What does it cost per minute?
Managed calling runs at roughly ₹10 to ₹12 a minute before GST, billed by the second. The per-minute figure is the easy part of the question; the billing unit and what is included move the invoice more.
What AI calling costs a school or college.
Quotes for this are difficult to compare because providers price different things in different units. This page is about the three terms that change the number more than the headline rate does, and about sizing a campaign from your own list rather than from somebody else’s benchmark.
01The unit
Per second, or per started minute.
This is the term that moves an admission invoice most, because admission conversations are unusually short.
A great many end quickly and cleanly: already admitted, ring back after the result, wrong number, not this year. Where a provider charges in whole minutes, each of those brief exchanges is billed as a full one. The shorter your average, the larger that gap is as a share of the bill — and admission calling has the shortest average of anything we run.
Two quotes with the same rupee figure are not the same price if one rounds and the other does not. Establish this before comparing anything else.
02Three terms
What else changes the number.
- Per number or per attempt. A list worked properly gets three attempts on the numbers that do not answer. A quote covering one pass and a quote covering three are different products described identically.
- What the rate includes. The telephone line itself, the script work, revisions after the first batch, reporting. Where quotes diverge most is in what has been left outside the figure.
- Commitment. A minimum term or volume changes the real cost of trying something once, which is the only sensible way to start.
03Sizing
Start from the list, not from a budget.
Four figures size a campaign, and three of them are yours: how many numbers are on the list, how many attempts each unanswered one should get, roughly how long a connected conversation runs for your type of institute, and the rate.
Multiply the connected calls by the average length to get talk minutes, apply the rate, and you have a cost for working that list properly. Unanswered attempts contribute almost nothing to talk time, which is why a three-attempt pattern costs far less than it sounds.
The number that actually matters afterwards is cost per seat filled, and nobody can give you that in advance — it depends on your conversion rate, not on any rate card. Run one list, count what came of it, and you will have a figure that is yours.
04Caution
Three things worth asking any supplier.
- What will you report? If the answer is calls placed and connection percentage, that is effort. Ask for appointments made and seats attributable to the list.
- Can we begin small? One list, one measure, a few weeks. Anyone requiring a season-long commitment before you have seen anything is asking you to carry the risk.
- Where does our data live? These lists hold children’s names and their families’ numbers. Who can see it, and what happens to it afterwards.
Questions
Cost, answered.
Rates
Why does per-second billing matter so much here?
Because admission calls are short. Where a provider rounds up to the whole minute, the briefest conversations — which are also the most numerous — carry the largest proportional markup.
Is there a setup fee?
The campaign is managed, which covers writing the script with your team and revising it after the first batch of calls. Ask us for specifics against your list size rather than taking a figure off a page.
Budgeting
How do I work out a budget?
Backwards from seats. How many admissions you need, at what conversion rate, gives the number of real conversations required, which gives talk minutes, which gives a cost. Starting from a budget figure tells you nothing about whether it will work.
What will it cost per admission?
Nobody can answer that honestly in advance, because your conversion rate dominates the arithmetic. Run one list, count the admissions traceable to it, and the figure is yours rather than an average from an institute unlike yours.
Can we start with one small list?
Yes, and we would prefer it. One list and one measure for a few weeks tells both sides more than a long proposal does.
Is calling our old enquiry base cheaper?
Materially, because you already own the data. There is no acquisition cost at all, only the cost of working it, which is why it usually produces the lowest cost per admission of any list an institute holds.
Next
Get a figure for your own list.
Send the enquiry list and your intake target. We will run the arithmetic on your numbers rather than on a benchmark.