Bland AI vs Retell AI

Bland AI

Bland quotes one per-minute rate that already includes the language model, transcription and voice, and publishes its compliance certifications, which makes cost modelling simpler than on platforms that pass through several vendor bills. Telephony is still a separate line, and the cheap entry rate comes with tight call caps, so real call-centre volume moves you onto the $299 monthly Build fee or an enterprise contract.

Pros

• +Per-minute rate covers model, transcription and voice with no token charges
• +Documented REST API with batch dispatch and in-call tools
• +SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA with a BAA, GDPR and PCI DSS compliance stated
• +Free start credits and an inbound number without a card
• +Bring-your-own Twilio or SIP trunk is supported and waives transfer fees

Cons

• −Concurrency, daily caps, voices and many call features are gated by tier
• −Build adds a $299 monthly fee on top of minutes, and the mid-size Scale tier has been dropped
• −Telephony is billed on top of the per-minute AI rate
• −A closed in-house stack means less choice of underlying models

Retell AI

One of the more honest voice-agent stacks: the pricing page breaks out infrastructure, TTS and LLM cost per minute so you can predict a call's cost instead of guessing. Telephony choice is wide and the concurrency allowance is generous. The catch is that per-minute billing plus add-ons makes a busy contact centre expensive fast, and the cheap end of the range only holds if you pick the cheap models.

Pros

• +Per-minute cost broken down by voice infrastructure, TTS provider and LLM on the public pricing page
• +Telephony via SIP trunking, Twilio and Vonage plus n8n, HubSpot, Make and Go High Level integrations
• +20 concurrent calls included before any concurrency charge
• +Voice, chat and SMS agents share one platform and API
• +HIPAA path exists via a signed BAA covered in the terms of service

Cons

• −Cost per minute more than quadruples between the cheapest and most capable model combinations
• −Knowledge base, denoising, PII removal and branded caller ID are all metered extras
• −No flat-rate plan, so a spike in call volume lands straight on the invoice

Is Bland AI cheaper than Retell AI?

On published entry prices, Retell AI starts lower — $0.07/min against $0.14/min for Bland AI. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Bland AI or Retell AI have a free tier?

Retell AI has a free tier; Bland AI has paid plans only.

Which has a public API, Bland AI or Retell AI?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.