Telnyx Voice Pricing Explained (2026): Per-Minute Rates, SIP Trunking, Numbers and AI Agent Costs

Telnyx bills voice as separate lines that add up: a $0.002-a-minute Voice API fee, a SIP trunking fee that depends on the call’s direction and number type, a monthly fee per phone number, and optional extras such as streaming the audio to your AI agent, recording or noise suppression. It also sells a hosted Voice AI Agents product at $0.05 a minute. Every figure below is from Telnyx’s own Voice API, SIP trunking, numbers and Voice AI pricing pages, read October 22, 2026.

Telnyx’s $0.002 is only the API line. Add the SIP trunk for the call’s direction and the audio feed to your AI, and a local inbound AI call is about 0.87¢ a minute before your AI’s own costs.

Telnyx charges $0.002 a minute for its Voice API plus a SIP trunk fee of $0.0032 a minute inbound or $0.005 outbound in the US, and $1.00 a month per number. Here's every Telnyx line an AI phone agent touches (media streaming, Conversation Relay, the $0.05 Voice AI Agents minute), what 1,000 to 100,000 minutes a month cost, and when the Growth plan pays off.

What you pay for on every Telnyx minute

Voice API
$0.002/min
Telnyx’s platform fee for every call you make or receive through its Voice API, in either direction. TeXML (Telnyx’s TwiML-compatible markup) is the same $0.002. There is no monthly platform fee.
SIP trunk (the phone network)
$0.0032–$0.015/min
Billed on top of the Voice API fee. Receiving a call: from $0.0032 a minute on a US local number, from $0.015 on toll-free (it varies by the calling number). Making a call: from $0.005 a minute to US local numbers; calls to toll-free numbers are free.
Audio to your AI agent
$0.0035–$0.05/min
Media streaming over WebSockets ($0.0035 a minute) sends the raw call audio to your own server, where your speech-to-text, LLM and voice are billed separately. Conversation Relay (from $0.05 a minute) has Telnyx handle speech recognition and text-to-speech and sends you text over a WebSocket; Telnyx says there is no fee from it for your own AI reasoning layer.
Phone number
$1.00/month
Billed monthly, not per minute: from $1.00 for a US local or toll-free number, cheaper per number past 50 a month. Emergency calling is $1.50 a month per number; adding SMS/MMS to a number is $0.10 a month.
Total per minute
about 0.9¢ to 6.7¢
Receiving calls on a US number. The low end is a local number plus media streaming (your AI’s speech, LLM and voice costs come on top); the high end is toll-free plus Conversation Relay (Telnyx’s speech-to-text and text-to-speech included, your LLM on top).

Line	Per minute	What it is
Voice API	$0.002/min	Telnyx’s platform fee for every call you make or receive through its Voice API, in either direction. TeXML (Telnyx’s TwiML-compatible markup) is the same $0.002. There is no monthly platform fee.
SIP trunk (the phone network)	$0.0032–$0.015/min	Billed on top of the Voice API fee. Receiving a call: from $0.0032 a minute on a US local number, from $0.015 on toll-free (it varies by the calling number). Making a call: from $0.005 a minute to US local numbers; calls to toll-free numbers are free.
Audio to your AI agent	$0.0035–$0.05/min	Media streaming over WebSockets ($0.0035 a minute) sends the raw call audio to your own server, where your speech-to-text, LLM and voice are billed separately. Conversation Relay (from $0.05 a minute) has Telnyx handle speech recognition and text-to-speech and sends you text over a WebSocket; Telnyx says there is no fee from it for your own AI reasoning layer.
Phone number	$1.00/month	Billed monthly, not per minute: from $1.00 for a US local or toll-free number, cheaper per number past 50 a month. Emergency calling is $1.50 a month per number; adding SMS/MMS to a number is $0.10 a month.
Total per minute	about 0.9¢ to 6.7¢	Receiving calls on a US number. The low end is a local number plus media streaming (your AI’s speech, LLM and voice costs come on top); the high end is toll-free plus Conversation Relay (Telnyx’s speech-to-text and text-to-speech included, your LLM on top).

