RingCentral pricing: Hidden fees + 6 Other things to know

RingCentral has been a major business phone provider since the 1990s — but its pricing isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

With six different offers, 14+ add-ons, and hidden fees, you might end up paying more than you expected.

Before you commit, let’s break down RingCentral’s pricing, fine print, and whether it’s truly worth it — or if there’s a better alternative for your business.

TL;DR

RingCentral looks affordable upfront. However, its limits on texting, toll-free minutes, and storage make it harder to scale as your business grows.

RingCentral business phone plans and pricing

RingEX is RingCentral’s business phone for every workday communication. It provides phone calls, texts, video meetings, and other basic communication features.

There are three separate RingEX plans to choose from, each with different limits on messages, minutes, and features. These limits can affect how your team communicates with customers and each other as call and text volume grows. 

Here are the main differences side-by-side:

Feature	Core	Advanced	Ultra	Customer Engagement Bundle
Price per user per month	$20 annually/$30 monthly	$25 annually/$35 monthly	$35 annually/$45 monthly	Pricing isn’t public
Best for	Startups with low or unpredictable text and call volumes	Businesses with automation and CRM integration needs	Businesses with high call volumes and advanced reporting needs	Large teams managing high inbound call volume that need advanced call queuing
Text messaging	25 SMS/MMS per user per month	100 SMS/MMS per user per month	200 SMS/MMS per user per month	200 SMS/MMS per user per month
Toll-free minutes	100 pooled	1,000 pooled	10,000 pooled	10,000 pooled
Storage	Limited	Limited	“Unlimited” excludes video recordings	“Unlimited” excludes video recordings
Call recording	On-demand	Automatic/on-demand	Automatic/on-demand	Automatic/on-demand
AI-powered call summaries	✓	✓	✓	✓
AI-assisted message writing	X	✓	✓	✓
Analytics	Basic reports	Custom analytics	Custom analytics, device alerts	Custom analytics, device alerts, and live reports
CRM integrations	X	✓	✓	✓

RingEX Core plan

Pricing: $20 per user per month paid annually or $30 per user per month paid monthly

Best for: Businesses that only need the bare minimum and don’t rely on texting or toll-free minutes to communicate.

The Core plan includes basic VoIP features and unlimited calls in the US and Canada. Here’s what you can expect to get:

• Calling: Unlimited calls in the US and Canada
• Texting: 25 SMS and MMS messages per user per month
• Toll-free minutes: 100 pooled
• Shared numbers: Calls only
• Call recording storage: Limited; for example, recordings are automatically deleted after 90 days
• Call routing: Multi-level auto-attendants 
• Integrations: Microsoft Teams, Office 365, and Slack 
• Video meetings: Up to 100 participants
• Call recording: On-demand

RingEX Advanced plan

Pricing: $25 per user per month paid annually or $35 per user per month paid monthly

Best for: Teams that want a few more communication tools but don’t need unlimited storage or flexibility.

The Advanced plan unlocks higher limits for texts and toll-free minutes. You’ll get access to the following features:

• Texting: 100 SMS and MMS messages per user per month
• Toll-free minutes: 1,000 pooled
• Call recording: Automatic and on-demand options
• Integrations: CRM integrations, such as Salesforce and Zendesk 
• Call queues: Advanced, which means you can route calls to specific reps based on criteria, like max callers in a queue
• Call monitoring: Whisper, barge, and monitor

But the Advanced plan doesn’t offer unlimited storage for files, messaging, and recordings. Plus, many of its advanced features require add-ons to maximize their value. For example, there’s no way to join third-party video meetings in a conference room without purchasing the Rooms add-on. Keep in mind, it costs $39 per room per month.

RingEX Ultra plan

Pricing: $35 per user per month paid annually or $45 per user per month paid monthly

Best for: Call centers that want more toll-free minutes, even if texting is still capped.

