Plivo Voice Pricing Explained (2026): Per-Minute Rates, Numbers, SIP Trunking and AI Agent Call Costs
Plivo is pay as you go: you pay per minute to make and receive calls, a monthly fee for each phone number, and a few optional extras. Audio streaming (the WebSocket feed an AI agent listens on), noise cancellation, call recording and answering machine detection are included at no charge. Every figure below is from Plivo’s own US voice, phone number and SIP trunking pricing pages, read October 22, 2026.
Plivo includes audio streaming in the call price, so the per-minute rate you see is what an AI agent’s phone line really costs. Pick local over toll-free when you can: it’s about a third of the price to receive.
Plivo charges $0.0055 a minute to receive a call on a US local number and $0.0115 to make one, with audio streaming included and numbers from $0.50 a month. Here's every Plivo voice price line an AI phone agent touches, what 1,000 to 100,000 minutes a month cost, the SIP trunking rates, and the free add-ons.
What you pay for on every Plivo minute
Receiving the call
$0.0055–$0.0180/min
A caller rings your Plivo number: $0.0055 a minute on a local number, $0.0180 on toll-free. Making calls costs $0.0115 a minute to US numbers ($0.0125 to Hawaii, $0.0850 to Alaska) and $0.0060 to toll-free numbers. Browser SDK and SIP calls are $0.0033 a minute each way.
Audio to your AI agent
Included
Plivo lists audio streaming and noise cancellation as included on both outbound and inbound calls, so streaming the call to your agent adds nothing. Your speech-to-text, LLM and voice are billed by their own vendors.
Phone number
$0.50–$1.00/month
Billed monthly, not per minute: $0.50 for a US local number, $1.00 for toll-free. Plivo lists no compliance paperwork for US local or toll-free numbers on its number pricing page.
Total per minute
about 0.6¢ to 1.8¢
Receiving calls on a US number with the audio streamed to your AI. The low end is a local number, the high end toll-free. Your AI’s speech, LLM and voice costs come on top.
What a month costs on Plivo’s own numbers
1,000 min/month
- Local in
- $6.00
- Toll-free in
- $19.00
- Local out
- $12.00
- SIP trunk, local in
- $3.30
5,000 min/month
- Local in
- $28.00
- Toll-free in
- $91.00
- Local out
- $58.00
- SIP trunk, local in
- $14.50
10,000 min/month
- Local in
- $55.50
- Toll-free in
- $181.00
- Local out
- $115.50
- SIP trunk, local in
- $28.50
25,000 min/month
- Local in
- $138.00
- Toll-free in
- $451.00
- Local out
- $288.00
- SIP trunk, local in
- $70.50
50,000 min/month
- Local in
- $275.50
- Toll-free in
- $901.00
- Local out
- $575.50
- SIP trunk, local in
- $140.50
100,000 min/month
- Local in
- $550.50
- Toll-free in
- $1,801.00
- Local out
- $1,150.50
- SIP trunk, local in
- $280.50
Plivo’s pay-as-you-go rates times minutes, plus one phone number ($0.50 local, $1.00 toll-free). Audio streaming is included in the Voice API columns; the speech-to-text, LLM and voice your agent uses are billed by those vendors. The SIP trunk column is Plivo’s separate SIP trunking product (for agent frameworks or PBXs that connect over SIP), billed in 6-second increments in the US. Volume discounts go through Plivo’s sales team and aren’t included. Want your own volume and carrier? Try the cost calculator.
Packages and add-ons
Free trial
$10 credit
Plivo says new accounts get $10 in free credits with no credit card required.
Phone numbers
$0.50–$1.00/month
US local numbers (voice, SMS, MMS, SIP trunking) $0.50 a month, toll-free (voice, SMS, SIP trunking) $1.00. Short codes are $500 a month (vanity $1,000), billed quarterly, plus a $1,500 one-time fee. Plivo mentions volume discounts on committed spend.
SIP trunking
From $0.0028/min
Connect a PBX or your own agent stack over SIP: receiving calls $0.0028 a minute on a local number and $0.0120 on toll-free; making calls from $0.0046 a minute to US numbers ($0.0320 Hawaii, $0.1770 Alaska) and $0.0010 to toll-free. Billing is in 6-second increments for the US and Canada. Secure trunking is free; numbers are the same $0.50 and $1.00 a month.
Included add-ons
$0
Answering machine detection, call recording, conference calls and multilingual text-to-speech are listed at $0.0000 a minute. Recording storage is free for 90 days, then $0.0004 a minute per month.
Paid add-ons
Per use
Automatic speech recognition $0.02 per 15 seconds, call transcription $0.0095 a minute, and caller name (CNAM) lookup $0.005 per lookup.
Browser SDK and SIP calls
$0.0033/min
Calls to or from Plivo’s browser SDK or a SIP endpoint on the Voice API are $0.0033 a minute in either direction. Plivo also supports WhatsApp calls, priced on a separate page.
