1. What it is, from Google's own pages
Google Search Help (read October 15, 2026) describes it this way: you search for a service, Google asks a few questions, then "Google will call multiple service providers near you", and you receive "an email from Google with quotes from various service providers". It takes about 30 minutes, it does not book anything, and Google shares the request, which may include the customer's name, with the businesses. It is open to signed-in users over 18 in the US, in English.
Which trades? Here the sources disagree, and we say so. The Search Help page today names auto repair, hair salons, pet groomers, wellness centers and driving schools, and says Google is expanding. On May 19, 2026 Google's VP of Search, Elizabeth Reid, wrote that "for select categories like home repair, beauty or pet care" you can ask Google to call businesses, rolling out to everyone in the US "this summer". Invoca's December 2025 study already listed plumbing and pest control. We could not find a Google page that confirms which home-repair trades are live in October 2026.
Google's Business Profile Help (read October 15, 2026) adds the business side: the calls "are monitored and recorded", and if you give the details, the customer gets them by email or text. In the US the calls are not made in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska.
2. What it costs, and whether it helps a small contractor
Neither Google page names any fee, for the customer or for you. Answering costs your time, about a minute.
Does it help? The only numbers we found come from Invoca, a company that sells call-tracking tools, so read them as a vendor's data. From the launch in July through November 2025: 26% of these calls went unanswered, and 48% of the calls that were answered gave Google's AI no price. Plumbing calls grew more than 650% in November over October. Invoca also says they are under 1% of calls to the businesses that get them. The local SEO agency Sterling Sky tested it for a haircut in December 2025: a price range came back in about 11 minutes, with a separate list of shops it could not reach.
Our reading: the homeowner gets a short list of who answered and what they said. "We only quote after a visit" is an honest answer, but next to a company that said "most water heater swaps run from X to Y, we can come Thursday", it reads as nothing.
Verdict: worth adopting now, and it costs $0. Write one sentence with a range for your three most common jobs, "final price after we see it", and your next open days. Whoever answers your phone (you, the office or an AI assistant) says it to Google the same way they would say it to a person. If you never quote by phone, turn the calls off instead (see below); that is a fair choice too.
3. Where WorkTime CRM fits, and where it does not
If you use the phone assistant in WorkTime CRM, it picks up the calls you miss, so Google's AI hears an answer instead of ringing out. It runs on your own Vapi and Twilio accounts, which you pay separately; setup is in Settings → Phone → Assistant, and calls come only outside the hours you set.
What it does not do: it does not recognize a call from Google as special. And the ready-made assistant prompt we give you tells the assistant not to discuss prices and to pass price questions to your team. As shipped, it will tell Google "the team will get back to you", which is the answer that gets left out. If you want the assistant to give a range, write that range into the assistant's instructions in Vapi yourself, and listen to the next recordings.
4. This week
- 01Write your price-range sentence for your three most common jobs, with "final price after we see it". Tape it next to the office phone.
- 02Tell whoever answers: a call that says it is Google's automated assistant is a customer's question, not a sales call. Do not hang up on it.
- 03Do not give it your card number, a password or a payment. Google's own help page says such a call is not from Google.
- 04If you do not want these calls: Business Profile → More → Business Profile settings → Advanced settings → "Google automated calls and text messages". The closest switch is "Bookings and inquiries from customers"; Google's page does not say which switch covers price calls, so if they keep coming, say "Please stop calling my business" on the call. Your profile must be verified to change the setting.