Ruby Receptionist Pricing in 2026: What Law Firms Actually Pay Per Minute

This article is published by Clerx, which sells an AI receptionist and competes with Ruby. Ruby's prices and billing rules below come from Ruby's plans and pricing page and its public help center, reviewed November 9, 2026. Plans change, so confirm current terms with Ruby before you buy.

Ruby's phone plans start at $250/month for 50 receptionist minutes and rise to $7,875/month for 2,500 minutes, with an overage rate per extra minute. The number that matters for a law firm is not the monthly headline. It is how many receptionist minutes your real intake calls consume, because Ruby bills receptionist time, including hold time and after-call work, rounded up to the next 60 seconds.

The short answer

• Ruby bills by receptionist minute, not by call. Plans run from $250/month (50 minutes) to $7,875/month (2,500 minutes), with overage from $5.40 down to $3.30 per minute.
• Ruby says a typical inbound call is about 2 receptionist minutes, and warns that lengthy intake forms, questions, and talkative callers make calls longer. Detailed legal intake is exactly that kind of call.
• On Ruby's own average, 100 calls is about 200 minutes, which fits the $720/month plan, or about $7.20 per call. Longer intake calls move you up the price ladder fast.
• Website chat is a separate product. Standalone chat plans start at $143/month for 10 chats, billed per engaged chat.
• No setup, onboarding, or customization fees, according to Ruby, but unused minutes do not roll over and credit card payments carry a 3% processing fee.
• Choose Ruby when you want provider-supplied human receptionists following the firm's customized call-handling instructions on every call. Choose Clerx when you want AI intake that qualifies the caller and writes the result into your legal software. Clerx lets prospective clients schedule and pay for their consultation in one booking flow.

Ruby's phone plans and overage rates

These are the standard receptionist plans listed in Ruby's billing plan guide, reviewed November 9, 2026. The monthly fee is due in advance. Overage is billed in arrears.

• Call Ruby 50: 50 minutes for $250/month, overage $5.40/minute
• Call Ruby 100: 100 minutes for $395/month, overage $4.50/minute
• Call Ruby 200: 200 minutes for $720/month, overage $4.40/minute
• Call Ruby 350: 350 minutes for $1,210/month, overage $4.25/minute
• Call Ruby 500: 500 minutes for $1,725/month, overage $4.00/minute
• Call Ruby 750: 750 minutes for $2,550/month, overage $3.85/minute
• Call Ruby 1,000: 1,000 minutes for $3,350/month, overage $3.65/minute
• Call Ruby 1,500: 1,500 minutes for $4,945/month, overage $3.50/minute
• Call Ruby 2,000: 2,000 minutes for $6,400/month, overage $3.40/minute
• Call Ruby 2,500: 2,500 minutes for $7,875/month, overage $3.30/minute

Ruby's plans page says every plan includes the same features and differs only in minutes. Listed features include 24/7 live answering, optional 24/7 Spanish and bilingual call handling, scheduling, payment collection, lead qualification and intake, and outbound call assistance.

How Ruby counts a minute

Per-minute billing is where most surprises come from. Ruby's billing basics page says:

• Billable time starts when a Ruby receptionist receives the call and ends when the receptionist transfers the call, sends it to voicemail, or the call ends.
• Hold time is billed. So is time a receptionist spends completing information on your call after the caller hangs up.
• Talk time after a transfer to you is not billed.
• Billing happens in 60-second increments. Ruby's example: a ten-second call is billed as 60 seconds.
• Unused minutes and chats do not roll over.
• Outbound call assists use minutes too. Ruby counts the outbound specialist's time on the call plus the follow-up email.

Ruby also states that a typical inbound call is around 2 receptionist minutes, that calls connecting to voicemail are shorter, and that calls where the receptionist fills out a lengthy intake form run longer.

What a law firm might actually pay (worked examples)

These are arithmetic on Ruby's published prices, not quotes. They use Ruby's own 2-minute average where stated, and the plan Ruby's billing guide recommends for that usage range. Your calls will differ.

