Retell AI
A developer platform for building production-grade voice AI agents that handle phone conversations with human-like latency and natural turn-taking.
Updated 2026-05-01
Yes, within limits. Retell AI runs a free tier with paid plans above it.
Listed pricing: Free $10 credit, then ~$0.07/min usage-based.
Overview
Retell AI is a developer-first platform for creating voice AI agents that can hold natural phone conversations. Unlike chatbot builders that bolt on voice as an afterthought, Retell was designed from the ground up for real-time telephony — its agents respond in under 800 milliseconds, handle interruptions gracefully, and manage conversational turn-taking in a way that feels genuinely human.
The platform sits between your LLM of choice (OpenAI, Anthropic, or your own) and telephony infrastructure, handling the hard parts: speech-to-text, text-to-speech, conversation orchestration, and phone system integration. You define the agent's personality, knowledge base, and call flow logic through an API or visual builder, and Retell handles the rest — including transferring to human agents when needed.
What sets Retell apart from competitors like Bland AI or Vapi is its production readiness. The platform is HIPAA-compliant, processes millions of calls, and has documented case studies showing 50-70% cost reductions in customer service operations. For teams building voice AI at scale, it's currently the most mature option available.
Is Retell AI free?
Yes, within limits. Retell AI runs a free tier with paid plans above it.
What the free tier covers: $10 free credit to test the platform — enough for roughly 140 minutes of calls.
Listed pricing: Free $10 credit, then ~$0.07/min usage-based.
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
What the free tier leaves out
Read straight off the plan list below. Vendors move features between tiers, so check the current split before you pay.
- Pay As You Go ~$0.07/min Usage-based pricing, no monthly commitment, all core features
- Enterprise Custom Volume discounts, dedicated support, SLAs, HIPAA BAA, custom deployment
Retell AI pricing
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free | $10 in credits to start, full API access, all features included |
| Pay As You Go | ~$0.07/min | Usage-based pricing, no monthly commitment, all core features |
| Enterprise | Custom | Volume discounts, dedicated support, SLAs, HIPAA BAA, custom deployment |
$10 in credits to start, full API access, all features included
Usage-based pricing, no monthly commitment, all core features
Volume discounts, dedicated support, SLAs, HIPAA BAA, custom deployment
One plan carries no published number: Enterprise, recorded as “Custom”. Nothing is estimated in its place. The vendor's own pricing page is the only source for those figures.
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
Is Retell AI worth it?
Worth it for Developer teams building production phone-based voice AI agents for customer service at scale.
You can test that on the free tier before paying anything. The recorded trade-offs are listed below, and any one of them can settle the question on its own.
The 8.9/10 AI Score is an editorial read of published capability, price and shipping pace. Nobody here has hands-on hours with Retell AI. How we verify.
Worth it if
The strengths recorded against this entry.
- Sub-800ms latency makes conversations feel genuinely natural, not robotic
- HIPAA-compliant with enterprise security certifications for regulated industries
- Bring-your-own-LLM means you're not locked into a single AI provider
- Extensive telephony features including call transfer, voicemail detection, and SIP support
Not worth it if
Any one of these blocks your use case.
- Requires developer skills — no true no-code builder for non-technical users
- Usage-based pricing can get expensive at high call volumes without enterprise negotiation
- Voice customization options are more limited than dedicated TTS platforms like ElevenLabs
- Documentation could be more thorough for advanced use cases like custom SIP integrations
What sets Retell AI apart
- Sub-800ms latency for natural, human-like turn-taking
- HIPAA-compliant, built for regulated production call volumes
- Bring-your-own-LLM across OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom models
- Native telephony integration with Twilio, Vonage, and SIP trunks
Key features
Voice AI Agents
Build conversational voice agents that handle inbound and outbound phone calls with natural speech patterns, backchanneling, and human-like pacing.
Sub-800ms Latency
End-to-end response times under 800 milliseconds for natural conversational flow. Proprietary orchestration layer minimizes the gap between speech recognition and agent response.
Phone Integration
Native telephony integration with number provisioning, call transfer, DTMF handling, and voicemail detection. Works with Twilio, Vonage, and direct SIP trunks.
Multi-LLM Support
Bring your own LLM — supports OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, open-source models, or custom fine-tuned models. Swap models without changing your agent logic.
How it compares
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retell AI | Developer teams building production phone-based voice AI agents for customer service at scale. | Free $10 credit, then ~$0.07/min usage-based | 8.9/10 |
| ChatGPT vs ChatGPT → | Users who want one subscription covering reasoning, voice, vision, image and video generation, and agentic browsing in a single app. | Free tier + Plus $20/mo + Pro $200/mo | 9.5/10 |
| Claude vs Claude → | Developers and professionals who need agentic coding, computer control, and large-document or codebase analysis in one assistant. | Free tier + Pro $20/mo + Team $30/mo/user | 9.5/10 |
| Gemini vs Gemini → | Google Workspace users who want an assistant that can read their Gmail, Drive, and Calendar while reasoning across huge documents or videos in one pass. | Free tier + Advanced $19.99/mo | 9.2/10 |
Learn to use Retell AI
Step-by-step, each one stamped with the date it was last checked against the docs.
Compare head-to-head
Related reading
Anthropic Traced More Than 23 Million Exchanges
Anthropic attributed more than 23 million exchanges to Moonshot between May and July in its September 2026 threat intelligence report.
ChatGPT for Financial Services: What Shipped, Pricing & Who It's For
OpenAI launched a tailored ChatGPT Work experience for investment bankers and equity researchers with GPT-6 Astra, built-in PitchBook/Daloopa/LSEG data, citations, and sales-quoted pricing.
DeepSeek Flash KV Cache at 890 Bytes per Token
DeepSeek V4.1-Flash posts 90.6 on Terminal-Bench 2.1 against GPT-5.6 Sol at 88.8 while cutting KV cache to 890 bytes per token.
Ready to try Retell AI?
Head to the official site to start with Retell AI — pricing and plans are listed above.
Visit Retell AI