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Bland AI vs Bolna

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Bland AI starts at $0.14, Bolna at $0.06. Both ship a public API.

Side by side

FactBland AIBolna
CategoryVoice Agents & Phone AIVoice Agents & Phone AI
Pricing modelPaidPaid
Starts at$0.14 minute$0.06 minute
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyBlandWhismurwave Inc.
Launched2023
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Bland AI

One of the few voice-agent vendors that quotes a single all-in per-minute rate and publishes compliance certifications, which makes cost modelling straightforward. The catch is that the cheap minute rate sits behind tier-gated limits, so real call-centre volume pushes you onto a monthly platform fee as well.

Pros

  • All-in per-minute rate covers model, transcription, voice and telephony
  • Documented REST API with batch dispatch and live in-call calls
  • SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and PCI DSS v4.0 compliance stated
  • Free start credits and an inbound number without a card

Cons

  • Concurrency, daily call caps and voice counts are gated by tier
  • Build and Scale add $299 and $499 monthly fees on top of minutes
  • A closed in-house stack means less choice of underlying models

Bolna

Bolna competes on two things Western voice-agent platforms handle badly: Indian language coverage and per-minute price. Being able to swap the recognition, language and speech models independently is genuinely useful when one vendor's accent handling fails on your callers. It is a developer product first — the playground exists, but the APIs and telephony wiring are where the work is.

Pros

  • Over ten Indian languages plus English, an area most voice platforms cover poorly
  • Twenty-plus interchangeable ASR, LLM and TTS models rather than a single fixed stack
  • APIs for agents, calls, numbers, knowledge bases and batch dialling, plus n8n, Make and Zapier
  • 6 cents a minute billed in 30-second increments, with volume rates down to about 4.5 cents

Cons

  • Purely metered, so a bad prompt loop turns directly into spend
  • Telephony charges from Twilio, Plivo or Vobiz are additional and not included in the quoted rate
  • Pay-as-you-go requires a credit purchase of at least $10 up front
  • Concurrency and support levels are tied to the Pilots or Enterprise commitments

Which one fits

Choose Bland AI if you need

  • Teams replacing IVR menus with agents that can be interrupted
  • Outbound qualification and appointment confirmation at volume
  • Regulated industries needing HIPAA or PCI paperwork on file

Choose Bolna if you need

  • Teams running call operations in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or other Indian languages
  • Developers who want to choose their own ASR, LLM and TTS combination per agent
  • High-volume outbound campaigns where a per-minute rate under 6 cents matters

All Bolna alternatives →Browse all Voice Agents & Phone AI