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VapiReported

Vapi: what’s new and our verdict

Developer platform for voice agents; $5 free credits, then pay for the minutes you run.

Official site

Release Ruler for Vapi: marked at its Reported release date on the timeline of every AI model we track.

At a glance

Evidence
Reported
First covered
Oct 25, 2026
Last verified
Oct 25, 2026
Pricing
Partly verified
Best for
AI voice and speech

Evidence and ranking

Evidence behind this verdict

  1. Sources read2 cited sources, latest fetched Oct 25, 2026. (done)
  2. Facts re-checkedLast verified Oct 25, 2026. (done)
  3. Not run by us yetWe have not run it, so this is labelled Reported. (not done)

Where we rank it (editorial)

Listed here but not yet ranked. Ranks are editorial picks, not benchmark scores.

Pricing: Read from vapi.ai/pricing on 2026-10-25. Provider costs (speech, model, telephony) add to the per-minute rate. (checked 2026-10-25)

Our verdict

Developer platform for voice agents; $5 free credits, then pay for the minutes you run.

Good for

  • Developers who want to assemble their own voice stack

Skip if

  • You want a flat per-seat price

Status: Reported. This write-up is based on official release notes and docs; we have not run this release ourselves yet.

Best for

Key facts

Vapi's pricing page offers $5 in free credits, pay-per-minute use (pre-paid with $0.05 a minute Vapi hosting), and lists plan amounts of $29 and $999 a month plus enterprise.

  • License: Proprietary
  • Platforms: API and dashboard
  • Pricing model: Pay as you go
  • Free tier: $5 free credits
  • 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
  • How to start: Sign up for $5 in free credits and create an assistant.
  • Catalog entry: facts read from the vendor's pages on 2026-10-25. We do not track release notes for this entry.

How to set it up: Get started with Vapi

These steps come from the vendor's own pages as read on 2026-10-25. We have not run Vapi.

  1. Get access

    Sign up for $5 in free credits and create an assistant.

  2. Check the limits and costs first

    $5 free credits. Paid: Pay per minute (Vapi hosting $0.05/min pre-paid, plus provider costs); plan amounts of $29 and $999 per month listed; Enterprise custom. Read from vapi.ai/pricing on 2026-10-25. Provider costs (speech, model, telephony) add to the per-minute rate.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Pay for minutes used
  • Developer focus

Cons

  • Total cost depends on chosen providers

Alternatives and comparisons

  • Retell AI: Voice AI agents for phone calls with pay-per-minute pricing and 20 free concurrent calls.
  • Cartesia: Realtime voice AI: text-to-speech, speech-to-text in 44 languages and voice agents, with a free plan and credit tiers.
  • Deepgram: Voice AI APIs for speech-to-text, text-to-speech and agents with $200 in free credit.
  • AssemblyAI: Speech AI APIs for transcription and understanding; start free, pay as you go.

See all alternatives to Vapi

FAQ

What is Vapi?

Vapi's pricing page offers $5 in free credits, pay-per-minute use (pre-paid with $0.05 a minute Vapi hosting), and lists plan amounts of $29 and $999 a month plus enterprise.

Is Vapi free?

$5 free credits. Paid: Pay per minute (Vapi hosting $0.05/min pre-paid, plus provider costs); plan amounts of $29 and $999 per month listed; Enterprise custom. Read from vapi.ai/pricing on 2026-10-25. Provider costs (speech, model, telephony) add to the per-minute rate. Checked 2026-10-25; prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page.

What license is Vapi under?

Its license: Proprietary. Read from the project's own pages on 2026-10-25.

What we have not verified

  • Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry)
  • What the $29 and $999 amounts buy

Sources

Last verified · Agentic Weekly

  • AssemblyAI: Speech AI APIs for transcription and understanding; start free, pay as you go.
  • Cartesia: Realtime voice AI: text-to-speech, speech-to-text in 44 languages and voice agents, with a free plan and credit tiers.
  • Deepgram: Voice AI APIs for speech-to-text, text-to-speech and agents with $200 in free credit.

How to cite this page

Agentic Weekly, "Vapi: what's new, verdict & setup", last updated 2026-10-25, https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/vapi

Keep the Reported or Tested label when you quote a verdict. Plain-text version: https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/vapi.md. More for AI assistants: /ai, /tools.json, /llms.txt.