AI Tools · AI Voice Agents

Vapi

Developer platform for building, testing and running AI voice agents for phone and web calls, billed per minute.

Our take: Vapi handles the call: telephony, turn-taking and orchestration between the transcriber, LLM and voice you pick.

Best forDevelopers building voice AI

ReviewedOct 2026Paid

6.95 criteria · see breakdown

Try Vapi$5 free credits; $0.05/min plus providers

Vapi is a developer platform for building, testing and deploying AI voice agents that handle phone and web calls, for jobs such as customer support, lead qualification and appointment scheduling. You choose the speech-to-text, LLM and voice providers and Vapi runs the call. Vapi charges $0.05 a minute for hosting plus provider costs at cost, new accounts get $5 in free credits, and optional support packages start at $29 a month.

The bottom line

The go-to API layer for developers who want programmable, provider-agnostic voice AI agents without building telephony plumbing from scratch.

Our score

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team. Hover a facet to focus it; click to pin.Tap a facet to focus it.

Community ratings

Shown for context only. Our score is independent.

Trustpilot

2.4

15+ reviews

2.4 / 5 aggregate · across 1 source

Third-party ratings shown verbatim; aggregate weighted by review volume.

What it is, and why we rate it

One line each. Open a row for detail.

What it really isVapi: a developer platform for building and running voice AI agents over phone and web calls.

Our takeVapi handles the call: telephony, turn-taking and orchestration between the transcriber, LLM and voice you pick.

Model and voice costs are passed through at provider rates with no markup, so your per-minute cost depends on those choices. Every plan includes unlimited agents, testing and call simulation, and monitoring. Paid packages add more phone numbers, concurrent calls, data retention and support SLAs.

Why we rate itIt covers the hard parts of production voice agents in one API: telephony, real-time orchestration, testing and monitoring.

Vapi says 2.5M+ agents have been launched on it and reports sub-500ms average latency.

The catchThe $0.05 hosting fee is only part of the bill: transcriber, LLM, voice and telephony are charged on top.

Vapi's own calculator estimates $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes with Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs.

Best / not good for

Best for

Dev teams building AI phone agents for support or sales
Startups replacing legacy IVR with conversational AI
Agencies prototyping and deploying client voice bots quickly

Not good for

Non-technical teams that want a no-code call bot
Narration or text-to-speech for videos and podcasts
Teams that need a flat, predictable monthly price

Trade-offs

Friction report

Trade-offs to know before signing up.

Time to value
Fast for developers: $5 in free credits on sign-up, then configure the transcriber, model, voice and phone number for your first agent.
Scale breakpoint
Without a package you get 4 concurrent calls; more lines cost $10 each a month, and HIPAA adds $2,000 a month.
Walled garden
Low: provider-agnostic design, export call logs, no proprietary model lock-in.

Still a fit?

If none of these block you, try it on the official site.

Try Vapi

Vapi pricing

Plan	Price	What you get
No package	$0.05/min Vapi hosting + provider costs	$5 free credits, 1 phone number, 4 concurrent calls, 14 days data retention, community and email support
Core	$29/month + usage	5 phone numbers, 10 concurrent calls, 30 days retention, zero data retention, 2 business day email SLA
Pro	10% of hosting fee, $999/month minimum	10 phone numbers, 30 concurrent calls, 180 days retention, RBAC, Slack support, 99% uptime SLA
Premier	Custom	Custom concurrency and retention, named support team, 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO, dedicated SIP
HIPAA add-on	$2,000/month	HIPAA-eligible data handling with a DPA and BAA
Extra concurrency	$10 per line per month	Concurrent call lines beyond your package

From Vapi's pricing page, checked 3 October 2026. Transcriber, model and voice costs are passed through at provider rates (for example Deepgram $0.0095 to $0.0099, OpenAI $0.0077 to $0.0452 and ElevenLabs $0.0146 to $0.0238 per minute). Telephony is charged by the provider: Vapi telephony and WebRTC are free; Twilio is $0.008 inbound and $0.014 outbound per minute.

A look inside

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Vapi cost?

Vapi charges $0.05 a minute for hosting, plus transcriber, model, voice and telephony costs at provider rates. Optional packages are Core at $29 a month, Pro at 10% of the hosting fee with a $999 monthly minimum, and custom Premier (checked 3 October 2026).

Is Vapi free?

There is no free plan. New accounts get $5 in free credits, then you pay per minute.

Is Vapi HIPAA compliant?

Vapi offers HIPAA-eligible data handling with a Business Associate Agreement as an add-on for $2,000 a month. Its homepage says the platform is SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliant.

Is Vapi a text-to-speech tool?

No. Vapi builds voice agents that hold phone or web conversations. It uses text-to-speech providers such as ElevenLabs inside each call, but it isn't a narration tool.

Vapi alternatives

Other AI voice agent platforms from our reviews:

Showing 1–3 of 4

Sources checked October 3, 2026: Vapi pricing, Vapi homepage.

Conversion Gems independently reviews every tool.