What a month costs on Telnyx’s own numbers

1,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$9.70
Toll-free in + streaming
$21.50
Local out + streaming
$11.50
Voice AI Agent, local in
$56.20
5,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$44.50
Toll-free in + streaming
$103.50
Local out + streaming
$53.50
Voice AI Agent, local in
$277.00
10,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$88.00
Toll-free in + streaming
$206.00
Local out + streaming
$106.00
Voice AI Agent, local in
$553.00
25,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$218.50
Toll-free in + streaming
$513.50
Local out + streaming
$263.50
Voice AI Agent, local in
$1,381.00
50,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$436.00
Toll-free in + streaming
$1,026.00
Local out + streaming
$526.00
Voice AI Agent, local in
$2,761.00
100,000 min/month
Local in + streaming
$871.00
Toll-free in + streaming
$2,051.00
Local out + streaming
$1,051.00
Voice AI Agent, local in
$5,521.00

Minutes a month	Local in + streaming	Toll-free in + streaming	Local out + streaming	Voice AI Agent, local in
1,000	$9.70	$21.50	$11.50	$56.20
5,000	$44.50	$103.50	$53.50	$277.00
10,000	$88.00	$206.00	$106.00	$553.00
25,000	$218.50	$513.50	$263.50	$1,381.00
50,000	$436.00	$1,026.00	$526.00	$2,761.00
100,000	$871.00	$2,051.00	$1,051.00	$5,521.00

Telnyx’s pay-as-you-go rates times minutes, plus one $1.00 phone number. Streaming columns are Voice API ($0.002) + SIP trunk + media streaming ($0.0035): Telnyx’s share only, with the speech-to-text, LLM and voice your agent uses billed by those vendors. The Voice AI Agent column is the $0.05 voice engine (orchestration, speech-to-text and text-to-speech) + $0.002 Voice API + $0.0032 SIP inbound, before LLM tokens, which Telnyx bills per token (it estimates about $0.006 a minute for its Kimi model on Telnyx GPUs); Telnyx rounds each Voice AI call up to the whole minute. Volume tiers and carrier passthrough charges, which Telnyx says vary by destination, aren’t included. Want your own volume and carrier? Try the cost calculator.

