Retell AI review

★ 4.7/5

AI voice platform

Retell AI is a developer-friendly AI voice agent platform for automating inbound and outbound phone calls. It bundles speech-to-text, a proprietary low-latency turn-taking model (~600ms), TTS, LLM orchestration, telephony, batch calling and post-call analytics into one usage-based stack you can run via a no-code dashboard or API.

Researched & verified by Dirr Research · scored by our rubric

Visit Retell AI → last verified 2026-05-31

Affiliate link · how we make money

Best for voice agents. Retell AI starts $0.07/min (usage-based; realistic all-in $0.13–$0.31/min) on a per-minute usage (voice) + per-message (chat) model. Retell's headline "$0.07/min" only covers the voice-infrastructure layer; the real bill is a stack you assemble. A mid-range setup per Retell's own component pricing: voice infra $0.055 + TTS (Retell/Cartesia/OpenAI) $0.015 + LLM (Gemini 3.0 Flash) $0.027 + telephony $0.015 = ~$0.11/min. At 1,000 call-minutes/month that's ~$110/month. A premium stack (ElevenLabs TTS $0.04 + Claude 4.5 Sonnet $0.08 + voice infra $0.055 + telephony $0.015) lands near $0.19/min before add-ons, and features like knowledge base, PII removal and AI QA can push the effective rate toward $0.31/min, roughly $190 to $310 at 1,000 minutes.

Spec

pricing modelper-minute usage (voice) + per-message (chat)
entry price$0.07/min (usage-based; realistic all-in $0.13–$0.31/min)verify livedecode →
free tierYes. Free account with $10 in credits, 20 free concurrent calls, full platform access, pre-built agent templates and simulation testing, plus community and email support.source →
self-hostYes
MCPBoth
integrationsTelephony: Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage, Avaya, SIP trunking. Contact center (CCaaS): Genesys, Five9, NICE inContact, Talkdesk, Amazon Connect, Cisco. Automation and CRM: Make, n8n, HubSpot, Go High Level.source →
API accessYes
affiliate15% per sale

The gotcha

the pricing catch

The advertised $0.07/min is not your real cost. It is only the voice-infrastructure layer; you still pay separately for the LLM, the TTS voice engine and telephony, so realistic all-in pricing is $0.13 to $0.31/min, roughly 2 to 4x the headline number. Premium voices (ElevenLabs) and frontier LLMs (Claude) sit at the top of that range, and features like knowledge base (+$0.005/min), PII removal (+$0.01/min) and AI QA (+$0.10/min) stack on top of every minute.

Decode the real cost →

Best for

  • You want to build and run AI voice phone agents (inbound or outbound) for tasks like appointment booking, lead qualification, customer support or dispatch, and you want usage-based per-minute pricing with both a no-code dashboard and an API plus SDKs, accepting that the real cost is a stack of voice, LLM, TTS and telephony charges rather than the headline rate.

source: retellai.com/pricing →

Retell AI pricing tiers

Prices move. Cells flagged verify link to the live vendor page.

Decode Retell AI pricing →
tiermonthlyannualincludedunit
Pay-as-you-go $0verify n/a $10 free credits, 20 free concurrent calls, full platform access, community support; then $0.07-$0.31/min voice (component-based) and from $0.002/message chat per minute (voice) / per message (chat)
Enterprise Customverify n/a Volume-based pricing, unlimited concurrency, dedicated server/infrastructure, on-prem deployment option, 24/7 omnichannel support, dedicated portal, SLAs custom volume

// pools and per-unit rates are volatile · cells flagged verify link to the live vendor page

Compare Retell AI with…

retell ai pricing decoded→ retell ai alternatives→ best ai sales agents→best ai customer service agents→best ai voice agents→

Questions

How much does Retell AI cost?

Retell AI starts from $0.07/min (usage-based; realistic all-in $0.13–$0.31/min). Retell's headline "$0.07/min" only covers the voice-infrastructure layer; the real bill is a stack you assemble. A mid-range setup per Retell's own component pricing: voice infra $0.055 + TTS (Retell/Cartesia/OpenAI) $0.015 + LLM (Gemini 3.0 Flash) $0.027 + telephony $0.015 = ~$0.11/min. At 1,000 call-minutes/month that's ~$110/month. A premium stack (ElevenLabs TTS $0.04 + Claude 4.5 Sonnet $0.08 + voice infra $0.055 + telephony $0.015) lands near $0.19/min before add-ons, and features like knowledge base, PII removal and AI QA can push the effective rate toward $0.31/min, roughly $190 to $310 at 1,000 minutes.

Can you self-host Retell AI?

Yes, Retell AI can be self-hosted.

Does Retell AI support MCP?

Retell AI supports MCP as both client and server, so it works with assistants like Claude and ChatGPT.

What's the catch with Retell AI's pricing?

The advertised $0.07/min is not your real cost. It is only the voice-infrastructure layer; you still pay separately for the LLM, the TTS voice engine and telephony, so realistic all-in pricing is $0.13 to $0.31/min, roughly 2 to 4x the headline number. Premium voices (ElevenLabs) and frontier LLMs (Claude) sit at the top of that range, and features like knowledge base (+$0.005/min), PII removal (+$0.01/min) and AI QA (+$0.10/min) stack on top of every minute.