Bland AI vs Retell AI (2026): Per-Minute Cost, Limits and Which to Pick

Bland AI vs Retell AI, in short: Bland charges $0.14 a minute on Start (or $0.12 plus $299 a month on Build) for the model, transcription and voice together, with telephony extra. Retell charges $0.055 a minute for its platform plus the voice, model and phone line you pick, typically $0.07 to $0.31 a minute all in. A mid-range Retell build costs about the same as Bland Start.

More on this topic: Calls, SMS and AI voice agents, every guide in one place.

Both are platforms for building AI phone agents that answer and make calls. The difference is philosophy. Bland runs its own stack and sells one number per minute, with Enterprise options for regulated teams. Retell lets you choose the model and voice per agent and bills each component, with more concurrency included for free. Here is how that plays out on a real bill.

Key takeaways

Is Bland AI or Retell AI cheaper?

On a mid-range build the per-minute totals are close; the fixed costs differ more. Bland's cheaper rate needs a $299 subscription, while Retell charges for extra concurrency instead.

At 3,000 minutes a month, a mid-range Retell build at about $0.125 a minute is roughly $375 plus a $2 number. Bland Start is $420 before telephony; Bland Build is $659 including the $299 fee, and only beats Start on price above about 15,000 minutes. Full breakdowns are in Bland AI pricing and AI voice agent cost per minute.

Pricing for both products was checked against the public Scalry and Bland AI and Retell AI pricing pages in October 2026. SaaS pricing changes often — confirm the current numbers with each vendor before you commit to a plan.

Bland AI vs Retell AI: how do the features compare?

Bland bundles its own AI stack and reserves many features for Enterprise; Retell prices each component and includes more concurrency and smaller features self-serve.

The costs that don't appear on either pricing page

• Bland telephony is billed on top of the per-minute rate unless you bring your own carrier.
• Bland's caps: Start's 100 calls a day forces Build for most outbound campaigns.
• Retell's model and voice choices can more than double the minute rate with premium options.
• Retell concurrency: a 30-line campaign is $80 a month extra.
• Voicemail and short calls burn minutes on both.
• Engineering time is the largest cost on either for a small team.

Where Bland AI wins

One predictable number

Model, transcription and voice in a single per-minute rate, with no token charges, makes Bland easier to budget and to explain to finance.

Enterprise and regulated deployments

On-prem or VPC deployment, data residency, BAA and SSO, plus forward-deployed engineers, suit healthcare, finance and large contact centres.

High volume on Build

Fifty concurrent calls and 2,000 a day on the self-serve Build plan cover a sizeable outbound operation.

Where Retell AI wins

More concurrency without a plan

Twenty simultaneous calls are included on pay-as-you-go, twice Bland Start's ten, with no daily cap on the pricing page.

Model and voice choice

Pick a cheap fast model for simple calls and a stronger one for complex ones, per agent. A light model can bring the rate close to $0.07 a minute.

Smaller features self-serve

SMS, knowledge bases and branded caller ID are priced on the page rather than reserved for an enterprise contract.

Bland AI vs Retell AI: which should you choose?

Choose Bland for one predictable rate and enterprise deployment options; choose Retell for model choice and more concurrency without a subscription.

Estimate calls a day, concurrency and your preferred model before comparing rates. For most small deployments the monthly bill is within a few dollars either way; the caps, the subscription and the compliance terms decide it.

How to test Bland AI and Retell AI without wasting a fortnight

Feature matrices settle less than two days of real use. Both products will demo well; what you want to know is which one is annoying on a Tuesday.

• Rebuild one real campaign in each, end to end — the page, the form, the follow-up, the handoff. Not a test campaign; the one that matters.
• Import a real segment, not ten sample contacts. Field mapping problems only appear with real data.
• Time the boring tasks. Logging an activity, editing a sequence, finding last month's numbers. You will do these hundreds of times.
• Give it to the person who will actually use it, not the person evaluating it. Adoption is decided by them.
• Price both at next year's size before deciding — Bland AI and Retell AI scale on different axes, so today's comparison will not hold.
• Test the export. Confirm you can get your data out on day one, not on the day you want to leave.

Questions to ask before you commit

Whichever way you are leaning, these are the questions that change the answer. Work through them against your own numbers rather than anyone's feature matrix — including this one.

• How many calls a day and at once? Bland Start stops at 100 and 10.
• Which model and voice? Retell's rate depends on it.
• Whose phone numbers? Bring-your-own changes both bills.
• Do you need a BAA? Get the terms in writing from either.
• Do you have consent to call? AI-voiced calls fall under the TCPA in the US.

If you cannot answer the first three, you are not ready to choose between Scalry and Bland AI or Retell AI yet — you are still deciding what you need, which is a cheaper problem to solve first.

A third option, briefly

If what you need is a voice agent that calls leads and logs the result to a CRM, without building the integration, a platform with voice agents built in is simpler. Scalry includes voice agents in its $29 to $199 plans, billed in credits, with calling windows and do-not-call suppression on every campaign. It offers far less control over models than either developer platform.

That is the whole pitch, and it is last for a reason — if one of the two tools above fits, use it. Our pricing study compares thirteen platforms including both, and the cost calculator prices them against your own team size.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bland AI or Retell AI cheaper?

On a mid-range build they are close: about $0.125 a minute on Retell including telephony, against $0.14 on Bland Start plus telephony. Retell is cheaper with a light model; Bland Build is cheaper only at very high volume.

How much does Bland AI cost per minute?

$0.14 on Start and $0.12 on Build, which adds a $299 monthly fee, as listed on bland.ai/pricing in October 2026.

How much does Retell AI cost per minute?

Retell lists $0.07 to $0.31 a minute: $0.055 for voice infrastructure, $0.015 for telephony, plus the voice and model you choose.

How many concurrent calls do Bland and Retell allow?

Bland allows 10 on Start and 50 on Build. Retell includes 20, then $8 per extra line a month.

Which is better for HIPAA?

Bland lists BAA, SSO and data residency on Enterprise. Retell lists HIPAA readiness with a BAA. Get each vendor's terms in writing for your use case.

Are AI voice calls legal?

In the US, AI-generated voices are treated as artificial voices under the TCPA, so calls need the consent the TCPA requires. See are AI voice calls legal before calling.