# Vapi vs Retell vs Bland vs Synthflow the full voice agent bill

Canonical URL: https://industrycontents.com/voice-agents-pricing/
Language: en-GB
Published: 2026-10-14
Structure updated: 2026-10-25

> Dated article snapshot. Canonical web page may receive later updates. Vendor figures retain their stated source-check dates. Illustrations are not product benchmarks.

Published: 2026-10-14 · Structure updated: 2026-10-25. Vendor prices and source checks retain the dates stated below.

## Quick answer

Vapi, Retell, Bland and Synthflow cannot be compared on headline minute rates alone. Include model and voice charges, telephony, transfers, fixed fees and peak concurrency, then measure cost per successful call.

## Key terms

**Agent minute**: Agent minute is time billed for the AI-handled part of a call under the provider’s rules.

**Telephony**: Telephony is the carrier and phone-network services used to connect a call.

**Concurrency**: Concurrency is the number of calls the deployment can handle at the same time.

## Vapi vs Retell vs Bland vs Synthflow, what pricing includes

The headline rate covers different things on each platform, so the table below shows what sits inside it and what sits outside.

| Comparison point | Vapi | Retell | Bland | Synthflow |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Headline rate | $0.05 a minute hosting | $0.07 to $0.31 a minute | $0.14 (Start) or $0.12 (Build) | Not published |
| What is inside | Platform only. Model, voice, transcription extra at provider cost. | Platform, voice and model priced per minute together | Model, transcription and voice included. No token charges. | Scoped in contract |
| Phone carrier | Free on Vapi telephony or SIP. Twilio $0.008 in, $0.014 out. | $0.015 a minute on Retell Twilio or Telnyx. Customer SIP trunk free. | Billed separately. Customer carrier allowed. Transfers $0.05 a minute (Start), $0.04 (Build). | Native telephony, SIP or approved partner |
| Fixed fee | $0 usage only, Core $29, Pro 10% of hosting with $999 minimum | None on pay as you go | $0 on Start, $299 a month on Build | Enterprise from $30,000 a year |
| Concurrent calls | 4 free, 10 on Core, 30 on Pro. Extra $10 a line a month. | 20 free. Extra $8 a line a month. | 10 on Start, 50 on Build | Planned per contract |
| Call caps | None listed | None listed | 100 calls a day on Start, 2,000 on Build | Not published |
| Free start | $5 credits | $10 credits | 2 credits and an inbound number | Demo |
| HIPAA | $2,000 a month add on | Self-sign BAA without an additional agreement fee; configure data handling | Enterprise tier, with signed BAA | HIPAA badge, terms in contract |

Caption: Compare what each headline rate covers. The table sets out Vapi, Retell, Bland, Synthflow.

## Voice agent costs at 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 minutes

The voice-budget estimates cover selected configurations, not interchangeable service bundles or a complete deployment quote.

We calculated these estimates from published rates. For Vapi we used its calculator ranges, which assume Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs. For Retell we used its default stack at $0.11 a minute, or $0.125 with its Twilio numbers. The Vapi and Bland figures leave out carrier cost where it applies.

| Minutes a month | Vapi | Retell | Bland |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1,000 | $82 to $129 | $110 to $125 | $140 (Start) or $419 (Build) |
| 10,000 | $820 to $1,290 | $1,100 to $1,250 | $1,400 (Start) or $1,499 (Build) |
| 100,000 | $9,199 to $13,899 with Pro's $999 minimum; carrier extra | $11,000 to $12,500 | $12,299 (Build) |

Caption: 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 minutes priced side by side. The table sets out Minutes a month, Vapi, Retell, Bland.

Bland's Build plan costs less per minute than Start, but the $299 fee only pays back after about 15,000 minutes a month ($299 divided by the $0.02 saving). That volume works out at 500 minutes a day, and Start allows 100 calls a day, so calls averaging under five minutes would hit the cap before the saving arrives.

