RingCentral — RingEX Core is $20 per user a month paid annually against $30 monthly, Advanced $25 against $35 — and then almost everything interesting is a separately priced booster.
Short answer: RingCentral’s RingEX Core plan costs $20 per user per month paid annually or $30 billed monthly, and Advanced costs $25 paid annually or $35 monthly. The two AI Customer Engagement bundles above them are quote-only. Core includes unlimited domestic calling, on-demand call recording, 100 toll-free minutes, 25 SMS per user per month, HD meetings for 300 participants, the AI Virtual Assistant, and LLM plugins with MCP connectors; Advanced adds CRM integrations, multi-site support, core reporting, 1,000 toll-free minutes and 100 SMS per user. Add-ons are priced separately: AI Receptionist from $39, Conversational Intelligence from $60, the Call Queues Booster at $35, the Business SMS Booster at $25, RingCX contact centre from $65 per user, RingCentral Events from $99 per organiser and Rooms from $39 per room. Read from ringcentral.com on 1 October 2026.
On this page
Verdict at a glance
Overall rating: 3.5/5 ★★★☆☆
Standout: LLM plugins and MCP connectors are listed inside the $20 Core plan, which makes RingCentral one of the few phone systems selling agent connectivity at the entry tier rather than as an enterprise upsell.
Watch out: The $20 and $25 figures are annual-commitment rates — the page’s own banner says ‘Save up to 33% by paying annually’, and the monthly prices beside them are $30 and $35. Worse for budgeting, the AI Receptionist that fronts the marketing is an add-on from $39 per month, more than the Core seat it attaches to.
RingCentral publishes two RingEX prices and then asks you to build the rest from a menu. Core is $20 per user per month paid annually or $30 billed monthly; Advanced is $25 or $35. Above them sit the AI Customer Engagement Bundle with AI Receptionist and the newer bundle adding AI Conversation Expert, both marked ‘Contact us for pricing’. What the published tiers buy is a competent business phone system: unlimited domestic calling, on-demand recording, HD meetings to 300 participants, the AI Virtual Assistant included, and — unusually — LLM plugins and MCP connectors at the Core tier, which is a real signal about where the product is going. Advanced adds CRM integrations, multiple sites, core reporting and insights, and raises toll-free minutes from 100 to 1,000 and SMS from 25 to 100 per user per month. Then the add-on list begins, and it is long. AI Receptionist starts at $39, Conversational Intelligence at $60, the Call Queues Booster is $35 and the Business SMS Booster is $25 — the last two included in the Customer Engagement bundle, which tells you what that bundle is for. RingCX, the AI contact centre, starts at $65 per user. Events is from $99 per organiser per month, Rooms from $39 per room, Webinar from $30 per organiser, Push to Talk $5 per user. Vanity numbers are $30 one-off plus $4.99 a month; international toll-free numbers are $14.99 per user per month plus $25 one-off; high-volume SMS starts at $0.0119 per message sent or received. A footnote discloses that a Webinar 500 discount reverts to $75 per host per month after one year. Three and a half stars. The entry price is competitive and the MCP and LLM plugin inclusion at Core is genuinely forward-looking, but the published seat price is a fraction of what a working configuration costs, the two bundles that contain the headline AI have no number, and the real monthly rate is 50% above the advertised one.
Quick facts
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ideal team | Businesses replacing a phone system and wanting messaging with it |
| Learning curve | Low for users, moderate for call routing |
| Setup time | Days, plus number porting |
| Free trial | ✅ ‘Try free’ offered on both RingEX tiers |
| Free tier | ⚠️ None |
| Entry | $20/user/mo paid annually ($30/user/mo billed monthly) |
| AI included | AI Virtual Assistant on Core; AI Receptionist is an add-on |
| Agent connectivity | LLM plugins and MCP connectors listed on Core |
Overview
RingEX Core at $20 per user per month paid annually, or $30 billed monthly, includes unlimited domestic calling, on-demand call recording, 100 toll-free minutes, 25 SMS per user per month, HD meetings for up to 300 participants, the AI Virtual Assistant, and LLM plugins with MCP connectors. Advanced at $25 paid annually or $35 monthly adds CRM integrations, the ability to connect multiple sites, core reporting and insights, 1,000 toll-free minutes and 100 SMS per user per month. The page offers user-count bands of 1–5, 6–100 and 100+, and the banner states ‘Save up to 33% by paying annually’.
