Retell AI is the best Vapi AI alternative for most teams that want a hosted phone agent with published per-minute prices and no monthly platform fee, while Vapi stays best for developers who want to swap every model, voice, and carrier. The headline rate is not the full bill. Vapi charges $0.05 per minute for hosting and passes transcription, model, and voice costs through, so its calculator puts 1,000 minutes at $82 to $129 with Deepgram, OpenAI, and ElevenLabs. Bland AI is the clearest budget pick for one all-in rate, because its $0.14 per minute on Start covers the language model, transcription, and speech, with no token charges and no model-provider pass-throughs.
Vapi is a developer-first platform for building voice agents that answer and place phone calls. You pick the transcriber, the language model, the voice, and the carrier, and Vapi runs the orchestration between them, which is why the bill has several lines.
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Vapi ai alternatives: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vapi | Developers who want full control of the voice stack | $0.05 per minute hosting | Free trial ($5 credit) | Visit |
| 2 | Retell AI | Teams that want a hosted phone agent with no platform fee | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute | Free trial ($10 credit) | Visit |
| 3 | Bland AI | Teams that want one all-in per-minute rate | $0.14 per minute | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | Synthflow AI | Mid-market and enterprise contact centre teams | quote only | No | Visit |
| 5 | ElevenLabs | Voice-first teams that also need text to speech and cloning | $6 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Ultravox | Builders who want a speech-native model at a flat minute rate | $0.05 per minute after 30 free minutes | Yes | Visit |
| 7 | LiveKit | Developers who want open source infrastructure with cloud hosting | $0 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 8 | Goodcall | Small businesses that want flat monthly answering | $79 per month | Free trial (demo agent) | Visit |
| 9 | PolyAI | Contact centres that want bundled minutes and a no-code builder | $49 per month | Free trial | Visit |
The 9 best vapi ai alternatives, in detail
Vapi
Best for: Developers who want full control of the voice stack
Vapi starts with usage only, at $0 per month to start and $0.05 per minute for hosting, with $5 in free credits, 1 phone number, 4 concurrent calls, and 14 days of retention. Deepgram costs $0.0095 to $0.0099 per minute, an OpenAI model $0.0077 to $0.0452, and an ElevenLabs voice $0.0146 to $0.0238, all passed through with no markup. Its own estimate for 1,000 minutes is $82 to $129 per month.
- Core costs $29 per month, and Pro has a $999 per month minimum.
- Choose Vapi to change models or voices without changing platforms.
Pros
- Full choice of transcriber, model, voice, and carrier
- published calculator with an itemised estimate
- no monthly fee to start
Cons
- Provider costs sit on top of the $0.05 hosting fee
- HIPAA handling is a $2,000 per month add-on
Retell AI
Best for: Teams that want a hosted phone agent with no platform fee
Retell AI lists voice agents at $0.07 to $0.31 per minute on pay as you go, with $10 in free credits. Retell Voice Infra costs $0.055 per minute, platform voices $0.015, GPT 5.1 $0.04, and GPT 5.5 $0.16. ElevenLabs v3 costs $0.10 per minute, telephony in the United States $0.015, and a Retell phone number $2.00 per month.
- The plan includes 20 concurrent calls, and extra concurrency costs $8.00 per call per month.
- Knowledge bases are free for the first 10, then $8.00 each.
- Calls are tracked to the nearest second.
- Choose Retell AI for a hosted agent with no platform fee.
Pros
- No platform fee and no monthly minimum on pay as you go
- 20 concurrent calls included
- itemised component prices on the pricing page
Cons
- The low $0.07 rate needs a cheap model and voice choice
- silence still bills because transcription stays active
Bland AI
Best for: Teams that want one all-in per-minute rate
Bland AI lists Start at $0.14 per minute, with a $0 platform fee, no card required, 2 credits, an inbound number valued at $15 per month, 10 concurrent calls, a 100 call daily cap, and 10 knowledge bases. Transfer minutes cost $0.05 per minute on Start. Build costs $0.12 per minute plus a $299 per month platform fee, with 50 concurrent calls.
- The per-minute rate includes the language model, transcription, text to speech, and premium voices.
- Telephony bills separately, on your own carrier or on Bland at pass-through cost.
- Choose Bland AI to forecast a minute of talk time with one number.
Pros
- One rate covers the language model, transcription, and speech
- no token charges and no model-provider pass-throughs
- Start has a $0 platform fee
Cons
- Telephony bills separately at carrier cost
- transfer minutes bill at $0.05 per minute on Start
Synthflow AI
Best for: Mid-market and enterprise contact centre teams
Synthflow AI is now sold as an annual enterprise agreement, scoped to call volume, phone system, integrations, security needs, and launch support. Its pricing page opened on 12 November 2026 states that it has no free plan or trial and no rate by the minute. That is a sharp change from its old self-serve monthly plans.