Packages and add-ons

Pay as you go
$0/month
Standard rates with a card on file and automatic tier discounts as usage crosses thresholds, no contract. Telnyx’s Voice AI page lists 500 concurrent calls, 100 API requests a second and 50 SMS a second on this plan.
Growth
$2,000/month minimum
A monthly minimum spend, not a fee on top: 15% off the Voice, Messaging and Numbers lines of your bill, automatic volume discounts and 24/7 chat or phone support. The Voice AI engine and LLM token rates aren’t discounted, though that spend counts toward the minimum.
Enterprise
$5,000/month minimum
Monthly minimum spend with custom pricing, dedicated infrastructure and IPs, private network interconnect, in-region GPUs and no rate limits.
Voice AI Agents
$0.05/min + LLM + telephony
Telnyx’s hosted agent: orchestration (turn-taking, interruptions, tools, knowledge base) plus Telnyx-hosted speech-to-text (Deepgram models, Telnyx STT) and text-to-speech (Telnyx Ultra, Natural, NaturalHD, Qwen3TTS, Inworld, Rime, Resemble, Murf). LLM tokens are billed per token; telephony at the carrier rates above. Each call rounds up to the next full minute; ringing and failed attempts aren’t charged. Telnyx estimates a production agent at about $0.06 a minute.
Phone numbers
From $1.00/month
US local and toll-free numbers from $1.00 a month. Past the first 50 a month, extra numbers drop to $0.79 (next 200), $0.50 (next 750), $0.39 (next 4,000) and $0.25 (5,000+). A vanity 800 number is $500 up front for a 12-month term, then $40 a month. Emergency calling is $1.50 a month per number.
SIP trunking and inbound channels
From $0.0032/min
Elastic SIP trunks for a PBX, contact center or your own agent stack: inbound from $0.0032 (local) or $0.015 (toll-free), outbound from $0.005, calls to toll-free free. Call concurrency, secure trunking and T.38 fax are free. Instead of paying per inbound minute you can buy inbound channels: $12 a month each for the first 10, $11 for the next 40, $9 for the next 200 and $8 past 250.
Recording and call features
From $0.002/min
Call recording $0.002 a minute with storage free. Conferencing $0.002 per participant per minute, SIP interface and browser/app calling $0.002 a minute, call transfer $0.10 per transfer, secure media free. Answering machine detection is $0.002 per call (standard) or $0.0065 (premium), deepfake detection $0.01 per check, and noise suppression $0.002 a minute per leg ($0.005 with Krisp, $0.003 with AICoustics).
Speech-to-text and voices
Per minute or per character
Standalone speech-to-text on calls: Deepgram Nova 2, Nova 3 and Flux $0.005 a minute, AssemblyAI $0.005, Grok (xAI) $0.0033, Speechmatics $0.0035, Soniox $0.002, Parakeet $0.0015, Telnyx STT $0.015, Google $0.017, Azure $0.027. Text-to-speech per 1 million characters: Telnyx TTS $3, Inworld Mini $5.50, Resemble or Murf $8, Amazon Polly standard $9, Inworld Max $10, Rime $20, Polly Neural $24, Telnyx Ultra or Qwen3TTS $32, MiniMax $34, Telnyx HD $48. ElevenLabs and Azure Neural HD voices use your own API key and are billed by them.

How it compares on published pricing

Telnyx
Starting price
$0.002/min + SIP trunking
Best for
Teams wanting low published per-minute carrier rates for voice 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
Plivo
Starting price
US local: $0.0115/min out, $0.0055/min in
Best for
US telephony for AI 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

Tool	Starting price	Best for
Telnyx	$0.002/min + SIP trunking	Teams wanting low published per-minute carrier rates for voice agents
Twilio	US local: $0.0140/min outbound, $0.0085/min inbound	Phone numbers and call transport under any voice agent stack
Plivo	US local: $0.0115/min out, $0.0055/min in	US telephony for AI agents
Vonage	US: $0.00495/min inbound, $0.01446/min outbound	Developers who need programmable voice with SIP, WebRTC and WebSocket connections

Pricing explained, line by line:Twilio pricing →Plivo pricing →

What to check before you choose

Add the lines the way Telnyx does. Its own example on the Voice API page, 100,000 minutes a month with 60% outbound, is $200 of Voice API ($0.002 × 100,000) + $300 of outbound SIP ($0.005 × 60,000) + $128 of inbound SIP ($0.0032 × 40,000) = $628. An AI agent that streams audio adds $0.0035 a minute on top, or $350 more at that volume.
Media streaming or Conversation Relay? Streaming ($0.0035) only moves audio, so you pay your own speech-to-text, LLM and voice vendors (Telnyx itself lists Deepgram Nova 3 at $0.005 a minute and Telnyx TTS at $3 per million characters). Conversation Relay (from $0.05) covers speech recognition and text-to-speech, so you only bring the LLM. The hosted Voice AI Agents minute is also $0.05 and adds orchestration, tools and a knowledge base.
Toll-free costs almost five times as much to receive. Inbound SIP is from $0.015 a minute on toll-free against $0.0032 on a local number, so at 10,000 inbound minutes the trunk alone is about $150 against $32 a month. The number itself is $1.00 either way.
Short calls on Voice AI Agents round up. Telnyx bills each Voice AI call in 60-second increments, so a 15-second call is billed as a minute and a 90-second call as two. Ringing and failed attempts aren’t charged. The Voice API and SIP pages don’t state a billing increment, so ask Telnyx or check your rate deck if most of your calls are short.
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: Telnyx $0.002 + $0.0032 + $0.0035 = 0.87¢ a minute; Plivo $0.0055 with audio streaming included; Twilio $0.0085 + $0.0044 Media Streams = 1.29¢; Vonage $0.00495 plus $0.00492 for the WebSocket leg, about 0.99¢. At 10,000 minutes that’s about $87, $55, $129 and $99 a month before numbers.
Growth only pays off at real volume. It’s a $2,000 monthly minimum, and the 15% discount applies only to the Voice, Messaging and Numbers lines, not the Voice AI engine or LLM tokens. If those carrier lines are well under $2,000 a month, pay as you go is cheaper.
Price the extras you’ll switch on. Recording is $0.002 a minute with free storage, noise suppression $0.002 to $0.005 a minute per leg, premium answering machine detection $0.0065 per outbound call, and each transfer $0.10.

