Last updated: 2026-05-16
Retell AI builds AI phone agents with 600ms latency and 50M+ monthly calls, at $0.07+/minute. HIPAA compliant. Rated 4.8/5 on G2 by 1,414 teams in 2026.
Retell AI is a voice agent platform founded in 2023 and backed by Y Combinator, processing 50M+ AI phone calls per month for companies in healthcare, finance, and retail. Plans start at $0.07/minute with no platform fee and $10 in free credits; enterprise rates drop to $0.05/minute. Rated 4.8/5 on G2 across 1,414 reviews, with HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliance.
Retell AI is a voice agent platform founded in 2023 in New York by Bing Wu, Evie Wang, Zexia Zhang, Todd Li, and Weijia Yu, backed by Y Combinator (W24 batch), Alt Capital, and notable angels including the co-founders of Lyft, Box, and Twitch. The company grew to $50M ARR within two years on a team of 25, processing 50M+ AI phone calls per month for clients across healthcare, financial services, insurance, logistics, and retail. The core product is a voice orchestration layer that assembles speech-to-text, a large language model, and text-to-speech into a single real-time pipeline, delivering end-to-end latency as low as 600 milliseconds. That latency floor matters: calls with pauses longer than 1 second consistently score lower on perceived human-likeness benchmarks, and 600ms places Retell at the low end of the production-ready voice AI market. Developers can wire in their preferred LLM (GPT-4.1, Claude, or others) and voice engine (ElevenLabs, Cartesia, MiniMax, OpenAI), giving full control over quality-versus-cost trade-offs. Retell supports both inbound and outbound call types. Inbound agents handle customer support, appointment booking, FAQ resolution, and intake. Outbound agents run batch campaigns without concurrency limits, with voicemail detection, lead qualification, and CRM record updates during the call. A no-code conversation flow builder lets non-engineers create structured branching scripts; developers can use the Node.js and Python SDKs for custom workflows. The platform supports 50+ languages with automatic caller language detection. The target users are software engineers building voice AI products, call center operations teams automating high-volume inbound queues, and sales teams running outbound AI prospecting. Retell is not a good fit for organizations wanting a fully managed, no-configuration call center bot — the component-based model requires selecting and pricing your own LLM and telephony providers. Pricing is usage-based at $0.07+/minute for the voice engine with no platform fee, plus separate LLM ($0.003-$0.08/min) and telephony ($0.015/min) costs that bring realistic all-in rates to $0.085-$0.19/minute. Twenty concurrent calls are included free; additional lines cost $8/line/month. Enterprise accounts spending $3,000+/month access volume discounts and custom concurrency. The platform is HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR compliant, with PII redaction built in.
Usage-based: $0.07+/minute for voice engine, plus LLM ($0.003-$0.08/min) and telephony ($0.015/min). All-in realistic rate: $0.085-$0.19/minute. $10 free credits on signup. 20 concurrent calls included; additional at $8/line/month. Enterprise discounts from $0.05/min for accounts over $3,000/month.
Retell AI is a voice agent platform founded in 2023 and backed by Y Combinator that builds, deploys, and monitors AI phone call automation. It connects speech-to-text, large language models, and text-to-speech into a real-time pipeline with end-to-end latency as low as 600 milliseconds. Over 5,000 companies use it to handle inbound customer service calls and run outbound AI prospecting campaigns, processing 50M+ calls per month. Industries served include healthcare, financial services, insurance, logistics, and retail.
Retell AI charges $0.07+/minute for the voice engine with no monthly platform fee, plus separate costs for the LLM ($0.003-$0.08/min depending on model) and telephony ($0.015/min). The all-in realistic rate runs $0.085-$0.19/minute, or approximately $275-$320/month for 3,000 minutes. New users receive $10 in free credits and 20 concurrent calls at no charge. Additional concurrent lines cost $8/line/month. Enterprise accounts spending over $3,000/month get volume discounts to approximately $0.05/minute.
Retell AI provides a 600ms-latency voice orchestration pipeline supporting inbound and outbound call types across 50+ languages. The no-code conversation flow builder lets non-engineers create branching call scripts using a node-and-transition editor. Outbound batch campaigns run without concurrency limits, with voicemail detection and real-time CRM record updates. Developers can integrate preferred LLMs (GPT-4.1, Claude) and voice engines (ElevenLabs, Cartesia, OpenAI) via Node.js and Python SDKs. PII redaction, encrypted transcripts, and live analytics dashboards complete the production stack.
Retell AI is not free, but new accounts receive $10 in free credits and 20 concurrent calls at no charge, which is enough to test the platform with roughly 140 minutes of calls at the base $0.07/minute rate. There is no ongoing free tier after the credits are exhausted. Usage-based billing begins automatically once credits are consumed, making it accessible for prototyping without a monthly commitment.
The main Retell AI alternatives are Bland AI, Vapi, and Twilio Voice. Bland AI offers simpler per-minute pricing at a flat rate, making cost prediction easier for teams that dislike Retell's component model. Vapi targets developers with similar multi-provider flexibility but a smaller community and fewer G2 reviews. Twilio Voice provides raw telephony infrastructure for teams that want to build their own voice AI stack from scratch rather than using a managed platform. Retell wins on G2 social proof (1,414 reviews, 4.8/5), HIPAA compliance, and lowest-documented latency.
Retell AI is best for software engineers building voice AI products who need managed infrastructure for TTS, STT, and LLM orchestration without building these integrations from scratch. Call center operations teams at healthcare, financial services, and insurance companies use it to automate inbound queues with HIPAA compliance. Outbound sales teams use the batch campaign feature for AI lead qualification. It is not a good fit for non-technical teams wanting a zero-config phone bot without API integration, or for very small teams where per-minute billing is unpredictable.
Yes, Retell AI provides official SDKs for Node.js and Python with type safety, built-in authentication, and structured error handling. Native telephony integrations include Twilio and Vonage; voice engines include ElevenLabs, Cartesia, MiniMax, and OpenAI TTS. CRM integrations cover HubSpot and Salesforce. Automation platform connectors include Make and n8n. No MCP (Model Context Protocol) support has been announced as of May 2026. Enterprise plans include dedicated API support and custom integration work.
Retell AI and Bland AI are the two most-reviewed AI voice agent platforms on G2, with Retell holding 1,414 reviews at 4.8/5 versus Bland AI's smaller but growing review base. Retell's multi-provider model lets teams choose their LLM and voice engine independently, giving cost flexibility Bland AI's fixed-stack approach does not offer. Bland AI uses simpler flat per-minute pricing, making monthly bills more predictable. Retell has explicit HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliance documentation, which is critical for healthcare deployments; Bland AI's compliance posture is less prominently documented. For enterprise healthcare and regulated-industry use, Retell is the stronger choice.