Stay free if you only need $10 credits to start and all features. Upgrade if you need volume discounts and dedicated infra. Most solo builders can start free.
Why it matters: Base platform fee excludes model, speech, and telephony charges
Available from: Pay-as-you-go
Why it matters: Live calls introduce consent, recording, outbound-contact, and privacy obligations
Available from: Pay-as-you-go
Why it matters: Quality depends on several providers plus prompt and tool design
Available from: Pay-as-you-go
Vapi charges $0.05/minute platform fee plus underlying provider costs. A typical setup with Deepgram STT + GPT-4 + ElevenLabs TTS + Twilio telephony costs $0.15-$0.25/minute total. Premium voices and reasoning-heavy models can push costs to $0.33+/minute. The $10 free trial lets you test real costs before committing.
Vapi is more developer-oriented with flexible component selection (choose your STT/LLM/TTS providers), while Retell AI offers simpler setup with flat $0.07/minute pricing. Vapi gives more control and customization; Retell AI is easier to start with and has more predictable costs. Choose Vapi if you need deep customization, Retell for faster deployment.
No, Vapi is cloud-only. The real-time voice infrastructure requires specialized edge deployment for latency optimization. For self-hosted voice AI, you'd need to assemble components individually (Twilio + Deepgram + ElevenLabs + custom orchestration). Enterprise plans offer HIPAA compliance and dedicated infrastructure within Vapi's cloud.
Vapi provides SDKs for JavaScript/TypeScript (web and Node.js), Python, and REST APIs that work with any language. The platform is language-agnostic - you configure assistants via JSON and handle webhooks in your preferred backend technology.
Vapi primarily provides phone numbers for US and Canada. International deployments require external telephony providers with SIP integration. WebRTC calls work globally. The underlying STT/LLM/TTS providers support 20+ languages, but telephony coverage varies by region.
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Last verified March 2026