RingCentral’s Ultra plan unlocks features best suited to larger organizations. You’ll get access to the following tools: 

• Texting: 200 SMS and MMS messages per user per month
• Toll-free minutes: 10,000 pooled
• Storage: Unlimited, doesn’t include video recordings, and retention periods still apply
• Webinars: Host large meetings with up to 500 attendees
• Analytics: Device analytics and alerts

You should know the ‘unlimited’ storage doesn’t include video meetings. Plus, all your files are subject to time-based deletion policies. For example, your call recordings will be deleted after 90 days. There are also limits on RingCentral SMS and toll-free minutes. This could get frustrating as your business grows.

RingEX Customer Engagement Bundle

Pricing: Not publicly listed

Best for: Larger teams that handle a lot of calls and need advanced call queues.

The Customer Engagement Bundle builds on the RingEX Ultra plan while also giving you access to two of its add-ons: Business SMS Booster and Call Queues Booster. Here are the features you can expect to get with each:

• Business SMS Booster: Shared SMS inbox, company reply templates, SMS compliance management
• Call Queues Booster: Call back from queue, wait time, and place alerts, and live reports 

Keep in mind that even with the most expensive plan, you still won’t get access to add-ons like push-to-talk or unlimited toll-free minutes.

RingCentral plans add-ons

RingCentral offers 14 separate add-ons for RingEX plans.

They include:

Add-on option	Cost
Additional vanity phone numbers	$4.99 set-up fee, plus a $30 one-time fee
Additional international numbers	Starts at $5.99 per user per month
Additional toll-free or local numbers	$5.99 per user per month
Additional international toll-free numbers	$14.99 per user per month plus a $25 one-time fee
High Volume SMS	Starts at $0.01 per message sent and received
RingCentral Room Connector license	$49 per month per concurrent endpoint, or $468 per year
RingCentral Rooms license	Starts at $39 per room per month
RingCentral Webinar™	$40 per organizer per month
AI Conversation Expert, formerly RingSense for Sales	$60 per user per month
Push-to-Talk license	$5 per user per month
RingCentral Events	Starts at $99 per organizer per year
RingCX AI Contact Center	$65 per user
Business SMS Booster	$25 per user per month
Call Queues Booster	$35 per user per month

RingCentral AI Receptionist add-on

Pricing: $59 per account per month with 100 minutes included

RingCentral’s AI receptionist can answer calls 24/7, book appointments, handle FAQs, and send automated texts. Plus, you can customize the AI voice agent’s tone and personality.

But there are a few catches:

• You only get 100 calling minutes per month included, and additional minutes cost $0.50 per minute.
• AI call summaries aren’t included.
• Only available ‌in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and Europe. Some features vary depending on the country you’re in.

RingCentral Contact Center pricing

If you need a more advanced business phone system, you may want a RingCentral Contact Center plan:

RingCX Standard plan

Pricing: $65 per user per month paid annually or $75 per user per month paid monthly

The Standard plan is made for large contact center teams that need to route inbound calls and messages across multiple reps and channels. You’ll get access to the following features:

• Channels: Voice and 20+ digital channels, such as social media and email
• Routing: Automatic call distribution, IVR, and skills-based routing
• Dialer: Preview dialer that lets reps view lead info before they call, Progressive dialer that pauses for a certain amount of time in between making calls, and the Predictive dialer that automatically dials leads and only connects your reps to answered calls
• Queue callback: Callers have the option to request a callback
• Surveys: Create and manage surveys

RingCX Professional plan

Pricing: $95 per user per month paid annually or $110 per user per month paid monthly

RingCentral’s CX Professional plan builds on the Standard plan with tools that support call center reps during live calls. You can expect to get access to the following features:

• Coaching tools: Real-time guidance given to reps during live calls
• Quality management: Post-call analysis with transcripts, summaries, and call scores to give you insights into how your reps perform

RingCX Elite plan

Pricing: $145 per user per month paid annually or $165 per user per month paid monthly

