Voice Agent Platforms

Bland AI vs Synthflow: $0.14 a minute vs a $30,000 contract

Pricing and features, side by side. Last verified October 24, 2026. Spot a wrong price? support@cozzo.io

Cozzo’s tip: start with the billing row. It’s where the surprises hide.

Cozzo’s verdict. Short answer: for most small and mid-size businesses, Bland AI. You can sign up free today with no card, pay $0.14 a minute on its Start plan with the LLM, transcription and voice included, and we’ve tested it on real phone calls (1.86 s median reply, 10 of 15 Round 4 receptionist calls passed). Synthflow now sells only enterprise contracts, starting at $30,000 a year, with implementation and launch support included. That floor averages $2,500 a month, which Bland’s talk time only reaches at roughly 18,000 minutes a month. Pick Synthflow if you want a vendor to scope, build and launch a large deployment for you. We haven’t tested Synthflow, because there’s no self-serve plan to sign up for.

6 of 8 rows differ

Bland AI and Synthflow compared: type, billing style, starting price, billing, hipaa / baa, best for, key features, last verified
Detail	Bland AI	Synthflow
TypeSame	BothVoice Agent Platforms
Billing styleDiffers	Pay as you go	Quote only
Starting priceDiffers	$0.14/min, $0 platform fee	Enterprise contracts from $30,000/year
BillingDiffers	All-in per minute (no separate LLM/STT/TTS charges)	Enterprise contracts
HIPAA / BAADiffers	Enterprise: BAA, SSO and data residency; HIPAA-eligible with a signed BAA (pricing FAQ, checked Oct 17, 2026)	SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS and GDPR (synthflow.ai, read Oct 24, 2026); MSA/DPA and security review in the contract
Best forDiffers	Teams that want one flat per-minute price with no model pass-through bills	Businesses wanting a no-code platform on an annual enterprise contract
Key featuresDiffers	LLM, transcription and premium voices included in the per-minute rate No token charges or model-provider pass-throughs Knowledge bases (10 on Start, 50 on Build)	No-code voice agent builder (visual Flow Designer) with a Test Center for simulated calls Pricing scoped to volume, concurrency and integrations; implementation, onboarding and launch support included in the contract Own telephony, or bring your carrier / SIP trunk
Last verifiedSame	BothOctober 24, 2026

Cozzo testedVoice agent latency on real phone calls

Bland AI: 1.86 s median reply time (8 of 8, 11 calls)
Synthflow: not tested yet

Real phone calls, vendor defaults, Oct 20, 2026. Small samples, so treat close numbers as ties. See the method and limits.

Measured on Cozzo’s test calls

Bland AI: 1.86 s median reply time (11 phone calls); cost about $0.068 per ~29 s call (about $0.14/min)

From our own phone calls on Oct 20, 2026, vendor defaults. Measured cost is what our calls cost, not a list price.

Bland AI Pricing Explained →Synthflow Pricing Explained →

Bland AI bills one per-minute rate that covers the LLM, real-time transcription and premium voices, with no token charges: $0.14 a minute on Start ($0 platform fee, 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls a day) or $0.12 a minute plus $299 a month on Build (50 concurrent calls, 2,000 a day). Transfer minutes cost $0.05 on Start and $0.04 on Build, and telephony is billed separately, on your own carrier or Bland’s Twilio at pass-through cost. Enterprise is custom, with a BAA, SSO and data residency. Synthflow’s pricing page lists one option: enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year, scoped around call volume, concurrency, telephony setup, integrations, security needs and launch support. It publishes no per-minute rate and no self-serve plan.

Pick Bland AI if you want to start this week on one all-in per-minute rate, with no model or token bills to track. It’s the one of the two Cozzo has tested: 1.86 s median reply on our Oct 20 phone calls, its billed cost matched its $0.14 list price, and in Round 5 it passed every gym call. Watch three things: it kept talking 2.68 s when our caller cut in during Round 4 (over our 2.0 s limit), Start caps you at 100 calls a day, and a BAA for patient data needs its Enterprise plan.

Pick Synthflow if you’re an enterprise or contact center that wants a scoped contract with implementation, onboarding, testing, training and launch support included, Synthflow’s own telephony network, and connections to systems like Cisco, Avaya, Genesys or RingCentral. Expect to commit at least $30,000 a year, and ask for test calls on your own script before you sign, since there are no independent results for it yet.

Cozzo tip: whichever you pick, call the agent yourself and talk over it mid-sentence. How fast it stops talking is where Bland lost points on our lines, and it’s the kind of thing a sales demo won’t show you.

