An AI receptionist answers your business number, greets the caller, understands what they want, answers routine questions and hands the call to a person when needed. 3CX offers one inside its PBX: its AI Receptionist page says it is "powered by OpenAI", you connect your own AI provider account and pay that provider separately, and "the current maximum duration is 3 minutes per call." AI agents sit in the 3CX AI edition, $575 a year at 8 simultaneous calls as listed on 3cx.com on 5 November 2026, before tax, and you still need a SIP trunk and numbers. Sautikit's AI agents are managed: no AI account, no PBX, no trunk. You write the receptionist's brief, bind the agent to your Kenyan number (KES 500 a month), and pay KES 4.00 a minute, metered per second, on top of the call rate. You set each agent's maximum call length; the default is 15 minutes.
On a busy day the front desk does the same five things on repeat:
- Greets the caller and finds out why they called.
- Answers the routine questions: opening hours, location, prices, order status.
- Takes a name, number and message.
- Puts the caller through to the right person.
- Covers the hours nobody is at the desk.
An AI receptionist does all five on every call at once, in a natural voice, and the caller can interrupt it mid-sentence like a person. For a Kenyan clinic, law firm, school, property agency or shop, the win is simple: no more calls that ring out at 7 pm or during the Monday rush.
These facts come from 3cx.com's AI Receptionist page, AI edition page and price list, read on 5 November 2026.
- Where it lives: inside a 3CX PBX. AI agents are part of the AI edition.
- Licence: the AI edition is $575 a year at 8 simultaneous calls and $1,095 at 16, before tax, plus hosting if 3CX hosts it.
- AI provider: "Connect Grok, Google or OpenAI." Admins "maintain full control of API keys" and "define usage budgets via OpenAI's dashboard", so AI usage is a second bill from the AI provider.
- Call length: "The current maximum duration is 3 minutes per call."
- Fallback: when the AI cannot handle a call, it goes to a live agent or voicemail.
- Phone line: not included. 3CX lists "Bring your own trunk & numbers" as a feature, so you add a SIP trunk provider for your Kenyan number and minutes.
- Where it lives: on your Sautikit number. No PBX, no server.
- Licence: none.
- AI provider: managed by Sautikit. Models and voices are part of the service; there is no account or key to connect.
- Call length: a cap you set per agent, 15 minutes by default.
- Handover: when the agent decides a person is needed, it passes the call to your team with a written summary of the conversation so far.
- When it answers: every call, or only outside your business hours.
- Tools: the agent can call your own API mid-conversation to check an order, a balance or a booking.
- Records: every call has a transcript and can be recorded.
- Phone line: included. A Kenyan number is KES 500 a month, inbound calls are free.
| Question | 3CX AI Receptionist | Sautikit AI agent |
|---|
| What you buy | AI edition licence, from $575/yr (8 calls) | Nothing up front |
| AI provider account | Yours (Grok, Google or OpenAI), billed separately | Not needed |
| Maximum call length | 3 minutes | You set it; 15 minutes by default |
| Phone number and minutes | From a separate SIP trunk provider | Included, KES 500/month number |
| AI cost | Your AI provider's usage bill | KES 4.00/min, metered per second |
| Currency | USD licence, USD AI usage | KES, prepaid, M-Pesa or card |
| Setup | Reseller installs PBX, admin connects AI | Write a brief, publish, bind to the number |
The three-minute cap matters more than it looks. A caller booking a clinic appointment, asking about rent arrears or tracking a delivery often needs longer than three minutes, and a receptionist that has to drop or transfer every call at the three-minute mark is doing half the job.
A caller rings your number and the AI agent answers for 2 minutes 30 seconds:
- Inbound call: KES 0.
- AI agent time: 150 seconds at KES 4.00 a minute = KES 10.00.
That is the whole cost of the call. A month of 300 such calls is KES 3,000 of AI time on top of the KES 500 number rent, with no licence, no dollar invoice and no separate AI provider bill.
- Claim a Kenyan number in the console. It is live in seconds.
- Create an agent. Give it a name, a voice and a brief: who you are, your hours, what callers usually ask, and when to hand over to a person.
- Publish it and bind it to the number, for every call or after hours only.
- Call your number and test it.
Developers can do the same with three API calls; the walk-through is in AI receptionist and Route inbound calls to an AI agent. Teams that would rather run their own model can stream call audio to their own server instead.
Keep your PBX for extensions and let a Sautikit number carry the line. Every Sautikit number has SIP credentials that a 3CX system can register with (Use Sautikit as a SIP trunk), so inbound calls become free and outbound calls cost KES 3.00 a minute billed per second. More on the switch in What is 3CX? and Sautikit vs 3CX.
An AI voice agent that answers your business phone. It greets callers, answers routine questions, takes messages and transfers calls to a person when needed, at any hour and on many calls at once.
Yes. 3CX says the receptionist is powered by OpenAI and that admins control the API keys and set usage budgets in OpenAI's dashboard. Its AI edition page lists Grok, Google or OpenAI as providers you connect. Usage is billed by that provider, separately from the 3CX licence.
3CX's AI Receptionist page says the current maximum is 3 minutes per call. On Sautikit you set the cap per agent, and the default is 15 minutes.
KES 4.00 a minute of agent time, metered per second, on top of the call rate. Inbound calls are free, so an inbound call answered by the agent costs only the agent time. The Kenyan number is KES 500 a month.
Yes. A Sautikit agent hands the call to your team when it decides a person is needed, with a written summary of what the caller said, so nobody asks the caller to repeat themselves.
Create an AI agent → · Claim a number → · See pricing →