%20(1).avif)
.avif)
Dialpad's $ 15-per-user pricing looks like a fair deal for a business phone system.
However, that number changes fast once you account for add-ons, hidden fees, overages, and taxes that never appear on Dialpad's pricing page.
Dialpad pricing is built in layers that include a base rate, a growing list of paid extras, and a tax structure that can add 35% or more to your monthly bill, depending on your state.
In this article, we break down Dialpad's cost to help small businesses shopping for unified communications platforms know what to expect with this service.
We'll also tell you about iPlum, a Dialpad alternative that packs a host of business communication features without the hefty price tag.
Table of Contents
1. How much does Dialpad's plans actually cost?
3. The add-ons Dialpad doesn't advertise upfront
4. Hidden fees buried in the fine print
5. Dialpad's taxes and surcharges
7. Dialpad pricing vs. iPlum’s — a side-by-side cost comparison
How much does Dialpad's plans actually cost?
Dialpad offers three pricing plans under Dialpad Connect — Standard, Pro, and Enterprise.
Here's what each plan Dialpad offers costs and, more importantly, what you don't get at each tier.
Standard plan — $15 per user per month, paid annually
The standard plan is Dialpad's basic tier.
At $15 per user on an annual billing plan or $27 per month on a monthly billing plan, it covers unlimited domestic calling within the US and Canada, business-hour setup, voicemail, and basic AI features such as real-time transcription and call summaries.
Its limitations, though, are significant.
Dialpad's standard plan caps ring groups at three. Therefore, means a small business can only route incoming calls to three departments — Sales, Support, and Billing, for example. If you want to add a fourth ring group, you'll need to upgrade. In addition,
CRM integrations, international calling, and multiple phone numbers are all locked behind higher tiers. The platform offers chat support. However, it doesn't include 24/7 live Dialpad support.
What's more, Google Workspace is the only integration you get at this level. For a unified communications platform priced at $15 per user, that's a narrow offering.
Pro plan — $25 per user per month
The Pro plan includes CRM integrations, international calling, unlimited ring groups, and 24/7 Dialpad support. It also includes multiple phone numbers and international SMS, features that most business phone systems include as standard.
There's a catch, though.
The pro plan requires a minimum of three users. Therefore, a two-person small business has no option here. You'll need to pay for three seats regardless. The requirement increases the monthly cost to at least $75, not $25.
Month-to-month billing on the pro plan costs $35 per user, a 40% premium over the annual rate. Commit to a year or pay significantly more.
Enterprise plan — price on request
The Enterprise plan offers Dialpad's most advanced features, including unlimited ring groups, SSO, a 100% uptime guarantee, and premium support with a dedicated account manager. Direct access to tier-2 support is also exclusive to this tier.
However, there's no public pricing.
You must contact sales for a quote based on your needs. What's confirmed is the minimum: 100 users. Therefore, a 20-person company can't access enterprise-grade features regardless of budget, which can hamper business growth.
The plan includes advanced analytics, AI-powered call coaching, and unlimited ring groups. But if your sales team or customer service teams need those tools, the only path is a custom quote and a 100-seat commitment.
Also read: iPlum vs. Dialpad—Which Offers More Value for Business Texting & Calling
Dialpad Support and Sell plans
Dialpad Connect isn't the only product line Dialpad sells.
Businesses that need contact center or sales dialer functionality pay for entirely separate plans. And the pricing is significantly higher.
Dialpad Support pricing
Dialpad Support is Dialpad's contact center product. It starts at $80 per user per month on the annual billing rate.
The Essentials plan covers call routing, agent monitoring, and call transcription. Advanced adds live coaching and CRM logging. Premium adds AI quality management, CSAT measurement, workforce management, and advanced analytics.
Dialpad Sell pricing
Essentials covers call recording, transcription, and CRM syncing. Advanced adds local presence dialing and real-time objection guidance. Premium adds AI scorecards, playbooks, and inbound call routing.
A 10-person sales team on Dialpad Sell Advanced pays $950 per month before taxes, add-ons, or overages.
Meanwhile, a 10-person support team on Dialpad Support Advanced pays $1,150 per month under the same conditions. Neither figure appears anywhere near Dialpad's $15-per-user headline pricing.
The add-ons Dialpad doesn't advertise upfront
Dialpad's base pricing plans are just the starting point. The features most businesses need for daily operations sit behind a separate paywall.
