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The best AI voice agents
We rated 10 AI agents that answer and make phone calls: they talk in real time, take actions during the call and pass the caller to a person when needed. Each one is scored on what it can do, what it costs, how much control you get, how it handles data and what its customers say.
Ratings
- 1
Highest ratedRetell AIby Retell AI
A developer-friendly platform for building AI phone agents that answer and place calls, priced per minute.
- Pricing
- $0.07–$0.31 per minute; about $0.15 with the default model, voice and a Retell number
- Best for
- Teams building their own inbound and outbound phone agents that call their APIs during the call
- 2
Blandby Bland Inc.
An enterprise voice AI platform that runs its own speech and language models for phone agents.
- Pricing
- From $0.14/min with no platform fee (Start); $0.12/min on Build at $299/month
- Best for
- Healthcare, insurance and financial teams that need a BAA, PCI DSS and region-pinned calls
- 3
ElevenAgentsby ElevenLabs
A voice and chat agent platform from ElevenLabs that answers and places calls over Twilio or SIP.
- Pricing
- Free to $990/month with 15 to 12,375 call minutes; extra minutes $0.08; LLM billed on top
- Best for
- Teams that want lifelike voices in many languages on inbound and outbound calls
- 4
Vapiby Vapi
A developer platform for building AI phone agents, billed per minute plus the AI providers' costs.
- Pricing
- $0.05 per minute hosting plus provider costs with no markup; packages from $29/month
- Best for
- Developer teams that want to pick their own transcriber, model and voice for each agent
- 5
Synthflowby Synthflow (AgentFlow AI GmbH)
An enterprise voice AI platform with a no-code flow designer for phone, chat, SMS and WhatsApp agents.
- Pricing
- Enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year
- Best for
- Contact centers on Genesys, Five9, Talkdesk or RingCentral that want AI agents over SIP
- 6
Telnyx Voice AI Agentsby Telnyx
Voice AI agents from carrier Telnyx, with phone lines, speech models and LLMs on one network.
- Pricing
- $0.05/min voice engine + LLM tokens + telephony at carrier cost; no monthly fee on pay as you go
- Best for
- Teams that want phone numbers, calling and the AI agent from one vendor on one bill
- 7
Parloa AMPby Parloa
An enterprise platform for building, testing and running AI voice and chat agents in contact centers.
- Pricing
- Quote only (per minute for voice, per interaction for chat)
- Best for
- Large enterprises that want one platform to build, simulate and monitor voice agents
- 8
NiCE Cognigyby NiCE
An enterprise platform for AI voice and chat agents that plugs into existing contact center telephony.
- Pricing
- Quote only; AWS Marketplace entry contract with voice $53,916 a year
- Best for
- Enterprise contact centers already on NiCE CXone, Genesys, Avaya or Amazon Connect
- 9
PolyAIby PolyAI
Enterprise voice agents for contact centers that take calls, act in your systems and hand off over SIP.
- Pricing
- Quote only (billed per minute)
- Best for
- Enterprise contact centers with high inbound call volume
- 10
Regalby Regal Voice Inc.
AI phone, SMS and chat agents for B2C contact centers, with a built-in dialer and journey builder.
- Pricing
- Quote only; Regal says its AI agents generally cost about $0.20 a minute
- Best for
- Consumer brands running high-volume sales, scheduling or collections calls
Compare the scores
Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5. The last column is what you would pay for 1,000 minutes of AI phone calls a month, including the vendor's own voice, model and phone-line charges, using public prices only.
| Tool | Score | What it can do | Pricing | Control | Security and data | Customer evidence | Pricing | Cost / 1,000 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retell AI | 9.3 | per minute | $151 | |||||
| Bland | 9.0 | platform fee + usage | $140 | |||||
| ElevenAgents | 9.0 | subscription + per minute | $80 | |||||
| Vapi | 8.6 | per minute + provider costs | $129 | |||||
| Synthflow | 8.4 | quote only | Quote | |||||
| Telnyx Voice AI Agents | 8.4 | per minute + usage | $63 | |||||
| Parloa AMP | 8.2 | quote only | Quote | |||||
| NiCE Cognigy | 8.0 | annual contract by conversation volume | $4,493 | |||||
| PolyAI | 7.2 | quote only | Quote | |||||
| Regal | 6.9 | quote only | Quote |
How we rate
5 criteria, each with written rules for every level. The weighted total is the score out of 10. Read the full method.
What it can do
Can it hold a real phone conversation and get the caller's task done, on inbound and outbound calls?
Pricing
Can you work out what you will pay before talking to sales?
Control
Can your team test calls before launch, set rules and review every call?
Security and data
Is your data handled to a standard you can show an auditor?
Customer evidence
Do independent reviews and named customers back up the vendor's story?
Questions
What is the best AI voice agent?
Retell AI by Retell AI scores highest in our ratings, at 9.3 out of 10, ahead of Bland at 9.0. Retell suits teams that want to build and run their own inbound and outbound phone agents, with public per-minute prices and the second-best result in G2's hands-on customer-service test. The catch is that you assemble the bill and the build yourself: the default setup costs about $0.15 a minute, there is no EU hosting, and roles and SSO sit on the Enterprise plan.
How much does an AI voice agent cost?
Using public prices only, you would pay for 1,000 minutes of AI phone calls a month, including the vendor's own voice, model and phone-line charges, using public prices only ranges from $63 (Telnyx Voice AI Agents) to $4,493 (NiCE Cognigy). Synthflow, Parloa AMP, PolyAI and Regal do not publish enough to work this out.
Which of them publish their prices?
Retell AI, Bland, ElevenAgents, Vapi and Telnyx Voice AI Agents publish clear prices. The rest show only an entry tier, leave usage limits vague, or sell by quote.
Do they train on my callers' data?
Retell AI and Synthflow state that your data is not used to train their models, at least on business plans. For the others, check the terms before you sign; each review notes what the vendor publishes.
How do you rate them?
Every tool is scored from 1 to 5 on each of these criteria: what it can do (30%), pricing (20%), control (20%), security and data (15%), customer evidence (15%). The weighted total gives a score out of 10. Each level has a written rule, and every score links to its sources.