The Elite plan adds more tools for supervisors who need help managing their teams without adding overhead. Here are the features it includes:

• Interaction analytics: Automatically extract CSAT insights from customer interactions
• Supervisor tools: Real-time alerts flag pressing calls to supervisors so they can step in and help
• Workforce management: AI forecasts that help you determine the number of staff you’ll need to work certain shifts

RingCX Enterprise plan

Pricing: Not publicly listed

The Enterprise plan is ideal for teams that need to build knowledge bases that reps can access during live calls. Here are the features you can expect to get:

• Advanced call routing: Connect customers to the best rep with the skills and knowledge to help them
• Knowledge management: Knowledge base with saved responses reps can access while on calls

RingCentral Video pricing

If all you need are video conferencing tools to improve the customer experience, RingCentral offers the following plans:

Free Meetings plan

Meetings is a free plan that unlocks 50-minute video meetings for up to 100 participants. Keep in mind you have limited storage unless you purchase a RingCentral business communications plan. Here are the key features you’ll get access to:

• Unlimited 50-minute video meetings for up to 100 participants
• Record five hours of video meetings
• Store video recordings for seven days
• Join from any device, room, or browser
• One click to turn phone calls into video meetings
• AI live transcriptions

Town Halls webinar

Pricing: $30 per organizer per month paid annually or $54 per user per month paid monthly

RingCentral allows you to host webinars with up to 10,000 attendees with the Town Halls add-on. However, each organizer’s license only includes 500 attendees. This is available on any RingCentral video plan, and its features include:

• AI writing generator to help you create descriptions for your webinars
• Registration and branding tools that let you create banner images to use for registration pages
• Post-event reporting
• Q&A translation in over 15 languages
• Polling and Q&A tools

Rooms

Pricing: $39 per room per month paid annually or $49 per room per month paid monthly

RingCentral’s Rooms add-on allows you to set up a conference room solution for your existing video plan. Just keep in mind it’s only compatible with enterprise-grade hardware, such as HP Poly and Yealink, if you’re using legacy desk phone hardware. Here are the features you can expect to get if you sign up for this add-on:

• One-touch join for Zoom, Teams, Google, Webex, and RingCentral meetings
• Schedule meetings
• Join third-party meetings
• Mobile-to-room conference calls
• Voice-activated control
• Background noise reduction
• Deliver presentations

Webinars & Events

Pricing: $99 per organizer per month paid annually or $119 per organizer per month paid monthly

RingCentral Events lets you host virtual events and webinars with no cap on registrations or attendees. You’ll get access to the following features:

• Unlimited registrations and attendees
• Detailed event reporting, like engagement scores and org-level analytics
• AI tools like webinar writing and Q&A categorization
• Identify and generate clips of your webinar after it has ended

RingCentral Events pricing

Thinking about holding events for your business? RingCentral’s Events plans allow you to hold virtual, onsite, or hybrid events with unlimited attendees per event. It offers the following plans:

Events Pro plan

Pricing: $99 per organizer per month paid annually or $119 per organizer per month paid monthly

The Events Pro plan is best for teams that run virtual events frequently and need basic tools to get up and running. Here are the features you can expect to get:

• Unlimited webinars and virtual events
• AI-powered webinars that include AI features like AI Writer that creates webinar descriptions 
• Unlimited registrations for your events
• Virtual venue that lets you create up to five stages to host keynotes, presentations, and more
• Paid and free ticketing options
• Event analytics and reporting
• Studio-quality production tools that allow you to upload content like music and video before your event starts
• Standard support

Events Pro+ plan

Pricing: $199 per organizer per month paid annually or $239 per organizer per month paid monthly

The Events Pro+ plan is great for hybrid events and deeper engagement. It includes everything in Pro, plus the following features:

