Vapi pricing per minute
Vapi charges $0.05 a minute for hosting and passes speech-to-text, the language model, text-to-speech and the phone line through at each provider's own price, with no markup. With the providers in Vapi's calculator a minute costs $0.0681 to $0.1313 before the phone line, and Vapi's own telephony is free. Its default stack of Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs comes to $81.87 to $129 for 1,000 minutes a month.
Vapi pricing calculator
It opens on Vapi's own default picks. Each provider has a per-minute range in Vapi's calculator, so totals are ranges.
1,000 minutes a month on Vapi: $81.87 to $129, or $0.0819 to $0.129 a minute on average.
| Part | Per minute | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Vapi hosting | $0.05 | $50.00 |
| Transcriber (speech to text) Deepgram | $0.00953 to $0.00994 | $9.53 to $9.94 |
| Language model OpenAI | $0.00774 to $0.04523 | $7.74 to $45.23 |
| Voice (text to speech) ElevenLabs | $0.0146 to $0.02383 | $14.60 to $23.83 |
| Transport (phone line) Vapi Telephony / SIP | $0 | $0 |
| Success package No success package | – | $0 |
| Total | $0.0819 to $0.129 | $81.87 to $129 |
What each part costs
Vapi's hosting fee is $0.05 a minute. The rest is billed at each provider's price; the ranges are the ones Vapi's calculator shows for each provider, across its models.
Speech to text
| Transcriber | Per minute | 1,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| AssemblyAI | $0.00521 to $0.00747 | $5.21 to $7.47 |
| Deepgram | $0.00953 to $0.00994 | $9.53 to $9.94 |
| OpenAI | $0.0118 to $0.01221 | $11.80 to $12.21 |
Language model
| Model provider | Per minute | 1,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| $0.006 to $0.03329 | $6.00 to $33.29 | |
| OpenAI | $0.00774 to $0.04523 | $7.74 to $45.23 |
| Anthropic | $0.00818 to $0.03656 | $8.18 to $36.56 |
Voice
| Voice provider | Per minute | 1,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Cartesia | $0.00689 to $0.01294 | $6.89 to $12.94 |
| Vapi | $0.00695 to $0.01934 | $6.95 to $19.34 |
| ElevenLabs | $0.0146 to $0.02383 | $14.60 to $23.83 |
Phone line
| Transport | Per minute | 1,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Vapi Telephony / SIP | $0 | $0 |
| Vapi WebSockets | $0 | $0 |
| Daily WebRTC | $0 | $0 |
| Telnyx | $0.0055 | $5.50 |
| Twilio, inbound | $0.008 | $8.00 |
| Vonage | $0.00814 | $8.14 |
| Twilio, outbound | $0.014 | $14.00 |
Vapi lists transport as charged by the provider, not Vapi. Its figure for Twilio inbound, $0.008 a minute, is below Twilio's own US list price of $0.0085 for a local number.
What 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 minutes cost
| Stack | 1,000 min | 5,000 min | 10,000 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest picks AssemblyAI, Google and Cartesia | $68.10 to $104 | $341 to $519 | $681 to $1,037 |
| Vapi's default picks Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs | $81.87 to $129 | $409 to $645 | $819 to $1,290 |
| Dearest picks OpenAI and ElevenLabs | $84.14 to $131 | $421 to $656 | $841 to $1,313 |
Over Vapi telephony, without a success package.
Success packages
- No success package: no monthly fee; pay only for the minutes.
- Core: $29 a month.
- Pro: 10% of the Vapi hosting fee, at least $999 a month. At $0.05 a minute the minimum covers up to 199,800 minutes a month.
- Vapi adds its $0.05-a-minute hosting fee to speech-to-text, the language model, text-to-speech and transport, each billed at the provider's listed price with no markup.
- Usage is prepaid. New accounts get $5 of free credit, one Vapi phone number and 4 concurrent calls.
- The Pro package costs 10% of the Vapi hosting fee, at least $999 a month; model costs don't count toward it.
- Add-ons: extra concurrent call lines cost $10 a month each, extra organizations $20 a month, and HIPAA-eligible data handling $2,000 a month.
- Vapi's own calculator puts 1,000 minutes a month with Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs over Vapi telephony at $82 to $129.
Vapi against the other platforms
| Platform | Cheapest picks | Dearest picks | 1,000 min a month | 10,000 min a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vapi | $0.0681 AssemblyAI, Google and Cartesia | $0.1313 OpenAI and ElevenLabs | $68.10 | $681 |
| Retell AI | $0.0716 GPT 5 nano and Retell Platform Voices | $0.795 GPT 6 Astra, fast tier and ElevenLabs v3 | $71.60 | $716 |
| Deepgram Voice Agent API | $0.075 the Standard tier | $0.163 the Advanced tier | $75.00 | $750 |
| Bland | $0.12 the Build plan | $0.14 the Start plan | $140 Start | $1,400 Start |
Per minute of conversation before the phone line, at each vendor's own prices: the platform fee with the cheapest, then the dearest, model and voice it lists, no add-ons. Monthly figures use the cheapest picks on the cheapest plan for that volume.
| Platform | Per minute | Billed on top |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Agents | $0.08 | Language model |
| OpenAI GPT-Live | $0.05 | Backend model and tools |
| OpenAI Realtime API | Tokens | Everything: audio and text tokens, with the conversation re-sent each turn |
| Twilio ConversationRelay | $0.07 | Your language model |
Every platform side by side, with a calculator for each: AI voice agent cost per minute. Vapi's closest rival on price: Retell AI pricing.
