Voice AI costs, decoded.
Build a real per-minute estimate across platform, speech, intelligence, carrier, and recording. Every number is inspectable. Every source is public.
What 10,000 outbound minutes can cost
Same Deepgram, GPT-5 mini, integrated voice, and Twilio outbound assumptions. Bundled platforms include their speech and model layers.
Plan the whole call, not one line item
Useful calculators for the decisions that happen before a Voice AI launch: stack selection, carrier spend, burst capacity, and business case.
Stack cost calculator
Compare three configurable stacks with itemized platform, model, carrier, and recording costs.
02Realtime voice calculator
Estimate native audio-in/audio-out costs across GPT-Realtime and Gemini Live models.
03Concurrency planner
Turn monthly calls, handle time, and peak traffic into the number of lines you need.
04Telephony calculator
Estimate inbound and outbound carrier spend with call recording and phone numbers.
05Voice AI ROI
Compare automated call costs against fully loaded human-agent time.
06Provider pricing index
Browse source-linked pricing snapshots and understand what each advertised rate includes.
07Voice AI cost guide
Learn the six layers that determine real cost per connected minute.
08OSS framework directory
Compare TEN Framework, Pipecat, LiveKit Agents, Bolna, Dograh, and other open runtimes.
09Global platform alternatives
Find Voice AI platforms across India, the United States, and Europe, with official sources.
Published rates, with context
Advertised per-minute rates are rarely equivalent. These profiles explain whether the price includes infrastructure, STT, TTS, LLMs, telephony, or none of them.
Vapi
$0.05/min platform fee, plus model and carrier costs.
02Retell AI
$0.055/min voice infrastructure, plus TTS, LLM, and telephony.
03Bland Start
$0.14/min including STT, LLM, and TTS; carrier cost is separate.
04ElevenAgents
$0.08/min Speech Engine rate, with telephony billed separately.
05Pipecat Cloud
$0.01/min active agent-1x hosting; 1:1 WebRTC voice is included.
06LiveKit Cloud
Ship starts at $50/mo with 5,000 agent minutes, then $0.01/min.
Compare the choices people actually shortlist
Each page explains the pricing structure, ownership trade-off, and a like-for-like 10,000-minute scenario.
Economics now. Open call infrastructure next.
Voice OSS is created by Himanshu Maurya (codingstark), who is also working toward an open-source Voice AI calling stack designed around Cloudflare's edge platform.
Himanshu Maurya (codingstark)
Builder of OSS.codes and practical open-source developer tools.
Realtime media, Workers, Durable Objects, WebSockets, and open agent adapters on a Cloudflare-based stack. This site is the research and cost-modeling layer for that work.