Is the AI receptionist market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▼ Shrinking
- Visits, year on year
- -37%
- Visits, last six months
- -69%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- +2.2%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 30 AI receptionist sites I track (DataForSEO estimates) and how often people in the US search for them by name (Google Ads). In October 2026 they got about 578,420 visits. Goodcall alone takes 60.5% of the visits, so the totals mostly follow it. Without it, visits would be down 60.9% on a year ago instead of down 36.5%.
The total hides very different stories: one site grew 7% in a year while another lost 99.7% of its visits. See who grew and who shrank, the visits month by month and the name searches, plus what I expect for November 2026.
AI receptionist market demand: key numbers, October 2026
Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 30 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google578Kvisits-37% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US19.6Ksearches+2% vs October 2025
- Top five sites92.3%of visitsfastest grower: Goodcall
- Expected in November604Kvisitslikely 412K to 797K
- The AI receptionist market is shrinking as of October 2026.
- The 30 AI receptionist sites RankDude tracks got 578,420 visits from Google search in October 2026, 37% fewer visits than in October 2025.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 19,560 times in September 2026, about the same as in October 2025.
- The five most-visited AI receptionist sites get 92.3% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing AI receptionist site over the year: Goodcall, +7% (326K to 350K visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Phonely, -99.7% (294K to 983 visits a month).
- Forecast for November 2026: about 604K visits, likely between 412K and 797K.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 1 November 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting AI receptionist sites than a year ago?
Down 37% on a year ago; down 14% on September 2026
No. The 30 tracked AI receptionist sites got 578,420 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 37% fewer visits than in October 2025, and 14% fewer visits than in September 2026.
The highest month of the last two years was April 2026, with 1,864,606 visits; October 2026 is 69% below it. In the US, visits were 363,033, down 21% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to AI receptionist sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
578K
-36.5% on a year ago
United States, this month
363K
-21.0% on a year ago
Two-year high
1.9M
April 2026
US share of visits
62.8%
of worldwide visits
Miles explains
Visits are lower than a year ago and lower than in September 2026, so the fall is still going. Name searches held about level (+2%) and Google Trends interest in the term rose (+94%), so the drop looks like a few big sites losing Google rankings, not people losing interest.
2.Are people searching for AI receptionist sites by name?
About level with October 2025 (+2%); 19.6K name searches a month in the US
About as many as before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI receptionist sites 19,560 times in September 2026, about the same as in October 2025. Someone who searches a site’s name already knows it, so this is the clearest sign of people coming back on purpose.
USName searches a month for AI receptionist sites, US
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched AI receptionist sites by name, searches a month
Miles explains
Name searches are level, so the regular users are still there.
3.Which AI receptionist sites grew, and which shrank?
The five most-visited sites hold 92.3% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 96.5%
The five most-visited AI receptionist sites get 92.3% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: Goodcall, from 326,265 to 349,761 visits (+7%). Steepest fall: Phonely, from 294,013 to 983 visits (-99.7%).
Growing fastest, year on year
Goodcall350K visits+7%
Falling fastest, year on year
Phonely983 visits-99.7%
Newo1.2K visits-95%
Smith.ai17.5K visits-51%
Talkie.ai55.6K visits-46%
Frontdesk (My AI Front Desk)81.4K visits-23%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.