Questions people ask

How much does Telnyx charge per minute for calls in the US?

Telnyx bills two lines per call: the Voice API at $0.002 a minute, plus SIP trunking from $0.0032 a minute to receive a call on a local number (from $0.015 on toll-free) or from $0.005 a minute to make a call to a local number (calls to toll-free numbers are free). So a local inbound minute is about $0.0052 and a local outbound minute about $0.007. US numbers are from $1.00 a month.

What does Telnyx cost for an AI voice agent?

If you run your own agent and stream the audio, Telnyx’s share of a local inbound call is $0.002 (Voice API) + $0.0032 (SIP) + $0.0035 (media streaming), about 0.87¢ a minute, with your speech-to-text, LLM and voice billed separately. Telnyx’s hosted Voice AI Agents cost $0.05 a minute for orchestration, speech-to-text and text-to-speech, plus LLM tokens and telephony; Telnyx estimates a production agent at about $0.06 a minute.

How much is a Telnyx phone number?

US local and toll-free numbers start at $1.00 a month. If you buy more than 50 a month, extra numbers get cheaper automatically: $0.79 for the next 200, $0.50 for the next 750, $0.39 for the next 4,000 and $0.25 past 5,000. Emergency calling adds $1.50 a month per number, and SMS/MMS on a number adds $0.10 a month.

Does Telnyx round up call minutes?

On Voice AI Agents, yes: each call’s connected time is rounded up to the next full minute, so a 15-second call is billed as 60 seconds and a 90-second call as 120. You aren’t charged for ringing or failed attempts. Telnyx’s Voice API and SIP trunking pricing pages don’t state a billing increment.

What is Telnyx’s Growth plan?

A $2,000 monthly minimum spend that takes 15% off the Voice, Messaging and Numbers lines of your bill and adds automatic volume discounts and 24/7 chat or phone support. The Voice AI engine and LLM token rates are the same on every plan. Enterprise is a $5,000 monthly minimum with custom pricing and dedicated infrastructure.

How much does Telnyx media streaming cost?

Media streaming over WebSockets is $0.0035 a minute, on top of the $0.002 Voice API fee and the SIP trunk rate. Conversation Relay, where Telnyx handles speech recognition and text-to-speech for you, starts at $0.05 a minute.

Is Telnyx cheaper than Twilio?

On published US list rates, yes. Receiving a call on a local number is about $0.0052 a minute at Telnyx ($0.002 API + $0.0032 SIP) against $0.0085 at Twilio, streaming audio to an AI is $0.0035 against $0.0044, and a local number is $1.00 against $1.15 a month. Both offer volume discounts, so very large accounts should get quotes.

Is Telnyx HIPAA compliant?

Telnyx’s pricing pages list HIPAA at no extra cost, and its Voice AI page says regulated-industry readiness is standard on every account and plan, including pay as you go. Confirm the BAA terms with Telnyx before handling patient calls.

Ready to look closer? See Telnyx’s full listing and price history →

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Telnyx vs Twilio →Vonage vs Plivo →Plivo vs Twilio →

Prices from vendors' official pricing pages, checked October 22, 2026. Not sponsored; order isn't a ranking.