Voice AI Agent Platform Cost Comparison
Enter calls per month and average talk and transfer minutes once, set Vapi's STT/LLM/TTS and transport, Retell's LLM, voice and telephony, and Bland's telephony, and see each platform's monthly total and all-in $ per minute side by side. Vapi and Retell are unbundled (headline rate excludes models); Bland is bundled. Estimates only; each provider's pricing page prevails.
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Vapi — $0.05/min hosting + pass-through models
Retell AI — $0.055/min infra + LLM + TTS + telephony
Bland AI — bundled per-minute (Start and Build)
Cheapest at these inputs
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Monthly and all-in $ per minute
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How to read it: Vapi and Retell are unbundled — the headline rate ($0.05 Vapi hosting, $0.055 Retell infra) excludes the LLM, speech-to-text, voice and telephony you add on top. Bland is bundled — $0.14/min (Start) or $0.12/min + $299/month (Build) already includes LLM, STT and TTS; only telephony is extra. Minutes = calls × (talk + transfer). Vapi and Retell bill transfer time as ordinary minutes here; Bland bills it at its transfer rate. Vapi defaults are the midpoints of its own example ranges; Retell defaults to its $0.11/min page example. Packages, concurrency add-ons and Enterprise deals are not modeled — use each platform's calculator for those.
Estimates only. Official list prices as of 2026-11-01 (Asia/Shanghai); the provider's pricing page prevails. Sources: Vapi pricing · Retell AI pricing · Bland AI pricing
Vapi Cost Calculator · Retell AI Cost Calculator · Bland AI Cost Calculator · OpenAI Realtime Voice Cost Calculator · Gemini Live Voice Cost Calculator · TTS API Cost Comparison
More in this group
- Vapi Cost Calculator Vapi hosting + models + transport → $/mo, $/min.
- Retell AI Cost Calculator Retell LLM + infra + TTS + telephony → $/min.
- Bland AI Cost Calculator Bland talk + transfer + plan fee → $/mo, $/min, breakeven.
- TTS API Cost Comparison OpenAI vs ElevenLabs vs Gemini vs Cartesia TTS.
- OpenAI Realtime Voice Cost Calculator Realtime audio tokens and GPT-Live minutes in USD.
- Gemini Live Voice Cost Calculator Live audio minutes plus optional text/image.
- Deepgram API Cost Calculator Deepgram STT + TTS + Voice Agent.
How it works
- Which is cheapest: Vapi, Retell or Bland?
- It depends on the model stack. On defaults (Vapi midpoint models ≈ $0.105/min, Retell GPT 5 stack $0.11/min, Bland Start $0.14/min), the unbundled platforms are cheaper per minute, but swapping in a premium LLM or ElevenLabs voice can push Vapi or Retell above Bland's bundled rate.
- What does 3,000 calls × 3.5 minutes cost on each?
- 10,500 minutes: Vapi ≈ $1,106.70 (midpoint models, free SIP), Retell $1,155 (default stack, custom telephony), Bland Start $1,470, Bland Build $1,559. Telephony and packages are excluded unless you add them.
- What does bundled vs unbundled pricing mean?
- Unbundled: the platform fee covers orchestration only and you pay STT, LLM, TTS and telephony on top. Bundled: one per-minute rate includes the models. Compare all-in $ per minute, not headline rates.
- Are transfer minutes counted?
- Yes. Minutes = calls × (talk + transfer). Vapi and Retell bill transferred time as ordinary minutes in this comparison; Bland bills it at $0.05 (Start) or $0.04 (Build), and nothing with BYOT.
- What isn't included?
- Vapi success packages, concurrency lines and HIPAA; Retell numbers, QA and extra concurrency; Bland Enterprise pricing; and phone-number fees. Open each platform's own calculator for those.