Vapi vs Retell AI: license, pricing and features compared (October 2026)
Vapi and Retell AI are both listed under AI voice and speech. Free tier: Vapi: $5 free credits. Retell AI: 20 free concurrent calls; sign up free. Vapi is the better fit for: developers who want to assemble their own voice stack. Retell AI is the better fit for: teams automating inbound and outbound phone calls. Facts were read from vendor and GitHub pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported; what we ran ourselves is under What we measured.
Our pick: Pick Vapi for developers who want to assemble their own voice stack; pick Retell AI for teams automating inbound and outbound phone calls. No overall winner: we have not benchmarked them against each other. Updated (America/Chicago).
Evidence: Reported for both tools. The facts in the tables were read from each vendor's own pages and the public GitHub API on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago). The What we measured section says what we have not run yet; anything we could not confirm is marked as not captured.
Vapi
Reported
Developer platform for voice agents; $5 free credits, then pay for the minutes you run.
Retell AI
Reported
Voice AI agents for phone calls with pay-per-minute pricing and 20 free concurrent calls.
Side by side, from what we recorded
Each row compares one recorded fact for both tools. Rows are not weighted and nothing is added up into a score; the note under each row says what the marker means.
Evidence
Reported for VapiReported for Retell AITested = we ran it (smoke test); Reported = we read official sources
Pricing we could verify
Partly verified for VapiVerified from official page (Retell AI is ahead on this row) for Retell AIAbout our evidence only, not about the price
Steps in our setup guide
2 for Vapi2 for Retell AICounts our guide's steps, not difficulty
Sources we cite
2 for Vapi2 for Retell AIHow much we had to read; more is not better
A list of recorded differences, not a quality score or a ranking. We have not benchmarked these tools against each other; the smoke-test row links each tool's own log. How we label evidence.
What we measured
We have not run either Vapi or Retell AI ourselves yet, so nothing on this page is Tested; it is Reported from vendor and GitHub pages. Below is what we will run, so the comparison can rest on our own results.
| Test | Vapi | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Hands-on test log (install and a real task) | Not tested yet. What we will run: the same audio clip or script, scored by word error rate and speed. | Not tested yet. What we will run: the same audio clip or script, scored by word error rate and speed. |
How we test and label results: methodology. All test logs: test hub.
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Vapi vs Retell AI at a glance
Vapi and Retell AI are both listed under AI voice and speech. Agentic Weekly's Vapi page names Retell AI as an alternative. Vapi: Developer platform for voice agents; $5 free credits, then pay for the minutes you run. Retell AI: Voice AI agents for phone calls with pay-per-minute pricing and 20 free concurrent calls.
| Feature | Vapi | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Vapi | Retell AI |
| Listed under | AI voice and speech | AI voice and speech |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Pricing model | Pay as you go | Pay as you go |
| Free tier | $5 free credits | 20 free concurrent calls; sign up free |
| Paid plans | Pay per minute (Vapi hosting $0.05/min pre-paid, plus provider costs); plan amounts of $29 and $999 per month listed; Enterprise custom | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on models and voice; Enterprise custom |
| Platforms | API and dashboard | API and dashboard |
| Evidence | Reported from vendor pages | Reported from vendor pages |
How Vapi and Retell AI differ
- Free tier: Vapi: $5 free credits. Retell AI: 20 free concurrent calls; sign up free.
- Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
Neither tool publishes open-source code under a standard license, so you are choosing between hosted products. Both are listed as "Pay as you go", so compare the plan tables rather than the model.
Which should you pick?
- Pick Vapi if: developers who want to assemble their own voice stack. Skip it if: you want a flat per-seat price.
- Pick Retell AI if: teams automating inbound and outbound phone calls. Skip it if: you need text chat only.
Strengths and limits
| Feature | Vapi | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Pay for minutes used; Developer focus | Per-minute pricing; HIPAA and SOC 2 claimed on site |
| Limits | Total cost depends on chosen providers | Range of rates is wide |
What we did not verify
- Vapi: Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry).
- Retell AI: Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry).
- Output quality, speed and reliability beyond the smoke tests listed under What we measured: not compared.
FAQ
Is Vapi or Retell AI open source?
Vapi: Proprietary. Retell AI: Proprietary. Licenses come from each project's GitHub repository or the vendor's own pages, read Oct 25, 2026; read the license text itself before redistributing or building a competing service.
Does Vapi or Retell AI have a free plan?
Vapi: $5 free credits. Retell AI: 20 free concurrent calls; sign up free. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices and limits change, so confirm on each vendor's page.
What is the main difference between Vapi and Retell AI?
Free tier: Vapi: $5 free credits. Retell AI: 20 free concurrent calls; sign up free. Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
Sources
- Vapi (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Vapi pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Retell AI (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Retell pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
Related
Page history
- : First published. Facts read from vendor pages and the GitHub API on 2026-10-25.
Markdown version for agents: /compare/vapi-vs-retell.md
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