--- title: "What happens when an AI call reaches voicemail?" description: "When a CallForMe call reaches voicemail, the assistant hangs up for free, or leaves your exact message if you wrote one. How to choose, and what it costs." url: https://callforme.tel/guides/ai-call-reaches-voicemail published: 2026-10-03 updated: 2026-10-03 author: CallForMe team, Great Work LLC --- # What happens when an AI call reaches voicemail? > By default the assistant hangs up without saying anything and you pay nothing. If your agent passes a voicemail_message, the assistant waits for the beep, says that message word for word, and hangs up; that call is billed like any answered call, $1. It never makes up a message of its own. **Say to your agent:** "Call Lakeside Dental and ask if they have a cleaning next week. If you get voicemail, leave my name and number and ask them to call me back." ## The short answer A call that reaches voicemail ends one of two ways, and your agent picks which before it dials: - **No message (the default).** The assistant hangs up as soon as it hears a voicemail greeting. It doesn't speak. You aren't charged. - **Your message.** If your agent passes `voicemail_message`, the assistant waits for the beep, says that text, and hangs up. That call is billed like an answered call: $1. Either way, the result comes back with `outcome.type` set to `voicemail`, so your agent knows nobody picked up and can tell you plainly. ## When to leave a message Leave one when a callback is the whole point: - **Booking with a small office** that lets the phone ride to voicemail during appointments: a dentist, a groomer, a contractor. - **Waitlists.** "Please add Sam to your cancellation list for a cleaning, any weekday morning." - **Following up** on something you already started, like a repair estimate. Skip it when you're comparing places. If you're [calling around](/guides/call-around) to five shops for a price, a voicemail from each one creates five callbacks you have to field. Let those calls end for free and try again later. ## What to put in the message The assistant reads your text as written, so write it the way you'd want it heard: - **Who it's for:** "This message is for Lakeside Dental, from an assistant calling for Sam Lee." - **What you want:** "Sam would like a cleaning next week, any morning." - **How to reach you:** your own number, said slowly. Also pass it as `callback_number` so the business has it if a person answers instead. Keep it under about 30 seconds (the field takes up to 500 characters). Leave out birth dates and account details. CallForMe rejects a `voicemail_message` that contains a card number, security code or password before it dials. ## Phone menus that end in a mailbox Some menus route "press 3 for the front desk" straight into a mailbox. The assistant treats that like any other voicemail: your message if you gave one, otherwise a silent hang-up. It doesn't wait on a mailbox thinking it's hold music. See [how AI calls handle phone menus and hold](/guides/phone-menus-and-hold). ## Call screening is not voicemail iPhone and Pixel call screening asks the caller to say who they are and why they're calling. The assistant answers that in one sentence, "This is an AI assistant calling for Sam about a cleaning appointment," then waits for the person to pick up. It doesn't treat the screener as a mailbox and doesn't leave a message there. ## Trying again later After a voicemail, your agent can call back with `redial`, adding anything that changed ("ask for Thursday instead"). A few limits keep this polite: - At most 3 calls to the same number from your account per day. - No calls between 10pm and 7am in the business's local time. See [quiet hours](/guides/when-will-ai-call-quiet-hours). - If someone at the business says not to call again, CallForMe stops calling that number for everyone. When you call around with `include_closed`, places that are closed get called once they open, or reach voicemail, which is free when there's no message. ## What it costs | How the call ended | Cost | |---|---| | Voicemail, no message | Free | | Voicemail, your message left | $1 | | Nobody answered, or busy | Free | | A person answered | $1 for the first 5 minutes, then $0.25 a minute | The full price list is on the [pricing page](/docs/pricing). ## FAQ ### Do I pay for a call that reaches voicemail? Not if the assistant hangs up, which is the default. If you asked it to leave a voicemail_message, the call is billed like an answered call: $1, including the first 5 minutes. ### Will the assistant make up a voicemail if I didn't write one? No. Without a voicemail_message it hangs up without a word. With one, it says your message as written and nothing else. ### What if the phone menu ends in a voicemail box? Same rules. A menu that ends with 'leave your name and number' counts as voicemail: the assistant leaves your message if you gave one, and otherwise hangs up. ### Is an iPhone or Pixel call screener the same as voicemail? No. When a screener asks who's calling and why, the assistant says one sentence about who it is calling for and what about, then waits for a person. ## Related - [What number does an AI call come from? Can they call back?](https://callforme.tel/guides/ai-call-caller-id-and-callbacks.md) - [Have your agent get you on a dentist's cancellation list](https://callforme.tel/use-cases/dentist-cancellation-list.md) - [What an AI phone call sounds like to the business](https://callforme.tel/guides/what-an-ai-call-sounds-like.md) - [Safety and disclosure](https://callforme.tel/docs/safety-and-disclosure.md) - [Have AI call pharmacies for you](https://callforme.tel/call/pharmacies.md)