year | £10,500 | GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 | April 2026Changes each April |
| Auto-enrolment pension, the employer’s minimum | 3% | The Pensions Regulator, automatic enrolment contributions | April 2019 |
| Auto-enrolment qualifying earnings, lower limit, a year | £6,240 | The Pensions Regulator, automatic enrolment earnings thresholds 2026/27 | April 2026Changes each April |
| Auto-enrolment qualifying earnings, upper limit, a year | £50,270 | The Pensions Regulator, automatic enrolment earnings thresholds 2026/27 | April 2026Changes each April |
| NHS Pension Scheme, the rate the employer pays | 14.38% | NHS Business Services Authority, employer contribution rates 2026/27 | April 2026Changes each April |
| Annual leave on Agenda for Change from appointment, with 8 bank holidays | 35 days | NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, section 13 (27 days and 8 general public holidays) | December 2025 |
| Statutory paid holiday for a five-day week (5.6 weeks), bank holidays included | 28 days | GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement | October 2026 |
| Sickness absence, public sector (used for a practice on NHS terms) | 2.9% | ONS, Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2025 | May 2026 |
| Sickness absence, private sector | 1.7% | ONS, Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2025 | May 2026 |
| A full-time week | 37.5 hours a week | An assumption. Agenda for Change’s full-time week, used for both full-timers | October 2026 |
| A part-time week | 20 hours a week | An assumption. A morning or an afternoon receptionist, five days a week | October 2026 |
| A call’s length | 4 minutes | An assumption. NHS England plans general practice on a five-minute call; four keeps the sums conservative | October 2026 |
| Share of the day on the phone, low | 30% | An assumption. No UK study measures it | October 2026 |
| Share of the day on the phone, middle | 40% | An assumption. No UK study measures it | October 2026 |
| Share of the day on the phone, high | 60% | An assumption. No UK study measures it | October 2026 |
| Cost of a hire, staff below senior management (median) | £2,000 | CIPD, Resourcing and talent planning report 2026 | September 2026 |
| Training spend per employee, a year | £1,700 | Department for Education, Employer Skills Survey 2024 | July 2025 |
Hiring and training are listed above and left out of the sums, as are a desk, a phone and premises, so every receptionist figure here is a floor.
Figures as of 27 October 2026. The National Living Wage, the National Insurance thresholds, the auto-enrolment band, the NHS pension rate and the Agenda for Change pay award change each April, and this page is refreshed then. ONS publishes its earnings survey each autumn: when its median pay for a full-time receptionist is above the National Living Wage for a full-time week, the full-timer moves to it.
Evrella’s own assistant, live on this page
Pages selling phone answering often print a single salary for a receptionist and say nowhere where it comes from. A salary is only the start: an employer also pays National Insurance and a pension, and pays for the holidays and sick days when nobody is at the desk.
In November 2025, 11.9% of calls to GP practices in England ended while the caller was still waiting, according to NHS England’s own call data. Those calls reach nobody, however good the person at the desk is.
Putting a receptionist’s whole cost on her calls makes any phone service look cheap, because most of her day is other work. This page shows that figure and, beside it, the cost of only the share of her time spent talking.
Short examples written for this page, not recordings of real callers.
01
Your website and the documents you give her are what she answers from.
02
Your website chat, WhatsApp and your phone line, day and night.
03
Each one is in your console, with the details she took and a summary.
The receptionists’ figures follow the rules an employer must follow in the 2026/27 tax year: the National Living Wage, employer National Insurance above the secondary threshold, the auto-enrolment pension duty on qualifying earnings, and 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. A GP practice’s receptionist on NHS terms is paid on Agenda for Change, with its leave and the NHS Pension Scheme’s employer rate. Evrella is an AI assistant: she says so at the start of every call, takes a message or puts the caller through to a person when your rules say so, and gives no advice that needs a professional.
Plans at £0, £39, £149 or £249 a month, with 30 days free and no card to start.
£107 a month like this
Recommended
£39 / month£390 / year
1,000 credits a month
about 1,000 AI replies, or about 250 call minutes
Evrella on every channel: website chat, WhatsApp and your own phone number
Recommended
£149 / month£1,490 / year
5,000 credits a month
about 5,000 AI replies, or about 1,250 call minutes
For a busy small business with a team and several websites
Recommended
£249 / month£2,490 / year
8,000 credits a month
about 8,000 AI replies, or about 2,000 call minutes
For busy practices and branches, with your practice system connected as each sector pack ships
A month this size is worth a conversation
Enterprise adds volume rates, systems that need a partnership, several sites routed as one and terms of your own.
Enterprise: From £499 a month. Set-up from £2,000. 15,000 credits a month included, then 3p a credit.
It depends on the hours and the terms. This page works out three for the 2026/27 tax year: a GP practice’s receptionist on NHS terms, a full-time and a part-time receptionist on the National Living Wage, each with salary, employer National Insurance and pension. The cards at the top give each one’s month, and every figure’s source is in the table further down.
For the calls, yes, on either way of counting this page shows. But Evrella does not replace a receptionist’s other work: the desk, payments, registrations and the judgement calls. Most businesses use her for the calls nobody can answer, when every line is busy, at lunch, in the evening and at the weekend.
Putting a receptionist’s whole cost on her calls overstates the gap, because the rest of her day is real work. So beside that figure the page shows the cost of only the share of her time spent talking. That second figure is the fairer one to compare with a phone service.
NHS England plans general practice on a five-minute call. The page uses four, which keeps a receptionist’s cost a call low rather than high. It is an assumption, and so are the three shares of the day spent on the phone: nobody in the UK measures them.
No. The figures table lists what a hire and a year’s training cost, from the CIPD and the Department for Education, but the sums leave them out, along with a desk, a phone and premises. That keeps every receptionist figure on the page a floor.
Each April, when the National Living Wage, the National Insurance thresholds, the auto-enrolment band, the NHS pension rate and the Agenda for Change pay award change. The site will not publish the page with a figure past its month.
Evrella’s plans are priced in credits, and a call minute spends the same credits on Starter, Small business and Business. The table on this page shows a call on each plan, inside its credits and past them, worked out from the plans’ own prices. Every plan is on the pricing page.
Yes, and that is how most businesses start. Evrella answers when every line is busy and out of hours, takes messages for the team, and puts callers through to a person when your rules say so. Your receptionist keeps the desk.
Set her up on your own website and number, and try her free first.