• 40+ engagement app integrations like Kahoot, Miro, and Slido
• Over five MarTech integrations, like Marketo, HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Active Campaign
• On-site and hybrid event support
• Single sign-on, or SSO
• Dedicated customer success manager

Events Enterprise plan

Pricing: $299 per organizer per month paid annually or $359 per organizer per month paid monthly

The Events Enterprise plan is built for large-scale, complex events. It includes everything in Pro+, plus you can also expect to get features such as:

• Lead retrieval tools that let you gather leads by scanning an attendee’s QR code on their badge to follow up with them later 
• API access to integrate RingCentral Events and other tools
• Custom domains for your events
• Content hubs for repurposing event assets

RingCentral Conversation Intelligence pricing

Pricing: $60 per user per month

Conversation Intelligence unlocks AI-driven coaching, performance analysis, and personalized reporting tools. Here’s a closer look at the features you’ll get:

• Multi-level reporting and insights
• Advanced search, sort, and interaction filtering
• Deal and call scoring
• Automated summaries and highlights
• Coaching and performance analysis
• CRM integrations

Hidden fees to know about RingCentral pricing

Here are some additional fees to consider before signing on the dotted line for RingCentral:

• Texting limits: No plan offers unlimited texts. The Core plan is limited to 25 texts per user per month, the Advanced plan offers 100 texts, and the Ultra plan comes with only 200 texts. After that, you’ll need to pay $0.0085 per message.
• Toll-free calling limits: As with texting, no RingCentral plan includes unlimited toll-free minutes. The Core plan gives you 100 minutes pooled across the entire account, followed by the Advanced plan at 1,000 minutes and the Ultra plan at 10,000 minutes. 
• Toll-free SMS charges: You can send up to 50 messages per minute, and you’ll be charged $0.0085 per message sent or received by your toll-free number.
• Advanced business analytics: You only have access to basic analytics unless you upgrade to the Advanced plan. It costs $25 per user per month.
• Directory assistance, or 411: If you need access to National Local Directory Assistance, be prepared to pay $1 per call.
• Number setup fee: Each toll-free vanity number requires a one-time setup fee of $30.
• International calling and SMS: RingCentral lists its international call rates online. But its international SMS rates are only available in the Admin portal. This means there’s no way to know how much you’ll pay for international texts until you sign up for a plan to take the free trial.

What’s missing from RingCentral plans

Here are a few more reasons to consider RingCentral alternatives:

1. Shared numbers for texting. You can use RingCentral to set up shared phone numbers for calling, allowing your team to split responsibility for calls. But there’s no way to share responsibility for incoming texts unless you pay for an add-on. You also won’t find many texting automation tools with RingCentral — at least not out of the box. You may need to hire a developer to use RingCentral Automator or upgrade your plan to access third-party integrations.
2. Transparent US texting registration process. If your business plans to send texts through RingCentral, be prepared for a lengthy registration process. RingCentral requires businesses to register with The Campaign Registry, or TCR, to comply with carrier regulations. While the $19 one-time TCR fee is standard, the approval timeline is long. According to RingCentral’s TCR registration page, the process takes 20–30 business days. But many users report waiting months to get approved. In contrast, Quo, formerly OpenPhone, has received some approvals in as little as 5–7 business days.
3. Unified team inbox. Every call, text, and voicemail in RingCentral lives in separate inboxes. There’s no way to see all these touchpoints in one place, which can increase the time it takes to get up to speed on a conversation.
4. Storage for recordings, files, and more. By far, the biggest drawback of how RingCentral works is its lack of unlimited storage. Automatic and on-demand call recordings expire after 90 days, faxes expire after 30 days, and call logs expire after 12 months. You can only store 5,000 SMS/MMS messages per user per account. And after 200 unheard voicemails, new messages begin saving over old files.
5. Simple user interface. RingCentral’s interface is clunky and outdated. This makes it frustrating and time-consuming to customize it to your liking.  Most business platforms, including Quo, make it simple and intuitive to navigate your VoIP phone number. Setting up snippets takes a few minutes or less, and you don’t need to learn how to code.
6. Full access free trial. Although RingCentral does offer a free trial, its limitations make it almost unusable, as you’re limited to five users and two desktop phones. 

