Platform comparison
Vapi vs Retell AI: what the per-minute pricing actually includes
Vapi and Retell AI are the two platforms most often shortlisted together, and the confusion between them is almost always about pricing. One publishes a low headline rate that excludes the model costs, the other publishes a range that includes them. Comparing the two headline numbers directly will give you the wrong answer.
Both are developer platforms: you build the agent, wire up the telephony and integrations, and own what happens in production. That is the right choice for a team with engineers to spare and the wrong one for a business that just needs its phones answered.
| Vapi | Retell AI | Centricall | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $0.05 per minute platform fee | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute all in | Hosted plans from $49/mo; license quoted per engagement |
| What that includes | Platform only. Speech, model and voice are billed at cost, or free if you bring your own API keys. | Bundled: $0.055 infrastructure plus the model and voice you pick, plus telephony. | The agent, telephony, integrations and the build work, delivered as a managed service. |
| HIPAA | $2,000 per month add-on. | Available on the enterprise plan at custom pricing. | Handled through deployment scope, including on-premise where data must not leave your environment. |
| Zero data retention | $1,000 per month add-on. | Not published as a separate line. | Inherent to a self-hosted deployment. |
| Concurrency | 10 lines included, then $10 per line per month. | 20 concurrent calls free, then $8 per concurrency per month. | Scoped to your call volume at deployment. |
| Who builds the agent | You do. | You do. | We do, then hand it over or run it. |
| Can you resell it under your brand | Not a published white-label tier. | Not a published white-label tier. | Yes, under a one-time perpetual source-code license. |
Why the headline rates are not comparable
Vapi's $0.05 per minute is a platform fee. Speech-to-text, the language model and text-to-speech are billed at provider cost on top, or nothing at all if you supply your own API keys. Retell's $0.07 to $0.31 is the finished figure: roughly $0.055 of infrastructure plus whatever model and voice you choose, plus telephony. Vapi looks cheaper because it is quoting a different thing.
- Vapi rewards teams who already hold model contracts and want to bring their own keys
- Retell rewards teams who want one predictable number and no assembly
- Neither number includes your engineering time, which is usually the largest line
Compliance is where the cost profile diverges
Vapi prices HIPAA as a $2,000 per month add-on and zero data retention at $1,000 per month, both published openly. Retell puts HIPAA and a BAA on its enterprise plan at custom pricing and states SOC 2 certification. If you are selling into healthcare, dental or any regulated vertical, that add-on lands before your first client call and it reshapes the economics of a low-priced package.
When neither is the right shape
Both are toolkits. If your team has engineers who want low-level control over the call loop, that is exactly right. If what you actually need is a working agent on your phone line next month, or a platform you can rebrand and sell, a build-it-yourself platform is a detour. Centricall builds the agent around your call flows and can be licensed outright so there is no per-minute meter and no vendor able to reprice you later.
Frequently asked questions
What should a Retell AI vs Vapi comparison actually look at?
- Three things, roughly in this order. Cost at your real volume first, because both publish per-minute rates that behave quite differently once concurrency and telephony are added on top. Then the Vapi Retell AI features that matter to your build rather than the whole matrix: transfer behaviour, interruption handling, and how much of the orchestration you are expected to write yourself. Finally Vapi Retell AI compliance posture, which is what decides the shortlist in regulated sectors, so compare Vapi and Retell AI on data residency, retention controls, and what each will actually sign before you compare them on anything else.
Is Vapi cheaper than Retell AI?
- Not necessarily, because the two figures measure different things. Vapi publishes $0.05 per minute as a platform fee with speech and model costs billed on top at provider rates. Retell publishes $0.07 to $0.31 per minute with those costs already included. Add Vapi's component costs before comparing. Both figures verified August 12, 2026.
Does Vapi charge extra for HIPAA?
- Yes. Vapi's published pricing lists HIPAA as a $2,000 per month add-on and zero data retention at $1,000 per month, available on both its Build and Scale tiers. Verified August 12, 2026.
Is Retell AI SOC 2 compliant?
- Retell's pricing page states SOC 2 certification, and HIPAA with a signed BAA on its enterprise plan at custom pricing. For your own compliance review, ask any vendor for the current report and scope directly rather than relying on a marketing page, including ours. Verified August 12, 2026.
Can I white-label Vapi or Retell and resell it?
- Neither publishes a white-label or reseller tier on its pricing page. Several third-party products exist that wrap those APIs and add agency branding and rebilling, which means you inherit two vendors' pricing and two points of failure. A perpetual source-code license avoids that by removing the upstream dependency entirely.
Which should I choose for a production deployment?
- If you have engineers who want control of the call loop and are comfortable owning latency, telephony and failure modes, either platform will do the job. If you need the phones answered without building a team around it, or you intend to sell the product on under your own brand, a managed build or an owned license is the better fit.
Sources
- Vapi — https://vapi.ai/pricing · verified August 12, 2026
- Retell AI — https://www.retellai.com/pricing · verified August 12, 2026
Competitor pricing changes frequently. Every figure above was read from the vendor’s own published page on the date shown. Verify before quoting a client. Product names are the trademarks of their respective owners and are used here for identification only.
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