- A small team cannot price a deployment from the site alone, and a quote is the only route in.
- The contract can cover telephony, CRM, calendar, webhook, API, and knowledge-source integrations, plus white-label workspaces.
- Choose Synthflow AI only for enterprise volume.
Pros
- Enterprise agreement scopes telephony, integrations, security review, and launch support in one contract
- white-label workspaces in the agreement
Cons
- No free plan or trial and no per-minute rate on the pricing page
- new deployments start on an Enterprise contract only
ElevenLabs
Best for: Voice-first teams that also need text to speech and cloning
ElevenLabs sells subscriptions in credits, with a shared pool across its products. Free costs $0 per month, with 10,000 credits and 15 agent call minutes. Starter costs $6 per month, with 30,000 credits and 75 agent call minutes.
- Creator costs $22 per month, with 121,000 credits and 275 minutes.
- Pro costs $99 per month, with 600,000 credits and 1,238 minutes.
- Scale costs $299 per month, with 1,800,000 credits and 3,738 minutes, and Business costs $990 per month, with 6,000,000 credits and 12,375 minutes.
- Extra minutes cost $0.08 each.
Pros
- Free plan with 10,000 credits and 15 agent call minutes
- one credit pool across text to speech, transcription, dubbing, and agents
- extra agent minutes at $0.08 per minute
Cons
- Language model costs bill on top of agent minutes
- the Free plan has no commercial licence
Ultravox
Best for: Builders who want a speech-native model at a flat minute rate
Ultravox is a speech-native voice model, so it takes speech directly with no separate transcription step and answers through a voice. Pay as you go costs $0 per month, with 30 minutes of free calls, then $0.05 per minute, unlimited playground calls, and up to 5 concurrent calls. Calls are rounded to the nearest six seconds.
- SIP costs $0.005 per minute on Pay as you go.
- Pro costs $100 per month, with the same $0.05 per minute, no hard cap on concurrency, 5 custom voices, and 20 corpora for retrieval.
- Choose Ultravox for a flat rate that already includes the model and built-in voices.
Pros
- Flat $0.05 per minute including the model and built-in voices
- 30 free minutes and unlimited playground calls
- no surge pricing
Cons
- Pay as you go caps concurrency at 5 calls
- SIP costs $0.005 per minute on top
LiveKit
Best for: Developers who want open source infrastructure with cloud hosting
LiveKit is open source realtime infrastructure, with a WebRTC server and an Agents framework in Python and Node, plus LiveKit Cloud as the managed option. Build costs $0 per month, with 1,000 agent session minutes included, 5 concurrent agent sessions, and no card required. Ship starts at $50 per month, with 5,000 minutes included, then $0.01 per minute.
- Scale starts at $500 per month, with 50,000 minutes included, then $0.01 per minute.
- The pricing calculator example for a phone agent totals $0.0479 per minute.
- A US local number is free for the first number, then $1.00 per month.
- Choose LiveKit for control of the media stack.
Pros
- Build is $0 with 1,000 agent session minutes and no card required
- the server and Agents framework are open source
- the pricing calculator shows a worked example at $0.0479 per minute
Cons
- Model, telephony, and observability costs sit on top of the session minute
- Build lists no overage rate, so it works as a ceiling
Goodcall
Best for: Small businesses that want flat monthly answering
Goodcall is an AI answering service, not a developer platform. It answers inbound calls, books appointments, captures leads, and logs the outcome to a calendar or CRM. Starter costs $79 per month, with 100 unique customers a month, then 79 cents each, about 150 calls a month, 5 workers, and 30-day call history.
- Growth costs $129 per month, with 500 unique customers.
- Scale costs $299 per month, with 2,000 unique customers, then 15 cents each, and about 3,000 calls a month.
- A unique customer is one phone number, counted once a month, and spam and wrong numbers do not count.
- Choose Goodcall if your calls are long and your caller count is steady.
Pros
- No per-minute charges and unlimited minutes on every plan
- a local number is included
- extra customers bill at the plan rate with no penalty rate
Cons
- Billing counts unique customers, so a high caller count can push the bill up
- Starter allows 5 workers and 1 external tool only
PolyAI
Best for: Contact centres that want bundled minutes and a no-code builder
PolyAI builds voice agents for customer service calls, with a no-code builder called Wren and a flagship audio-native model called Dialog-RSN-1, with under 300 milliseconds median first-token latency. Essentials costs $49 per month, with 250 minutes included, then $0.30 per minute, 1 included number, and up to 5 calls at once. Plus costs $199 per month, with 1,000 minutes included, then $0.25 per minute.
