Retell AI pricing & cost
Developers, startups and agencies wanting a transparent component breakdown and a strong middle ground.
Entry price
$0 PAYG ($10 free credits)
AI usage rate
$0.07/min platform; $0.07–$0.31/min all-in
Free tier
Yes — $10 credits, 20 concurrent calls
Billing model
per-minute
Our verdict
The most transparent infra option — it shows you every line item, which is exactly why it's a good teaching example of real voice cost.
Strengths
- Transparent per-component pricing
- Free telephony on US Twilio
- Recurring affiliate (15% × 2 years via Dub)
Watch-outs
- Add-on per-minute creep (+$0.10 QA, +$0.01 PII, etc.)
- Extra concurrency $8/call/mo
- Enterprise reportedly starts ~$8,000
Who it's for
Developers, startups and agencies wanting a transparent component breakdown and a strong middle ground. Typically a fit for small, mid teams.
Sources
Retell AI alternatives
Free ($0.14/min); Build $299/mo ($0.12/min); Scale $499/mo ($0.11/min)
The 'no surprises' option — its headline rate is roughly the real rate, which is rare; you pay a monthly fee for that predictability.
Cartesia (Line)Free; Pro $5/mo; Startup $49/mo
A strong low-latency voice layer for builders — but the $0.06/min Line figure is before LLM and STT, so model the full stack.
Deepgram (Voice Agent API)$0 PAYG ($200 free credit)
The cost-sensitive, high-volume builder's pick — best free credit in the category, but mind the websocket-time billing.
Dialpad (AI Agents)Phone from $15/user/mo; AI Agents = contact sales
Buy it for the phone system with AI baked in — the autonomous voice-agent product, though, is a contact-sales black box.