Almost every quote you receive will lead with a per-user-per-month figure, and almost none of them will be what you end up paying. That is not usually dishonesty. It is that a phone system has six or seven cost components and vendors quote the one that makes them look cheapest, which is a different component for each vendor.
This guide prices each component separately in AUD, then builds four worked totals so you can find the one closest to your business. Every figure is the Australian market range as at August 2026, excluding GST. If you want per-seat benchmarks for hosted PBX specifically, our hosted PBX pricing guide goes deeper on that one product; this page covers the whole bill, across every option.
1. The Seven Things You Are Actually Paying For
Take any quote and sort it into these seven buckets. Anything a vendor has not given you a number for is a number you will discover later.
| Component | Typical 2026 range (AUD, ex GST) | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| User licence (the “seat”) | $20 – $60 per user/month | Monthly, per person or per extension |
| Call charges | $0 (bundled) or $8 – $35 per user/month | Bundled, untimed, or per minute |
| Number hosting (DIDs) | $1 – $3 per number/month | Monthly, per phone number |
| 13/1300/1800 inbound service | $10 – $30/month + per call | Separate service, priced separately |
| AI layer | $0 (included) or $8 – $40 per user/month | Per user, per tier, or per minute |
| Handsets | $120 – $450 each, one-off | Capital, rental, or bundled over a term |
| Setup, porting and training | $0 – $2,000 one-off | Often waived on a 24 or 36 month term |
The one number to ask for
Stop asking “what is it per user?” and ask instead: “What is my total, in AUD, for twelve months, at twenty users, including calls, numbers, AI and any hardware?” A vendor who cannot produce that single figure in writing is a vendor whose invoice will surprise you. It also makes quotes comparable, which per-user pricing deliberately does not.
2. What the Seat Price Buys, by Tier
Australian cloud phone pricing sorts into three broad tiers. The tier you need is usually determined by one specific requirement, not by an overall sense of how much system you want.
| Tier | Price (AUD/user/mo) | What you get | What is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | $15 – $25 | Number, softphone app, voicemail, basic auto attendant, extensions | Call recording, analytics, integrations, AI, often queues |
| Professional | $28 – $45 | Everything above plus recording, queues, hunt groups, reporting, CRM integration, and on the better platforms an included AI layer | Contact-centre routing, workforce management |
| Contact centre | $50 – $110 | Skills-based routing, campaign dialling, quality management, real-time supervisor tools | Nothing much. You are paying for depth most businesses never touch. |
Most Australian businesses land in the Professional tier, and most of them get there for one of three reasons: they need call recording for compliance or training, they need queues because callers currently get a busy tone, or they want AI. If none of those three apply, the entry tier is a legitimate answer and you should not be talked out of it.
3. Call Charges: Bundled, Untimed or Per Minute
This is where two quotes that look $6 apart end up $200 a month apart. Australian providers use three models and they suit opposite kinds of business.
| Model | How it works | Best for | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bundled / unlimited | Calls included in the seat price | Outbound teams, predictable budgets | Fair-use caps; check the actual number |
| Untimed local & national | Flat fee per call regardless of length | Long consultative calls | High call count gets expensive fast |
| Per minute (PAYG) | Charged by duration | Inbound-heavy teams, low outbound | One busy month blows the budget |
Indicative 2026 Australian rates where calls are not bundled: local and national $0.05–$0.12 untimed, mobiles $0.10–$0.25 per minute, 13/1300 inbound $0.10–$0.30 per call plus the service fee. Calls to Australian mobiles are, for most businesses, the largest single call cost, and the one most often left out of a comparison.
Do this before you compare quotes
Pull your last three phone invoices and find two numbers: total call minutes, and the share of those minutes that went to mobiles. Ten minutes of work. It converts every quote from a guess into arithmetic, and it is the single highest-return thing you can do in this process. If your provider will not break that out, that itself tells you something.
4. What the AI Layer Costs
In 2026 this is the biggest source of quote-to-invoice drift, because AI is priced four different ways across the market and vendors rarely volunteer which one applies.
| Pricing model | Typical cost (AUD) | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Included in the seat | $0 extra | Fair-use minute caps and what happens past them |
| Per user, per month | $8 – $40 | Whether you must buy it for everyone or can buy it for five |
| Per minute processed | $0.03 – $0.12/min | Applies to every call, including internal ones, on some platforms |
| Voice agent, per minute handled | $0.05 – $0.25/min | Whether failed or abandoned calls are billed |
A 20-person business buying a $20 per-user AI tier adds $400 a month, or $4,800 a year, to a system whose base cost might be $600 a month. That is a 66% increase for a layer that on some platforms is simply included. It is the fastest way to spend a lot of money without noticing, and it is why AI carries a 20% weighting in our 2026 platform comparison.
