Vapi vs Retell AI
Developer platform for building voice agents that take and make phone calls.
Builds phone agents in a visual studio or API, with live monitoring, handoff and post-call QA.
Editor's framing updated 19 October 2026.
How we pick: no paid placement; facts come from vendor pages.
How to choose
Vapi and Retell AI are both listed in the voice category for phone agents, and both record a usage-based price per minute, checked on the date shown in the table. The listings differ in setup level: Vapi is recorded as a developer setup, configured in a dashboard or through the API, while Retell AI is recorded as needing configuration, with a drag-and-drop studio as well as APIs and SDKs. A per-minute starting price is only part of the cost; Vapi's listing notes pass-through provider costs on top of its hosting rate, so work out the total cost per call at your own volumes before deciding.
Our takeNo winner is declared here. Choose by who will build and maintain the agent on your side, and compare the full cost per call rather than the headline rate.
Side by side
Every cell comes from the two listings; "Not published" means the vendor's pages did not state it when checked.
| Field | Vapi | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing from | $0.05/minChecked 23 September 2026 | $0.07/minChecked 23 September 2026 |
| Setup | Developer setup | Needs configuration |
| Access | Web app, API | Web app, API |
| Human review | Autonomous | Autonomous |
| Open source | No | No |
| Integrations | 14 | 6 |
| Checked on | 23 September 2026 | 23 September 2026 |