Vapi

What it is for

Vapi is a voice-agent platform: you create an assistant, attach a transcriber / model / voice, give it a number, and it answers or places phone calls. Use it when the job is a phone or web voice agent you can publish, not when you only need TTS.

It is not open source. You can start on usage only ($5 free credits; $0.05/min Vapi hosting). Success packages are optional.

What makes it unique: the cover is Vapi’s official Dashboard still from the Phone-calls quickstart — Free Vapi Number, area-code field, Cancel / Create — not a waveform poster.

Key features

• Swap the pipeline — transcriber, LLM, and voice are separate modules you change per assistant (How Vapi works).
• Tools mid-call — transfer, hang-up, API Request, Function, SMS, or DTMF while the caller is on the line (Tools).
• Knowledge bases — retrieve from uploaded documents so answers stay grounded during the call (Knowledge bases).
• Simulations — AI testers run full conversations against an assistant or squad before customers hear it (Simulations overview).
• Squads / handoff — pass a live call between assistants and keep context (Handoff).
• SIP trunk / imported numbers — connect Twilio, Telnyx, DIDWW, or a SIP trunk so the assistant can place and take PSTN calls (SIP Trunking).

Who it's for

Best fit: builders who want a voice agent with a Dashboard plus an API, and will pay hosting + provider pass-through.

Poor fit: teams that want one all-in per-minute rate with LLM/STT/TTS included (Bland).

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) from vapi.ai/pricing. Usage and Success Packages are separate. Re-check before you buy.

• No Success Package — start free. $5 free credits. Pre-paid $0.05/min Vapi hosting. Provider models (Deepgram / OpenAI / ElevenLabs on the estimator) pass through without Vapi markup. 2 orgs; 1 Vapi number; 4 concurrent calls; 14-day raw retention; Discord + email, no SLA.
• Core — pre-paid, auto-renew. 5 Vapi numbers; 10 concurrent; 30-day retention; ZDR; 2-business-day email SLA. Public HTML did not print a Core monthly dollar on this fetch — confirm checkout.
• Pro — 10% of Vapi hosting, $999/mo minimum. 10 orgs; 10 numbers; 30 concurrent; 180-day retention; RBAC + ZDR; 99% uptime SLA.
• Premier — custom (SSO, dedicated SIP, 99.9% SLA, named support).

The estimator on the same page shows example provider bands (Deepgram $0.0095–$0.0099/min, OpenAI $0.0077–$0.0452/min, ElevenLabs $0.0146–$0.0238/min) plus a sample $82–$129/mo stack — those are not Vapi SKUs.

Limitations / costs

• Hosting is $0.05/min plus providers. The $0.05 line is not the all-in call cost.
• Free Vapi numbers are inbound-only. Outbound needs an imported number.
• Pro’s $999 floor is a hosting-percentage package, not a seat.
• Concurrency starts at 4 on the no-package path.

Alternatives

• Bland — one talk-time rate that includes LLM/STT/TTS (Start $0.14/min, $0 platform).
• Retell — pay-as-you-go voice agents (infra $0.055/min; 20 free concurrent).
• ElevenLabs — TTS / voice agents if you only need speech, not a phone stack.

Official tutorial

Official Vapi channel video: Personal Assistant Calling With Vapi (oEmbed author: Vapi). Written path: Phone calls.

Website

https://vapi.ai

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is Vapi’s official Create Phone Number dialog from the Phone-calls docs. $5 free credits; hosting $0.05/min. Pro 10% of hosting, $999/mo minimum. Tutorial: Personal Assistant Calling With Vapi on @Vapi_AI (oEmbed).

Last verified

2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.