Worth knowing on the other side of the ledger: an autonomous voice agent handling an after-hours call costs cents, against roughly $6–$9 of loaded staff time for a human-handled call. If it is answering calls that currently go to voicemail and never get returned, the comparison is not cost against cost, it is cost against a lost job. Our AI voice agent guide works the numbers.
5. Handsets and Hardware
The most over-bought line item in the whole exercise. The default assumption is one handset per person, and it is almost always wrong.
| Item | One-off cost (AUD) | Who genuinely needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Entry IP desk phone | $120 – $180 | Shared desks, warehouses, back-of-house |
| Mid-range with colour screen | $200 – $300 | Reception, anyone transferring calls all day |
| Executive / conference unit | $350 – $900 | Meeting rooms. One per room, not per person. |
| DECT cordless handset + base | $250 – $450 | Workshops, retail floors, clinics, aged care |
| Headset (USB or Bluetooth) | $60 – $250 | Anyone on the phone more than an hour a day |
| Desktop and mobile apps | $0 | Everyone else, which is most people |
A workable rule for an ordinary office: one handset per three to four staff, plus one per shared area, plus a good headset for anyone phone-heavy. A twenty-person business usually needs five to seven handsets, not twenty. That single decision is a $2,000–$3,000 swing on day one.
On rental versus purchase: renting at $8–$15 per handset per month over 36 months costs $290–$540 for hardware you never own. Buy outright unless cash flow genuinely rules it out, and note that a handset bundled “free” into a 36-month contract is a handset you have financed at an interest rate nobody wrote down.
6. The Costs That Appear on Invoice Two
Ask about every one of these before signing. Most are small; collectively they routinely add 10–20%.
- Porting fees, $0–$55 per number. Complex ports (multiple numbers on one service, or a number tied to a legacy product) cost more.
- Per-site or per-location fees, $10–$40 per site per month on some platforms.
- Call recording storage beyond an included period, often $0.02–$0.10 per GB per month, or a flat retention tier.
- Additional numbers for departments, campaigns or after-hours lines.
- E-fax or SMS, usually a separate per-user or per-message charge.
- Integration licences for Salesforce, HubSpot or ZOHO connectors. See our CRM integration guide for which levels need a paid connector.
- Professional services: IVR build, dial plan design, training beyond the included session.
- Early termination, commonly the remaining months at full rate. This is the expensive one.
- Annual CPI uplift, buried in the terms. Ask whether your rate is fixed for the term.
- Network upgrades: business-grade NBN, a decent router, or 4G failover if voice now matters. Budget $50–$120 a month if you are upgrading.
7. Four Worked Totals
All figures AUD, excluding GST, monthly unless marked one-off. These are realistic mid-market configurations, not the cheapest possible build.
Sole trader or two people
- 2 seats × $28 = $56, or 1 seat plus a shared number from about $28
- Numbers: 2 × $2 = $4
- Calls, light outbound: $10–$25
- Handsets: $0, apps only
- Total: about $70–$85/month. A single-user setup lands nearer $30–$55.
Five-person office
- 5 seats × $28.30 = $141.50
- Numbers: 6 × $2 = $12
- Calls, mixed: $40–$90
- Handsets: 2 × $180 = $360 one-off
- Total: about $195–$245/month, plus $360 up front. Around $39–$49 per person.
Twenty-person business, AI included
- 20 seats × $28.30 = $566
- Numbers: 22 × $2 = $44
- 1300 service + inbound calls: $45–$90
- Calls, mixed outbound: $120–$220
- AI layer, included on the leading platform: $0. On a platform charging $20/user it would be $400.
- Handsets: 6 × $200 = $1,200 one-off
- Total: about $775–$920/month, plus $1,200 up front. About $39–$46 per person, or $59–$66 on a platform that charges separately for AI.
Fifty-person business with a support queue
- 38 professional seats × $28.30 = $1,075
- 12 contact-centre seats × $55 = $660
- Numbers, 1300 service and inbound: $130–$210
- Calls: $300–$520
- Handsets: 14 × $220 = $3,080 one-off
- Total: about $2,165–$2,465/month, plus $3,080 up front. About $43–$49 per person.
Note what the per-person figure does across those four: it barely moves. Cloud phone systems have very little economy of scale on the seat itself. What changes with size is the proportion of people who need the expensive tier, and how much of your cost is calls rather than licences.
8. What the Alternatives Cost
Cloud per-seat is not the only model. Two others are cheaper on paper and worth pricing honestly.
| Option | Apparent cost | Real cost, 20 users | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud phone system (per seat) | $28–$45/user | $775–$920/mo | The default for most businesses under 100 seats |
| SIP trunks + your own PBX | $12–$16/user | $250–$310/mo plus $3,000+/yr of PBX overhead, so about $500/mo effective | Wins clearly above roughly 100 seats. Usually a false economy below 30. See the SIP trunking guide. |
| Mobiles only, no system | $45–$65/user | $900–$1,300/mo | More expensive than a phone system and gives you no routing, queues or continuity. See running a business number on a mobile for the middle path. |
| Teams Phone + calling plan | Licence + plan | Varies widely with your Microsoft agreement | Often the cheapest incremental option if you already hold the right licences. Compare properly: Teams Phone vs cloud PBX. |
9. Six Ways to Pay Less Without Buying Worse
- Buy fewer handsets. The largest single saving available, and it costs you nothing.
