AI receptionists for auto repair shops in 2026: prices and booking compared

Which AI receptionists are sold to auto repair shops?

Shops can buy AI receptionists built for auto repair, such as AutoLeap AIR, Shopmonkey Concierge and AgentZap, or general ones, such as Smith.ai, Goodcall, Rosie and Dialzara. Paid plans in this guide start at $29 a month. Only a few say they book into auto shop software, so test each claim before you rely on it.

Sapt is in the table too. It is a text front desk, not a voice receptionist. That changes who answers your phone, which the section after the table explains.

AI receptionist prices and booking compared

The table shows each product’s channel, published price, the shop software it can book into, and its contract terms, as published on October 25, 2026. “Vendor states” marks a booking claim we could not test. Where a vendor names no auto shop software, the booking column says so.

Voice or text: who answers the ringing phone?

A voice receptionist answers the call with an AI voice when your team can’t. Sapt works by text. The number on your Google listing and website rings your shop first, and a person at the counter answers. Only when nobody picks up does the caller get a text, and the AI continues the conversation by text.

That is a real trade-off. With a voice product, a caller who would never text still gets an answer at 7 p.m. With Sapt, your team keeps every call it answers, and a missed caller gets a written conversation they can reply to when they’re free, with the booking details in writing. A caller whose phone can’t receive texts, such as a landline, still needs your voicemail and a callback.

If you want a voice on every call the counter can’t take, buy a voice product. If you want your own people on the phone and a reliable follow-up for the calls they miss, a text front desk fits. If you run both, decide which one handles a missed call so the customer doesn’t get two replies. Our missed-call text-back guide covers the text side.

Why booking into your real calendar matters more than the voice

A natural voice doesn’t fill a bay. A confirmed appointment does. If the receptionist can’t see your real openings and write the booking into the calendar your advisor works from, someone still has to call the customer back to confirm. That callback is where jobs slip away.

Many products book into a general calendar, such as Calendly or Google Calendar, or send a link and leave the rest to the customer. That calendar doesn’t know a lift is tied up or that diagnostic slots are full. Your advisor then copies each request into the shop software by hand.

Watch for the word “request.” AutoLeap AIR places “appointment requests” on the AutoLeap calendar, and Shop-Ware’s page says it “Supports scheduling and appointment requests.” A request may still need someone to confirm it. Even Podium, which sells AI to dealerships, wrote in October 2026 that answering a call “doesn’t establish that it can write into every repair system.”

Can an AI receptionist book into Tekmetric or Shopmonkey?

For Tekmetric, AgentZap states it books into the Tekmetric calendar through Tekmetric’s REST API, and we found no AI receptionist in Tekmetric’s own help center. For Shopmonkey, Shopmonkey’s own Concierge answers calls by voice and books appointments, and Sapt books into Shopmonkey by text through a native appointment integration.

We could not test AgentZap’s claim. Its page lists CRM integrations from the $295 plan, and it doesn’t list Shopmonkey. Shopmonkey launched Concierge for CRM Essentials customers in October 2026. The shop’s published number forwards to a Concierge-managed number. Sapt’s Tekmetric integration is in progress. Until a connection is live, our team agrees a request handoff with you so your advisor confirms the time. See the Shopmonkey guide and the software integration guide.

What the prices actually buy

Compare the unit, not the headline. These products charge by calls, minutes or unique customers, and each plan has a cap. A $99 plan with 200 calls and a $99 plan with 220 minutes are different purchases. Count your missed and after-hours calls for a month, then price each plan at that volume.

Overage adds up. AutoLeap AIR charges $0.75 per extra call, Dialzara $0.35 to $0.48 per extra minute, and Smith.ai $2.10 to $3.00 per extra call. Setup fees run from none at Dialzara to $499 at AgentZap.

Most of these products answer the phone and stop there. Sapt’s $297 also covers a managed website built from your Google listing, review request texts, declined-work follow-up from an export of your shop software, and Google listing upkeep with a monthly Maps rank report. Compare it with the set of tools you’d otherwise buy, not with a phone plan alone. See pricing.

Test before you sign

Ask for a live test, not a recorded demo. Call or text after hours, ask for a time you know is booked, accept an open time, and check that exactly one appointment lands in your shop software with the right customer and service. Then ask for a person and see who gets the handoff.

Our AI receptionist buying checklist has the full set of tests, including unknown prices, repeated replies and owner alerts.

Prices checked October 25, 2026

We checked every price and booking claim in this guide on each vendor’s live page on October 25, 2026. Shop-Ware publishes no price for its AI receptionist, so we say so. AI receptionist pricing changes often, so confirm the plan, overage rate and contract before you sign.

Sapt publishes this guide and appears in the table on the same terms as everyone else. Product names belong to their owners.

Sources

These are the pages used for every price, booking claim and contract term above. All are the vendors’ own pages, so each price is what the vendor publishes. Claims we could not test are marked “vendor states” in the table, so you know which ones to check yourself.

• AutoLeap AIR
• AutoLeap pricing
• AgentZap for auto repair
• AgentZap Tekmetric integration
• Broadly pricing
• Smith.ai AI Receptionist pricing
• Goodcall pricing
• Rosie pricing
• Dialzara pricing
• Shop-Ware AI Receptionist
• Shopmonkey pricing
• Shopmonkey help: CRM Essentials Concierge
• Shopmonkey release notes, October 2026
• Shopmonkey terms of service
• Steer pricing
• AutoOps Voice
• Tekmetric help center search for “receptionist”
• Podium: best software for auto repair shops, October 23, 2026
• Sapt pricing