AI Receptionist for Med Spas at $453.48

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An AI receptionist for a med spa, priced from HighLevel's pages on 13 October 2026, comes to $453.48 in listed charges for one location on a hypothetical month of 200 billed inbound minutes when you also buy the HIPAA add-on. That total is $97 for Agency Starter, $50 for AI Employee Growth, $297 for HIPAA, $1.15 for a US local number, $6 for 100 overage voice minutes on the OpenAI text-to-speech rate, and $2.33 to answer those minutes inside the app. The $297 line is the one that does not come off.

The buyer is the owner of one US med spa who still books consults from the phone. O*NET's 2025 wage line for receptionists and information clerks, drawn from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, is $18.27 an hour and $38,010 a year, which is $3,167.50 a month before any employer tax. Health care is one of the top industries on that page. You are not replacing that person for the whole day. You are selling the hours the desk is empty, and the owner can set your invoice next to one slice of that wage. A message desk is a different job: the vacation-rental reply offer watches a message clock, while this one watches a treatment calendar.

What does the spa actually buy?

The spa buys a named calendar and a phone path that can only say what the owner wrote down. A caller can hear the hours, the services on the card, and the prices on the card, then take an open consult slot. Anything clinical stops the script: dosing, a diagnosis, a promise about a result, or a price that is not on the card. The handoff is a message to the person on duty, not a medical opinion from the model.

Who to turn down

Turn down a multi-location chain, a spa that will not give you a written price card, and any owner who wants the bot to "just answer questions about Botox." You also turn down a shop that needs the live call forwarded to your mobile abroad. HighLevel's phone guide says forwarding to an international number uses Twilio's international rates, which are higher than the US rates below, and it does not publish one foreign rate you can safely quote. Let the agent answer in the platform, and text a US number the spa already owns.

What does one month actually include?

The minute rate is the small number. The subscriptions are the business. Agency Starter is $97 a month in the pricing-page FAQ, or $970 for the year on the card, and it covers three sub-accounts. AI Employee Growth is $50 a month for that location and includes 100 Voice AI minutes, counting inbound, outbound, and widget time together. Past that allowance, voice bills at the pay-per-use rates. AI Employee Unlimited is $97 a month and includes voice minutes only under a fair-use rule, so it is the wrong default for a 200-minute example.

From 20 May 2026 the Voice Engine is $0.045 a minute. OpenAI text-to-speech, effective 20 April 2026, is $0.015 a minute. HighLevel's own 10-minute example on that pair is $0.60 before the language-model tokens and before the phone bill. One hundred overage minutes on the same pair are $6, and that $6 still excludes tokens. ElevenLabs V3 is $0.170 a minute, so the same 100 minutes would be $21.50 before tokens and phone. Leave V3 off the starter script.

The phone guide, modified 12 October 2026, prices a US local number at $1.15 a month. An inbound call answered on the web, mobile app, or desk phone is $0.01165 a minute. Two hundred billed minutes at that rate are $2.33. The same 200 minutes forwarded to a US phone are $0.02 a minute, or $4. Calls bill in whole minutes, and a partial minute rounds up, so "200 billed minutes" already includes that rounding. Recording is a separate $0.0025 a minute plus $0.0005 a minute each month for storage. Leave recording off. The HIPAA article lists voice recordings among the data the add-on encrypts, which is a reason not to keep them "just in case."

Line	Published rate	In the 200-minute example
Agency Starter	$97 a month, or $970 a year, for 3 sub-accounts	$97
AI Employee Growth	$50 a month, 100 voice minutes included	$50
Voice overage, OpenAI speech	$0.045 engine + $0.015 speech = $0.060 a minute, before tokens	$6 on the second 100 minutes
US local number	$1.15 a month	$1.15
Inbound minutes in the app	$0.01165 a minute	$2.33
HIPAA add-on, only if required	$297 a month, agency-wide, permanent	$297

Data note: platform prices were read on 13 October 2026. The $453.48 sum is $97 + $50 + $6 + $1.15 + $2.33 + $297. It leaves out language-model tokens, text messages, and the campaign fee for business texting.

How do you turn the first spa on?

Do the covered-entity question before you create the sub-account. HHS says a clinic is a covered entity only if it transmits health information electronically in connection with a transaction for which HHS has adopted a standard. A cash-pay spa that never sends those transactions is not a covered entity just because it uses email. If it is a covered entity and you store patient details for it, you are in business-associate territory, and HHS requires a written contract. HighLevel's HIPAA article then matters: the $297 package is how that platform will sign a business-associate agreement with you, and you still need your own agreement with the spa.

The package is permanent. The help article, modified 11 June 2026, says it cannot be canceled, refunded, or downgraded, and that the per-location switch cannot be turned off, because the data cannot be un-encrypted. The $297 is once for the whole account, not once per spa, but the second and third locations still add their own $50 plan and their own $1.15 number. A fourth location no longer fits Starter's three sub-accounts, and the unlimited plan on the FAQ is $297 a month.

