Vapi vs Twilio ConversationRelay on price
With the cheapest picks each lists, a minute costs Vapi $0.0621 and Twilio ConversationRelay $0.07, before the language model and the phone line; with the dearest, $0.086 and $0.07, so which is cheaper depends on what you pick. At 10,000 minutes a month that comes to $621 on Vapi and $700 on Twilio ConversationRelay, so Vapi is cheaper before the model. Vapi charges $0.05 a minute for Vapi hosting, plus $0.0121 for the cheapest speech to text and voice it lists (AssemblyAI and Cartesia); Twilio ConversationRelay charges $0.07 a minute with speech to text and voice included. Neither marks up the language model: it costs the provider's own price on either, so the same model costs the same and the difference is everything else.
Part by part
A minute of conversation, as each vendor's pricing page splits it:
| Part | Vapi | Twilio ConversationRelay |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | $0.05 (Vapi hosting) | $0.07 (Conversation Relay), speech to text and voice included |
| Speech to text | $0.00521 (AssemblyAI) to $0.01221 (OpenAI), at the provider's price | Included in the $0.07 rate |
| Language model | $0.006 (Google) to $0.04523 (OpenAI), at the provider's price | Your own model, paid to its provider |
| Voice | $0.00689 (Cartesia) to $0.02383 (ElevenLabs), at the provider's price | Included in the $0.07 rate |
| Phone line | Free over Vapi telephony or SIP; other carriers at their own price, $0.0055 to $0.014 | The Twilio call itself, on top: $0.0085 a minute inbound on a local number, $0.014 outbound |
| A minute, before the language model and the phone line | $0.0621 to $0.086 | $0.07 |
| With a US inbound line | $0.0621 to $0.086 Vapi Telephony / SIP: $0 | $0.0785 Twilio local number, inbound, at Twilio's price: $0.0085 |
The range runs from the cheapest to the dearest option each vendor lists for every part, without add-ons. The US line is the vendor's own where it sells one, otherwise a Twilio local number at Twilio's inbound price; number rental is left out. The language model is left out because at least one side bills it by the token with no per-minute price; how each bills it is below.
What a month costs
| Minutes a month | Vapi | Twilio ConversationRelay |
|---|---|---|
| 100 minutes | $6.21 to $8.60 | $7.00 |
| 1,000 minutes | $62.10 to $86.04 | $70.00 |
| 10,000 minutes | $621 to $860 | $700 |
| 50,000 minutes | $3,105 to $4,302 | $3,500 |
Each side's cheapest picks on the plan that costs least for that volume, then (smaller) its dearest picks; bold marks the cheaper, before the language model and the phone line. Plans with included minutes or a lower rate are counted where they lower the bill; phone number rental, extra concurrency and taxes are left out.
How the language model is billed
- Vapi passes it through at the provider's price with no markup: $0.006 to $0.04523 a minute across the providers in its calculator.
- Twilio ConversationRelay doesn't bill it: you bring your own model and pay its provider directly.
Free credit and calls at once
- Vapi: Usage is prepaid. New accounts get $5 of free credit, one Vapi phone number and 4 concurrent calls. 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.
- Twilio ConversationRelay: Its pricing page lists no free credit or concurrency limit.
Latency, in each vendor's words
- Vapi: “<500ms average latency”
- Twilio ConversationRelay: “Twilio Conversation Relay is built to sound natural with median latency under 0.5 seconds and under 0.725 seconds at the 95th percentile, per internal benchmarks.”
These are the vendors' own claims. None says what is timed or under what conditions, and they don't use the same measure, so they can't be ranked against each other; test on your own calls.
Price your own stack
Pick a platform, then its parts and your minutes. The phone line opens on an inbound call to a Twilio US local number at Twilio's price; set it to none for web or app calls.
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 |
Vapi or Twilio ConversationRelay: quick answers
Is Vapi cheaper than Twilio ConversationRelay?
It depends on what you pick. With the cheapest picks each lists, Vapi costs least: $0.0621 a minute on Vapi and $0.07 a minute on Twilio ConversationRelay, before the language model and the phone line. At 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 minutes a month: Vapi $62.10, $621 and $3,105; Twilio ConversationRelay $70.00, $700 and $3,500. With the dearest picks Twilio ConversationRelay costs least: $0.086 on Vapi and $0.07 on Twilio ConversationRelay. The language model costs the provider's own price on each.
How much do Vapi and Twilio ConversationRelay cost per minute?
Vapi: a platform fee of $0.05 (Vapi hosting); $0.0621 to $0.086 a minute before the language model and the phone line, from its cheapest to its dearest picks. Twilio ConversationRelay: a platform fee of $0.07 (Conversation Relay), speech to text and voice included; $0.07 a minute before the language model and the phone line.
What do Vapi and Twilio ConversationRelay include in the price, and what's billed on top?
Vapi: only its own fee in the rate; speech to text, language model and voice billed on top; phone line: free over Vapi telephony or SIP; other carriers at their own price, $0.0055 to $0.014. Twilio ConversationRelay: speech to text and voice in the rate; language model billed on top; phone line: the Twilio call itself, on top: $0.0085 a minute inbound on a local number, $0.014 outbound.
How is the language model billed on Vapi and Twilio ConversationRelay?
Vapi passes it through at the provider's price with no markup: $0.006 to $0.04523 a minute across the providers in its calculator. Twilio ConversationRelay doesn't bill it: you bring your own model and pay its provider directly.
Do Vapi and Twilio ConversationRelay give free credit, and how many calls can run at once?
Vapi: Usage is prepaid. New accounts get $5 of free credit, one Vapi phone number and 4 concurrent calls. 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. Twilio ConversationRelay: Its pricing page lists no free credit or concurrency limit.
Which is faster, Vapi or Twilio ConversationRelay?
Vapi says “<500ms average latency”. Twilio ConversationRelay says “Twilio Conversation Relay is built to sound natural with median latency under 0.5 seconds and under 0.725 seconds at the 95th percentile, per internal benchmarks.” None says what is timed or under what conditions, and they don't use the same measure, so the figures can't be ranked against each other.
Each platform in full: Vapi, Twilio ConversationRelay. Every platform side by side: AI voice agent cost per minute.
Other comparisons: Retell AI vs Vapi, Vapi vs ElevenLabs Agents, Vapi vs Bland AI, Retell AI vs Vapi vs ElevenLabs Agents.
Sources
Read on 7 October 2026:
- vapi.ai/pricing
- twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us
- twilio.com/en-us/products/conversational-ai/conversationrelay
- vapi.ai/
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
Receive calls Number type Price Local numbers $0.0085 / min + $1.15 / mo Toll-free numbers $0.0220 / min + $2.15 / mo
twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us
Media Streams $0.0044 / min SIPREC $0.0044 / min Conversation Relay $0.07 / min
twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us
Pricing current as of August 2026
twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us
Yes. Twilio Conversation Relay is built for bring-your-own-LLM, so you control the UX, the costs, and can adopt new models as they ship. You get natural human-sounding TTS and real-time STT out of the box. Or, you can bring your own text-to-speech for a fully custom voice.
twilio.com/en-us/products/conversational-ai/conversationrelay
<500ms average latency
vapi.ai/
Twilio Conversation Relay is built to sound natural with median latency under 0.5 seconds and under 0.725 seconds at the 95th percentile, per internal benchmarks.
twilio.com/en-us/products/conversational-ai/conversationrelay
Prices on this page were checked against the official pricing pages on .