• 60 calls at 2 minutes = 120 minutes. Ruby's guide recommends Call Ruby 100 for 77-172 minutes. Cost: $395 + (20 extra minutes x $4.50) = $485, about $8.08 per call.
• 100 calls at 2 minutes = 200 minutes. Call Ruby 200 covers it: $720, about $7.20 per call.
• 100 calls at 4 minutes = 400 minutes (a longer qualification script). Ruby recommends Call Ruby 350 for 312-471 minutes. Cost: $1,210 + (50 extra minutes x $4.25) = $1,422.50, about $14.23 per call. Call Ruby 500 would be $1,725 flat, so overage is still the cheaper path here.
• 250 calls at 2 minutes = 500 minutes. Call Ruby 500 covers it: $1,725, about $6.90 per call.

The pattern: doubling call length roughly doubles the cost per call. A firm that asks eight qualifying questions, checks conflicts information, and books a consultation should price Ruby on its longest realistic intake call, not on the company-wide average.

Costs beyond the plan price

• Website chat is a separate plan. Standalone chat plans listed by Ruby are 10 chats for $143/month, 30 for $335, 50 for $520, and 100 for $945, with per-chat overage from $12.25 down to $9.45. Ruby offers a 20% discount when you bundle chat with a receptionist plan.
• Engaged chats are billed broadly, including leads, actionable support, non-actionable support, and recruitment conversations. Chats started by a bot, nonsensical chats, and chats ended after the first hello are not billed.
• Credit card payments carry a 3% processing fee. ACH and check are accepted.
• No activation, onboarding, setup, customization, or holiday-coverage fees, per Ruby's pricing page.
• Plan changes have rules. New customers get a three-billing-cycle calibration window for upgrades and downgrades. After that, downgrades are available after three consecutive billing periods on the same plan.
• Usage alerts go out at 85% and 100% of your monthly minutes.
• Introductory guarantee and cancellation: Ruby's cancellation policy describes a money-back period of up to 21 days or until usage passes 500 receptionist minutes or 50 billable chats, whichever comes first. Outside that period, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current monthly billing period.

Where the per-minute model helps and hurts a law firm

Per-minute pricing can be efficient for short, predictable calls: take a message, route, transfer. It gets expensive when the call is a conversation. Legal intake is often a conversation, and a missed call is also expensive. Firms already weighing this tradeoff will find the hidden cost of missed calls useful context, and our legal answering service cost guide shows how per-minute, per-call, and flat models compare across vendors.

Three situations to watch:

• Detailed intake scripts. Every extra question is billable receptionist time.
• Campaign spikes. A marketing push can push you into overage the same month. See how firms handle this in call overflow for 3-5 attorney firms.
• Unused minutes. Quiet months still cost the full plan price, because nothing rolls over.

When Ruby may be the better fit

• You want provider-supplied human receptionists following the firm's customized call-handling instructions on every call, with no AI conducting the conversation.
• You need 24/7 live English and Spanish human answering from one vendor.
• You want published, public pricing for both phone and website chat, with no custom quote process.
• Your calls are mostly short: messages, transfers, simple FAQs.
• You want human reception as backup for in-house staff. Ruby's own cancellation guidance suggests keeping Ruby as backup to stay on a smaller plan.
• You want a vendor that says it has two decades of experience, with legal-software connections such as Clio Manage and 8am MyCase.

When Clerx may be the better fit

• Your intake call is long and structured, and you would rather not pay for each minute of it. Clerx prices a customized package around expected call volume, channels, integrations, and workflow, not per receptionist minute. Clerx does not publish standard pricing, so request a written quote at your actual volume.
• You want qualification, scheduling, and payment in one flow. Clerx lets prospective clients schedule and pay for their consultation in one booking flow. See Scheduling and payments and the guide to paid legal consultations.
• You need the result inside your legal software: Clio, MyCase, DocketWise, and others in the integration directory.
• Inquiries arrive by phone, chat, and text, and you want one workflow across Donna for calls, website chat, and SMS. Clerx includes unlimited website chats in every package.
• You serve clients in many languages. Clerx supports more than 40 languages across calls and written channels.
• You want month-to-month terms and a team that designs and revises the workflow with you.

