Retell AI pricing · October 2026
Retell AI pricing, explained line by line
Retell AI publishes every component of its price, and its headline range for voice agents is $0.07 to $0.31 a minute. Where you land in that range depends on five lines: voice infrastructure, the language model, the voice, telephony and add-ons. Here is each line, the billing rules that decide how many minutes you pay for, a worked example for a receptionist line, and how it compares with VoiceDock.
Checked on retellai.com and docs.retellai.com on 21 October 2026 · prices in US dollars
Retell's calculator does not say which model or voice its default uses. Telephony on your own SIP trunk carries no Retell charge.
The short answer
What a Retell minute really costs
Every Retell minute carries a $0.055 voice infrastructure fee. On top come the language model you pick, the voice you pick, telephony if you use a Retell number, and add-ons such as a knowledge base or PII removal. Retell's own calculator default comes to $0.11 a minute before telephony; its headline range runs from $0.07 to $0.31.
Where Vapi passes models through at cost, Retell lists its own per-minute price for each model and voice. That makes the bill easy to predict, and it means the model and voice you choose decide most of the gap between the bottom and the top of the range. How those meters add up in general is in what a voice agent costs per minute, and the same breakdown for Vapi and Bland AI is on their own pages.
Every line on the bill
What Retell charges for
Pay-as-you-go is the only plan with published prices; Enterprise is priced on request. All figures per minute unless stated.
| Line item | Published price (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Voice infrastructure | $0.055 per minute | Flat platform fee for running the real-time call |
| Language model | Per model, per minute | The published list runs from under $0.01 to more than $0.30 a minute; a model's fast tier costs up to twice its standard price |
| Voice (text-to-speech) | $0.015 per minute for most voices; ElevenLabs $0.04 to $0.10 | Retell platform, Cartesia, OpenAI, Minimax, Fish and Inworld voices at $0.015; ElevenLabs Flash $0.04, Multilingual v2 $0.06, v3 and v4 $0.10 |
| Speech-to-speech models | $0.07 to $0.38 per minute | Listed separately; the page does not say whether the infrastructure and voice lines still apply |
| Telephony on a Retell number | $0.015 per minute | Toll-free numbers cost $0.06 per minute for inbound calls, according to Retell's docs |
| Telephony over your own SIP trunk | No Retell charge | Your carrier bills you |
| Phone number | $2 per month | US and Canada; toll-free $5 per month according to the docs; your own numbers free |
| Concurrent calls | 20 included, then $8 per call per month | Per workspace |
| Calls above your concurrency limit | +$0.10 per minute for the whole call | Within Retell's burst allowance |
| Knowledge base | +$0.005 per minute | First 10 knowledge bases free, then $8 each per month |
| Advanced denoising, safety guardrails | +$0.005 per minute each | Optional |
| PII removal | +$0.01 per minute | Optional |
| AI quality assurance | $0.10 per minute | First 100 minutes free |
| Batch calls, branded caller ID | +$0.005 per dial; $0.10 per outbound call | Outbound only |
| SMS | $20 per month plus $0.01 per message | No charge for SMS over your own telephony |
| Free credit | $10 | Once per email address |
| Enterprise | Custom | Volume pricing, custom contract terms, higher concurrency |
Billing rules
How Retell measures a minute
The per-minute prices are half the story. These rules decide how many minutes you are billed for.
| Rule | What Retell's pages say |
|---|---|
| Metering | Each call is tracked to the second, with no rounding up per call |
| Silence and hold | Billed: the whole duration of the call counts, because transcription keeps listening |
| Transfers | Once a call is transferred, the agent fee stops and only telephony continues |
| Failed calls and voicemail | Calls that fail to connect are not billed; voicemail only for the time the agent is on the line |
| Prompts over 4,000 tokens | Billed duration is scaled up in proportion to the tokens: Retell's example bills a 60-second call with 4,800 tokens as 72 seconds |
| Short calls where the AI speaks first | A 10-second minimum for calls under 10 seconds that use a dynamic opening message |
| Over the concurrency limit | Inbound calls wait about 40 seconds for a free slot, then go to a fallback number or end |
Worked example
A receptionist line taking 1,000 calls a month
Take an inbound AI receptionist answering 1,000 calls a month at three minutes each: 3,000 minutes. Retell's calculator default stack, one Retell number in the US, no add-ons.
| Line | Calculation | Per month (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Voice infrastructure | 3,000 × $0.055 | $165.00 |
| Language model (calculator default) | 3,000 × $0.04 | $120.00 |
| Voice (calculator default) | 3,000 × $0.015 | $45.00 |
| Telephony, Retell US number | 3,000 × $0.015 | $45.00 |
| Phone number | 1 × $2 | $2.00 |
| Concurrency | within the 20 included | $0.00 |
| Total | about $0.126 per minute | $377.00 |
What moves the total
- A knowledge base for opening hours and FAQs: +$0.005 a minute, $15 a month here.
- An ElevenLabs Flash voice instead of a $0.015 voice: +$0.025 a minute, $75 a month.
- A long prompt. A receptionist prompt with services, prices and a full FAQ can pass 4,000 tokens. At 6,000 tokens Retell bills each call at 1.5 times its length, so the duration-based lines in this example grow by half.
- Your own SIP trunk: the $45 of Retell telephony and the $2 number drop out, and your carrier bills you instead.
- A toll-free number: inbound at $0.06 a minute is $180 a month instead of $45, plus $5 for the number.
Easy to miss
The costs that are not in the per-minute rate
Retell is open about all of these. They just do not show up in the headline range.
Long prompts stretch the call
Above 4,000 tokens, Retell bills a call as longer than it lasted, in proportion to the tokens. A prompt that keeps growing quietly raises every minute. Rules in a prompt that never run are worth cutting for this reason alone.