Feedback from RingCentral users 

Here’s what G2 users had to say about RingCentral’s pricing:

“RingCentral’s service and billing are a nightmare. Constant errors, unclear charges, and their support team is useless at best. We’ve spent countless hours trying to fix basic billing issues, and it feels like they couldn’t care less.” — G2

“This company is only interested in ripping you off. They were charging me 950 a month for using 8 lines and would not let me out of the contract as I had sold off a portion of my business and reduced the size of my company! Even though I had been their client for over 10 years – there is no flexibility.” — G2

“The contract has an auto-renewal feature for an additional two years, so after two years, I was opted in by contract with no notification and stuck. Then, when the contract was over, I canceled half of my lines and was assured this was done. They continue to charge me for these lines and refuse to respond to my requests for review.” — G2

Quo: A better alternative to RingCentral plans

If you have deep pockets or plenty of patience, you might be able to make RingCentral work for you. However, if you hate the idea of limitations and don’t have the budget for constant add-ons, RingCentral will be more of a liability.

This isn’t just a RingCentral problem — dozens of VoIP service providers don’t make the cut for small business owners. That’s why so many of them turn to a more efficient business phone service — including Quo, the #1 small business phone service on G2.

Take a closer look at Quo vs RingCentral side-by-side:

Features	Quo	RingCentral
Starting price per month	$15 per user per month	$20 per user per month
Unlimited calling	✓	✓
Unlimited SMS, MMS to US & Canada	✓	X
Toll-free numbers	Unlimited	Minutes are limited
Additional phone numbers	$5 per number	$4.99–$14.99 per number
Call recording	✓	✓
Shared phone numbers	✓	Calling only without an upgrade
Auto-replies	✓	Requires Automator
Text message templates	✓	Requires Business SMS Booster add-on or Customer Engagement Bundle plan
Slack integration	✓	✓
Gmail integration	✓	✓
Make integration	✓	X
Web-based, iOS, and Android apps	✓	✓
Free trial	Unlocks access to all features	Limited to calling, only 50 minutes per user

Should you still use RingCentral?

For many small and growing teams, RingCentral can feel limiting and expensive as their businesses scale.

RingCentral works best for:

• Solopreneurs who mainly make calls and rarely text
• Large call centers with fixed, high-volume calling volume
• Teams with dedicated IT support to manage setup and maintenance

RingCentral is less ideal for:

• Teams that need access to unlimited texts in the US and Canada
• Businesses that want clear, predictable pricing as they scale
• Growing teams that want to scale without losing a personal touch

Pros and cons of RingCentral pricing plans

Here are some of the pros and cons of RingCentral:

Pros

• Web, desktop, and mobile apps for iOS and Android
• Offers VoIP inbound and outbound calls, business texts, call transfers, and video conferencing
• Team messaging and file-sharing tools are built into every plan

Cons

• Limited business SMS, 25 texts per user per month on the base plan
• Limited toll-free minutes, 10,000 pooled minutes per month max
• Limited storage; even ‘unlimited’ comes with time and account-based retention limits

Final verdict: Choose Quo for better pricing and team collaboration

RingCentral is a decent example of what a cloud-based VoIP phone could be. But it’s not a great example of a transparent, accessible, and scalable platform. The good news is that Quo picks up where RingCentral leaves off. Each plan comes with clear pricing and unlimited domestic calling. You also get scalable features like an AI voice agent, Sona, and warm transfers. Plus, your team will be able to use AI contact threads that suggest missing contacts based on call summaries and voicemails

You’ll also have access to responsive customer support and a flexible platform designed to grow alongside you. Curious to see how Quo does things differently? Try Quo today with our seven-day free trial.

FAQs