Two bundles sit above Advanced and neither carries a price. The AI Customer Engagement Bundle with AI Receptionist includes AIR and the AI Virtual Assistant, 10,000 toll-free minutes, 200 SMS per user, RingCentral Webinar, historical and real-time insights, unlimited storage and both the Business SMS and Call Queues boosters. A second bundle adds AI Conversation Expert for multi-level insights and reporting, coaching and performance analysis, explainable deal and call scoring, automated summaries and CRM integrations. Both route to ‘Contact sales’.
The add-on menu is where a quote actually gets built. AI Receptionist starts at $39 and Conversational Intelligence at $60; the Call Queues Booster is $35 and the Business SMS Booster $25, both included in the Customer Engagement bundle. Beyond RingEX: RingCX AI contact centre from $65 per user, RingCentral Events from $99 per organiser per month, Rooms from $39 per room per month, Webinar from $30 per organiser (with a 500-attendee licence included for RingEX Ultra and Customer Engagement bundle users), and Push to Talk at $5 per user per month. Numbers and messaging are metered on top: additional vanity numbers at $30 one-time plus $4.99 a month, additional international toll-free numbers at $14.99 per user per month plus $25 one-time, additional international numbers from $5.99 per user per month, additional toll-free or local numbers from $4.99 a month, and high-volume SMS from $0.0119 per message sent or received. A footnote on the page states that a one-year Webinar 500 discount reverts to $75 per host per month, or the then-current retail price, after the first year.
Key features
- Unlimited domestic calling — included on Core
- AI Virtual Assistant — included from Core
- LLM plugins and MCP connectors — listed on Core
- HD meetings — 300 participants on Core
- CRM integrations and multi-site — from Advanced
- AI Receptionist — ⚠️ add-on from $39 a month
- Conversational Intelligence — ⚠️ add-on from $60 a month
- RingCX contact centre — from $65 per user per month
- Events and Webinar — from $99 and $30 per organiser
- High-volume SMS — from $0.0119 per message
Pricing (as of 2026-10-01)
Model: per user per month with an annual commitment discount; most capability sold as separately priced add-ons · Free tier: ⚠️ None — free trial offered on both RingEX tiers · Entry paid: $20/user/mo paid annually ($30/user/mo billed monthly)
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| RingEX Core | $20/user/mo annual · $30 monthly | Unlimited domestic calling · on-demand recording · 100 toll-free minutes · 25 SMS/user · 300-participant meetings · AVA · LLM plugins and MCP connectors |
| RingEX Advanced | $25/user/mo annual · $35 monthly | Everything in Core plus CRM integrations · multi-site · core reporting · 1,000 toll-free minutes · 100 SMS/user |
| AI Customer Engagement with AIR | Quote | AI Receptionist · 10,000 toll-free minutes · 200 SMS/user · Webinar · real-time insights · unlimited storage · SMS and Call Queues boosters |
| AI Customer Engagement with AIR and ACE | Quote | Adds AI Conversation Expert · multi-level insights · coaching · call scoring · automated summaries |
| Add-ons | From $25 to $99 | AI Receptionist from $39 · Conversational Intelligence from $60 · Call Queues Booster $35 · Business SMS Booster $25 · RingCX from $65/user · Events from $99/organiser · Rooms from $39/room |
⚠️ $20 and $25 are the annual-commitment rates. The monthly rates shown beside them are $30 and $35, and the page’s banner reads ‘Save up to 33% by paying annually’.
⚠️ The AI Receptionist that fronts the marketing is an add-on starting at $39 a month — more than a Core seat. Conversational Intelligence starts at $60.
⚠️ Both AI Customer Engagement bundles are quote-only. If the AI is the reason you are buying, you are buying a quote, not a price.
Numbers and messaging are metered on top: vanity numbers $30 one-time plus $4.99 a month, international toll-free $14.99 per user per month plus $25 one-time, additional international numbers from $5.99, high-volume SMS from $0.0119 per message sent or received.
A footnote discloses that the Webinar 500 one-year discount reverts to $75 per host per month, or the then-current retail price, after the first year — the pattern to check on any RingCentral discount.
