Google Voice for Business: Pricing, Pros & Cons, Key Features (2024)

Traditional phone systems simply come with too much hassle: tangled wires, phone jack installation, low-quality audio, hardware upgrades…the list goes on.

It’s easy to see why so many businesses make the switch to VoIP, but it can be more difficult to find a provider that combines ease of use with affordability.

Google Voice for Business provides the perfect solution, combining scalability, intuitiveness, and low pricing – there’s even a free plan.

Read on to learn more about Google Voice for Business pricing and plans, features, setup, limitations, alternatives, and more.

Jump to↓

• What is Google Voice?
• How Does It Work?
• Google Voice for Business Pricing and Plans
• Key Features
• Pros and Cons
• Google Voice for Business Limitations
• How to Set Up Google Voice for Business
• Alternatives to Google Voice
• Google Voice Unifies Your Team
• FAQs

What is Google Voice?

Google Voice is a cloud VoIP platform offering unlimited US and Canada voice calling, virtual phone numbers, SMS texting, voicemail, and other business telephony features.

It’s accessible via desktop computer, mobile device, compatible VoIP desk phones, and web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari).

In the past, Google Voice was predominantly seen as a standalone tool providing a quick way to get a secondary phone number. Today, though still best for businesses that need more basic virtual phone functionality, Google Voice is marketed as an add-on feature of Google Workspace (formerly G Suite.)

Though it can be used on its own, this VoIP solution is designed to work alongside popular Google business applications like Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail.

How Does Google Voice Work?

Google Voice’s VoIP telephony uses internet broadband to make/receive phone calls, rather than a traditional landline connection.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calling with Google Voice offers agents increased mobility and flexibility, and helps businesses cut their monthly communication costs. Google Voice is accessible anywhere with Internet access.

Google Voice for business, especially when used within Google Workspace, allows sales and customer service agents to provide better customer support thanks to a range of available features. Calls and texts can be managed over WiFi or via mobile data.

Google Voice for Business Pricing & Plans

Midsize and small businesses both can take advantage of Google Voice as a paid add-on to Google Workspace. To use Google Voice, you must first have Google Workspace, which offers a free trial–although Google Voice itself does not.

Google Voice for business offers three business phone system subscriptions, at $10, $20, and $30 monthly per user.

Each Google Voice plan includes:

• Domestic business phone numbers for up to 10 users
• Number porting
• Unlimited calling and unlimited SMS texting within the US
• MMS Messaging (under 2MB/message) and group texting for up to 8 users
• Google Fi and Google Meet (video calling) compatibility
• Voicemail, greetings, voicemail message transcription
• Call Forwarding
• Android and iOS mobile apps
• Do Not Disturb
• Simultaneous ringing to linked numbers
• Syncing with Google Contacts and Google Calendar
• Automatically forward calls to voicemails after set business hours
• Real-time push notifications for calls, texts, voicemails
• Number blocking and spam filtering
• 24/7 support
• Basic call and text logs
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantee

In the below table, we’ve organized key information to highlight the differences between the three Google Voice for Business pricing plans:

Google Voice for Business Key Features

Below, we’ve outlined some of the key features within Google Voice for business.

Ring Groups

Ring groups allow administrators to create multi-user groups within your company that use the same Google Voice number to answer calls.

Especially useful for sales and customer service teams, ring groups allow administrators to split calls among qualified users depending on availability or preset priority order. This leads to decreased agent workload and faster call response, helping customers resolve issues quicker and expediting first call resolution.

A sales or customer service ring group can use the business’ main customer-facing number, so that outbound calls show the company number on customers’ Caller ID.

Ring Groups: Administrator Perspective

Administrators can customize many aspects of ring groups, such as:

• Simultaneous, random, or custom call ordering: When an incoming call reaches the ring group, choose if you want it to ring agents one-by-one based on availability, ring them randomly, ring in a custom order, or ring all agents simultaneously until one answers.

A drag and drop menu makes it easy to customize call order.

• Outbound and caller ID settings: Select which agents are able to make outbound VoIP calls using the ring group number, and which of these users have the ring group’s number as Caller ID
• Unanswered calls: Customize how to respond to unanswered calls (continued ringing, pre-recorded message and disconnect, forward caller to another number/ring group/auto attendant/voice mailbox)
• Ring group business hours: Customize a ring group’s active call-answering hours, or individual agents’ available hours

Ring Groups: Agent Perspective

From an agent perspective, navigating and accessing incoming ring group calls is easy.