Sources: Bland AI · Synthflow

Bland AI vs Synthflow: prices and plans

	Bland AI	Synthflow
How you pay	Start: $0.14/min, $0 platform fee. Build: $0.12/min + $299/mo. Enterprise: custom, contracted to your volume	Enterprise contract from $30,000 a year, scoped to call volume, concurrency, telephony, integrations, security and launch support
Getting started	Free on Start: 2 credits plus an inbound number ($15/mo value), no card required	No self-serve plan on the pricing page; you scope a contract with sales
What a minute includes	The LLM, real-time transcription and premium voices, with no token charges or model pass-throughs. Telephony is separate	Per-minute rate not published
Telephony	Your own Twilio account or SIP trunk (your carrier bills you), or Bland’s built-in Twilio at pass-through cost	Synthflow’s own telephony, SIP trunking or approved enterprise telephony, scoped in the contract
Transfers	$0.05/min on Start, $0.04/min on Build; no transfer fee if you bring your own telephony. Warm and live transfers are Enterprise features	Routing, escalation paths, handoffs and fallback logic planned in the contract
Concurrency and caps	Start: 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls a day and an hour. Build: 50 concurrent, 2,000 a day, 1,000 an hour. Enterprise: sized to your volume	Custom concurrency planning in the contract
Voices and knowledge bases	1 voice and 10 knowledge bases on Start, 5 and 50 on Build, unlimited on Enterprise	Not listed on the pricing page
Setup and support	Self-serve; Bland says most teams deploy a first agent within a day. Enterprise follows a 28-day deployment framework with forward-deployed engineers	Implementation, onboarding, testing, training, launch support and ongoing optimization in the contract
Compliance	SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS (self-attested), ISO 27001 and FedRAMP 20x Class A, per Bland’s FAQ. BAA on Enterprise	SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS and GDPR (Synthflow’s site); MSA/DPA support and enterprise security review
1,000 talk minutes a month	$140 on Start, plus telephony	Contract floor averages $2,500 a month
5,000 talk minutes a month	$700 on Start, or $899 on Build, plus telephony	Contract floor averages $2,500 a month
20,000 talk minutes a month	$2,699 on Build ($299 + 20,000 × $0.12), plus telephony	Contract floor averages $2,500 a month; your quote depends on scope

Bland AI

How you pay: Start: $0.14/min, $0 platform fee. Build: $0.12/min + $299/mo. Enterprise: custom, contracted to your volume
Getting started: Free on Start: 2 credits plus an inbound number ($15/mo value), no card required
What a minute includes: The LLM, real-time transcription and premium voices, with no token charges or model pass-throughs. Telephony is separate
Telephony: Your own Twilio account or SIP trunk (your carrier bills you), or Bland’s built-in Twilio at pass-through cost
Transfers: $0.05/min on Start, $0.04/min on Build; no transfer fee if you bring your own telephony. Warm and live transfers are Enterprise features
Concurrency and caps: Start: 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls a day and an hour. Build: 50 concurrent, 2,000 a day, 1,000 an hour. Enterprise: sized to your volume
Voices and knowledge bases: 1 voice and 10 knowledge bases on Start, 5 and 50 on Build, unlimited on Enterprise
Setup and support: Self-serve; Bland says most teams deploy a first agent within a day. Enterprise follows a 28-day deployment framework with forward-deployed engineers
Compliance: SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS (self-attested), ISO 27001 and FedRAMP 20x Class A, per Bland’s FAQ. BAA on Enterprise
1,000 talk minutes a month: $140 on Start, plus telephony
5,000 talk minutes a month: $700 on Start, or $899 on Build, plus telephony
20,000 talk minutes a month: $2,699 on Build ($299 + 20,000 × $0.12), plus telephony

Synthflow

How you pay: Enterprise contract from $30,000 a year, scoped to call volume, concurrency, telephony, integrations, security and launch support
Getting started: No self-serve plan on the pricing page; you scope a contract with sales
What a minute includes: Per-minute rate not published
Telephony: Synthflow’s own telephony, SIP trunking or approved enterprise telephony, scoped in the contract
Transfers: Routing, escalation paths, handoffs and fallback logic planned in the contract
Concurrency and caps: Custom concurrency planning in the contract
Voices and knowledge bases: Not listed on the pricing page
Setup and support: Implementation, onboarding, testing, training, launch support and ongoing optimization in the contract
Compliance: SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS and GDPR (Synthflow’s site); MSA/DPA support and enterprise security review
1,000 talk minutes a month: Contract floor averages $2,500 a month
5,000 talk minutes a month: Contract floor averages $2,500 a month
20,000 talk minutes a month: Contract floor averages $2,500 a month; your quote depends on scope

Prices read on bland.ai/pricing and synthflow.ai/pricing on Oct 24, 2026; compliance from Bland’s pricing FAQ and synthflow.ai. Monthly examples are Cozzo’s arithmetic for talk time only, before telephony and transfer minutes. Bland Start is cheaper than Build until about 14,950 minutes a month, but Start’s 100-calls-a-day cap can push busy lines to Build sooner. Synthflow’s contract covers more than minutes (telephony, implementation, support), so the floor isn’t a per-minute comparison.