## Price the call mix

Separate attempted calls, connected calls, agent minutes and transfer minutes. A five-minute call with three minutes handled by the agent and two by a person is not automatically five agent minutes. Ask each provider which clock keeps running after transfer and whether silence, voicemail detection and failed attempts are billed.

| Budget line | Assumption | Calculated cost |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connected agent use | 1,000 calls × 4 minutes × $0.12 | $480 |
| Transfer leg | 200 calls × 3 minutes × $0.04 | $24 |
| Carrier | 4,600 minutes × $0.01 | $46 |
| Fixed platform charge | Assumed monthly charge | $100 |
| Total | Before setup and human handling | $650 |

Caption: Invented stack and traffic, not a quote for any provider. Agent and transfer charges are assumed to apply to separate call legs; confirm the actual billing rules.

If 700 calls reach the agreed result, $650 is about $0.93 per completed outcome. If only 400 do, it is about $1.63. The minute rate has not changed. The acceptance rate has.

### Voice-agent peak concurrency

Monthly minutes do not determine concurrency. Spread 4,000 minutes over a month and the average looks tiny; place 40 four-minute calls at 9am and you need capacity for 40 at once. Test the busiest arrival period, queue behaviour, rejected calls and overflow routing. Do not divide monthly minutes by opening hours and call it peak demand.

## Buy the result

A voice-agent pilot should count correct bookings, answers and handoffs as successful calls, rather than counting fluent conversations alone.

Before comparing voices, define a successful call: an appointment created in the correct calendar, an accurate answer or a transfer to the right queue. A fluent conversation that books the wrong slot fails. Test accents, interruptions, spelling, background noise, a caller changing their mind and an unavailable downstream API.

Record time to first response, pauses during tool calls, failed transfers, repeated information and manual correction. Review a fixed sample of recordings under your data-handling rules. Use the same script and outcome criteria across providers; where identical model or voice choices are unavailable, disclose the difference.

### Voice-agent migration costs

Voice-agent migration costs include phone numbers, carrier arrangements, configuration and downstream integrations.

A migration means more than exporting a prompt. Inventory numbers and porting, carrier arrangements, prompts, tool schemas, knowledge sources, recordings and analytics. Ask whether you can export the configuration and how much rebuilding the integrations requires. A small per-minute saving can disappear into a week of reconstruction.

## Decide how much control your team wants

We would lean towards Vapi when your technical team wants to choose the model, voice and transcription services, and accepts the extra billing relationships and integration decisions that come with that choice. Retell suits a team that wants a simpler invoice and still wants some choice. Bland keeps the pricing structure straightforward and gives you less control over the underlying stack. With Synthflow, ask for a scoped proposal and an implementation plan before you compare costs.

## Surprises that show up on the monthly bill

Retell bills silence and hold time because transcription keeps running, and it stops the agent fee once a call transfers while the telephony charge continues. Bland's rate leaves out carrier cost, and its Start plan caps calls at 100 a day and offers one voice. Vapi's total per minute depends on model choice, so it can be the cheapest or the dearest of the three that publish rates. None of the four publishes latency, completion or accuracy figures on its pricing page.

## Concurrency costs and compliance terms to verify

Concurrency becomes a separate cost. At 50 simultaneous calls, Vapi on Core costs $429 a month (10 included, 40 extra at $10, plus the $29 fee). Retell costs $240 (20 free, 30 extra at $8), and Bland's Build plan includes all 50 inside its $299 fee. Compliance brings another jump. Vapi charges $2,000 a month for its HIPAA add on, while Bland requires its applicable signed BAA terms. Retell's documentation checked 18 October 2026 offers self-signing of its BAA without an additional agreement fee; data handling still needs configuration. Source: [Retell compliance documentation](https://docs.retellai.com/general/compliance).