Quick answers
How much does Vapi cost per minute?
$0.05 a minute for Vapi's hosting, plus the providers you pick at their own price: $0.0681 to $0.1313 a minute in all with the providers in Vapi's calculator, before any phone line. Over Vapi's own telephony the line is free.
Does Vapi have a monthly fee?
Not without a success package: usage is prepaid at $0.05 a minute plus model costs. The Core package costs $29 a month, and Pro 10% of the hosting fee with a $999 monthly minimum.
Does Vapi mark up model costs?
No. Vapi says speech-to-text, the language model, text-to-speech and transport are each billed at the provider's listed price with no markup, and its hosting fee is added on top.
What do 1,000 minutes a month cost on Vapi?
$81.87 to $129 with Vapi's default Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs, and from $68.10 with the cheapest providers it lists, over Vapi telephony and without a success package.
Is Vapi cheaper than Retell AI?
On the cheapest picks each lists, slightly: $0.0681 a minute on Vapi against $0.0716 on Retell AI. Vapi's platform fee is $0.05 to Retell's $0.055, and Vapi's own telephony is free; the model you choose matters more than either fee.
Sources
Read on 7 October 2026:
Show the quoted text
No Success Package Get started for free, and then pay only for the minutes that run $0 to start Pre-paid, $0.05/min Vapi hosting. Models pass-through at cost Start building $5 free credits to get you started 2 organizations 1 included Vapi phone number 4 concurrent calls
vapi.ai/pricing
Core For builders & early teams $29 / month Pre-paid, auto-renew Models pass-through at cost Contact Sales 2 organizations 5 included Vapi phone numbers 10 concurrent calls
vapi.ai/pricing
Pro For scaling teams in production 10% of Vapi hosting fee $999/mo minimum Models pass-through at cost Contact Sales 10 organizations 10 included Vapi phone numbers 30 concurrent calls
vapi.ai/pricing
Four components: speech-to-text, the language model, text-to-speech, and transport. Each is billed at the provider's listed price with no markup. Vapi's $0.05/min hosting fee is added on top.
vapi.ai/pricing. The answer to the page's question "What exactly is in the per-minute cost?", from the page's own data.
It's a percentage of your Vapi hosting fees, model costs are not included.
vapi.ai/pricing. The answer to the page's question "How is the Pro package price calculated?", from the page's own data.
Transcriber Deepgram $0.0095 - $0.0099/min Intelligence Model OpenAI $0.0077 - $0.0452/min Voice ElevenLabs $0.0146 - $0.0238/min
vapi.ai/pricing. The calculator's default picks.
{"id":"transcriber","label":"Transcriber","providers":[{"value":"deepgram","label":"Deepgram","priceLow":0.00953,"priceHigh":0.00994},{"value":"assemblyai","label":"AssemblyAI","priceLow":0.00521,"priceHigh":0.00747},{"value":"openai","label":"OpenAI","priceLow":0.0118,"priceHigh":0.01221}]
vapi.ai/pricing. The calculator's own data: the per-minute range it shows for each transcriber.
{"id":"model","label":"Intelligence Model","providers":[{"value":"openai","label":"OpenAI","priceLow":0.00774,"priceHigh":0.04523},{"value":"anthropic","label":"Anthropic","priceLow":0.00818,"priceHigh":0.03656},{"value":"google","label":"Google","priceLow":0.006,"priceHigh":0.03329}]
vapi.ai/pricing. The calculator's own data: the per-minute range it shows for each model provider.
{"id":"voice","label":"Voice","providers":[{"value":"elevenlabs","label":"ElevenLabs","priceLow":0.0146,"priceHigh":0.02383},{"value":"vapi","label":"Vapi","priceLow":0.00695,"priceHigh":0.01934},{"value":"cartesia","label":"Cartesia","priceLow":0.00689,"priceHigh":0.01294}]
vapi.ai/pricing. The calculator's own data: the per-minute range it shows for each voice provider.
Transport Fee Network and data transport services (Charged by provider, not Vapi) Vapi Telephony / SIP Vapi Telephony / SIP Free Vapi WebSockets Free Daily WebRTC Free Twilio Inbound $0.008 / min Twilio Outbound $0.014 / min Vonage $0.00814 / min Telnyx $0.0055 / min
vapi.ai/pricing
Your Estimate Hosting Fee 1,000 minutes $50 Transcriber Deepgram $10 Intelligence Model OpenAI $8 - $45 Voice ElevenLabs $15 - $24 Transport Fee Vapi Telephony / SIP $0 Success Package No Success Package $0 Estimated Total $ 82 – $ 129 /mo
vapi.ai/pricing
HIPAA compliance HIPAA eligible data handling. Standard Data Processing Agreement and Business Associate Agreement $2,000 / month Additional concurrency Extra concurrent call lines beyond your package default $10 / line / month Additional organizations Extra workspaces beyond your package default $20 / organization / month
vapi.ai/pricing
Number type To make calls To receive calls Refer from Twilio Local calls $0.0140 / min $0.0085 / min Toll-free calls $0.0140 / min $0.0220 / min Browser/app $0.0040 / min $0.0040 / min SIP interface $0.0040 / min $0.0040 / min
twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us
Prices on this page were checked against the official pricing pages on .