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AI Receptionist Prices

Head-to-head

Retell AI vs Vapi: Pricing Comparison

Retell's $0.055-per-minute infrastructure fee and $0.07 to $0.31 all-in range against Vapi's $0.05 platform fee with models and telephony at cost: how each stacks its per-minute components, what is free, and where the fixed fees hide.

By Pricing Desk

Last updated

Disclosure: This website may receive compensation from companies mentioned on this page. The publisher may also have an ownership or financial relationship with certain featured providers. These relationships do not change our stated evaluation methodology. The publisher of this website has a financial interest in Torklio. Read the full disclosure.

RT

Retell AI

Developers building a custom voice agent

Developer voice-agent platform, pay-as-you-go from about $0.07 to $0.31 per minute.

Starting price: $0/mo

Read the Retell AI review
VP

Vapi

Developers who want maximum customization

Developer voice AI platform: $0.05/min platform fee plus pass-through model and telephony costs.

Starting price: $0/mo

Read the Vapi review

Decision summary

Retell AI and Vapi are platforms for building a voice agent, not finished receptionists, and both bill per minute in layers. Retell publishes the whole stack: $0.055 a minute for voice infrastructure plus an LLM at $0.003 to $0.16, text-to-speech at $0.015 to $0.04 and telephony at $0.015, for an all-in range of $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, with $10 of free credit, phone numbers at $2 a month and 20 free concurrent calls. Vapi charges a $0.05 platform fee and passes speech-to-text, LLM and text-to-speech through at cost, or $0 with your own API keys, with telephony billed by your provider, 60+ minutes included and 10 concurrent lines. At 450 minutes Retell is $31.50 to $139.50 and Vapi is $22.50 plus pass-through. Choose Retell for a published all-in figure with fewer separate accounts; choose Vapi for the lowest platform fee and full control of each component. Neither is appropriate without engineers, and Vapi's compliance add-ons ($2,000 a month for HIPAA, $1,000 for zero data retention) dwarf the per-minute fees. Both verified on 2026-09-07.

Feature differences

Cost stacking

Retell AI
Voice infrastructure fee plus LLM, TTS and telephony, each with a published rate on the same page.
Vapi
Platform fee plus STT, LLM and TTS at cost (or $0 with your own keys) plus telephony from your provider.

Bring your own models

Retell AI
Choice of LLM and TTS within Retell's published rate ranges.
Vapi
Your own API keys reduce model pass-through to $0; you pay the vendors directly.

Telephony

Retell AI
$0.015 a minute (varies by country); numbers $2 a month each.
Vapi
Charged by your telephony provider, not by Vapi.

Included extras

Retell AI
10 knowledge bases free, then $8 a month each; knowledge base use +$0.005 a minute; denoising +$0.005; PII removal +$0.01.
Vapi
SMS and chat at $0.005 per message.

Engineering cost

Retell AI
Requires developers or an agency to build and maintain the agent; that labor is the largest cost and is not on the pricing page.
Vapi
Same, with more components to select, key and tune.

Human backup cost

Retell AI
None; any escalation is built by you.
Vapi
None; any escalation is built by you.

Enterprise path

Retell AI
Enterprise plan: custom pricing, no cap on concurrent calls, dedicated infrastructure.
Vapi
Scale plan: fixed platform fee with committed volume and volume-based per-minute pricing.

Pricing differences

Platform fee

Retell AI
$0.055 per minute for voice infrastructure.
Vapi
$0.05 per minute.

All-in per-minute cost

Retell AI
$0.07 to $0.31 published, combining infrastructure, LLM ($0.003–$0.16), TTS ($0.015–$0.04) and telephony ($0.015).
Vapi
$0.05 plus STT, LLM and TTS at cost ($0 with your own keys) plus provider telephony; no all-in figure published.

Bill at 450 minutes

Retell AI
$31.50 to $139.50, plus $2 per phone number.
Vapi
$22.50 in platform fees, plus model and telephony pass-through.

Free usage

Retell AI
$10 in free credits at signup.
Vapi
60+ minutes included on the Build plan.

Concurrency

Retell AI
20 concurrent calls free; $8 a month per additional concurrency.
Vapi
10 concurrent lines on Build; $10 per additional line per month.

Compliance add-ons

Retell AI
PII removal +$0.01 a minute.
Vapi
HIPAA add-on $2,000 a month; zero data retention $1,000 a month.

Use-case differences

Agency building receptionists for many clients

Retell AI
One vendor bill with a published all-in range makes a per-client rate card easy: $0.07 to $0.31 a minute plus $2 per number.
Vapi
Lower platform fee, but model and carrier accounts multiply per client unless you pool keys.

Product team with fixed model and voice preferences

Retell AI
Adequate if the preferred components are on Retell's list.
Vapi
Bring your own keys and pay the model vendors directly; Vapi's share is $0.05 a minute.

Healthcare or regulated data

Retell AI
PII removal is $0.01 a minute; no HIPAA fee published.
Vapi
HIPAA is a $2,000-a-month add-on and zero data retention $1,000 a month, more than any small business's minute bill.

Small business owner comparing to a $99 packaged plan

Retell AI
Wrong category: 450 minutes is $31.50 to $139.50 before the engineer.
Vapi
Wrong category for the same reason: $22.50 before models, carrier and engineer.

Very high monthly minutes

Retell AI
No tier ceiling; concurrency above 20 costs $8 a month each; Enterprise removes the cap.
Vapi
No tier ceiling; lines above 10 cost $10 a month each; Scale offers volume pricing.