When added to the ring group, agents receive an automatic notification email containing ring group information. At this point, their Google account is automatically connected to the group’s calls, and the agent doesn’t have to manually sign up.

All incoming calls trigger a pop-up in the agent’s screen, with incoming Caller ID and one-click Accept and Decline buttons that connect an agent seamlessly to the caller. Agents can take or decline calls without changing a window or interrupting any of their other tasks.

If the ring group doesn’t answer the call, such as outside working hours, and it directs to voicemail, agents automatically receive an email containing the voicemail recording and text transcription.

Ring groups provide administrators with great control over how to handle incoming calls and connect customers with agents faster, for an improved customer experience.

Auto Attendant

Google Voice for business Auto Attendant, included with the Standard and Premier Google Voice plans, lets administrators customize the call menu that anyone who calls your business will interact with.

To greet customers and help them find the correct department/agent, a pre-recorded navigation menu prompt may say:

Thank you for calling PA Tile Co., where we build the tile floor you’ve always dreamed of. For Customer Service, press 1. For Billing, press 2. For Sales, press 3. To discuss a completed or current job, press 4. To speak with a representative, press 5.

Users can create as many auto-attendants as they want, as long as each one is assigned its own Google Voice number.

Customize the following components of your auto attendant:

• Name
• Description
• Google voice number
• Welcome message
• Special announcements (customers can’t skip)
• Language and accent
• Customer menu instructions and numbering
• Routing, submenus, and
• Next steps after the customer hears the menu
• Error Handling
• Hours of operation and after-hours customer options

Users have two input options to create auto-attendant menus in Google Voice for business:

• Text-to-speech: Type the auto attendant message, choose from a variety of call menu languages and accents
• Audio upload: Upload your pre recorded audio menu, Google Voice automatically transcribes each recording

Routing Options and Submenus

Google Voice auto-attendant also provides several layers of routing options, including submenus that branch off from your auto attendant’s main menu.

For each dial option in your menu, you can select the menu’s next step, such as:

• Transfer the caller to an agent or ring group
• Transfer to a submenu, with its own prompt, message, and routing options
• Repeat main menu

For example, you can redirect callers who press “2 for Billing” to a menu with further options for payments or invoices, or direct customers who press “3 for Customer Service” to a ring group of customer service agents.

Auto attendants let businesses connect with the customer at various touch points in the customer journey and improve customer experience by allowing better customer self-service. Best of all, these IVR tools save your agents’ efforts for the queries that require more one-on-one, detailed attention.

Error Handling

In the Auto-Attendant Settings menu, you can control various error handling options, including:

• Timeout options: which action or prompt is taken in response to a caller’s inactivity, after how long
• Unexpected key: how the auto-attendant responds to an unexpected or illegitimate customer keypress
• Fallback: how the auto-attendant responds to repeated unexpected customer activity; set a threshold of illegitimate customer entries before an action is taken

Edit Business Hours

The Edit Business Hours menu, in the auto-attendant settings, allows you to customize the following:

• Open hours: Customize your auto attendant’s daily open hours: 24 hours a day, or select hours only
• Holiday closures: Select which dates your auto attendant menu will be unavailable
• After hours action: Create the announcement, action, voicemail options, and transfer options for customers who call outside of business hours.

Local Phone Number

While each company Google Voice user must have their own phone number, users can pick a number with any U.S. area code that they want.

This means that if a company’s headquarters are in Chicago, remote workers anywhere in Google Voice for business’ 14-country coverage area can select a phone number with a Chicago area code, providing a local presence.

When buying and assigning a number for an account, users search phone numbers by area code or city.

SMS Texting

Google Voice business users can send and receive SMS and MMS text messages directly from their account, using the Voice webpage or mobile app.

(Image Source)

All text conversations are saved, organized, and archived like emails, with a search function that allows agents to find previous conversations based on keyword or customer name. Group texts are available for up to 8 users.

Google Voice keeps all of an agent’s customer communications in one place, so agents can quickly navigate calling and texting logs.

Google AI for Auto Attendant, Voicemail, and Spam Identification

Google AI is integrated within Google Voice, powering several aspects of Google Voice for business:

• Text-to-speech
• Speech-to-text
• Spam Models

Text-to-Speech for Auto Attendant:

With the auto attendant, Google AI transforms your typed text into a realistic-sounding attendant, who can speak in dozens of languages and accents.

Speech-to-Text for Voicemail:

Google AI automatically transcribes all incoming caller voicemails and delivers them to the appropriate ring group users in an email containing the voicemail MP3 as well as the transcribed text.

