
Retell AI
Platform for building AI phone agents for inbound and outbound business calls.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Web
Is Retell AI free?
Free plan, plus paid plans
- Voice agent price:
- $0.07–$0.31 per minute
Checked on Retell AI's site Nov 8, 2026
Switch from Retell AI to
All 5
VapiStarting price: $29 per month (Core package)
SynthflowPaid
ElevenLabsStarting price: $6 per month (Starter)
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Retell AI
Retell AI is a platform for building AI agents that answer and place phone calls, such as receptionists, appointment schedulers, dispatchers and customer service lines. Agents are built with templates and a flow editor or through the API, can transfer to a human, navigate phone menus, look things up in a knowledge base and book meetings. It also handles batch outbound campaigns, branded caller ID and post-call analysis. Pricing is pay as you go with no contract: you pay a per-minute voice infrastructure fee plus the language model, voice and telephony you choose, with a cost estimator on the pricing page. New accounts get free credits and 20 concurrent calls. An enterprise plan adds SSO, role-based access, custom BAA and DPA terms and dedicated support. Compared with Vapi it is a little more ready-made for business use cases, while still letting developers pick models such as GPT, Claude or Gemini. The company came out of Y Combinator and runs entirely in the cloud.
Best for: Businesses and agencies building AI receptionists, schedulers or outbound call campaigns.
Retell AI pricing (checked Nov 8, 2026)
Each line is quoted from Retell AI's own site, with the page it came from.
| Plan or term | What it says | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice agent price | $0.07–$0.31 per minute | Nov 8, 2026 | retellai.com |
| Free credits | $10 | Nov 8, 2026 | retellai.com |
| Voice infrastructure fee | $0.055 per minute | Nov 8, 2026 | retellai.com |
Pros and cons
What works
- No annual contract; pay only for minutes used
- 20 concurrent calls included on pay as you go
- Ready-made features for transfers, booking and IVR navigation
- Wide choice of LLMs and voice providers
Why people leave
- Per-minute cost adds up from several components
- SSO and role-based access only on the enterprise plan
- Cloud-only; no self-hosted option
Retell AI vs Vapi, Synthflow and ElevenLabs
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Retell AI | Vapi | Synthflow | ElevenLabs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan + paid | Free plan + paid | Paid | Free plan + paid |
| Verified price | $0.07–$0.31 per minute | $29 per month (Core package) | — | $6 per month (Starter) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, 10,000 credits/month |
| Open source | No | No | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
Top Retell AI alternatives
See all 5- 1
Vapi68.8More developer-oriented, with finer control over each provider in the voice stack.
- 2
Synthflow57.5No-code builder for phone voice agents, easier for non-developers than Retell's API-first setup.
- 3
ElevenLabs52.6Offers conversational phone agents built around its own widely used voices.
- 4
Twilio51.2Raw programmable voice for teams that want to assemble their own agent stack.
- 5
Voiceflow49.0Visual canvas for designing chat and voice agents, suited to CX teams that want one tool for both.
Why people left Retell AI
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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Retell AI: common questions
What is Retell AI?
Retell AI: Platform for building AI phone agents for inbound and outbound business calls. Best for businesses and agencies building AI receptionists, schedulers or outbound call campaigns. Available for Web.
Is Retell AI free?
Retell AI has a free plan and paid plans.
How much does Retell AI cost?
Retell AI is free with paid plans. Voice agent price: $0.07–$0.31 per minute; Free credits: $10; Voice infrastructure fee: $0.055 per minute. Checked on Retell AI's own site, November 2026.
Is Retell AI open source?
No, Retell AI is not open source.
What platforms does Retell AI run on?
Retell AI is available for Web.
What are the best alternatives to Retell AI?
The highest-ranked Retell AI alternatives right now are Vapi, Synthflow and ElevenLabs. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Retell AI vs Vapi: what's the difference?
Both Retell AI and Vapi are free with paid plans. Verified prices: Retell AI $0.07–$0.31 per minute, Vapi $29 per month (Core package). Both run on Web.