This free Vapi cost calculator shows your likely monthly bill. $0.05 per minute hosting fee, plus speech, voice, model and phone costs at provider prices. Your real cost depends on your own usage, so enter your numbers above. We use the official Vapi pricing page, last checked on November 3, 2026.
What is Vapi?
Vapi is a platform for building AI voice agents: bots that answer and make real phone calls. It connects the pieces a phone agent needs. A transcriber turns the caller's speech into text, an AI model decides what to say, and a voice turns the reply back into speech. Vapi handles the timing between them so the call feels natural.
Developers and agencies use Vapi to build AI receptionists, appointment setters, lead qualifiers and outbound callers. You can pick the transcriber, model and voice you want from Vapi's catalog, or bring your own provider keys. That flexibility is also why Vapi pricing confuses people: the $0.05 per minute you see first is only one part of the bill.
How much does Vapi cost?
Vapi has two layers of pricing. First, every call minute has a usage cost. Second, you can add an optional success package for more capacity and support.
Usage cost per minute
- Vapi hosting fee: $0.05 per minute, billed to the second.
- Transcriber (speech to text): passed through at cost. Vapi's own calculator shows Deepgram at $0.0095 to $0.0099 per minute. We use $0.0097.
- Voice (text to speech): passed through at cost. Vapi's calculator shows ElevenLabs at $0.0146 to $0.0238 per minute. We use $0.0192.
- AI model: passed through at cost with no markup. Our calculator works this out from tokens and the model you pick.
- Phone line (transport): free with Vapi Telephony or SIP. Twilio costs $0.008 per minute inbound and $0.014 outbound, Vonage $0.00814 and Telnyx $0.0055, charged by that provider.
Added up, a minute costs about $0.0789 before the AI model when you use Vapi's own phone line. The model usually adds less than a cent per minute on a mid-price model.
Success packages
| Plan | Price / month | Included | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Success Package | $0 | $0.05/min | $5 free credits, 4 concurrent calls, 1 Vapi phone number. |
| Core | $29 | $0.05/min | 10 concurrent calls, 5 phone numbers, email support with 2 business day SLA. |
| Pro | $999 | $0.05/min | 10% of hosting fee with a $999/month minimum. 30 concurrent calls, 99% uptime SLA. |
| Premier | Custom | Not listed | Custom price. Contact Vapi sales. |
You can start on usage only, with no package and no minimum. New accounts get $5 in free credits. Core adds more concurrent calls, more phone numbers and email support for $29 a month. Pro is 10% of your Vapi hosting fee with a $999 a month minimum, which only makes sense above about 199,800 minutes a month, or when you need its uptime promise and Slack support.
What is included, and what is not?
Included
- Unlimited agents (assistants) on every plan.
- 1 Vapi phone number with no package, 5 on Core, 10 on Pro.
- Vapi Telephony, SIP, WebSockets and Daily WebRTC transport at no charge.
- The full model catalog, call testing and simulation, and monitoring.
Not included in the $0.05 per minute
- AI model (LLM) cost, passed through at cost
- Speech-to-text (transcriber), passed through at cost
- Text-to-speech (voice), passed through at cost
- Phone carrier fees if you use Twilio, Vonage or Telnyx
- Extra concurrent call lines ($10 per line per month) and extra organizations ($20 each per month).
- HIPAA compliance ($2,000 per month add-on), needed for many US health businesses.
What does Vapi cost at 3 business sizes?
These examples are an AI receptionist with 3-minute calls on GPT-6.1 Terra, Vapi's own phone line, no success package, 22 working days a month and no safety buffer.
| Business size | Calls per day | Minutes per month | Voice and hosting | AI model | Total per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (solo office) | 10 | 660 | $52.07 | $2.18 | $54.25 |
| Medium (busy clinic) | 50 | 3,300 | $260 | $10.89 | $271 |
| Large (multi-location) | 200 | 13,200 | $1,041 | $43.56 | $1,085 |
Look at the medium clinic. Voice and hosting cost $260, while the AI model costs only $10.89. Moving to GPT-6 Luna would save only $9.72 a month. But cutting the average call from 3 minutes to 2 would bring the total to $184, saving $86.79. With Vapi, call length is the number to watch.