Users can search transcribed voicemails by keyword or customer name, to retrieve past conversations.

Spam Identification and Blocking

Machine-learning-driven spam identifiers catch and block 99% of unwanted spam, responding to it in one of two ways: call screening with Caller ID, or suppressing with redirection to the spam folder.

Voice Calling

Google Voice makes it easy for business users to call customers or other team members with a Google Voice phone number.

In the user dashboard, the dial-pad, contact list, and voicemail are intuitively organized. Users can call contacts with one-click or manually dial numbers in the softphone app.

Users can screen incoming calls by viewing Caller ID, and can even set their caller ID to speak out loud over headset or speakerphone

During a VoIP call, a right-hand-side window displays the essential phone call functions at one-click disposal:

• Mute
• Hold
• Transfer
• Keypad
• Forward

Accessible Across Multiple Devices

Administrators and agents can access Google Voice services and use their Voice business phone number across three different types of devices: mobile device, laptop or desktop web browser.

In the Google Voice settings, users can customize which devices ring when for incoming calls–just some devices, or all of them simultaneously.

Desktop with Intuitive Interface

From a user’s perspective, the Google Voice dashboard makes it easy to utilize all of Voice’s business features. The home dashboard provides users one-click access to:

• Contact list, with autofill search
• Voicemail
• Call history and log, with one-click callback
• Dialpad
• Suggested contacts
• Microphone, speaker, and ring settings
• Settings for Calls, Do Not Disturb, Voicemail, Web Notifications, Payments, Security, Accessibility, and Privacy & Terms

When opened, new to-do items, emails, text messages, and audio such as voicemail transcriptions populate the center of an agent’s screen. This interface allows agents to manage their primary tasks without missing other calls and messages, never having to click into a new window.

Mobile Device with Core Agent Functions

The mobile device view provides essentially the same agent features as the desktop view, but spread across several screens instead of in one dashboard.

On mobile, Voice for business provides users a tab menu on the screen-bottom, with the core options:

• Calls: with searchable history and one-click calling
• Contacts: searchable with autofill and one-click calling
• Voicemail: with automatic transcriptions for each voicemail and easy playback, searchable with autofill

The mobile device version of Voice also provides a left-hand menu with the same features as on desktop:

• Archived messages and voicemails
• Spam folder
• Settings, with Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Do Not Disturb, Voicemail, and Payments

VoIP Desktop Phone

Setting up and using a VoIP hard phone with Google Voice is simple.

After plugging the VoIP phone into power and setting up an Ethernet cord, an administrator must access the Google Voice Settings Deskphone menu, type in the phone’s MAC address, and assign the VoIP deskphone to a user.

A phone screen menu lets users to access desktop Google Voice features like:

• Redial and Recent Calls
• Call Forward
• Do Not Disturb

Pros & Cons of Using Google Voice for Business

Google Voice for business offers intuitive, simple voice telephony and messaging solutions accessible via mobile or desktop devices.

However, Google Voice does lack some of the communication channels and analytic tools that more robust alternatives offer.

Below, we’ve outlined the key pros and cons of using Google Voice for Business.

Google Voice for Business Limitations

For all the strengths that Google Voice for business offers, it has four notable limitations:

1. Automation

2. Analytics

3. Workflows

4. Integrations

Below, we’ve outlined Google Voice’s key limitations, compared to communication and telephony platform alternatives.

Automation

Google Voice offers basic automation through its auto attendant, ring groups, and notifications.

However, that’s about the extent of Google Voice for business’ automation.

Many alternatives offer a variety of other automated tools, like website or text messaging chatbots that engage with customers, making sales or booking appointments through an embedded chatbox.

Google Voice for business does not offer automated email responses or mass-notification text messages, which some alternatives do as well.

Analytics

One of Google Voice’s biggest shortcomings compared to competitors is its lack of analytics: statistics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and metrics that give companies historical and real-time insight into agent performance, customer sentiment and market trends, communication channel usage, and more.

These analytics help companies estimate and optimize staffing needs, evaluate support effectiveness, and improve employee training.

Workflows

While Google Voice does provide tools for automating customized workflows and streamlining routine business processes, most competitors still outpace Google Voice when it comes to workflow management.

Alternative providers offer many more workflow management features that Google Voice lacks, including:

• Trigger-based actions to loop in relevant departments during key points of the customer journey
• Automatic ticket creation
• Automated customer surveys post agent conversations
• Automated follow-ups

Workflows can expedite all sorts of business processes, saving employees a lot of time and effort. Google Voice does not stack up to the alternatives in this regard.

