How Much Does VOIP Cost in Australia? Complete Pricing Guide (2026)

VOIP costs for Australian small businesses typically range from ~$15 AUD per user per month for a basic hosted service to ~$60+ AUD per user per month for a full-featured enterprise tier, with hardware and setup costs on top. This guide breaks down every cost category you will encounter, using real price ranges from Australian providers, so you can budget accurately before getting a single quote. By the end, you will know what a fair price looks like for your team size, which costs providers bury in the fine print, and how to avoid the most common mistake: choosing the cheapest plan and paying more in the long run.Before we get into numbers, a word about how this industry works: business phone companies deliberately structure their pricing to make direct comparison difficult. Plan tiers have different names across providers, features that are standard on one plan are add-ons on another, and call rates are often quoted separately from plan fees. You are not behind for finding this confusing. The industry designed it that way.

The Three Cost Categories You Need to Understand

Every VOIP cost falls into one of three buckets. Understanding these separately stops providers from obscuring the true total.First, recurring monthly costs: your plan fee per user, call charges (per-minute or included), and any add-on fees for features like call recording, additional numbers, or 1300 services. This is your ongoing operational cost and the one providers advertise most prominently.Second, one-time setup costs: number porting fees, provisioning charges, configuration time, and any initial hardware. These are often invisible in the advertised price but can easily add $500 to $2,000 to your first invoice.Third, hardware costs: the IP desk phones, headsets, or conference devices your team will use. Hardware is a one-time capital expense but needs to be factored into year-one budgeting. A team of five with decent desk phones is looking at $500 to $2,000 in hardware alone before a single call is made.

Monthly phone system plan Costs: What AU Providers Are Charging

Australian cloud phone system plans sit in three clear tiers. The ranges below reflect current market pricing from providers including Maxotel, 8x8, RingCentral, net2phone, and Vonage. Always check current pricing directly with providers before committing. Most Australian small businesses with 1 to 10 staff land in the Basic or Standard tier. The Standard tier is the sweet spot for businesses that want call recording, a proper auto-attendant, and ring groups without paying enterprise prices.Note on call charges: some plans include unlimited local and national calls, while others charge per call or per minute; check both the rate and billing method for each destination. If your team makes high call volumes, unlimited-call plans are almost always cheaper in practice even if the plan fee is higher.

How Call Charges Work in Australia

AU VOIP call pricing has three categories: local/national calls (geographic 02/03/07/08 numbers), mobile calls (04xx numbers), and international calls. The distinction matters because mobile call rates are significantly higher than landline rates, and many 'unlimited' plans only mean unlimited landline calls.Typical AU VOIP call rates to watch for (these are add-on or per-minute rates where calls are not included in the plan): If your business makes frequent calls to Australian mobiles (which most AU SMBs do), mobile call inclusion is worth paying for. A five-person team each making 30 minutes of mobile calls per day at $0.18 per minute is ~$700 AUD per month in call charges. An upgraded plan that includes mobile calls at $35/user/month for five users is $175/month. The math is obvious.

One-Time Setup and Porting Costs

Setup costs are where new VOIP customers are most frequently surprised. These are the fees that do not appear in the advertised monthly price. Number porting in Australia is governed by the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) Local Number Portability Code. Standard geographic number ports generally take 8 to 15 business days. Your existing service should remain active until cutover, but brief downtime may occur while the number is transferred. Plan your switch accordingly and do not cancel your existing service until porting is confirmed complete.

Hardware Costs: Phones, Headsets, and Conference Devices

The reverse framework applies here: choose your service provider and plan first, confirm hardware compatibility, then purchase handsets. Buying hardware before you have a provider is one of the most common and costly mistakes in the VOIP setup process. See our guide to the best VOIP phone systems for small business for a full rundown on what to look for. Some providers supply preconfigured phones; compare their device price, contract term and support with an equivalent retail handset before purchasing. For non-technical business owners, the pre-configured option is often worth it. For more detail on hardware selection, see our guide to the best SIP desk phones for Australian businesses.

Hidden Costs Providers Do Not Advertise

These are the costs that cause surprise invoices. Read your service agreement carefully before signing.