Ratings breakdown
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease Of Use | 4.0/5 | Familiar softphone and app; routing takes configuration |
| Features | 4.5/5 | ⭐ Calling, messaging, meetings, contact centre and AI in one vendor |
| Value | 3.0/5 | ⚠️ The seat price is a fraction of a working configuration |
| Support | 3.5/5 | Standard for UCaaS; bundles carry the better reporting |
Pros
- Both annual and monthly rates published for Core and Advanced
- Unlimited domestic calling at the entry tier
- LLM plugins and MCP connectors listed on the $20 plan
- AI Virtual Assistant included rather than an add-on
- 300-participant meetings on Core
- Add-on prices mostly published rather than hidden
Cons
- ⚠️ Monthly billing is 50% above the headline rate
- ⚠️ AI Receptionist costs more than a Core seat
- ⚠️ Both AI bundles are quote-only
- Toll-free minutes and SMS allowances are small at Core
- Numbers and messaging metered on top of seats
- Discounts documented to revert to retail after one year
Who it’s for
- Businesses replacing a legacy PBX with cloud calling
- Teams that want calling, SMS and meetings from one vendor
- Companies starting to connect phone data to LLM workflows
- Multi-site operations needing CRM-integrated routing
Who it’s not for
- Buyers who need month-to-month billing at the advertised price
- Small teams whose calling needs are met inside a meetings suite
- Anyone budgeting AI Receptionist from the seat price alone
- Organisations unwilling to negotiate a bundle quote
Best use cases
- Porting a 40-extension phone system to cloud calling
- Routing inbound calls by site with CRM screen-pops on Advanced
- Adding an AI receptionist to answer and route out of hours
- Running a 500-attendee webinar on the Webinar add-on
- Sending high-volume SMS notifications at per-message rates
Integrations
Advanced adds CRM integrations, and Core already lists LLM plugins and MCP connectors — the hook for connecting call data to agent workflows built in n8n or Zapier. On messaging infrastructure it overlaps with Twilio, which prices SMS per segment rather than per seat, and on meetings with Zoom, whose own telephony sits behind an unpriced Enterprise tier.
Alternatives
Zoom is the obvious comparison and goes the other way: published meeting prices, unpriced telephony. Twilio suits teams that want to build calling and messaging rather than buy seats. For the support side of the same job, Intercom, Zendesk and Tidio all publish per-seat prices without a booster menu.
Recent changes
Read from ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html on 1 October 2026: RingEX Core $20 per user per month paid annually and $30 billed monthly, Advanced $25 and $35, with the banner ‘Save up to 33% by paying annually’ and user bands of 1–5, 6–100 and 100+. Core now lists LLM plugins and MCP connectors alongside the AI Virtual Assistant, which is the notable addition. Two AI Customer Engagement bundles sit above Advanced — one with AI Receptionist, one adding the new AI Conversation Expert — and both are ‘Contact us for pricing’. Published add-ons: AI Receptionist from $39, Conversational Intelligence from $60, Call Queues Booster $35, Business SMS Booster $25, RingCX from $65 per user, Events from $99 per organiser per month, Rooms from $39 per room, Webinar from $30 per organiser, Push to Talk $5 per user. Numbers and messaging are metered separately, and a footnote records that the Webinar 500 one-year discount reverts to $75 per host per month afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
How much does RingCentral cost per user?
RingEX Core is $20 per user per month paid annually or $30 billed monthly; Advanced is $25 or $35. The two AI Customer Engagement bundles above them are quote-only. Read from ringcentral.com on 1 October 2026.
Is the $20 price the monthly price?
No. It is the annual-commitment rate. The monthly rate shown beside it is $30, and the page’s banner describes annual payment as saving up to 33%.
Is AI included in RingCentral?
Partly. The AI Virtual Assistant is included from Core, and Core lists LLM plugins and MCP connectors. The AI Receptionist is an add-on from $39 a month and Conversational Intelligence from $60; the bundles that include them outright are quote-only.
What does RingCX cost?
RingCX, the AI contact centre, starts at $65 per user per month according to the pricing page. It is sold alongside RingEX rather than as a tier within it.
What else gets added to the bill?
Boosters and numbers. The Call Queues Booster is $35 and the Business SMS Booster $25; vanity numbers are $30 one-time plus $4.99 a month; international toll-free numbers are $14.99 per user per month plus $25 one-time; high-volume SMS starts at $0.0119 per message sent or received.
Do RingCentral discounts expire?
At least one does, and it is disclosed. A footnote states that the Webinar 500 one-year discount reverts to $75 per host per month, or the then-current retail price, after the first year — worth asking about for any discount offered.
Sources
- RingCentral – RingEX plans and pricing (read 2026-10-01)
- RingCentral – add-ons, boosters and per-number pricing (read 2026-10-01)
- RingCentral – Webinar discount revert footnote (read 2026-10-01)
Compiled from public sources; last verified 2026-10-01. Pricing is subject to change — verify with the vendor. Ratings reflect editorial opinion based on documented capabilities, published pricing, and aggregated user reviews. DigiJaws does not accept payment for review placement or rating.
RingCentral Review (3.5/5): Pricing (2026). DigiJaws, 2026. https://digijaws.com/reviews/ringcentral-review/