Integrations

Robust integration capabilities supercharge a telephony or communication system by connecting it with specialized external applications and software. These external software tools–including CRM like Salesforce or Zoho, collaboration like Slack, and knowledge bases like Helpjuice and HubSpot–enable team communication and awareness of customer insights that boost communication systems to a new level, especially if companies are already using these external platforms and seeking to add telephony to the mix.

While Google Voice does offer strong integrations with G Suite apps–like Calendar, Google Meet, Gmail, and Google Drive–it has limited integration capabilities beyond these applications. This could be a disadvantage for teams that already use other communication apps, as well as for teams that collaborate with anyone outside of the Google Workspace system.

How to Set Up Google Voice for Business

Setting up Google Voice for business requires Google Workspace, so begin by making sure you’ve signed up and into Google Workspace.

Below, we’ve listed the administrative steps to set up Google Voice–for Enterprise, medium, or small business.

Step 1: Add Voice to Google Workspace

Before customizing Google Voice settings, you first must add the Google Voice app to Workspace:

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace

2. At the top of the page, click Add Services

3. Underneath Categories, click Voice

4. Select which subscription you want to add, then click Get Started

5. On-screen instructions will guide you to finish setup

Step 2: Set Up Your Company’s Google Voice Location

Before you can create groups, assign and port numbers, or create auto attendants, you must first add a primary address, which Google will use for licensing and billing. You must list every country where your business uses a Google Voice account.

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice

2. Select Locations

3. Click the Add a Location button

a. If your company has more than one location, list the headquarters first and top-most, since Google will use this for billing

4. Enter the location details, including name and address

5. Save your location

6. Repeat this process if your company has multiple locations

Step 3: Assign Licenses to Users

Business users must be licensed before they can use a Google Voice phone number. After assigning Google Voice licenses individually to agents, you can see their license status on the Google Voice Users page.

1. From the administrative console, go to Users

2. Check the box beside each user who you want to license

3. Click Assign Licenses and select Google Voice

4. Select Assign

Step 4: Set Up and Assign New Phone Numbers

Google Voice supplies dozens of numbers for many U.S. area codes, from which you can select. Administrators can assign numbers to users, or users can select their own.

Each Google Voice number can only be assigned once, and each user can only take one number at a time. After assigning numbers, it may take up to 48 hours for them to activate.

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice

2. Select Users

a. This page should display each user, with Assigned Number and Email columns. If it doesn’t, that means you need to assign licenses to your users, as explained in Step 3

3. Select the user you want to assign and click the right-hand edit (pencil) icon

4. In the Country/Region tab, select the region where the user’s service is located

a. This must be one of your Google Voice locations

5. In the Service Address section, enter the user’s address

a. This is for emergency purposes, so it must be accurate

6. In the Google Voice Number tab, view the present user-assigned number

a. To keep the number, click Assign

b. To select a new number, click Change→Select→Assign

Step 5: Port Users’ Existing Numbers to Voice

If your business already has existing phone numbers with another service provider, such as a VoIP provider, mobile provider, or landline provider, you can use number porting to continue to use those numbers on Google Voice. Porting a landline number requires first porting to mobile, and then to Google Voice from there.

If you don’t have preexisting numbers to port, skip this step.

Before porting, make sure of the following:

• You don’t cancel your existing service until Voice notifies you that porting is complete
• All numbers in the port request are from the same existing provider
• Your existing phone service provider has unlocked the numbers so they can transfer
• Check with your current provider to make sure your settings are appropriate for porting

To port numbers into Google Voice:

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice

2. Select Number Porting→Create Port Order

3. In the Port Name section, enter a name for your port batch

4. Select your country and continue

5. Under Identify your Primary Contact, enter information for who to contact about this port request

a. Primary contacts often are IT leads or administrators

6. Enter Port Details, using a recent billing statement to complete

7. Authorize

8. In the List Numbers section, enter the numbers you want to port to Voice

a. You can port up to 500 landline or VoIP numbers at once, but only one mobile number at a time

9. In the Activation Date section, select the date you want your ported numbers to be activated with Google Voice

a. Selected date must be between 14-60 days from present-day and cannot fall on a weekend

b. Port requests will be completed by the end of the selected date, or the next day

10. Select Continue, then review and verify the information

11. Continue→Create Port Request

Step 6: Set Up Voice Desk Phones for Users

Desk phones are physical VoIP phones for agents to make calls. If you opt to use cell phones or headsets instead, skip this step.

