Retell AI vs Vapi

Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.

Retell AI

Build, deploy and monitor AI voice agents that answer and place phone calls

Free trialVisit site

Vapi

Developer platform to build, test and deploy voice AI agents for phone calls

Free · from $29/moVisit site

Choose Retell AI if…

you're in its core audience: customer service teams, healthcare and insurance providers

Choose Vapi if…

you want a free plan to start with
you're in its core audience: developers, customer support teams

Side by side

FeatureR

Retell AIV

Vapi

Pricing modelFree trialFreemium

Starting price—$29/mo

Free plan

Free trial

API

Open source

Trains AI on your content—Yes

Data retention—Depends on customer config; free plan 14 days raw data; deleted on request

Security and compliance—SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS

PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API

CompanyRetell AIVapi Inc. · United States

Full feature lists

R Retell AI

Call transfer to human agents
Appointment booking during calls
Knowledge base answers for agents
IVR navigation by pressing keypad options
Batch outbound calling with branded caller ID
Post-call analysis and AI quality assurance
Choice of about 50 LLMs and several TTS providers
Chat agents for web, in-app and SMS

V Vapi

Configurable voice, conversation flow and telephony
Call testing and simulation before going live
Real-time call monitoring and observability
Built-in AI conversation guardrails
Twilio, Vonage, Telnyx and Vapi SIP telephony
Model providers passed through at cost
SSO, OAuth and RBAC access controls
SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance

What you'd pay

The cheapest plan that fits, per month, billed yearly where the plan offers it.

What the free plans include

Retell AI

No free plan.

Vapi

$5 free credits to get you started
2 organizations
4 concurrent calls
14 days raw data retention

All plans and prices

Retell AI

Pay as You Go$0.07–$0.31/min (voice), $0.002+/message (chat)

EnterpriseCustom

Vapi

No Success Package$0 to start, $0.05/min hosting

Core$29

Pro10% of Vapi hosting fee, $999/mo minimum

PremierCustom

Strengths and limitations

Retell AI

$10 in free credits and 20 free concurrent calls
Usage-based billing to the nearest second; failed calls are not billed
Choice of many LLM and TTS providers
Lists HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance

Per-minute cost depends on model choices and add-ons, which makes it harder to estimate
Concurrency beyond 20 calls costs $8 per concurrent call per month
Phone numbers ($2/mo) and SMS ($20/mo) are billed as separate subscriptions

Vapi

$5 free credits and no minimum minutes to start
Model provider costs passed through with no markup
Unlimited agents on every plan
SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance

The hosting fee and provider costs add up; the page estimates $82–$129 for 1,000 minutes
HIPAA compliance is a $2,000/month add-on
The free tier has no support SLA and allows only 4 concurrent calls
Pro requires a $999/month minimum