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Bland AI vs Retell AI

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, Retell AI at $0.07. Only Retell AI has a free tier. Both ship a public API.

Bland AIPhone-call agents billed per minute, with model, speech, voice and telephony bundled inRetell AIBuild and run AI phone agents that book, qualify and transfer calls, billed by the minute.

Side by side

FactBland AIRetell AI
CategoryVoice Agents & Phone AIVoice Agents & Phone AI
Pricing modelPaidFreemium
Starts at$0.14 minute$0.07 minute
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyBlandRetell AI Inc.
Launched20232023
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

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

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 Retell AI if you need

  • Teams replacing an outbound qualification or booking script
  • Contact centres that already have Twilio, Vonage or SIP trunking
  • Developers who want per-minute cost visibility before launch

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