Cost Comparison: ISP Bundled VOIP vs Entry business phone company vs Full cloud phone system

The most important cost comparison for Australian SMBs is not between business phone companies, it is between the ISP bundled service most businesses already have and a proper VOIP setup. The ISP bundled service looks free but has a real cost: A basic ISP service may have limited multi-call handling compared with a cloud PBX, but the result depends on features such as call waiting, forwarding and voicemail. For a business generating even $2,000 to $5,000 per new customer, a single lost lead each month dwarfs the cost of a proper VOIP service. For a full breakdown of the ISP versus VOIP comparison, see our article on VOIP versus traditional phones in Australia.

Total Cost of Ownership: 5-Person Team, Year 1 vs Ongoing

Real budgeting means looking at year-one cost (which includes setup and hardware) alongside ongoing cost (which is just the monthly service). The year-one figure is often double the ongoing cost, which catches businesses off guard. For context: an entry cloud phone system service for a five-person team works out to under $2 per person per working day in the illustrated year-one scenario. Most businesses will consider that an unremarkable cost for a professional phone system.

When Cheap Equals Expensive: The Undersizing Trap

The cheapest plan in the short term is often the most expensive choice over 12 months. Here is how it plays out in practice.Scenario: a retail business chooses the entry plan at $15/user/month to save money. After three months, they discover they need call recording (for dispute resolution), a proper auto-attendant (staff are manually answering and routing calls), and voicemail-to-email (missed calls are being lost). Each of these is an add-on at $5 to $15 per month. The effective cost is now $35 to $50/user/month, which is higher than the Standard plan they dismissed. They also have the complexity of bolt-on features instead of a clean integrated setup.The correct approach: list the features you actually need before comparing plans. Match the feature list to tiers. If Standard includes everything you need, Standard is the cheapest option, not Entry.Similarly, a business that significantly undersizes its number of simultaneous call paths will experience call failures at busy periods. A five-person practice with only two simultaneous call paths may queue, divert or reject additional calls when demand exceeds that capacity, depending on its configuration. The cost of re-buying lines or upgrading to the correct tier mid-contract is often more disruptive than just sizing correctly at the start. Our VOIP cost calculator can help you estimate the right tier for your call volume.

AU-Specific Cost Factors: What Changes for Australian Businesses

Australian businesses face a few cost factors that do not apply in other markets. These are worth understanding before you compare pricing from international sources.

NBN Connection Type Affects Call Quality, Not Just Cost

Australia's NBN network has several access technologies: FTTP (fibre to the premises), FTTN (fibre to the node), HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial), and FW (fixed wireless). Call quality depends on end-to-end performance, including NBN technology and configuration, congestion, the ISP's network design, available bandwidth and local equipment. Your business phone company is not responsible for NBN congestion, so A higher speed tier may help if available bandwidth is the constraint; diagnose latency, jitter, packet loss, local networking and provider routing before changing either service.VOIP bandwidth requirements are modest: Bandwidth and quality thresholds vary by codec and platform; use the provider's requirements and measured latency, jitter and packet loss for the expected concurrent-call load. The number of calls a connection can support depends on measured upload performance, concurrent non-voice traffic, codec and provider requirements. The VOIP Bandwidth Calculator at needtoknowcomms.com.au/tools/voip-bandwidth-calculator/ can help you confirm your connection is adequate before committing to a service. For more detail, see our article on NBN and VOIP compatibility in Australia.

The PSTN Shutdown and What It Means for Your Costs

Legacy fixed-line services have been migrated or disconnected progressively as part of the NBN rollout, but Australia did not complete a universal PSTN switch-off in 2025. Many businesses now use IP-based voice, but some legacy or non-NBN voice services remain and digital infrastructure does not automatically mean the customer has a VoIP service. The question is whether you are on an ISP-controlled ATA with no visibility or control, or a proper cloud phone system service where you own the service relationship.The practical cost implication: if you are still on an ISP ATA, you are paying for a VOIP service already (it is bundled into your NBN plan) but receiving far fewer features. Moving to a dedicated business phone company is not an additional cost on top of your current setup, it is a substitution. The incremental cost varies with provider, users, call paths, included calls, numbers and hardware; compare an itemised quote with the voice charges already included in your internet service.

