Bland AI vs Vapi

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

Vapi

The default answer when a developer needs a voice agent on a phone line rather than a chat widget: it handles the hard real-time parts — barge-in, latency, turn-taking, telephony — and lets you swap in your own models. Enterprise adoption at Ring and Intuit is real validation. Cost forecasting is the hard part, because the platform fee is only one of four meters running.

Pros

• +Handles real-time voice mechanics: turn-taking, interruptions, latency and telephony
• +Bring-your-own-key support across OpenAI, Anthropic and Google avoids double model markup
• +CRM and helpdesk integrations for Salesforce, HubSpot and Zendesk
• +SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance plus SSO and RBAC on the enterprise tier
• +Proven at scale, with Amazon Ring routing inbound support volume through it

Cons

• −The $0.05/minute platform fee sits on top of speech, model and voice provider costs
• −Concurrency beyond ten lines costs $10 per line per month
• −Enterprise compliance features require an annual Scale contract
• −It is a developer platform, so there is no usable no-code path

Is Bland AI cheaper than Vapi?

On published entry prices, Vapi starts lower — $0.05/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.

Which has a public API, Bland AI or Vapi?

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