- Scale costs $299 per location per month, with 1,500 minutes per location included, then $0.20 per minute, up to 9 locations, with minutes pooled.
- Enterprise is custom, with HIPAA and a BAA, SSO, and a named account manager with 24/7 support.
- Choose PolyAI for bundled minutes and a builder your operations team can run.
Pros
- Bundled minutes with a clear overage rate on each plan
- Wren builds and tests agents from a plain English description
- bring your own carrier over SIP at no charge
Cons
- Essentials handles 5 calls at once and includes 250 minutes only
- HIPAA with a BAA, SSO, and an uptime SLA sit on Enterprise only
How we chose
We chose platforms that run a real AI voice agent on phone or web calls, with a published price or a clear quote route on an official page opened on 12 November 2026. Vapi, Retell AI, Bland AI, Ultravox, LiveKit, Goodcall, and PolyAI publish a starting price, ElevenLabs publishes subscription and agent minute prices, and Synthflow AI publishes an enterprise-only model with no per-minute rate. We left out Play.ai, because its service shut down after the Meta acquisition in July 2025, and Air AI, because its voice agent business is defunct. We did not test any tool hands-on. Where a vendor hid the price, we wrote quote only.
Which option fits your volume and budget
| Monthly minutes | Best fit | Why it fits | Cost to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 500 | Ultravox or LiveKit Build | 30 free minutes on Ultravox, or 1,000 minutes on LiveKit Build at $0 per month | $0.05 per minute on Ultravox after the free minutes |
| 500 to 2,000 | Retell AI or Vapi | No platform fee on Retell, and no monthly fee to start on Vapi | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute on Retell; $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes on Vapi |
| 2,000 to 10,000 | Bland AI or PolyAI | One all-in rate on Bland, or bundled minutes on PolyAI | $0.14 per minute on Bland Start; $49 per month for 250 minutes on PolyAI, then $0.30 per minute |
| Over 10,000 | Retell AI, Bland AI Build, or Synthflow AI | Volume needs a lower minute rate or an enterprise agreement | $0.12 per minute plus $299 per month on Bland Build; quote only on Synthflow AI |
| Flat monthly bill | Goodcall | No metered minutes, so long calls do not raise the bill | $79 per month for 100 unique customers on Starter |
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Vapi AI alternative?
Retell AI has the lowest published floor, at $0.07 per minute, with no platform fee, while Ultravox and Vapi both start at $0.05 per minute for one part of the call. Ultravox includes the model and built-in voices in its $0.05 rate, while Vapi adds transcription, model, and voice costs on top.
Which Vapi AI alternative is best for most teams?
Retell AI is the best fit for most teams that want a hosted phone agent without building a stack. It publishes a $0.07 to $0.31 per minute range, includes 20 concurrent calls, and charges no platform fee. Vapi suits developers, Bland AI suits one all-in rate, and Goodcall suits a flat monthly bill.
Does Synthflow AI still offer a free plan?
No. Synthflow AI has no free plan or trial and no per-minute rate on its pricing page opened on 12 November 2026. New deployments start on an annual enterprise agreement, scoped to call volume, phone system, integrations, security needs, and launch support.
How much does a Vapi call really cost?
Vapi charges $0.05 per minute for hosting, plus transcription, model, and voice costs passed through at provider prices. Its own calculator puts 1,000 minutes at $82 to $129 per month with Deepgram, an OpenAI model, and an ElevenLabs voice. Telephony on Vapi numbers is $0 in that estimate.
Which alternative is best for a small business that just wants calls answered?
Goodcall is the best fit for a small business that wants calls answered without per-minute billing. Starter costs $79 per month for 100 unique customers, with unlimited minutes and a local number included. Extra customers cost 79 cents each, and a long call costs the same as a short call.
Do any Vapi AI alternatives offer a free plan?
Yes. Bland AI Start costs $0 per month in platform fees at $0.14 per minute, ElevenLabs Free costs $0 with 10,000 credits and 15 agent call minutes, Ultravox gives 30 free minutes, and LiveKit Build costs $0 with 1,000 agent session minutes. Vapi and Retell AI give free credits instead.
Sources
- https://vapi.ai
- https://vapi.ai/pricing
- https://www.retellai.com
- https://www.retellai.com/pricing
- https://www.bland.ai
- https://www.bland.ai/pricing
- https://synthflow.ai
- https://synthflow.ai/pricing
- https://elevenlabs.io
- https://elevenlabs.io/pricing
- https://www.ultravox.ai
- https://www.ultravox.ai/pricing
- https://livekit.com
- https://livekit.com/pricing
- https://www.goodcall.com
- https://www.goodcall.com/pricing
- https://poly.ai
- https://poly.ai/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.