1300 and 1800 Number Costs in the Australian Market

Australian businesses frequently ask about 1300 and 1800 numbers when budgeting for VOIP. The key cost to understand: you pay for inbound calls to your 1300 or 1800 number, not just outbound calls. The charge structure is typically a per-call flagfall plus a per-minute rate. Monthly costs for a business receiving moderate 1300 call volume (say 200 calls per month at 3 minutes average) might be $40 to $120/month in call charges on top of the monthly number rental (~$20 to $40/month). For a full breakdown, see our dedicated guide on 1300 numbers in Australia.

000 Emergency Calling Requirements and Cost

Providers supplying an emergency telephone service must comply with applicable emergency-call rules, and 000 calls must be free to end users. ACMA does not mandate a $1 to $3 monthly customer levy per service. Any provider that cannot confirm 000 support for your registered business address should be disqualified immediately.

Power Outage Considerations

NBN VOIP services go offline when the power goes out, because the NBN modem/router needs power to operate. This is a cost and reliability consideration that analog landlines (which ran on their own phone line current) did not have. Mitigation options: a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for the modem and router (~$150 to $400), or forwarding inbound calls to a mobile number and using a mobile app or cellular service for outbound calls during an outage, where supported. Most cloud phone system companies include mobile failover as a plan feature or add-on.

Australian Provider Pricing Landscape

Australia has a healthy market of cloud phone system companies serving SMBs. The major players and their positioning as of early 2026:Maxotel is an Australian-owned specialist business phone company with SMB-focused plans and local support. Known for consultative onboarding and transparent pricing. Current public pricing starts at $9.95 AUD per user per month for Everyday PAYG, while the included-calls Outright/BYO plan is $29.95 per user per month. Check current pricing at maxo.com.au.8x8 is a US-based enterprise business phone company with an Australian presence. Strong on unified communications, analytics, and large-team deployments. 8x8's current Australian pricing should be confirmed through an AUD quote because its public AU pages do not establish this range reliably. More appropriate for 20+ seat deployments. Check current pricing at 8x8.com/au.RingCentral is another US-based provider with a significant AU customer base. Similar positioning to 8x8. RingCentral's current Australian RingEX pricing is quote-based; request a current AUD per-user quote and confirm the contract term. Strong on integrations (Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace). Check current pricing at ringcentral.com.au.net2phone Australia offers SMB-focused cloud phone system with competitive pricing on Standard and Premium tiers. Confirm net2phone's current Australian availability, AUD pricing, contract term and support location directly before including it in this comparison. Check current pricing at net2phone.com.au.Vonage (now part of Ericsson) serves larger AU businesses and contact centre deployments. Pricing is typically at the higher end of the market and better suited to 20+ seat teams with integration-heavy requirements.For SMBs comparing AU providers on features rather than just price, see our full guide to the best VOIP phone systems for small business in Australia. For a deeper look at the hosted versus on-premise decision, see our guide to cloud phone system versus on-premise PBX in Australia.

What Most Businesses Get Wrong About VOIP Pricing

After working through AU business communications, the same pricing mistakes appear consistently. Here are the three that cost businesses the most money.

Mistake 1: Comparing Monthly Plan Fees Without Factoring in Call Charges

A plan advertised at $15/user/month sounds cheaper than one at $28/user/month. But if the $15 plan charges $0.18/minute to Australian mobiles and your team makes two hours of mobile calls per day across five users, you are adding ~$540/month in call charges. The $28 plan that includes unlimited mobile calls costs $140/month for five users, a saving of $400/month. The advertised price is almost meaningless without understanding what is included versus charged extra.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Year-One Costs and Only Comparing Monthly Fees

Business owners comparing business phone companies typically look at the monthly fee and ignore setup, porting, and hardware costs. These one-time costs can easily add $1,000 to $3,000 to your first-year total. Get an all-in year-one quote from any provider before committing, not just the monthly plan fee. A good provider will give you this without being asked.

Mistake 3: Treating the ISP ATA Service as 'Free'

Many Australian SMBs are running their business on the free phone service bundled with their NBN plan, treating it as a $0 cost because it appears on the same bill as their internet. This is a false economy. Basic ISP voice services usually provide fewer PBX features, but second-call handling depends on whether call waiting, forwarding or voicemail is enabled. At $50 to $150 per month for a proper cloud phone system service, the cost is recovered by retaining a single additional customer call per month for most businesses. The ISP ATA is not free, it charges you in lost leads.

