Quick answer
At BrandSparkX, AI calling costs AED 1 a minute excluding VAT (AED 1.05 with 5% VAT), plus a one-time setup agreed per client. Billed minutes are real talk time plus a 15% allowance for short and unanswered calls, which works out at about AED 69 per hour of conversation before VAT.
What are you actually paying for?
Most AI voice pricing has two parts. A one-time setup covers designing the conversation, connecting your systems and testing. After that, a usage charge covers the calls themselves. When you compare providers, check what each one includes in the per-minute rate, and whether voice, language model and telephony are billed separately.
A worked example at AED 1 a minute
Suppose your business needs 2,000 minutes of real conversation in a month:
- Real talk time: 2,000 minutes.
- 15% allowance for short and unanswered calls: 300 minutes.
- Billed minutes: 2,300.
- Monthly usage cost: AED 2,300 excluding VAT, or AED 2,415 with 5% VAT.
The same sum gives the hourly figure: 60 minutes of conversation becomes 69 billed minutes, or about AED 69 for each hour of real talking (about AED 72.45 with 5% VAT).
How should you compare it with a calling team?
Comparing a monthly salary with a per-minute rate is misleading, because a calling team does not spend its day talking. Much of the day goes on dialling, unanswered calls and writing notes. A fairer measure is cost per hour of real conversation:
- Add up the team's monthly cost: salaries plus SIMs, software, visas and management.
- Estimate how many hours of real conversation each person has in a day.
- Multiply by the number of callers and working days to get monthly conversation hours.
- Divide cost by those hours, then compare the result with about AED 69.
You can run your own numbers in the cost calculator on our AI Voice & Calling page.
What can make the cost go up?
Higher call volume raises usage, as you would expect. Longer calls do too, so a focused script matters: an agent that qualifies a lead in a short, clear conversation costs less than one that wanders. Complex integrations can add to setup. Very high volumes are usually priced individually.
AI Voice & CallingAI voice agents that answer calls 24/7, make outbound calls within permitted hours and log every call in your CRM.This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and rules can change. Please check the current requirements for your business.