Silence and hold are billed
Retell bills the whole duration of a call, including pauses and hold, because transcription keeps listening. Long silences in a flow cost the same as talking.
Burst calls cost more for the whole call
Above your concurrency limit, a call inside Retell's burst allowance carries a $0.10 per minute surcharge on its entire duration. Permanent extra capacity is $8 per call per month.
Toll-free is four times the local rate
Inbound calls on a Retell toll-free number cost $0.06 a minute against $0.015 on a local US number, and the number itself is $5 a month instead of $2.
Add-ons are billed per minute
Knowledge base, denoising and guardrails are $0.005 a minute each and PII removal $0.01. A line with all four runs $0.025 a minute above the base.
No EU processing
Retell's compliance page says it does not currently operate services within the European Union. That is not a price, but for European buyers it can be the line that decides. Why location matters for voice is on its own page.
Next to VoiceDock
How Retell's pricing compares with ours
Retell sells a platform fee plus its own price list for models and voices. We sell a platform fee plus models at cost. That difference shapes every line below.
| Retell AI | VoiceDock | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | $0.055 per minute voice infrastructure | € 0,07 per minute orchestration, for inbound, outbound and web calls alike |
| Models and voice | Retell's own per-minute price per model and voice | At cost on our keys, or billed by your provider on your own keys, at the same fee |
| Your own model | A custom LLM over your own WebSocket server; we found no option for your own keys on Retell's built-in models | Your own provider keys, self-serve |
| Telephony | $0.015 per minute and $2 a month per number on Retell numbers; no Retell charge over your own SIP trunk | Billed per leg at the carrier's rate; your own number over your own SIP trunk, managed numbers on request |
| Concurrency | 20 calls included; $8 per extra call per month | Concurrent calls under fair use, more by arrangement |
| Add-ons | Knowledge base, denoising, guardrails and PII removal priced per minute | Live transcription, call control, webhooks and post-call analysis are part of the fee |
| Where data is processed | Retell does not currently operate services within the EU | Orchestration, dashboard, API and storage on EU infrastructure |
| Data processing agreement | Self-sign DPA with EU standard contractual clauses, no fee | Standard DPA under GDPR Article 28, at no additional cost |
| Selling to your own clients | Partner programme; Retell recommends one workspace per client | White-label and reseller setup by arrangement, with your own price per customer |
| Currency | US dollars | Euros, invoiced by Flireo B.V. in Deventer |
For the same 3,000 minutes, our orchestration comes to € 210, against $165 of Retell voice infrastructure: on the platform line, Retell is lower. The rest depends on what the models and voice you choose cost at provider price, set against Retell's per-minute list, and on the add-ons you would need. Bring us your volume and we will work it out with you. What our side adds is an EU-hosted platform layer, engineers who read the SIP logs when a call fails, and the failover on our reliability page. Where Retell is the better fit beyond price is on our Retell AI alternative page; how agencies resell our setup is on the agencies page.
Fair is fair
When Retell is the cheaper choice
Four cases where Retell's price list works in your favour.
You need concurrency without paying for it
Twenty concurrent calls are included per workspace. For a line with sharp peaks, that is capacity other platforms charge for.
You want the model price fixed up front
Every model and voice has a published per-minute price, so there is no token arithmetic, and the cheapest models on the list cost less than a cent a minute.
Your compliance needs a vendor BAA without an add-on fee
Retell signs BAAs and DPAs at no additional fee and holds SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2. For a US healthcare line, that settles a lot.
Your callers are in North America
Numbers in the US and Canada cost $2 a month from the dashboard, and $10 of credit gets you started without a card.
Questions
What people ask about Retell AI pricing
How much does Retell AI cost per minute?
Retell's headline range for voice agents is $0.07 to $0.31 a minute. Its calculator default is $0.11 before telephony: $0.055 voice infrastructure, $0.04 for the model and $0.015 for the voice. Telephony on a Retell US number adds $0.015. Figures from retellai.com/pricing, checked 21 October 2026.
What is Retell's voice infrastructure fee?
A flat $0.055 a minute that Retell describes as the platform cost of running the real-time call, separate from the model and telephony.
Is telephony included in Retell's price?
No. Retell numbers cost $0.015 a minute plus $2 a month per number; toll-free inbound is $0.06 a minute. Over your own SIP trunk Retell charges nothing for telephony and your carrier bills you.
How many concurrent calls does Retell include?
Twenty per workspace on pay-as-you-go. Extra capacity is $8 per concurrent call per month, and calls in the burst allowance above your limit carry a $0.10 per minute surcharge.
Why can a Retell call be billed longer than it lasted?
Two rules in Retell's billing docs: prompts over 4,000 tokens scale the billed duration up in proportion, and calls under 10 seconds where the AI speaks first are billed as 10 seconds.
How does VoiceDock's pricing compare?
€ 0,07 per minute for orchestration, models at cost on our keys or billed directly on yours, telephony per leg at the carrier's rate, and no per-seat licence. Everything is on our pricing page.
Sources, checked 21 October 2026
- Retell AI pricing
- Retell AI: billing
- Retell AI: exceptions to per-minute pricing
- Retell AI: concurrency and burst
- Retell AI: phone numbers
- Retell AI: custom telephony
- Retell AI: custom LLM
- Retell AI: workspaces
- Retell AI: security and compliance
Retell shows prices with a dollar sign and does not name the currency; we read them as US dollars. Prices change, so check Retell's own pages before you rely on any figure here, including ours.
Want the same sum for your own line?
Send us your call volume, average call length, the models you would run and the add-ons you need. We work out the cost per connected conversation with you, line by line, and tell you plainly where Retell comes out cheaper.