Your Next Steps: How to Budget for VOIP Accurately

Before you request a quote from any business phone company, work through this checklist. You will get better quotes and avoid the common surprises.Step 1: Count your users and concurrent call paths. How many staff need a phone? How many simultaneous calls do you expect at peak? (Hint: peak simultaneous-call demand varies by business; use call records or measured peak traffic rather than a fixed percentage of headcount.)Step 2: List the features you actually need. Ring groups? Call recording? Auto-attendant? Voicemail-to-email? CRM integration? Do not pay for features you will not use, but do not undersize either.Step 3: Estimate your call volume. How many calls per day? What mix of landline, mobile, and international? This tells you whether unlimited call plans save you money or cost you more.Step 4: Get an itemised quote from at least two AU providers that includes setup, porting, and hardware, not just the monthly fee. Compare year-one total cost, not just the monthly plan price.Step 5: Ask every provider: what is included in the plan, what is an add-on, and what are the overage rates? Get the answers in writing before you sign.Step 6: Check your NBN connection type and speed. Confirm your upload speed and jitter are adequate for your expected simultaneous call load. Use the VOIP cost calculator to model your expected monthly costs before talking to any provider.Once you have worked through these steps, you are ready to get a recommendation. Our team can match you to the right AU provider for your team size, call volume, and budget without the sales pressure. See Get a Recommendation to get started.

Monthly plan pricing is only part of the cost. Hardware, setup, porting, and annual price increases add significantly to the 3-year total. Our full business phone system total cost of ownership guide breaks down every cost component with 5-seat and 10-seat examples.

If you are currently on Telstra Business phone products, a line-by-line cost comparison can be illuminating. Our guide provides a full Telstra business phone cost breakdown showing what a typical 5-person Telstra setup actually costs versus a modern cloud phone system, including line rental, call packs, hardware, and per-call charges.

Cost-conscious businesses often focus on the monthly plan price and miss the hidden costs that make a cheap plan expensive: calls to Australian mobiles, 1300 call charges, hardware, and setup fees. Our guide to cheap business phone services in Australia breaks down the real cost and explains what you give up on the lowest-tier plans.

If your team already uses Microsoft 365, you may be wondering whether Teams Phone is a cheaper option than a dedicated VOIP system. The answer depends on how many licensing layers you are already paying for. See Microsoft Teams Phone Pricing Australia for a full cost breakdown and direct comparison.

When estimating your total VoIP bill, Cost drivers depend on the service model: hosted cloud-phone plans are often priced per user, while SIP-trunk services may be priced by concurrent call capacity. Use our Phone Lines Calculator to work out the exact simultaneous call capacity you need based on your team size and call patterns.

Understanding your current phone costs in detail makes any VoIP comparison more accurate. Our Phone Bill Translator decodes every line item on a standard Australian business phone bill, so you know exactly what you are replacing and what a VoIP equivalent would cost.

If you are still at the stage of working out whether a cloud phone system fits your budget before comparing specific plans, our plain-English guide to how much a business phone system costs in Australia gives a simple tier breakdown: what you get for $20-35 per month vs $35-60 per month vs $60 or more per user (standard plans with Australian calls included, as at August 2026), with real examples at each level.

International call rates are one of the most variable cost components across AU VOIP providers. Some include bundles to major countries within the monthly plan; others charge per-minute rates that add up quickly for businesses with regular overseas calls. For a full breakdown of how international calling is priced on AU VOIP systems and which plan structures save the most money, see our guide to international calls on a VOIP system in Australia.

How much does VOIP cost per month for a small business in Australia?

For a small business with 1 to 10 staff, expect to pay ~$15 to $40 AUD per user per month for a cloud phone system plan, depending on the feature tier. A five-person team on a Standard plan will typically pay ~$125 to $200/month in plan fees. Add call charges (or choose an unlimited plan) and you are looking at $150 to $250/month total for five users with a full-featured service. Check current pricing with providers like Maxotel, net2phone, or RingCentral AU before budgeting.

Is VOIP cheaper than a traditional landline in Australia?

