Retell AI alternative
Retell AI pricing, line by line, and a Retell AI alternative.
Retell AI is a platform to build, test, deploy and monitor AI voice and chat agents. It runs the telephony, speech and model layers for you and bills each of them per minute: as of Nov 2026, $0.07 to $0.31 a minute for voice agents, depending on the model, voice and add-ons you pick.
Teams look for a Retell AI alternative when they would rather pay their model and speech providers directly, reach callers on more channels from one agent, or sell agents under their own name. VocalLabs is built for those cases. And if the agent you have on Retell is working, VocalStack Voice lists Retell among the platforms it works with, so you can change the telephony without rebuilding.
Dashboard · Copilot · API and MCP · Bring your own keys · Twilio, Plivo, Exotel or Vobiz · Voice, video and text
- AI agent00:00
Hi Priya, this is Lumen Physio calling to confirm your appointment tomorrow at eleven.
- Caller00:05
Yes, that is fine. But can I ask about my insurance claim first?
- AI agent00:09
Of course. Our front desk can look at your claim. I am connecting you now, and your appointment stays as it is.
- System00:13
Appointment confirmed · transfer to a human · front desk
- Human00:18
Hi Priya, Sam at the front desk. Let me pull up your claim.
Retell AI pricing, as of Nov 2026.
Retell prices a call as a stack of per-minute parts: its voice infrastructure, then the model, the voice, telephony and any add-ons you switch on. Monthly charges cover numbers and extra concurrency.
| Retell AI, as of Nov 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Voice agents, all in | $0.07–$0.31 per minute, pay as you go |
| Voice infrastructure | $0.055 per minute |
| Models and voices | Priced per minute, e.g. GPT 5 nano $0.0016, GPT 5.4 $0.080 (standard tier) or $0.16 (fast tier), Retell platform voices $0.015, ElevenLabs v3 $0.10 |
| Telephony | $0.015 per minute on Retell Twilio or Telnyx numbers; no charge for SIP trunking or custom telephony |
| Phone numbers | $2 per month; verified numbers $10 per month |
| Concurrency | 20 concurrent calls free, then $8 per concurrent call per month |
| Add-ons | Knowledge base, advanced denoising and safety guardrails at $0.005/min each; PII removal at $0.01/min |
| Free credits | $10 to start |
| Billing rules | Per second, totalled per cycle; silence and hold are billed; failed connections are not; the AI fee stops after a transfer |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing, custom MSA and DPA terms, SSO |
From retellai.com/pricing as of Nov 2026, in US dollars. Retell also prices chat agents, from $0.002 per message. · Source: Retell AI pricing
What a Retell minute is made of.
The platform’s own fee is fixed. The model and the voice you choose decide whether a minute lands near the bottom of Retell’s range or the top.
- Retell voice infrastructure
- $0.055
- LLM: GPT 5.4, standard tier
- $0.080
- LLM: Claude 4.5 Haiku
- $0.025
- LLM: GPT 5 nano
- $0.0016
- Voice: ElevenLabs Flash
- $0.040
- Voice: Retell platform voices
- $0.015
- Telephony: Retell numbers
- $0.015
Line items from retellai.com/pricing as of Nov 2026. A call pays the voice infrastructure, one LLM, one voice, telephony unless you bring your own, and any add-ons. Retell quotes $0.07–$0.31 a minute all in. · Source: Retell AI pricing
Retell AI vs VocalLabs, side by side.
| Retell AI | VocalLabs | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A platform to build, test, deploy and monitor AI voice and chat agents | A no-code studio for voice, video and text agents |
| How you build | Single-prompt or conversation-flow agents, from the dashboard, the API, Node.js and Python SDKs or MCP | Dashboard, Copilot (an AI builder that edits the agent and shows what it changed), or every action over the API and MCP |
| Models and voices | Run and billed by Retell per minute, at the rates on its pricing page | Your own provider accounts, billed to you directly; VocalLabs never resells tokens or minutes |
| Platform charge | $0.055/min voice infrastructure | Quoted on request |
| Telephony | Retell numbers at $2/month plus $0.015/min, or your own SIP trunk at no Retell charge | Your Twilio, Plivo, Exotel or Vobiz account; PSTN billing stays with the carrier |
| Text | Chat agents, priced per message | WhatsApp, Telegram, a web widget or the API, on the same agent and tools |
| Testing | Testing in the platform; AI Quality Assurance free for the first 100 minutes, then $0.10/min | Browser voice, video and text test sessions, with transcript, tool calls and provider usage |
| Compliance | SOC 2 certified; HIPAA-ready, with a BAA | VAPT, GDPR, CERT-In, AICPA SOC, ISO 27001:2022, HIPAA and CCPA; published DPA |
Retell column from retellai.com/pricing and docs.retellai.com as of Nov 2026. VocalLabs column describes the agent builder. To keep a Retell agent and change only its telephony, see VocalStack Voice below. · Source: Retell AI documentation
Who should switch from Retell, and who should stay.
Retell does a lot well. These are the cases where a move pays off, and the ones where it does not.
- 01Stay
You want one bill
Retell runs telephony, speech and models together and prices each on one page. If one invoice matters more than choosing every provider, that is a real advantage.
- 02Stay
Your calls follow fixed steps
Retell’s conversation-flow agents split a call into nodes for tight control. If your scripts depend on that, stay.
- 03Switch
Your own provider accounts
Pay OpenAI, Gemini, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Sarvam and the rest directly, at your own rates and on your own invoices.
- 04Switch
Video and more channels
One agent definition on a phone number, in the browser, on WhatsApp and Telegram, and as an Anam video avatar.
- 05Switch
Agents under your brand
The VocalLabs white-label programme puts your logo, domain and reports on the console, at partner rates and your own price.
- 06Keep Retell
Keep Retell, change the carrier
VocalStack Voice lists Retell among the voice agent platforms it works with, with Twilio, Exotel, Ozonetel, Airtel IQ, Plivo, Kaleyra and SIP trunks as carriers.
Keep Retell. Change what carries the call.
If the agent works, rebuilding it is not the only option. VocalStack Voice is the VocalLabs telephony layer for voice AI, and it connects to the carriers you already use.
Moving a voice agent from Retell to VocalLabs.
- 01
Write down the agent
Export the prompt or prompts, the functions it calls, the knowledge it answers from and the numbers it runs on. For a conversation-flow agent, note each node and what moves the call between them.
- 02
Connect your own keys
Add your accounts with the model, speech and voice providers you want, then choose a speech pipeline (STT + LLM + TTS) or a single realtime model.
- 03
Rebuild the behaviour
Paste the prompt into the dashboard, or ask Copilot to build from it. Branching logic goes into tools: operation trees with HTTP requests, conditions, MCP servers, handoffs and webhooks.
- 04
Test before publishing
Run browser voice and text sessions and read the transcript, tool calls, captured fields and provider usage for each one.
- 05
Move a number
Connect your Twilio, Plivo, Exotel or Vobiz account, import the DID and point inbound calls at the published agent. Outbound calls go one at a time or as a scheduled batch.
Questions buyers ask first.
Your models. Your carrier. Your bill.
Tell us what you run on Retell today: the agent, the model and voice, your carrier and your monthly minutes. We will show you the same agent on VocalLabs, or connect your Retell agent to VocalStack Voice, so you can compare on your own calls.
