Which is better, Retell AI or Vapi?

Retell AI suits users who value no commitments or annual contracts on the pay-as-you-go plan, while Vapi is preferred when proven at serious scale — vapi reports 1b+ calls handled and 99.9% uptime for enterprise customers matter most. Pick based on your primary workflow.

Is Retell AI or Vapi cheaper?

Retell AI is freemium, Vapi is paid. Check each official site for current tiers.

Retell AI vs Vapi

A side-by-side look at Retell AI and Vapi — pricing, features and where each one wins. Both are reviewed independently on Curata AI.

	Retell AI	Vapi
Summary	Developer-first voice AI platform for building AI phone agents with pay-as-you-go pricing and no commitments.	Enterprise-grade voice AI platform for building, testing and deploying AI phone agents with sub-500ms latency at scale.
Pricing	Freemium	Paid
Category	Voice	Voice
Platforms	Web, API	Web, API
Key features	Pay-as-you-go voice and chat agent pricing Call transfer, appointment booking and knowledge base integration Post-call analysis and AI quality assurance Webhooks and API access Pre-built agent templates with simulation testing	Voice AI agent builder (voice, LLM and STT/TTS configuration) Sub-500ms latency real-time voice pipeline Bring-your-own or platform-billed STT/LLM/TTS providers Native US phone numbers plus Twilio/Telnyx/Vonage SIP integration Real-time call monitoring and post-call analytics Webhooks, function calling and tool integrations Enterprise compliance: SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SSO, RBAC
Pros	No commitments or annual contracts on the pay-as-you-go plan $10 in free credits to start building immediately 20 concurrent calls included at no extra cost Simulation testing tools for validating agents before launch	Proven at serious scale — Vapi reports 1B+ calls handled and 99.9% uptime for enterprise customers Bring-your-own-provider flexibility avoids lock-in to a single STT/LLM/TTS vendor Deep telephony integrations (Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage) plus free native US phone numbers No long-term contract required on the self-serve Build plan Strong enterprise trust signals — customers include Amazon Ring, Intuit, ServiceTitan and New York Life
Cons	Per-minute pricing varies by model/voice choice, making costs harder to predict upfront Enterprise-grade compliance features require the custom Enterprise plan Smaller integration ecosystem than larger platforms	Vapi's advertised per-minute rate is only its own platform fee — the real all-in cost with STT+LLM+TTS+telephony typically lands several times higher No self-service cancellation — removing a payment method or closing an account requires emailing support or posting on Discord Marketed as accessible, but building a production-grade agent still requires real engineering effort International phone numbers are not free and cost more than US numbers Independent reviews report sparse documentation and slow support response on the self-serve tier

Which one should you choose?

Retell AI

Best for: Developer-first voice AI platform for building AI phone agents with pay-as-you-go pricing and no commitments.

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Vapi

Best for: Developers and enterprises building production voice AI agents for support, sales and scheduling.

View Pricing ↗

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Read the full Retell AI review

Retell AI lets teams build AI voice agents for customer support, sales and appointment scheduling without long-term contracts. Pricing is pay-as-you-go — roughly $0.07-$0.31 per minute for voice agents depending on model and voice choice, plus around $0.002+ per message for chat agents — with $10 in free starter credits and no commitment required. Twenty concurrent calls are included free, with extra concurrency billed per line. An Enterprise plan adds custom volume pricing, a dedicated stable server, HIPAA/BAA support, SSO and role-based access control for regulated deployments.

Retell AI review →Retell AI alternatives →

Read the full Vapi review

Vapi is a developer-first voice AI platform for building, testing and deploying AI phone agents in production. Agents are assembled from a voice, an LLM, and a speech-to-text engine — Vapi supports bringing your own provider API keys or paying providers at cost through the platform — wired into a real-time pipeline built for sub-500ms latency and enterprise call volume. It ships native US phone numbers plus SIP/telephony integration with Twilio, Telnyx and Vonage, real-time call monitoring and post-call analytics, webhooks and function calling for connecting agents to external tools, and AI guardrails to reduce hallucinations. Vapi reports handling over 1 billion calls with 99.9% uptime for enterprise customers, 2.5M+ agents launched and 750K+ developers on the platform, with customers including Amazon Ring, Intuit, ServiceTitan and New York Life. The self-serve Build plan is usage-based with no monthly minimum; the Scale plan is a custom annual contract for enterprises needing committed volume, SOC 2/HIPAA/PCI compliance, SSO, RBAC and a dedicated account team.

Vapi review →Vapi alternatives →