For most Australian businesses, yes. Legacy landlines have been migrated or disconnected progressively during the NBN rollout, but Australia did not complete a universal PSTN switch-off in 2025. What most businesses now have is either an ISP-bundled VOIP service (via the ATA port on their NBN modem) or a dedicated cloud phone system service. A proper cloud phone system service with multiple lines, auto-attendant, and call recording typically costs $20 to $40 per user per month, often less than the equivalent business landline bundle used to cost, with significantly more features. For a full comparison, see our guide on VOIP versus traditional phones in Australia.

What are the hidden costs of VOIP in Australia?

The most common hidden VOIP costs in Australia are: mobile call charges not included in 'unlimited' plans, per-number Caller ID fees (~$2 to $5 per number per month), any provider-specific emergency-calling or regulatory surcharge disclosed in the provider's pricing terms, regulatory compliance levies, number porting fees for non-standard ports, and contract exit fees on lock-in plans. Always ask for a full itemised quote before signing and confirm which features are included versus add-ons.

How much does a VOIP phone handset cost in Australia?

IP desk phones for VOIP in Australia range from ~$100 AUD for an entry-level model (Yealink T31P, Grandstream GXP1610) to ~$300 to $450 for premium executive phones (Yealink T58W, Poly Edge E550). Conference phones range from ~$300 to $800. Most providers offer pre-configured handsets that arrive ready to plug in, often for a small premium above buying the hardware separately. Handsets bought outright are a capital cost; their useful life and support period vary by model, usage and provider compatibility. Check current pricing, hardware costs fluctuate with exchange rates and distributor stock.

Does VOIP cost more on different NBN connection types?

The phone system plan cost is the same regardless of your NBN connection type, A standalone cloud-phone subscription is often priced independently of NBN access type, but bundled offer pricing and service availability can vary by provider and technology. However, connection type affects call quality. Poor-quality NBN connections (particularly congested FTTN nodes or fixed wireless during peak periods) can result in jitter, dropped calls, and audio quality issues. These do not cost more directly but may require a speed tier upgrade from your ISP or investment in a Quality of Service (QoS) router to prioritise voice traffic. See our guide on NBN and VOIP compatibility for more detail.

Can I keep my existing phone number when switching to VOIP in Australia?

Yes. Geographic phone numbers (02, 03, 07, 08 prefix) and most 1300/1800 numbers can be ported to a new business phone company. Standard geographic number ports generally take 8 to 15 business days under ACMA's Local Number Portability Code. Your existing service should remain active until cutover, but brief downtime can occur while the number is transferred. Porting fees vary by provider: some include standard porting at no charge, others charge $10 to $50 per number. Complex ports (DDI ranges, 1300 numbers, numbers held by reluctant carriers) take longer and cost more. Do not cancel your existing service until porting is confirmed complete.

What is the minimum cost to set up VOIP for a 2-person business in Australia?

The minimum realistic cost for a two-person business starting VOIP in Australia: a basic hosted plan at ~$15 to $25 per user per month ($30 to $50/month total), number porting if retaining your existing number (~$0 to $50), and two entry-level IP phones (~$200 to $300 total for both). Year-one all-in cost: approximately $560 to $950. Ongoing annual cost: approximately $360 to $600. If you are comfortable using softphone apps on a computer or smartphone instead of desk phones, hardware cost drops to $0, check that your provider includes a softphone app in the basic plan before relying on this.

Are phone system plans in Australia month-to-month or do they require a contract?

Contract terms vary by provider and offer; month-to-month plans exist, but handset bundles and discounted offers may require longer commitments. Some providers offer a small discount (typically 10 to 20%) for annual or two-year commitments. For most SMBs, month-to-month is the better starting position, it gives you the flexibility to switch providers if your needs change, and the discount on a lock-in contract is rarely worth the exit-fee risk. If a provider is pushing hard for a long-term commitment on an entry plan, treat that as a yellow flag and ask why.

Related reading:

• hidden costs of VoIP
• cloud phone system pricing
• best business phone companies

Every business has different call volumes, team sizes, and feature requirements. A sole trader who makes 10 calls a day costs very differently to a 10-person team with a reception desk and multiple extensions. Tell us your setup and we'll give you a specific cost estimate. We reply personally. Not a bot, not a form letter.