Here's what Dialpad charges on top of your monthly plan.
Toll-free numbers
Toll-free numbers start at $15 per number per month.
Dialpad also charges per minute for inbound calls to those numbers on every tier, including the Enterprise plan. A business running high call volumes through a toll-free line will see those per-minute charges grow significantly.
Additional local phone numbers
The standard plan gives each user one local phone number.
Any extra numbers for departments or campaigns cost $5 per number per month. The Pro and Enterprise plans give you access to this feature, but the recurring charge applies regardless of tier.
Video meetings and Dialpad Meetings pricing
Dialpad Meetings caps participants at 10 on base connect plans.
Scaling up to 150 participants costs an extra $15 per user per month.
Meeting durations are also capped. Sessions beyond 45 minutes require a separate add-on, also starting at $15 per user per month. In addition, AI meetings and extended video conferencing aren't included in the upfront cost.
Conference room line
A conference room line costs $15 per number per month, billed separately from user licenses.
Global unlimited calling
Global unlimited calling covers 1,500 international minutes per office per month. After that, Dialpad bills additional international calling through calling credits. Furthermore, unused minutes don't roll over, and Dialpad doesn't publicly list pricing for this add-on.
Premium support
Premium support — with faster response times and a dedicated account manager — is exclusive to the Enterprise plan or available as a paid add-on. Also, Standard plan users get no weekend Dialpad support.
For small business owners building a monthly budget, this pricing structure creates a real problem. You commit to $15 or $25 per user and end up tracking a separate list of charges before your first billing cycle closes.
Hidden fees buried in the fine print
Dialpad's add-ons are one problem. The charges Dialpad doesn't prominently disclose are another.
Here are the fees that catch businesses off guard after they've already signed up.
SMS overage charges
Dialpad gives each account 250 outbound SMS messages per month.
So, let's say you're a 10-person business sharing the 250-message pool. That works out to 25 texts per employee per month, or roughly one text per business day.
Once you exceed that limit, Dialpad charges $0.008 per SMS and $0.024 per MMS. For customer service teams or a sales team that texts regularly, those overages add up before the month ends.
Administrative Cost Recovery Fee
Dialpad charges an Administrative Cost Recovery Fee of roughly $2 to $4 per user per month. The platform presents this on your invoice alongside government taxes. However, this is not a government fee. On a 10-user Pro plan, that's an extra $20 to $40 per month that never appears on the pricing plans page.
Number porting fees
Porting an international number into Dialpad isn't free.
Dialpad charges per number, and the cost varies by country. Porting a Peru number, for example, costs $58. Again, Dialpad doesn't list these fees publicly, so businesses discover them after they've committed.
Monthly billing penalty
Sure, Dialpad's annual pricing is reasonable. However, the monthly billing is different. The Standard plan increases from $15 to $27 per user per month on a monthly contract, an 80% increase. Meanwhile, the Pro plan goes from $25 to $35 per user per month.
Cancellation friction
Canceling a Dialpad subscription with more than five licenses requires a phone call or email to the customer success team.
You can't cancel Dialpad subscriptions through the app or live chat. For businesses that need to downsize or switch providers quickly, that process adds unnecessary delay.
International SMS restrictions
International calling and texting aren't available on the Standard plan at all. Businesses that text international contacts must upgrade to the Pro plan minimum. Even then, international SMS rates vary by plan, and Dialpad doesn't publish them publicly.
These charges don't appear on Dialpad's pricing page. You'll find them buried in support documentation or on your first invoice, whichever comes first.
Dialpad's taxes and surcharges
The add-ons and hidden fees are one layer of cost. Dialpad's tax and surcharge structure adds another one that varies by state.
What goes on your Dialpad bill
Taxes and surcharges on a Dialpad bill fall into three categories:
Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF)
The FUSF is a federal fee that funds telecommunications services for low-income areas and schools. The FCC sets the rate quarterly. As of May 2026, the FUSF contribution factor has reached 37%.
Dialpad applies this percentage to the portion of your bill considered interstate — roughly 64% of your total for VoIP — making the effective FUSF rate closer to 23.6% of your total bill. It's the largest single fee on most Dialpad invoices.
Regulatory and administrative fees
Dialpad charges an Administrative Cost Recovery Fee of roughly $2 to $4 per line.
