Vapi
6.6/10Developer platform and API for building, testing, and deploying AI voice agents that handle inbound and outbound phone and web calls.
Data last updated November 2026 · Our methodology
Overview
Vapi is a voice AI infrastructure platform. Developers use it to build phone and web voice agents for customer support, lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and outbound sales. Its main selling point is modularity. Teams choose their own transcriber (for example Deepgram or AssemblyAI), language model (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or a custom model), voice (ElevenLabs, Cartesia, and others), and telephony (Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage, or bring-your-own SIP). Vapi orchestrates the conversation in real time and handles interruptions. It also includes multi-agent Squads, a visual flow builder, MCP tool support, simulations for testing, and call logs with cost breakdowns. Pricing is usage-based. Vapi charges a $0.05 per minute hosting fee, and model, voice, transcription, and telephony costs are passed through at provider cost. Independent reviews estimate the real all-in cost at roughly $0.13 to $0.31 per minute. Optional success packages run from Core at $29 per month to Pro at a $999 monthly minimum, and Premier is custom-priced. They add concurrency, phone numbers, data retention, RBAC, SSO, and support SLAs. HIPAA costs an extra $2,000 per month. The platform suits engineering teams, startups, and agencies that want control over the voice stack, and enterprises such as Amazon Ring and Intuit run it at scale. Its main limitation is that production use usually needs JSON configuration, webhooks, and backend code. Users also report slow support and billing that is hard to predict.
Our Rating
Who Vapi is best for
Good fit
Built API-first with SDKs and a bring-your-own-provider design for engineers.
Pay-as-you-go pricing with free starter credits and no minimum on the base tier.
Supports multiple organizations and unlimited agents, which suits building voice agents for clients.
Widely used to handle inbound support calls, including all of Amazon Ring's inbound calls.
The Premier package adds SSO, custom RBAC, dedicated SIP, and a 99.9% uptime SLA.
Less suited
HIPAA mode with a BAA is available, but only as an add-on costing $2,000 per month.
Non-technical teams find setup code-heavy and costs hard to predict.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Developers can swap transcriber, LLM, voice, and telephony providers without changing platforms.
- Model costs are passed through at provider cost, and Vapi adds no markup on them.
- Proven at scale: TechCrunch reports 1 to 5 million calls per day and enterprise customers such as Amazon Ring and Intuit.
- Unlimited agents on every plan, with built-in testing and simulations.
- Developer reviews praise the API, SDKs, and documentation, including a 4.9/5 Product Hunt rating.
Cons
- Vendor costs are billed separately, so the all-in cost lands well above the $0.05 per minute headline rate.
- Production agents usually need JSON, webhooks, and backend code, so the platform is not truly no-code.
- Support is widely criticized, with a 2.4/5 Trustpilot rating and reported response times of 24 to 48 hours or more.
- HIPAA costs an extra $2,000 per month and cannot be used together with zero data retention.
- Users report latency spikes and settings that do not save after updates.
Key Features
Vapi Pricing
No Success Package (Pay-as-you-go)
- 1 phone number
- $5 free credits
- 2 organizations
- 4 concurrent calls
- 14 days data retention
- Email support without SLA
- $0.05/min Vapi hosting fee plus provider costs
Core
- 2 organizations
- 5 phone numbers
- 30 days retention
- 10 concurrent calls
- 2-business-day support SLA
- Zero data retention option
Pro
- RBAC and ZDR
- 99% uptime SLA
- 10 organizations
- 10 phone numbers
- 1-business-day SLA
- 180 days retention
- 30 concurrent calls
- Dedicated Slack support
- 10% of hosting fee, $999/month minimum
Premier
- Custom limits
- Dedicated SIP
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- Named support team
- Custom RBAC and SSO
- 1-hour P0 response SLA
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The pay-as-you-go tier has no fee to start and includes $5 in free credits.
Vapi charges $0.05 per minute for hosting. Transcription, LLM, voice, and telephony are billed on top at provider rates. Vapi's own calculator estimates $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes, and independent reviews put typical all-in costs at about $0.13 to $0.31 per minute.
Yes, through HIPAA mode, which costs $2,000 per month and requires a signed BAA. It restricts you to HIPAA-compliant providers and cannot run at the same time as zero data retention.
Telephony through Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage, and BYO SIP. LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and custom models. Speech providers such as Deepgram, AssemblyAI, ElevenLabs, and Cartesia. It also supports MCP tools.
Custom RBAC, SSO, a 99.9% uptime SLA, and a 1-hour P0 response come with the custom-priced Premier package. Pro includes RBAC and a 99% uptime SLA.
The base tier allows 4 concurrent calls, Core 10, and Pro 30. Extra lines cost $10 each per month.
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