Clerx does not supply human receptionists. When a caller needs a person, Clerx follows the retry and fallback sequence configured for your firm, then takes a message if nobody answers. Clerx does not charge an additional warm-transfer fee. For a closer look at when a call should reach a person, read what happens when a caller asks for a human and warm transfers.

How to test fairly

1. Pull 30 days of inbound call data from your phone system: call count and average handled time for intake calls specifically, not voicemail.
2. Price Ruby at that volume. Use the plan list above, add the overage, and add chat if you need it. Model a normal month and your busiest month.
3. Ask Clerx for a written quote at the same call volume and channel mix, including included usage, overage rate, and add-ons.
4. Run the same five test calls on each side: a new lead, an existing client, a wrong number, a Spanish-speaking caller, and a caller who says "I need a person now."
5. Score what lands in your system, not just whether someone answered: the lead record, the notes, the booked consultation, and the payment.
6. Review a week of transcripts. Our pre-go-live test checklist and security checklist work for any provider you evaluate.

Related comparisons

• Vendor pricing breakdowns: Smith.ai pricing in 2026 and the legal answering service roundup for 2026.
• Head-to-head: Clerx vs Ruby, Clerx vs Smith.ai, Clerx vs Posh, and Clerx vs Abby Connect.
• Thinking about switching: how to switch from a virtual receptionist to AI and why attorney offices are moving from virtual receptionists.
• Budgeting: AI receptionist ROI for solo law firms.

FAQ

How much does Ruby Receptionist cost per month?

Ruby's phone plans range from $250/month for 50 receptionist minutes to $7,875/month for 2,500 minutes, per Ruby's billing plan guide reviewed November 9, 2026. Most small firms land between the 100-minute plan ($395) and the 500-minute plan ($1,725).

Does Ruby charge per minute or per call?

Per receptionist minute. Billable time includes hold time and after-call information entry, and it is rounded up in 60-second increments.

What is Ruby's overage rate?

It depends on the plan: $5.40 per minute on Call Ruby 50, falling to $3.30 per minute on Call Ruby 2,500. Ruby bills overage in arrears on the following invoice.

How long is an average Ruby call?

Ruby says a typical inbound call is around 2 receptionist minutes. It adds that lengthy intake forms, frustrated callers, questions, and talkative callers can make calls longer, so a law firm's intake calls may run above that average.

Does Ruby charge setup or onboarding fees?

Ruby says it does not charge activation, onboarding, setup, customization, or holiday-coverage fees. Credit card payments carry a 3% processing fee.

Do unused Ruby minutes roll over?

No. Unused receptionist minutes and chats expire at the end of each billing period.

Is website chat included in Ruby's phone plans?

No. Ruby sells chat as a separate plan billed per engaged chat, with a 20% discount if you bundle it with a receptionist plan.

Can Ruby handle Spanish-speaking callers?

Ruby lists 24/7 Spanish and bilingual call handling as available on its receptionist plans. Confirm the exact languages, hours, and any extra cost for your account before you sign.

How is Clerx priced compared with Ruby?

Clerx does not publish standard pricing. It provides a customized quote based on expected call volume, channels, integrations, and workflow, and it is month-to-month. Ruby publishes minute-based prices. Compare both on the same realistic call volume and intake length.

Is Ruby or Clerx better for a law firm?

It depends on what you value. Ruby may be better if you want provider-supplied human receptionists following the firm's customized call-handling instructions on every call. Clerx may be better if you want AI intake that qualifies the inquiry, books and collects payment for the consultation in one booking flow, and updates your legal software. Test both with your own calls.

Final verdict

Ruby's pricing is public and easy to read, but the bill follows receptionist time, so a firm's actual cost depends on how long its intake calls run. Price Ruby on your longest realistic intake call, include chat if you need it, and compare against a written quote for the same volume.

If you would rather have AI complete the intake and book the consultation, Book a demo with Clerx today.