Before setting up your desk phones with Google Voice, make sure of the following:

• The phones aren’t subscribed to any other providers
• Each phone is connected to the internet
• Each user with a phone has their own license
• You know the desk phone’s MAC address

To set up Voice desk phones:

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice

2. Select Desk Phones and see a list of all desk phones assigned to your account

3. At the top, click Add Desk Phone

4. Input the new phone’s model and MAC address

5. Click Save→Close

Step 7: Set Up Ring Groups

Ring groups enable your organization’s users to answer calls from a shared Google Voice number.

Incoming calls to a ring group number can ring the group’s agents in a round-robin (turn-taking) style, or by call blasting simultaneously ringing all group members) .

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice (surprise, surprise!)

2. Select Ring Groups

3. Click the Create button

4. Within Details, enter the ring group’s display name and description

5. Within Members, manually add up to 25 members per ring group

6. Click Continue

Step 8: Set Up an Automated Attendant

Google Voice auto attendant, also known as IVR or virtual receptionist, is an automated navigation menu that provides incoming callers with self-service options, routing the caller to the appropriate department within the company.

7 general steps for Auto Attendant setup:

1. Create an auto attendant

2. Add greetings

3. Set up call handling

4. Customize your working hours

5. Test the auto-attendant

6. Publish the auto-attendant

7. Assign phone numbers

1: Create an Auto Attendant

1. From the administrative console, go to Apps→Google Workspace→Google Voice

2. Select Auto Attendants

a. This will show a list of your organization’s auto attendants

3. Click Create at the top

4. Enter the auto attendant’s name and description

5. Click Create

2: Add Greetings

In the Initial Greetings section, create the first message that callers will hear.

1. Within Welcome Message, click Add a Welcome Message and choose if you want to create a greeting using Google AI text-to-speech or upload your own audio.

2. To enter an announcement that callers can’t skip, select Add a Special Announcement and follow the directions to input it

3: Set Up Call Handling

In the Call Handling section, choose what the auto-attendant does in response to caller actions. Within each action, follow the directions to customize your auto attendant.

• Play menu prompts: Create dial-tone menus for callers to choose from
  • You can drag and drop the dial-tone options as you create, if you want to rearrange them

• Transfer caller: Set up the agents, departments, or parties where the options route

• Send to voicemail: Record (or type-to-text) a voicemail for callers to receive, and choose up to ten agents to receive the voicemail recording and transcription in their email

• Disconnect caller or repeat menu: Set up the auto attendant to disconnect the caller after they listen to the greetings, or repeat the menu until the caller hangs up

4. Customize Your Working Hours

You can set an alternate greeting, with different call routing options, for calls outside of your working hours. You can also create a custom menu and options for holidays.

• Set open hours: Either customized business hours, or 24/7 service

• Set holiday closures: Add select dates here callers hear the after-hours menu

• Set after-hours action: Type the played announcement for customers to hear, and choose action like: disconnect the caller, send to voicemail, or transfer the caller

5. Test the Auto Attendant

Give your auto-attendant changes a final preview before they go live.

1. In the bottom right, click Preview, then Call
2. Choose an option to dial-to-test or change the auto attendant

6. Publish the Auto Attendant

This will replace the previous auto-attendant or enable your new one publicly. You can access previously created auto-attendants in the Auto Attendants menu in Settings.

1. In the bottom right, click Publish
2. At confirmation, click Publish

7. Assign Phone Number

To use the auto attendant, you must assign it a new Voice number that isn’t already assigned to an agent.

1. Under Phone Numbers in the left menu, click Assign a Number

a. You can either create a new number or repurpose a number from a previous auto attendant

2. Select the appropriate country and address

3. Click Assign

After following these steps, you and your team are ready to connect with customers using Google Voice!

Alternatives to Google Voice for Business

In the table below, we’ve organized key information about alternative options to Google Voice for business.

Google Voice Unifies Your Team

Customer-facing VoIP systems, like Google Voice for business, offer the easy maintenance and administration of useful tools like auto attendants and ring groups, along with calling and texting anywhere the user has internet.

Google Voice provides an easy-to-use interface with a dashboard of organized agent tools, while allowing customer self-service and administrator routing control. This means a smoother and more intentional process for all parties involved.

To gain a fuller picture of Google Voice for business and its alternatives, learn more about business VoIP providers today.

Google Voice for Business FAQs

Below, we’ve answered the most commonly asked questions about Google Voice for business.