Vapi vs Retell AI
Vapi charges usage-based and Retell AI charges usage-based. Here's how they compare on price, features and compliance, using each vendor's own published information.
Checked October 15, 2026 (Vapi) and October 15, 2026 (Retell AI)
| Detail | Vapi | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Charges by | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Starts at | Free tier | Free tier |
| Includes | $5 in free credits; 1 phone number; 4 concurrent calls; 14-day data retention | $10 in free credits; 20 concurrent calls at no charge |
| Overage | — | — |
| Per minute | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| Free trial | $5 in free credits | $10 in free credits on sign-up |
| How it works | AI only | AI only |
| Answers inbound calls | Yes | Yes |
| Places outbound calls | Yes | Yes |
| Books appointments | Yes | Yes |
| Warm transfer to a person | Yes | Yes |
| Text follow-up | Yes | Yes |
| Call recording | Yes | Yes |
| Transcripts | Yes | Yes |
| CRM sync | Yes | Yes |
| Keep your number (porting) | Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes |
| Other languages | Yes | Yes |
| Web chat | Unconfirmed | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Custom voice | Yes | Yes |
| Signs a HIPAA BAA | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II | SOC 2 Type II |
Integrations
Both list: Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage, Five9, NICE, Talkdesk, Amazon Connect, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Slack, Zapier, Make, n8n.
Only Vapi: Genesys, Avaya, Cisco, Apollo.io, Clay, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Notion.
Only Retell AI: Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Monday.com, Airtable, Keap, Pipedrive, Smartsheet, Calendly, Cal.com, LiveVox, RingCentral, Freshdesk, Intercom, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Jane App, Dentrix, Open Dental, Epic, ChiroTouch, QuickBooks, Xero, DATEV, Shopify, Stripe, ServiceTitan, Google Workspace, DocuSign, ServiceNow, ClickUp, Asana.
Pricing notes
Vapi: Vapi charges a pre-paid hosting fee of $0.05/min. Transcription, LLM and voice are passed through at provider cost with no markup (calculator ranges: Deepgram transcription about $0.0095-$0.0099/min, OpenAI model about $0.0077-$0.0452/min, ElevenLabs voice about $0.0146-$0.0238/min). Vapi telephony/SIP, WebSockets and Daily WebRTC are free; carrier minutes are charged by the provider (Twilio $0.008/min inbound and $0.014/min outbound, Vonage $0.00814/min, Telnyx $0.0055/min). Vapi's own example for 1,000 minutes/month totals an estimated $82-$129. Add-ons on any package: HIPAA compliance $2,000/month (includes standard DPA and BAA), extra concurrency $10 per line per month, extra organizations $20 per org per month. The Pro package fee is 10% of the hosting fee with a $999/month minimum; it is recorded here at the minimum.
Retell AI: Retell lists voice agents at $0.07-$0.31 per minute, built from separate components. Its default calculator setup totals $0.11/min: Retell voice infrastructure $0.055/min, LLM $0.04/min, TTS $0.015/min, telephony $0.00. LLM is billed per minute by model (from $0.0016/min to $0.64/min on the listed models). TTS is $0.015/min for Retell, MiniMax, Fish, Cartesia, OpenAI and Inworld voices, and $0.04-$0.10/min for ElevenLabs voices. Telephony through Retell (Twilio or Telnyx) is $0.015/min; SIP trunking or custom telephony has no Retell telephony charge. Per-call add-ons: knowledge base +$0.005/min, batch call +$0.005/dial, branded call +$0.10 per outbound call, advanced denoising +$0.005/min, safety guardrails +$0.005/min, PII removal +$0.01/min, AI quality assurance $0.10/min after 100 free minutes, SMS $0.01/message. Monthly items: Retell phone numbers $2/month, Retell SMS $20/month, concurrency beyond 20 at $8 per concurrent call per month, knowledge bases beyond 10 at $8 each per month, verified phone number $10/number. Calls are billed to the second; after a transfer the AI fee stops but telephony continues; silence and hold time are billed; failed calls are not billed.