Vapi Pricing Explained (2026): What a Minute Really Costs
Vapi has no monthly fee to start. You prepay credits (with $5 free), and each minute an agent runs costs Vapi's $0.05 hosting fee plus whatever your transcriber, language model and voice cost, which Vapi passes through at the provider's price with no markup. Phone transport is free on Vapi's own numbers and SIP, or billed by your carrier. Optional Success Packages add concurrency, support and SLAs. Every figure below is from vapi.ai/pricing, read October 21, 2026.
Vapi's 5¢ is the hosting fee, not the whole minute. With the default stack in Vapi's own calculator, a minute comes to about 8 to 13¢ before any phone carrier fees. Pick your models first, then do the math.
Vapi's $0.05/min hosting fee is only part of the bill. Here's every line on a Vapi minute (transcriber, LLM, voice, phone), what 500 to 5,000 minutes a month comes to on Vapi's own numbers, and what the Core, Pro and HIPAA options add.
What you pay for on every Vapi minute
Vapi hosting fee
$0.05/min
Vapi's own charge for every minute an agent runs, prepaid.
Transcriber (speech-to-text)
$0.0095–$0.0099/min
Deepgram, the default in Vapi's calculator. Billed at Deepgram's price, no markup.
Language model
$0.0077–$0.0452/min
OpenAI, the default in Vapi's calculator. The range depends on which model you pick.
Voice (text-to-speech)
$0.0146–$0.0238/min
ElevenLabs, the default in Vapi's calculator. The range depends on the voice model.
Phone transport
$0 on Vapi’s own lines
Free on Vapi telephony / SIP, Vapi WebSockets and Daily WebRTC. Your own carrier bills you directly: Twilio $0.008/min inbound and $0.014/min outbound, Vonage $0.00814/min, Telnyx $0.0055/min (as listed by Vapi).
Total per minute
about 8.2¢ to 12.9¢
What a month costs on Vapi’s own numbers
- 500 min/month$41–$64
- 1,000 min/month$82–$129
- 2,500 min/month$205–$322
- 5,000 min/month$409–$645
Vapi's own calculator shows $82–$129 a month for 1,000 minutes with this stack. These rows use the same per-minute ranges. They leave out carrier fees if you bring your own number (for example Twilio's $0.008/min inbound) and any Success Package. Want your own volume and carrier? Try the cost calculator.
Packages and add-ons
No Success Package
$0 to start
$5 free credits, 4 concurrent calls, 1 included Vapi phone number, 2 organizations, 14 days raw data retention, community support on Discord and email without an SLA.
Core
$29/month
10 concurrent calls, 5 included Vapi phone numbers, 30 days retention, zero data retention (ZDR) included, email support with a 2 business day SLA.
Pro
10% of your Vapi hosting fee, $999/month minimum
30 concurrent calls, 10 included numbers, 10 organizations, 180 days retention, RBAC + ZDR, email and dedicated Slack support (1 business day SLA), 99% uptime SLA. Vapi's FAQ says the percentage is of hosting fees only; model costs aren't included.
Premier
Custom (sales only)
Custom concurrency, numbers and retention, a named support team, 1 hour P0 response, 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO, dedicated SIP available.
Add-ons (any package)
From $10/month
Extra concurrent call line $10/month each, extra organization $20/month each, HIPAA-eligible data handling with a standard DPA and BAA $2,000/month per organization.
How it compares on published pricing
Vapi- Starting price
- $0 to start; $0.05/min Vapi hosting, models billed pass-through at cost
- Best for
- Developers who want to choose their own LLM, transcriber, voice and telephony provider
Retell AI- Starting price
- $0 platform fee; $0.07–$0.31/min for voice agents
- Best for
- Teams that want a no-code flow builder plus an API with itemized per-minute pricing
Bland AI- Starting price
- $0.14/min, $0 platform fee
- Best for
- Teams that want one flat per-minute price with no model pass-through bills
ElevenLabs Agents- Starting price
- Agents: $0.08 per minute
- Best for
- Builders who want ElevenLabs' voices and speech models in one agent pipeline
Ultravox- Starting price
- $0.05/min (first 30 min free)
- Best for
- Developers wanting a speech-native model at a flat per-minute rate
Synthflow- Starting price
- Enterprise contracts from $30,000/year
- Best for
- Businesses wanting a no-code platform on an annual enterprise contract
Cozzo tested: reply time on real phone calls
Median time from the end of the caller’s speech to the agent’s first reply, on each vendor’s default model and voice (Oct 20, 2026). Places are out of 8 platforms tested.
- Retell AI: 1.04 s (tied 1 of 8, 11 calls)
- ElevenLabs Agents: 1.04 s (tied 1 of 8, 11 calls)
- Ultravox: 1.18 s (3 of 8, 11 calls)
- Vapi: 1.56 s (7 of 8, 11 calls)
- Bland AI: 1.86 s (8 of 8, 11 calls)
Not tested yet: Synthflow.
See the full phone-call benchmark → Small samples, so treat close numbers as ties.
What to check before you choose
- Pick your models before you compare. The language model is the widest range on Vapi's calculator ($0.0077 to $0.0452 a minute), so it decides most of the difference between the low and high end.
- Count concurrent calls. Vapi includes 4 on usage only and 10 on Core. If you need more, extra lines are $10 a month each on any package, so you don't have to jump to Pro just for capacity.
- Healthcare? HIPAA-eligible handling (with a BAA) is a $2,000 a month add-on per organization. For a small practice that can be more than the minutes themselves, so price it in from day one.
- Compare whole minutes, not headline rates. Retell AI lists $0.07–$0.31 a minute depending on the voice, LLM and telephony you pick, Bland AI's Start plan is $0.14 a minute, and Ultravox is a flat $0.05 a minute including its model. Our phone-call benchmark adds how quickly each one replied.
Questions people ask
How much does Vapi cost per minute?
Vapi charges a $0.05 hosting fee per minute, plus your transcriber, language model and voice at the provider's price with no markup. With the default stack in Vapi's calculator (Deepgram, OpenAI, ElevenLabs) that works out to about $0.082 to $0.129 a minute, before any carrier fees if you bring your own phone number.
Is Vapi free to start?
Yes. There's no monthly fee on usage-only pricing, and new accounts get $5 in free credits, 1 included Vapi phone number and 4 concurrent calls. You pay only for the minutes your agents run.
What does Vapi's $29 Core package add?
Core is $29 a month and raises you to 10 concurrent calls and 5 included Vapi numbers, keeps raw data 30 days, includes zero data retention, and adds email support with a 2 business day response SLA. Minutes are billed the same way.
How is Vapi Pro priced?
Pro is 10% of your Vapi hosting fee with a $999 a month minimum. Vapi says the percentage is calculated on hosting fees only, not model costs. It includes 30 concurrent calls, Slack support and a 99% uptime SLA.
Does Vapi support HIPAA?
Yes, as an add-on: HIPAA-eligible data handling is $2,000 a month per organization and comes with a standard DPA and BAA.
Does Vapi charge for phone calls?
Vapi telephony and SIP, Vapi WebSockets and Daily WebRTC are listed as free. If you use your own carrier, that carrier bills you: Vapi lists Twilio at $0.008/min inbound and $0.014/min outbound, Vonage at $0.00814/min and Telnyx at $0.0055/min.
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Prices from vendors' official pricing pages, checked October 21, 2026. Not sponsored; order isn't a ranking.