How it compares on published pricing
Plivo- Starting price
- US local: $0.0115/min out, $0.0055/min in
- Best for
- US telephony for AI agents
Twilio- Starting price
- US local: $0.0140/min outbound, $0.0085/min inbound
- Best for
- Phone numbers and call transport under any voice agent stack
Telnyx- Starting price
- $0.002/min + SIP trunking
- Best for
- Teams wanting low published per-minute carrier rates for voice agents
Vonage- Starting price
- US: $0.00495/min inbound, $0.01446/min outbound
- Best for
- Developers who need programmable voice with SIP, WebRTC and WebSocket connections
Pricing explained, line by line:Twilio pricing →Telnyx pricing →
What to check before you choose
- The rate you see is the whole phone line. Many carriers bill the call and the audio feed to your AI separately (Twilio adds $0.0044 a minute for Media Streams, Telnyx $0.0035). Plivo lists audio streaming as included, so a local inbound AI call is $0.0055 a minute, or $55 at 10,000 minutes, before your AI’s own costs.
- Toll-free costs over three times as much to receive. Inbound is $0.0180 a minute on toll-free against $0.0055 on local, and the number is $1.00 a month against $0.50. At 10,000 inbound minutes that’s $180 against $55.
- Outbound costs about twice inbound. Making a call to a US number is $0.0115 a minute against $0.0055 to receive one, so an outbound-heavy agent (reminders, follow-ups) should budget roughly double per minute. Calls to Alaska are $0.0850 a minute.
- Already on a SIP-based agent stack? Plivo’s SIP trunking is cheaper per minute than its Voice API: $0.0028 inbound and from $0.0046 outbound on local numbers, billed in 6-second steps in the US. You give up Voice API features such as included streaming and recording, so compare the whole setup.
- Compare carriers on the same call. Receiving a call on a US local number and streaming it to an AI, each carrier’s own pricing page gives: Plivo $0.0055; Telnyx $0.002 + $0.0032 + $0.0035 = 0.87¢; Vonage $0.00495 plus $0.00492 for the WebSocket leg, about 0.99¢; Twilio $0.0085 + $0.0044 = 1.29¢. Numbers: Plivo $0.50, Telnyx $1.00, Twilio $1.15 a month for a local number.
- Use the free extras. Answering machine detection, call recording, conferencing and multilingual text-to-speech are listed at no charge, and recordings are stored free for 90 days. Speech recognition ($0.02 per 15 seconds) and transcription ($0.0095 a minute) are the paid ones.
- Using a voice agent platform? If it runs calls over your own Plivo number, Plivo bills the minutes and the number on top of the platform’s own per-minute price. Check whether the platform also charges for telephony so you don’t count the phone line twice.
Questions people ask
How much does Plivo charge per minute for calls in the US?
Receiving a call costs $0.0055 a minute on a local number and $0.0180 on a toll-free number. Making a call costs $0.0115 a minute to US numbers ($0.0125 to Hawaii, $0.0850 to Alaska) and $0.0060 to toll-free numbers. Browser SDK and SIP calls are $0.0033 a minute. Numbers are $0.50 a month (local) or $1.00 (toll-free), and audio streaming is included.
What does Plivo cost for an AI voice agent?
Plivo’s share of an inbound AI call on a local number is $0.0055 a minute, because audio streaming and noise cancellation are included. That’s $55 for 10,000 minutes plus $0.50 a month for the number. Your speech-to-text, LLM and voice are billed by their own vendors on top.
Is audio streaming free on Plivo?
Yes. Plivo’s US voice pricing page lists audio streaming and noise cancellation as included on outbound and inbound calls, so you pay only the call minutes to stream a call to your AI agent.
How much is a Plivo phone number?
A US local number is $0.50 a month and a toll-free number is $1.00 a month. Short codes are $500 a month (vanity $1,000), billed quarterly, with a $1,500 one-time fee.
How is Plivo SIP trunking priced?
In the US, receiving calls is $0.0028 a minute on local numbers and $0.0120 on toll-free; making calls starts at $0.0046 a minute to US numbers and $0.0010 to toll-free. Billing is in 6-second increments for the US and Canada, secure trunking is free and numbers are $0.50 or $1.00 a month.
Does Plivo have a free trial?
Yes. Plivo says new accounts get $10 in free credits with no credit card required.
Is Plivo cheaper than Twilio?
On published US list rates, yes for most AI agent calls. Receiving a call on a local number is $0.0055 a minute at Plivo with streaming included, against $0.0085 plus $0.0044 for Media Streams at Twilio. A local number is $0.50 a month at Plivo and $1.15 at Twilio. Making calls is closer: $0.0115 a minute at Plivo against $0.0140 at Twilio.
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Prices from vendors' official pricing pages, checked October 22, 2026. Not sponsored; order isn't a ranking.