Five Questions Before You Get an AI Receptionist

Before a business sets up an AI receptionist on its phone line, the same five questions tend to come up: how much it costs, how fast it can go live, how to forward an existing number to it, whether it works in Slovakia too, and how VAT and invoices are handled. The answers below come straight from volai's current rate card and settings, not an estimate.

How much does an AI receptionist cost a month?

The price has three parts: 25 CZK a month for the phone number, 0.50 CZK per minute for an incoming call, and 2.50 CZK per minute on top for the voice agent - 3 CZK per minute the receptionist answers, combined. A business with 60 calls a month averaging 2 minutes each (120 minutes total) pays 385 CZK a month excluding VAT - no flat plan, no setup fee. A full breakdown with more scenarios is in How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost.

How do I set it up in 5 minutes?

Four steps, no approval process:

• Sign up - email and password, 50 CZK in credit right after verifying the address.
• The wizard picks a template (reception, bookings, support...) and pre-fills the instructions.
• A test call from the portal lets you hear how the receptionist sounds before a real customer does.
• Connect a number - either buy a new Czech number or forward an existing mobile to volai.

The whole thing works without a card - the signup credit covers the first calls; a card is only needed to top up once the credit runs out.

How do I forward a number from O2, T-Mobile or Vodafone?

The forwarding codes are the same GSM codes across all three carriers. The most useful one forwards only unanswered calls - the owner's phone rings first, and only if it goes unanswered for 20 seconds does the receptionist pick up:

• Unanswered calls - *61*[volai number]#
• All calls - *21*[volai number]#
• Unreachable - *62*[volai number]#
• Busy - *67*[volai number]#
• Cancel forwarding - ##002#

The code is dialed from the phone whose number is being forwarded - the portal shows it, with a copy button, right after the number is connected.

Does it work with a Slovak number too?

The Slovak offer today covers only the Bratislava area code +421 2 - it is a mediated foreign number, restocked manually rather than bought self-service, and billed three months upfront. Other Slovak area codes are not sold yet. SMS costs 1.36 CZK regardless of whether it goes to a Czech or Slovak number.

How does VAT and invoicing work?

volai is a VAT payer. Rates and credit (balance, movement history) are always shown excluding VAT - the 21% is added only when topping up credit by card, and a tax invoice is emailed automatically after every top-up. A VAT-registered business from another EU country with a VAT ID verified in the EU VIES registry pays without Czech VAT (reverse charge) - just fill in the VAT ID in account settings.

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