Dialpad collects this fee to cover its own legal compliance and filing costs. It's not a government tax, but it still appears on your bill every month.
State and local taxes
State and local charges vary widely.
In California, for example, a typical bill carries a 911/988 surcharge of $0.75 to $1.00, a CPUC User Fee of 1.8% of gross intrastate revenue, and a Local Utility User Tax that ranges from 1% to 11% depending on the city.
Here’s what your Dialpad bill looks like
Take a Pro plan user in California on a monthly billing at $35 per month. Here's what that invoice looks like:
A $35 plan in Florida runs closer to $52. In Illinois, it's nearly the same. Even in Texas — one of the lower-tax states in the table — a $35 plan costs over $49 per month.
For a five-user business phone account on the Pro plan at $35 monthly billing, federal and state taxes alone can add $80 to $100 to your monthly invoice before any add-ons or overages.
iPlum — a HIPAA-compliant Dialpad alternative at a fraction of the cost
Dialpad's pricing plans stack on top of charges. iPlum is different. The platform offers three tiers structured as follows.
iPlum's plans at a glance
Standard — $8.99 per user per month
The standard plan covers the essentials for a business phone setup.
You get a US or Canada number, unlimited calling within the US and Canada, texting, voicemail, a phone tree, business hours configuration, auto-text reply, spam blocking, and iOS and Android apps.
That's a fully functional business phone system at $8.99 per user. There are no seat minimums, unlike Dialpad.
Professional — $14.99 per user per month
The Professional plan adds web calling and texting, secure, encrypted texting, voicemail transcription, group text, broadcast text, scheduled texts, text templates, text archiving for one year, and a free iPlum account for your clients.
Critically, the professional plan is where HIPAA compliance and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) come in.
At $14.99 per user, a healthcare provider, legal firm, or financial services business gets a fully HIPAA-compliant business phone system with built-in encrypted business communications.
Dialpad locks comparable compliance features behind its Enterprise plan, which requires a minimum of 100 users and custom pricing. iPlum delivers them at $14.99 per user with no seat minimum.
Enterprise — $25.99 per user per month
The enterprise plan adds call recording, a recording consent announcement, and 10 years of recording and texting archiving.
For industries like finance, insurance, healthcare, and legal — where call volume records and long-term archiving matter for regulatory compliance — this tier covers those requirements at a predictable flat rate.
No tax surprises
iPlum absorbs taxes and surcharges internally. The price on the pricing plans page is what lands on your invoice.
A five-user account on the professional plan costs $74.95 per month, and that's what you pay.
Contrast that with a five-user Dialpad Pro plan that advertises $125 per month and bills closer to $209 once taxes, the admin fee, and basic add-ons are added to the invoice.
Dialpad pricing vs. iPlum’s — a side-by-side cost comparison
The numbers below put both platforms side by side so you can see exactly what you're paying and what you're getting.
For context, this table compares both platforms’ mid-tier plans - Dialpad Pro and iPlum Professional - where they share the most communication features.
As you can see, at $25 per user, Dialpad Pro costs 67% more per user than iPlum Professional before taxes and add-ons.
After taxes and basic add-ons, a five-user Dialpad Pro account costs nearly three times as much as a five-user iPlum Professional account.
Is Dialpad worth the cost?
Dialpad's $15-per-user headline price is a starting point, not a final cost.
When you include add-ons, the Administrative Cost Recovery Fee, and account for state and local taxes, that number increases well past what the pricing page suggests.
For large enterprises with 100+ users, deep CRM needs, and a budget for a layered pricing model, Dialpad's AI-powered features, video conferencing, and advanced analytics have solid value.
However, for small businesses, healthcare providers, legal firms, and financial services companies that need HIPAA compliance, predictable billing, and no seat minimums, the math doesn't work in Dialpad's favor.
iPlum's Professional plan at $14.99 per user covers encrypted texting, a Business Associate Agreement, HIPAA compliance, and full business communications features, with taxes absorbed internally.
A five-user account costs $74.95 per month with iPlum. But, a comparable five-user Dialpad Pro setup advertises $125 and bills closer to $209. That's a lot.
Click the link below to sign up for iPlum if you'd like a mobile-first phone system built for team management, security, and scale without leaving a hole in your budget.
