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Vapi vs Retell AI

Both are ai voice agents tools. Vapi: A developer-first voice agent platform with usage pricing and paid support tiers. Retell AI: A pay-as-you-go voice agent platform with a drag-and-drop builder and testing tools.

Features and pricing come from each vendor's own pages. Verdicts, pros, cons, and setup estimates are our opinion. We have not tested either product hands-on. Methodology.

	Vapi	Retell AI
Category	AI Voice Agents	AI Voice Agents
Works with	HighLevel, HubSpot, Salesforce	HubSpot
Best for	Developers and technical agencies building voice agents	SMBs and agencies piloting voice agents
Key features (vendor)	Configure voice, flow, telephony, and integrations Real-time monitoring and call analytics Call simulation before going live SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI compliant	Drag-and-drop conversation canvas with functions and transfers Simulated scenarios and regression tests from real calls Inbound, outbound dialer, web widget, and SMS deployment QA across AI calls
Pricing (as published)	Pay per minute with $5 free credits to start. Core success package: $29/month. Pro: $999/month minimum. Enterprise: contact sales. Checked 2026-10-14	Pay as you go: $0.07 to $0.31 per minute for AI voice agents, $0.002+ per message for chat agents. $10 in free credits. Enterprise: custom pricing. Checked 2026-10-14
Setup (our estimate)	Advanced	Moderate
Pros (our view)	Granular control for builders Low starting cost	No commitment to start Testing tools included
Cons (our view)	Needs technical skills Per-minute costs vary by model and provider	Per-minute range is wide depending on configuration Requires flow design work

Our take on Vapi

Vapi lets teams configure voice, conversation flow, telephony, and integrations, then monitor and improve calls. Pricing is per minute with optional success packages, which in our view suits technical teams that want control. The site lists SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI compliance.

Our take on Retell AI

Retell offers a visual canvas for call flows, scenario simulation, and deployment to inbound, outbound, web, or SMS. It starts at $0 with free credits and per-minute pricing, which in our view lowers the barrier to a pilot compared with annual contracts.