AI Voice & Audio
Retell AI Review
Build voice AI agents on a developer platform billed per minute by component.
A developer platform for building voice agents, billed per minute by component (about $0.10–0.15 a minute with a mid-range model). Excellent for agencies and builders; not a ready-made receptionist for a business owner.
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| Best for | Developers and agencies building custom voice agents, High-volume use where per-minute cost matters, Teams that want to choose their own LLM and voice |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | usage |
| Starting price | Pay as you go |
| Free plan | No |
| Last verified | October 17, 2026 |
Retell AI pricing (2026)
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | $0 to start; per-minute components Usage, per second | $10 free credits; 20 free concurrent calls; Retell Voice Infra $0.055/min; TTS $0.015/min (Retell, Minimax, Fish, Cartesia, OpenAI, Inworld); ElevenLabs Flash $0.04, other ElevenLabs $0.06-$0.10; LLM e.g. GPT 5.6 Terra or Claude 5 Sonnet $0.064/min, GPT 5 $0.04, Gemini 3.0 Flash $0.016, GPT 5 nano $0.0016; Telephony $0.015/min (Twilio/Telnyx); SIP/custom telephony free |
| Enterprise | Custom Custom | 50+ concurrency; Dedicated server; Implementation support |
Per-minute add-ons: knowledge base +$0.005, denoising +$0.005, guardrails +$0.005, PII removal +$0.01, AI QA $0.10/min after first 100 free. Retell phone numbers $2/month; verified number $10; Retell SMS $20/month. Extra concurrency $8/call/month beyond 20. Billed per second; billing continues during silence/hold; after a transfer the AI fee stops but telephony continues; failed calls not billed. A typical stack with a mid LLM sums to about $0.10-$0.15/min (derived from listed components, not a vendor figure).
Is Retell AI free?
No free plan: new accounts get $10 in free credits on pay-as-you-go, then pay per minute.
Prices in USD, last checked October 17, 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the official Retell AI pricing page.
What Retell AI does
- Choice of LLMs and TTS voices
- Bring-your-own telephony via SIP at no charge
- Knowledge base and PII removal add-ons
- Batch outbound calling
- AI quality assurance
What it gets right
- Transparent per-component pricing
- Per-second billing
- 20 concurrent calls free
Where it falls short
- Not a turnkey receptionist; needs building
- Bill varies by model and voice chosen
- Phone numbers, SMS and add-ons billed separately
Retell AI alternatives
Not sure Retell AI fits? These do the same job, scored on the same scale:
ElevenLabs
AI Voice & AudioGenerate lifelike voiceovers, clone a voice and dub content into dozens of languages.
Suno
AI Voice & AudioGenerate full songs with vocals and instruments from a text prompt.
Upfirst
AI Voice & AudioNever miss a call: an AI receptionist priced per answered call, with summaries, transfers and scheduling on every plan.
WellSaid
AI Voice & AudioProduce natural, brand-safe AI voiceovers on an enterprise-grade platform.
Questions people ask
Is Retell AI free?
No free plan: new accounts get $10 in free credits on pay-as-you-go, then pay per minute.
How much does Retell AI cost?
Retell AI plans: Enterprise Custom. Per-minute add-ons: knowledge base +$0.005, denoising +$0.005, guardrails +$0.005, PII removal +$0.01, AI QA $0.10/min after first 100 free. Retell phone numbers $2/month; verified number $10; Retell SMS $20/month. Extra concurrency $8/call/month beyond 20. Billed per second; billing continues during silence/hold; after a transfer the AI fee stops but telephony continues; failed calls not billed. A typical stack with a mid LLM sums to about $0.10-$0.15/min (derived from listed components, not a vendor figure).