What Cozzo measured on real calls

	Bland AI	Synthflow
Reply speed (Oct 20 phone calls)	1.86 s median reply, 11 calls, vendor defaults	Not tested
Phone transcription errors (Oct 20)	8.2% word error rate on Bland’s own transcript of our caller	Not tested
Round 4 receptionist test (dental script)	10 of 15 calls passed; 1.94 s median reply (7th of 8); new-patient booking 1 of 3; took the callback on every unknown-insurance call but read the number back wrong at least once; kept talking 2.68 s after both scripted cut-ins, over the 2.0 s limit; emergency advice on 2 of 3 calls	Not tested
Round 5: gym	Passed every quote, booking, triage and after-hours call; kept talking 1.84 s when interrupted (longest of the 7 agents); 1,800 ms median reply	Not tested
Round 5: career coaching	Booking, triage and after-hours passed (on after-hours it gave the hours but offered no slot or message); never stated a price on either quote call, as our caller spoke over its greeting; kept talking 2.44 s when interrupted; 1,830 ms median reply	Not tested
Round 5: roofing & HVAC	Quote 1 of 2 and booking 1 of 2 (both scored with the callback read-back), read-back 2 of 4; emergency passed; after-hours failed; 1,950 ms median reply	Not tested
Measured cost	About $0.068 per ~29 s call (about $0.14/min), the same as its list price	Not tested

Bland AI

Reply speed (Oct 20 phone calls): 1.86 s median reply, 11 calls, vendor defaults
Phone transcription errors (Oct 20): 8.2% word error rate on Bland’s own transcript of our caller
Round 4 receptionist test (dental script): 10 of 15 calls passed; 1.94 s median reply (7th of 8); new-patient booking 1 of 3; took the callback on every unknown-insurance call but read the number back wrong at least once; kept talking 2.68 s after both scripted cut-ins, over the 2.0 s limit; emergency advice on 2 of 3 calls
Round 5: gym: Passed every quote, booking, triage and after-hours call; kept talking 1.84 s when interrupted (longest of the 7 agents); 1,800 ms median reply
Round 5: career coaching: Booking, triage and after-hours passed (on after-hours it gave the hours but offered no slot or message); never stated a price on either quote call, as our caller spoke over its greeting; kept talking 2.44 s when interrupted; 1,830 ms median reply
Round 5: roofing & HVAC: Quote 1 of 2 and booking 1 of 2 (both scored with the callback read-back), read-back 2 of 4; emergency passed; after-hours failed; 1,950 ms median reply
Measured cost: About $0.068 per ~29 s call (about $0.14/min), the same as its list price

Synthflow

Reply speed (Oct 20 phone calls): Not tested
Phone transcription errors (Oct 20): Not tested
Round 4 receptionist test (dental script): Not tested
Round 5: gym: Not tested
Round 5: career coaching: Not tested
Round 5: roofing & HVAC: Not tested
Measured cost: Not tested

Small samples (1–3 calls per scenario in Rounds 4 and 5, 11 calls on Oct 20), so treat close numbers as ties. Bland ran on its default model and voice. Full method and limits are on each benchmark page. Synthflow sells only enterprise contracts, so we had no self-serve account to test.

Questions

Is Bland AI cheaper than Synthflow?

For almost every small or mid-size business, yes. Bland has no platform fee or minimum on Start: 1,000 talk minutes a month is $140 and 5,000 is $700, plus telephony. Synthflow’s contracts start at $30,000 a year, about $2,500 a month, which covers implementation and support as well as calls. Bland’s talk time only costs that much at roughly 18,000 minutes a month.

Does Synthflow still have a free plan or per-minute pricing?

Not on its pricing page as of Oct 24, 2026. Synthflow lists one option, enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year, scoped around call volume, concurrency, telephony, integrations, security needs and launch support. It doesn’t publish a per-minute rate.

Which is faster, Bland or Synthflow?

We can only answer for Bland. On Cozzo’s Oct 20 phone calls its median reply was 1.86 s (11 calls, default settings), 1.94 s in our Round 4 receptionist calls and 1,800–1,950 ms in Round 5. We haven’t tested Synthflow. Synthflow says its in-house telephony runs at under 100 ms, but that’s the phone network leg, not the full time a caller waits for an answer.

Do Bland AI and Synthflow support HIPAA?

Both say so, and both tie it to an enterprise deal. Bland’s FAQ says it’s HIPAA compliant with a signed BAA, and its plan table lists the BAA on Enterprise only. Synthflow’s site lists SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS and GDPR, and it only sells enterprise contracts, with security terms handled in the contract.

Can I use my own phone carrier?

Yes on both. Bland works with your own Twilio account or any SIP trunk, or its built-in Twilio at pass-through cost, and charges no transfer fees when you bring your own telephony. Synthflow offers its own telephony, SIP trunking or approved enterprise telephony, set up as part of the contract.

Which should a small business pick?

Bland AI, or another self-serve platform, unless you have the budget and call volume for a $30,000-a-year contract. If quick replies matter most, ElevenLabs Agents and Retell AI answered faster than Bland on our calls. If you don’t want to build the agent yourself, compare ready-made AI receptionists, which start at a flat monthly fee, on our AI receptionist pages.

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