If you bring your own Twilio number instead of Vapi Telephony, add about $0.008 per inbound minute. For the medium clinic's 3,300 minutes, that is another $26.40 a month.
What hidden costs should you watch for?
- Concurrency. With no package you can run 4 calls at the same time. If 6 people call at 9 a.m., two wait or fail. You can add lines at $10 each per month, or move to Core (10 lines).
- Premium voices. Realistic voices cost more per minute. The top of Vapi's ElevenLabs range is about 60% more than the bottom.
- Silence and hold time. You pay for every second the call is open, even when no one is talking. Set a silence timeout and a maximum call length.
- Long system prompts. The model re-reads your instructions on every turn of the conversation. A long prompt on a big model can add up across a 10-turn call.
- After-call work. Summaries, CRM updates and follow-up texts often run in another tool, like n8n or your CRM, with their own costs.
How can you lower your Vapi bill?
- Shorten calls. Get to the point, confirm details quickly, and send long information by text message instead of reading it out.
- Use Vapi Telephony or SIP instead of a paid carrier when it fits your setup.
- Choose a standard voice unless a premium voice clearly helps your callers.
- Keep the prompt tight. Move rarely used info into a tool the agent can look up, instead of the main prompt.
- End calls cleanly. Add rules to hang up after goodbye, on voicemail and after long silence.
- Only buy a package you need. Add a few concurrency lines before jumping to a bigger package.
What are the main Vapi alternatives?
- Retell AI: another developer-focused voice agent platform, also priced per minute. Compare total cost per minute, not just the headline fee, since what is bundled differs. See the Retell AI cost calculator.
- Bland AI: aimed at high-volume calling, with one per-minute rate that includes the AI model. See the Bland AI cost calculator.
- OpenAI GPT-Live: OpenAI's own voice sessions are billed at $0.05 per minute, plus model and tool use. You need your own code and phone setup around it. See our OpenAI API cost calculator.
Many voice agents send call results into an automation tool to update the CRM and send follow-ups. See the n8n cost calculator to add that part of the cost.
Who is Vapi best for?
Good fit
- Developers and agencies building custom phone agents
- Teams that want to choose each part: model, voice and transcriber
- High call volumes where you want pay-per-minute pricing
Not the best fit
- Non-technical owners who want everything set up for them
- Businesses that need a built-in CRM
What are the key Vapi features?
- Pick every part: Choose the transcriber, AI model and voice from Vapi's catalog, or bring your own provider keys.
- Phone numbers and SIP: Buy Vapi numbers or connect Twilio, Vonage, Telnyx or your own SIP trunk.
- Tools and webhooks: Let the agent call your APIs mid-call to check availability, book or look up records.
- Testing and simulation: Simulate calls before real customers hear the agent.
- Monitoring: Call logs, transcripts and alerts for the issues you care about.
- Web and mobile calls: Add a voice agent to a website or app, not just phone lines.
How do you set up Vapi?
The steps below show the general setup. Button names change often, so follow the idea of each step rather than exact labels.
- Sign up and get free credits. Create a Vapi account. New accounts get free credits to test.
- Create an assistant. Start from a template or blank assistant. Write a first message and the instructions for the call.
- Choose model, voice and transcriber. Pick a mid-price model to start and a standard voice. You can change these later without rebuilding.
- Add tools. Connect actions like checking a calendar or creating a CRM contact through tools or webhooks.
- Get a phone number. Buy a Vapi number or import one from your carrier, then attach the assistant to it.
- Set call limits. Set a maximum call length, a silence timeout and voicemail detection so you do not pay for dead air.
- Test with real scenarios. Call it yourself and run simulations for common and tricky callers.
