How Much Does Call Forwarding Cost for Canadian Businesses?

Call forwarding is one of the oldest and simplest features in business telephony, and it costs very little. For most Canadian businesses, the monthly cost of call forwarding is between $0 and $15 depending on your phone plan and provider. That's not the interesting part of this question.

The more important question is whether call forwarding actually solves the problem it's meant to address — and for most small businesses, the honest answer is: only partially. Here's a complete look at call forwarding costs and what you're really getting for the price.

What Call Forwarding Costs With Major Canadian Carriers

For traditional landline business phone plans through Telus, Rogers, or Bell, call forwarding is typically an optional add-on feature rather than a standard inclusion. The cost varies by plan and region, but most basic call forwarding add-ons run $5–$12 per month per line. Some business plan bundles include it as part of a feature package, so the incremental cost may be $0 if you're already on a higher-tier plan.

Call the features line of your current provider and ask specifically whether call forwarding is included in your existing plan — many businesses pay for it separately when it was already included. It's a common billing oversight.

What Call Forwarding Costs With VoIP and Cloud Phone Systems

If you're on a cloud VoIP platform (RingCentral, Vonage, 8x8, Telus Business Connect, and most others), call forwarding is almost always included in the base plan at no additional cost. It's a standard feature of cloud phone systems rather than a premium add-on.

What's more, cloud VoIP systems offer more sophisticated forwarding options than traditional carriers typically provide:

Immediate forwarding: All calls route to a different number the moment they ring. Useful if you want all calls going to your cell or a colleague's line.

No-answer forwarding: Calls ring on your main number first and forward only if unanswered after a set number of rings (typically 3–5). This is what most small businesses use — it gives you a chance to pick up before the call routes.

Busy forwarding: Calls forward when your line is occupied. Ensures no caller gets a busy signal.

Simultaneous ring: Multiple numbers ring at the same time — your desk phone and cell simultaneously. Whoever picks up first takes the call.

Sequential ring: Calls ring a list of numbers in order until someone answers. Useful for coverage across a small team.

These options are standard on most cloud plans and are configured through an online portal — no technician required.

The Real Cost: What Happens After the Call Forwards

The monthly fee for call forwarding is small. But call forwarding to your personal cell phone has a hidden cost that most businesses don't account for: you become the answering service for your own business.

When your business line forwards to your cell, every call that comes in during a job site, a client meeting, or dinner requires you to make a real-time decision: answer and interrupt what you're doing, or let it ring through to your personal voicemail — which the caller didn't expect and where your professional greeting probably isn't set up. Neither outcome is ideal.

Forwarding solves the problem of calls being missed because no one is at the office. It doesn't solve the problem of calls being missed because you're unavailable. A business that forwards to the owner's cell and the owner is on a roof or under a sink is functionally in the same position as a business that doesn't forward at all.

When Call Forwarding Is and Isn't Enough

Call forwarding is a complete solution in a specific scenario: you or a staff member is reliably available to take calls during business hours, just not always at the desk. A mobile team that's in and out of the office, a solo owner who works on-site but can step away for calls — these situations are well-served by forwarding.

It's not enough when: you're frequently in a situation where you genuinely can't answer (on a job, with a client, in a meeting), you need someone to handle the call when you don't pick up, you want after-hours calls captured properly, or you're losing leads because callers who reach voicemail don't leave messages.

If any of those apply to your business, call forwarding is a useful tool but not a complete answer. A virtual receptionist service, an AI voice agent, or a combination of the two handles what call forwarding leaves unanswered.

Forwarding to a Paid Answering Service

Some businesses set up call forwarding specifically to route to a paid answering service or virtual receptionist. In this case, the forwarding feature itself is still essentially free (included in your phone plan or a minimal add-on), and the cost is the answering service itself — typically $200–$600 per month for a small business. The forwarding feature is just the mechanism that gets the call to the right place.

This arrangement works well: your business number stays consistent, the call routes seamlessly to the service, and callers experience a smooth handoff. The key is configuring the forwarding type correctly — no-answer forwarding with a short ring time (2–3 rings before forwarding) keeps wait times down and prevents callers from feeling like they've been transferred to a call centre.