- Mix your tiers. Very few platforms require every user on the same plan. Put three people on contact-centre seats and the rest on professional.
- Match the call model to your traffic. Inbound-heavy businesses should not pay for unlimited outbound; outbound teams should never be on per-minute.
- Pay annually if the discount is real. A 10–20% reduction is common. Only do this once you are past the first 90 days and confident.
- Trade term for setup. Setup and porting fees are the most negotiable items on the quote, and vendors will usually waive them for a 24-month term. Decide whether the term is worth it.
- Audit your extensions annually. Paying for departed staff is the most common ongoing waste we see, and it survives for years because nobody owns the invoice.
One thing not to do: choose the cheapest entry-tier plan to save $8 a seat, then discover you need call recording. Adding it later usually means moving tier for everybody, at which point you have paid the migration cost twice.
10. The Bottom Line
Budget AUD $35 to $45 per person per month all in for a properly featured cloud phone system in Australia in 2026, plus a one-off of roughly $150–$250 per person for hardware if you are buying handsets. If a quote comes in far under that, find out what has been left out, and it is usually calls, AI or numbers. If it comes in far over, find out what you are buying that you will not use, and it is usually contact-centre licensing for people who answer six calls a day.
Then do the one piece of arithmetic that matters more than any comparison table: your current total annual spend, against the new total annual spend, both including calls. Businesses moving off legacy lines commonly find the saving is real but smaller than the marketing suggests, and that the actual return is in the things the old system could not do at all.
When you have your number, compare the platforms, then follow the setup guide so the migration does not cost you the saving.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a business phone system cost per month?
In Australia in 2026, budget roughly AUD $25 to $45 per user per month all in, including calls, number hosting and AI. Realistic monthly totals are about $30 to $55 for a sole trader, $195 to $245 for five people, $775 to $920 for twenty, and $2,165 to $2,465 for fifty. Handsets are a separate one-off of about $120 to $450 each, and most businesses need far fewer of them than they expect.
How much does a phone system cost for a small business of 5 people?
About AUD $195 to $245 per month all in: five seats at roughly $28 each, six numbers at about $2 each, and $40 to $90 of calls. Add a one-off of around $360 if you buy two desk phones for reception and a shared area. That works out to roughly $39 to $49 per person per month. Everyone else uses the included desktop and mobile apps at no extra cost.
Why is my phone system quote higher than the advertised price?
Because the advertised price is almost always the user licence alone. The components usually excluded are call charges, number hosting at $1 to $3 per number per month, a 13 or 1300 inbound service, the AI tier, handsets, and setup or porting fees. Together these typically add 25 to 40 per cent. Ask every vendor for one figure: the total in AUD for twelve months at your actual user count, including all of the above.
Is VoIP cheaper than a traditional phone system?
Yes, substantially, mostly because line rental and call rates are lower and there is no PBX hardware to buy or maintain. Businesses moving off ISDN or legacy Telstra services commonly cut line and call costs by 40 to 60 per cent. Be careful comparing against a cloud system with AI and recording included, though: you are buying considerably more capability, so the saving is often smaller than headline claims while the value is larger.
Do I need to buy desk phones?
Usually only for some staff. Reception, shared desks, warehouses, workshops, clinics and meeting rooms benefit from a handset. Everyone else can use the desktop and mobile apps, which are included in the seat price. A practical rule is one handset per three to four staff, plus one per shared area. For twenty people that is five to seven handsets, not twenty, which is a $2,000 to $3,000 difference on day one.
How much does AI cost on a business phone system?
It depends entirely on the pricing model. Some platforms include transcription, summarisation and voice agents in the seat price at no extra cost. Others charge AUD $8 to $40 per user per month, $0.03 to $0.12 per minute processed, or $0.05 to $0.25 per minute for autonomous voice agents. For a twenty-person business a $20 per-user AI tier adds $4,800 a year, so confirm which model applies before you compare seat prices.
Are there setup or installation costs?
Often, and they are the most negotiable part of the quote. Expect $0 to $2,000 depending on complexity, plus $0 to $55 per number for porting. Most providers will waive setup and porting in exchange for a 24 or 36 month term. Decide whether locking in for two years is worth the saving, because early termination is usually the remaining months at full rate.
What is the cheapest business phone system in Australia?
Entry-tier cloud plans start around AUD $15 to $25 per user per month, but they typically exclude call recording, analytics, integrations and AI, and sometimes call queues. That is a legitimate choice if you genuinely need none of those. If you need any one of them, the professional tier at $28 to $45 is cheaper overall than starting low and moving the whole business up a tier six months later.