01 Vapi
Developer platform to build, test, and deploy AI voice agents for phone calls with usage-based per-minute pricing
AI Agents & Automation from $0.05/min free tier: no Verified JUN 24, 2026
Retell AI alternatives
5 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jul 6, 2026 · how we verify
Vapi is the top Retell AI alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Agents & Automation), starts at $0.05/min, and has no free tier. The lowest-priced option with a free tier is Cartesia, starting at $0. All 5 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Retell AI, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Retell AI alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vapi | AI Agents & Automation | $0.05/min | no | Jun 24, 2026 |
| Cartesia | AI Audio & Music | $0 | yes | Jul 5, 2026 |
| Deepgram | AI Audio & Music | $0 | yes | Jul 5, 2026 |
| Hume AI | AI Audio & Music | $3/mo | yes | Jul 6, 2026 |
| ElevenLabs | AI Audio & Music | $6/mo | yes | Jul 3, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 Cartesia
Low-latency voice AI platform behind the Sonic text-to-speech model, built for real-time agents
AI Audio & Music from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUL 5, 2026
03 Deepgram
Developer-first voice AI API for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and real-time voice agents
AI Audio & Music from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUL 5, 2026
04 Hume AI
Empathic voice AI for developers — Octave 2 expressive text-to-speech and the EVI speech-to-speech API with per-character and per-minute pricing
AI Audio & Music from $3/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 6, 2026
05 ElevenLabs
AI voice platform for text-to-speech, voice cloning, and conversational agents in 70+ languages
AI Audio & Music from $6/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 3, 2026
When to stay with Retell AI
Documented strengths from our Retell AI review — switching isn't always the right call:
- True pay-as-you-go with no annual contract, which is unusual in enterprise voice AI
- Component rates are published individually, so you can calculate a call's cost before building
- 20 concurrent calls are included on the self-serve plan without negotiation