Vapi pricing & cost
Developers and agencies building custom voice agents who want full model choice.
Entry price
Free start (60+ min/mo); usage-based
AI usage rate
$0.05/min platform fee only (STT/LLM/TTS/telephony extra)
Free tier
Yes — 60+ free minutes/mo, 10 concurrent calls
Billing model
per-minute
Our verdict
The builder's choice — but the famous $0.05/min is orchestration only; budget $0.15–0.25 all-in once you add the stack.
Strengths
- Most flexible model/stack choice
- Bring-your-own-keys = no markup
- Generous free start
Watch-outs
- $0.05/min is platform ONLY — real all-in $0.07–0.40
- You assemble + pay 4–6 providers
- HIPAA +$2k/mo, ZDR +$1k/mo
Who it's for
Developers and agencies building custom voice agents who want full model choice. Typically a fit for small, mid teams.
Sources
Vapi 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.