Step	What you do	Stop if
1	Ask whether the spa sends electronic insurance claims or other standard transactions.	The owner does not know. Do not guess.
2	If the answer is yes, buy the $297 package, sign the agreement in the product, and turn the location switch on before any real caller.	You are not willing to keep paying $297 after this spa leaves.
3	Load only the hours, services, and prices the owner signed. Book those consults on the location calendar.	The price card is blank or "call us for a quote" on every line.
4	Buy one US local number at $1.15. Point missed or after-hours calls at the agent. Do not forward the audio to a phone abroad.	The owner wants every call bridged to your personal mobile.
5	If you text a confirmation, register a low-volume campaign first. The one-time fee is $22.50, including a $3 fast-track charge that is not refunded, and a monthly fee of $1.50 to $10.50 starts when you submit, even if the review fails.	You send a marketing blast inside the reminder.
6	Run scripted calls. Each partial minute rounds up and bills. Fix the script before you open the after-hours forward.	The agent quotes a price that is not on the card.

A US text segment on that phone guide is $0.00747 before the carrier's own fee. Two hundred confirmation texts are $1.494 before that fee. Verizon's outbound carrier fee on the same page is $0.005, so a segment to Verizon is $0.01247. Keep each confirmation to one segment: time, date, and the spa's name. Resubmitting a campaign has been free since 1 February 2026. The first submission is not free.

Invoice the $900 from a US business account. Mercury is the practical place for that deposit to land while you live abroad. Starter cannot pass the phone wallet through to the spa, so the $2.33, the $6, and any tokens stay inside your margin until you move to the $297 unlimited plan, which can rebill usage at cost.

How much do you invoice?

Invoice one number for one location and one after-hours window, and write the minute cap next to it. In the example the cap is 200 billed minutes and the invoice is $900 when the HIPAA package is on. The $446.52 left is not profit. It still has to pay for the tokens HighLevel adds on top of the $0.060 voice rate, for any texts, for the campaign fee if you registered one, and for the time you spend listening to bad calls and editing the card.

When the minutes climb

Growth stays cheaper than Unlimited for a long time if you only count the engine and OpenAI speech. Unlimited is $47 more a month. At $0.060 a minute, $47 divided by $0.060 is 783.33 extra minutes, on top of the 100 already included, before the flat $97 plan wins on those two rates alone. Tokens can close that gap sooner. Recompute from the location's usage screen before you switch plans, and do not promise the spa a minute cap you have not priced.

What fails after the number is live?

The expensive failure is buying HIPAA for a spa that never needed it, or skipping it for a spa that bills insurance electronically. HHS is the test, not the spa's marketing site. HighLevel will not let you undo the purchase. If the only client leaves, the $297 remains.

The second failure is a reminder text that sells. The FCC's 2015 TCPA order treats texts as calls. A non-emergency call to a wireless number that uses an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice needs prior express consent. Telemarketing consent has to be in writing. An informational call can rest on oral or written consent. A confirmation of a time the caller just booked can stay informational. A coupon, a review ask, or a "book a friend" line can turn it into telemarketing. Keep the text boring.

The third failure is the script drifting into care. The agent may repeat the card. It may not choose a treatment, explain a complication, or tell the caller they are a candidate. When the caller describes a medical problem, the script takes a message and stops. That rule belongs in the first paragraph of the prompt, and you check it on the scripted calls in step 6, where the minutes already cost money.

What you still owe on the retainer

The retainer is self-employment income even when you spend it abroad. The IRS self-employment tax page sets the rate at 15.3 percent, made of 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare. That rate applies to net earnings, not to the $446.52 left before your hours, so do not spend the whole remainder. How the tax works once you live abroad is covered in the self-employment tax trap for freelancers. Keep the dollars in a Mercury account that can receive the invoice.

Close the first month on purpose

Ask the transaction question, then decide whether the $297 fee is permanent on your account. Load one signed price card, answer inside the app at $0.01165 a minute, and keep the first month inside 200 billed minutes so the listed charges stay at $453.48 or at $156.48. Invoice after the scripted calls sound like the card, not before. What remains after the tools is an AI income retainer you can run without sitting in the spa.

Data notes and sources checked

• HighLevel pricing — Starter $97 a month or $970 a year, Growth $50, Unlimited AI $97, HIPAA $297, read 13 October 2026.
• HighLevel HIPAA package — $297, permanent, business-associate agreement, per-location switch.
• HighLevel AI pricing — 100 included minutes, $0.045 engine, $0.015 OpenAI speech, modified 28 September 2026.
• HighLevel phone pricing — $1.15 number, $0.01165 inbound, SMS and campaign fees, modified 12 October 2026.
• HHS covered entities — provider rule and the written business-associate contract.
• FCC TCPA order — consent for wireless calls and texts.
• IRS self-employment tax — 15.3 percent rate.
• O*NET receptionists — 2025 median wage, $18.27 an hour and $38,010 a year.
• Michael Heredia pricing — AI receptionist at $8,000 once.