Pros and cons

Retell AI

Pros

  • Publishes every component rate and an all-in range, so a bill can be estimated before building
  • 20 concurrent calls and 10 knowledge bases free
  • $10 free credit; numbers a flat $2 a month
  • No large fixed compliance fee published

Cons

  • Effective rate varies four-fold ($0.07 to $0.31) with model and voice choices
  • Slightly higher platform fee than Vapi ($0.055 versus $0.05)
  • Engineering labor is the dominant cost and is off the pricing page
  • Not a finished receptionist

Vapi

Pros

  • Lowest platform fee of the two at $0.05 a minute
  • Model pass-through drops to $0 with your own API keys
  • 60+ minutes included on the Build plan
  • Scale plan with committed-volume pricing

Cons

  • No all-in figure published; the bill depends on your model, voice and carrier accounts
  • HIPAA ($2,000 a month) and zero data retention ($1,000 a month) are large fixed fees
  • 10 concurrent lines, then $10 each, against Retell's 20 free
  • Engineering required to build and maintain; no out-of-the-box small-business workflow

Which one should you choose?

Choose Retell AI if…

  • You want a published all-in per-minute range so the bill can be forecast before you build.
  • You want one vendor invoice covering infrastructure, models, voice and telephony.
  • You need more than 10 concurrent calls; Retell includes 20 free.
  • You handle personal data and want PII removal at $0.01 a minute rather than a four-figure monthly add-on.

Choose Vapi if…

  • You want the lowest platform fee and will bring your own model and voice keys to cut pass-through to $0.
  • You have a preferred model or voice vendor and want to pay it directly at its rate.
  • You are heading for committed volume and want Vapi's Scale plan pricing.
  • Voice quality tuning is a product differentiator and worth the added cost complexity.

Side by side

RT
Retell AI

Developers building a custom voice agent

Starting price
$0/mo
24/7 answering
Yes†
Appointment scheduling
Partial†
Call transfers
Yes†
Human backup
No
CRM integration
Partial†
Developer access (API)
Yes
Industry specialization
No†
Test score
Sample only
Review status
Editorial Preview
VP
Vapi

Developers who want maximum customization

Starting price
$0/mo
24/7 answering
Yes†
Appointment scheduling
Partial†
Call transfers
Yes†
Human backup
No
CRM integration
Partial†
Developer access (API)
Yes
Industry specialization
No†
Test score
Sample only
Review status
Editorial Preview

† Not independently verified: based on the provider's public materials or editorial knowledge, not yet checked against a dated source. “Verify” means no data has been entered yet. Test scores appear only when the 10-call challenge has been completed for that provider.

Why a per-minute price is not the price

On a packaged receptionist, the number on the pricing page is close to the number on the invoice. On a developer platform it is the first of several. A voice agent minute consumes a language model, a text-to-speech voice, a speech-to-text layer, a phone carrier and the platform's own orchestration fee. Retell prints all of them: $0.055 infrastructure, LLM from $0.003 to $0.16, TTS from $0.015 to $0.04, telephony $0.015, for $0.07 to $0.31 a minute all-in. Vapi prints its own $0.05 and passes the rest through at cost, or $0 for models if you bring your own keys, with telephony billed by whichever carrier you connect. So Vapi's headline is lower and Retell's is more complete. The cost calculator uses each platform's lowest published rate ($0.07 for Retell, $0.05 for Vapi), which is a floor, not a forecast; a mid-tier model with a premium voice lands nearer the top of Retell's range and adds a similar amount to Vapi's.

The fixed fees are where the two really separate. Retell charges $2 a month per phone number and $8 a month per concurrent call above 20. Vapi charges $10 a month per line above 10, and its compliance add-ons are on a different scale: $2,000 a month for HIPAA and $1,000 a month for zero data retention, which at 450 minutes is forty to ninety times the per-minute bill. The largest cost is on neither page: the developer or agency who builds, tests and maintains the agent. A business without that capacity should compare packaged plans instead; Torklio at $99 for 300 minutes (the publisher has a financial interest in it), Goodcall at $79 with unlimited minutes and Rosie at $49 for 250 minutes are the verified entry points in our pricing table. Both platform pages were verified on 2026-09-07.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper per minute, Retell or Vapi?

On platform fee alone, Vapi at $0.05 against Retell's $0.055. All-in, Retell publishes $0.07 to $0.31 depending on model and voice; Vapi's total is $0.05 plus whatever your chosen models and carrier charge, which can be $0 for models with your own keys. Sum every layer for your configuration on each platform and compare totals, not platform fees.

Can I estimate a monthly bill for either platform?

Yes, within a range. Multiply monthly minutes by Retell's $0.07 to $0.31, then add $2 per number and $8 per concurrent call above 20. For Vapi, multiply minutes by $0.05, add your model and carrier costs, and add $10 per line above 10. Our calculator uses each platform's lowest published rate as a floor.

How current are these prices?

Both pricing pages were checked on 2026-09-07 and every component rate here is stored with that date. Model and voice prices on both platforms change frequently; confirm on the vendor's page before building.

Should a small business compare these to a $99 packaged plan?

No. At 450 minutes Retell is $31.50 to $139.50 and Vapi $22.50 plus pass-through, but the engineering to build and maintain the agent is the real cost. Compare packaged receptionists unless you have developers.

Is telephony included in the per-minute price?

Retell includes it in its all-in range at $0.015 a minute (varies by country) and rents numbers at $2 a month. Vapi does not bill telephony at all; your carrier does, so add its per-minute and number rental to Vapi's $0.05.

What does HIPAA cost on each platform?

Vapi's HIPAA add-on is $2,000 a month and zero data retention is $1,000 a month. Retell publishes PII removal at $0.01 a minute and no HIPAA fee on its pricing page; ask Retell directly about a business associate agreement.

Sources

  1. Retell AI pricing page (accessed 2026-09-07)
  2. Vapi pricing page (accessed 2026-09-07)