Retell AI Pricing (2026): Per-Minute Costs by Component, Add-ons and Concurrency

Retell AI pricing, in short: pay as you go at $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, built from parts — $0.055 for the voice engine, $0.015 and up for the voice, $0.0016 to $0.64 for the language model, and $0.015 for Retell's telephony. New accounts get $10 in free credit and 20 concurrent calls; extra lines are $8 a month each. Enterprise is custom.

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

Retell is a developer platform for AI phone agents. Unlike flat-rate platforms, it prices each layer of a call separately, so two agents on the same plan can cost three times as much per minute. This guide lists each component, the add-ons and monthly items, and works out what common builds cost.

Key takeaways

How much does Retell AI cost per minute?

Retell AI costs $0.07 to $0.31 a minute on pay as you go, according to its pricing page. Where you land depends on the language model and voice you choose; the $0.055 voice engine fee is the same on every call.

Prices checked on retellai.com/pricing on 26 October 2026, in US dollars, including the detailed component tables and billing FAQ. Retell changes its model list often; confirm current rates before you commit.

What does each LLM cost on Retell?

The language model is the biggest swing in a Retell bill: from under a cent to more than 30 cents a minute. Retell lists a standard rate and, for many models, a faster tier at roughly double.

The page lists more than 30 models; this is a spread from cheapest to most expensive. Retell also prices speech-to-speech models as their own category: GPT Realtime mini and 2.1 mini at $0.07 a minute, GPT Realtime and 1.5 at $0.345, and GPT Realtime 2 and 2.1 at $0.38.

What does a Retell AI agent cost per month?

A mid-range Retell agent costs about $0.125 a minute, or $250 for 2,000 minutes a month, before add-ons. The table builds three configurations from the listed rates, all on Retell's US telephony.

Retell's own cost estimator shows the typical build at $0.11 a minute with custom telephony; add $0.015 for its numbers and you reach $0.125. Bringing your own carrier removes Retell's telephony line, but you then pay that carrier instead.

What add-ons and monthly fees does Retell charge?

Retell charges per-minute add-ons for features such as knowledge bases and denoising, per-call fees for batch dialling and branded caller ID, and monthly fees for numbers, extra concurrency and extra knowledge bases.

Two of these matter for outbound teams. Branded calls at $0.10 each can exceed the cost of a short call itself. And if you want 30 calls running at once, the ten extra lines add $80 a month.

How does Retell bill calls?

Retell tracks each call to the nearest second and bills the total minutes at the end of the billing cycle, with no rounding up per call. Its FAQ spells out the edge cases:

• Silence and hold are billed, because transcription keeps listening.
• Transfers: the AI agent fee stops once the call is transferred; telephony continues for the rest of the call.
• Failed calls that never connect are not billed.
• Voicemail is billed only while the agent is active on the line.

For outbound campaigns, that last point matters: many dials reach voicemail, and an agent that leaves a 20-second message still uses paid minutes.

Does Retell AI have a free plan or Enterprise pricing?

Retell has no free plan, but pay as you go starts at $0 with $10 in free credit, full platform access and 20 concurrent calls. Enterprise is custom-priced and adds what regulated and high-volume teams need.

Is Retell cheaper than Bland or Vapi?

It can be, depending on the model and voice. Before telephony, a typical Retell build costs $0.11 a minute, under the $0.14 Start rate in our Bland guide (which also excludes telephony), and a budget build is cheaper still; a premium voice and large model push it past. For the detail, see Bland AI pricing, Bland AI vs Retell AI, Retell AI vs Vapi and our breakdown of AI voice agent cost per minute.

In Scalry, which publishes this guide, voice agents are part of the $29, $79 and $199 plans: call time is billed in credits from the plan's balance, each campaign has a calling window and do-not-call suppression, and outcomes land on the contact record. It is not a developer platform, so you do not choose the model or voice per minute the way you do on Retell.

What are the alternatives to Retell AI?

The main alternatives to Retell AI are Vapi, Bland AI and Synthflow. Vapi is the closest: a developer platform charging $0.05 a minute for hosting plus providers, with 4 concurrent calls on pay-as-you-go against Retell's 20. Bland bundles the AI stack into one rate ($0.14 a minute on Start), and Synthflow sells managed enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year. Our Vapi alternatives guide compares all of them on current pricing.

Checked on vapi.ai/pricing, bland.ai/pricing and synthflow.ai/pricing on 26 October 2026.

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.

• Which model do you need? It moves the rate more than anything else.
• Standard or premium voice? ElevenLabs adds $0.025 to $0.085 a minute.
• How many calls at once? Above 20, add $8 a line a month.
• Whose telephony? Your own trunk removes $0.015 a minute.
• Which add-ons are on? Each one is billed on every minute.

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

Frequently asked questions

How much does Retell AI cost per minute?

$0.07 to $0.31 a minute on pay as you go, as listed on retellai.com/pricing in October 2026: $0.055 for the voice engine plus the voice, LLM and telephony you choose.

Does Retell AI have a free trial?

New accounts get $10 in free credit with full platform access and no commitment. There is no ongoing free plan.

How many concurrent calls does Retell include?

20 concurrent calls are free. Each extra concurrent call costs $8 a month; Enterprise has no cap.

Does Retell charge for telephony?

$0.015 a minute on its Twilio or Telnyx numbers in the US, plus $2 a month per Retell number. Your own SIP trunk or custom telephony carries no Retell charge.

Does Retell charge for silence or voicemail?

Silence and hold are billed. Voicemail is billed only while the agent is on the line, and calls that fail to connect are free.

What does Retell's branded call add-on cost?

$0.10 per outbound call to show your business name as caller ID. Verified phone numbers are a separate $10 a month per number.

How Scalry's voice agents handle calling windows, do-not-call lists and CRM logging is described on the AI voice agents page.