- Go live and review calls. Review transcripts weekly and tighten the instructions where callers get stuck.
Tips from setup
- Shorter calls save more than cheaper models.
- Add concurrency lines before peak hours, not after callers get busy signals.
How do you calculate your Vapi cost?
- How many calls does your business get a day?. Use a normal working day. A rough guess is fine, and we count 22 working days a month.
- How long is a typical call, in minutes?. Check your phone system for your real average. Call length is usually the biggest thing that moves a voice bill.
- How smart should the AI be?. Lower-cost models suit simple work. Move up only if the answers are not good enough.
- Read your answer. You see one monthly figure, the cost of each Vapi task and what makes up the total.
Want to compare more tools at once? Use the main AI agent cost calculator.
How should you budget for Vapi?
Voice agents bill by the minute, so average call length drives your cost more than anything else. Add every layer: the platform fee, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, the AI model and the phone line. A rate that looks low can double once the other layers are included.
To budget for Vapi, take your monthly call count and your real average call length from your phone system, then enter both in the calculator. Also count transfers, phone numbers and extra concurrent lines if you get calls at the same time. Test with real callers before you commit, because a chatty agent adds minutes to every call.
Vapi pricing FAQ
How much does Vapi cost per minute?
Vapi's hosting fee is $0.05 per minute. With speech-to-text, text-to-speech and Vapi's free phone line, it comes to about $0.08 per minute before the AI model, using the middle of the ranges on Vapi's own calculator. The model usually adds under a cent per minute on a mid-price model.
Does Vapi have a monthly fee?
No, you can use Vapi with no package and pay only for minutes. Optional packages add capacity and support: Core is $29 a month, Pro is 10% of your hosting fee with a $999 monthly minimum, and Premier is custom.
Is there a free Vapi plan?
New accounts get $5 in free credits to test, with 1 phone number and 4 concurrent calls. After that, you pay per minute.
How many calls can Vapi handle at once?
4 concurrent calls with no package, 10 on Core and 30 on Pro. You can add more lines for $10 each per month.
What does a Vapi AI receptionist cost per month?
In our example, a business taking 50 three-minute calls a day pays about $270 a month, mostly for call minutes. Use the calculator above with your own call volume and length.
Is Vapi HIPAA compliant?
Vapi offers HIPAA eligible data handling with a Business Associate Agreement as a $2,000 per month add-on. Check with Vapi for your exact needs.
How accurate is this Vapi cost calculator?
It uses prices from the official Vapi pricing page, last checked on November 3, 2026, and our own averages for typical usage. Treat your result as a planning estimate. Your real cost depends on your prompts, call lengths and busy days, so add about 20% and test with real work.
What does the Vapi cost calculator leave out?
It does not count these costs: AI model (LLM) cost, passed through at cost; Speech-to-text (transcriber), passed through at cost; Text-to-speech (voice), passed through at cost; Phone carrier fees if you use Twilio, Vonage or Telnyx. It also leaves out tax and the time it takes to build and check your agent.
How do I work out what Vapi will cost my business?
Answer the questions in the calculator at the top of this page with your normal daily numbers. A rough guess is fine. Then run a small test for a week and replace your guess with your real usage.
Get your Vapi cost estimate
Now put in your own numbers. The Vapi cost calculator at the top of this page gives you a figure in about a minute. Then run a small test with real work and compare your real usage with the estimate. Still deciding? Compare other AI tools.
Source and last checked date
All Vapi prices on this page come from the official Vapi pricing page, last checked on November 3, 2026. Hosting is $0.05/min, billed to the second. Speech and voice rates below are the middle of the ranges on Vapi's own calculator (Deepgram $0.0095-$0.0099/min, ElevenLabs $0.0146-$0.0238/min). Vapi Telephony / SIP is free; Twilio inbound is $0.008/min. Extra concurrency is $10 per line per month. HIPAA add-on is $2,000/month.
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Other voice ai agents: Retell AI, Bland AI, ElevenLabs, Synthflow.
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