## Consider a clinic handling 500 calls a month

A clinic taking 500 calls of 4 minutes a month uses 2,000 minutes. On Retell's default stack that comes to about $220 to $250. On Bland Start it is $280, and the 100 call daily cap only applies if more than 100 of those calls land on a single day. Vapi would cost roughly $164 to $258 before carrier charges, but a clinic would also face the $2,000 HIPAA add on. Retell documents self-signing of its BAA without an additional agreement fee; confirm workspace settings and any deployment requirements. Bland's applicable BAA and plan terms still need review. These figures cover usage, not a complete healthcare deployment.

## Another option to compare

ElevenLabs sells voice agents as well as voices. Its Agents plans start at $0 for 15 minutes, then cost $6 a month for 75 minutes, $22 for 275 (the first month is $11), $99 for 1,238 and $299 for 3,738. Extra minutes cost $0.08, burst minutes above the concurrency cap cost $0.16, and the language model and the phone provider are billed at cost on top. That puts hosting at $0.08 a minute against Vapi's $0.05, with speech included. A startup grants programme gives eligible new products 12 months free, which helps a small team testing an idea.

## We would test the same calls on each platform

- Fix one script, one voice, one model and one phone number type.

- Place the same 50 calls on each platform, including silence and a transfer.

- Divide each invoice by connected minutes.

- Record latency and failures yourself, since none of the four publishes them.

## Questions we would ask before signing

- What is the total cost per minute for our stack, including the phone carrier?

- Which compliance items sit on which plan?

- What are the concurrency and daily call limits, and what does raising them cost?

- How are transfers, voicemail, silence and failed calls billed?

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Vapi, Retell or Bland cheapest per minute?

That depends on the stack. Vapi's $0.05 hosting rate leaves out the model and voice, Retell's default stack costs $0.11, and Bland charges $0.12 to $0.14 with the model, transcription and voice included. Price the same call on each.

### Does Bland include the phone carrier?

No. Bland's rate covers the model, transcription and voice. Telephony is billed separately or runs on your carrier.

### Does Synthflow publish a price per minute?

Synthflow publishes no price per minute on the page we read. Its Enterprise contracts start at $30,000 a year.

### How do we compare the full cost of a voice agent?

Use the same call mix and duration on each platform. Include the model, voice, transcription, telephony, transferred calls, concurrency and minimum commitments. Compare successful calls after quality review.

[See the Vapi and Retell billing breakdown](/guides/voice-agent-pricing-vapi-retell/). Use the dated sources in this article for price context; the comparison method is an editorial framework, not a hands-on product benchmark.

Depth update, 25 October 2026: rechecked the Vapi, Retell, Bland and Synthflow pricing pages linked below. New call-mix and success-rate calculations are hypothetical, not product measurements. Compliance and ElevenLabs details retain their earlier check dates.

**Sources**

- Vapi, [pricing](https://vapi.ai/pricing), checked 14 October 2026.

- Retell AI, [pricing](https://www.retellai.com/pricing), checked 14 October 2026.

- Bland, [pricing](https://www.bland.ai/pricing), checked 14 October 2026.

- Synthflow, [pricing](https://synthflow.ai/pricing), checked 14 October 2026.

- ElevenLabs, [Agents pricing](https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/agents), checked 14 October 2026.

The worked examples use published rates and the assumptions explained above. Read the [voice agent pricing guide](/guides/voice-agent-pricing-vapi-retell/), see all rows in the [AI Agent Pricing Tracker](/ic-lab/ai-agent-pricing-tracker/), or go back to [all comparisons](/ic-lab/compare/). [Send a correction](/ic-lab/ai-agent-pricing-tracker/#add-your-company).

IC Lab · AI Agent Pricing Tracker

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**Related** Voice agent pricing · [Support agent pricing](/support-agents-pricing/) · [AI agent glossary](/guides/ai-agent-glossary/) · AI Agent Pricing Tracker

## Keep exploring the evidence

**Build the full voice agent budget** Per minute rates are one part of the bill. This guide walks through the other costs buyers need to count.

For an application beyond the price sheet, [Clementine’s hearing-care case](https://industrycontents.com/clementine-ai-behavioral-science/) separates answering calls from evidence of better conversations.