★★★★★Trustpilot · January 2026
A user said agent settings do not persist between edits and the draft prompt is not kept, with no obvious save control.
We tested Vapi for 7 days by building a phone booking agent and running 20 scripted test calls, full of interruptions and different accents. 12 of the 20 calls went right first time. Building the agent took us 128 minutes. That put Vapi last of the six AI voice agents we tested the same way, with an overall score of 2 out of 5.
Vapi gives developers a lot of control: you choose the speech, language model, voice and phone providers yourself. But that flexibility comes with more setup, a price that's hard to predict, and fewer ready-made connections. Only 6 of the 10 connections our booking agent needed worked without code. Our full ranking shows how it compares.
Vapi suits engineering teams that want to build their own voice product on an API. If you don't have a developer, or want one clear price per minute, it isn't the right fit.
How we scored it
Vapi scored 2 out of 5 for reliability, ease of setup, integrations and value, and 2.5 for flexibility, its one relative strength.
Reliability2.0
Ease of setup2.0
Flexibility2.5
Integrations2.0
Value for money2.0
Overall score: 2 / 5, the average of the five parts, rounded to the nearest half point.
- Reliability (2/5): 12 of 20 test calls went right first time, and retries rescued 5 of the 8 that failed.
- Ease of setup (2/5): Building our booking agent took 128 minutes, and you need to choose and configure each provider yourself.
- Flexibility (2.5/5): You can mix speech, model, voice and phone providers freely, which is its main strength.
- Integrations (2/5): Only 6 of the 10 connections our booking agent needed worked without code.
- Value for money (2/5): The $0.05 per minute hosting fee excludes speech, model, voice and phone costs, so the real price is much higher and hard to predict.
Best of 2026
See the ranking →
The best AI voice agents
Before you pick Vapi, see how all 6 tools ranked in the same test.
Vapi in plain terms
Vapi is a platform for building AI voice agents: software that answers or makes phone calls and talks to people, for example to book appointments or answer common questions. Vapi works as a layer in the middle. You choose the company that turns speech into text, the AI model that decides what to say, the voice and the phone provider. Vapi runs the live call between them.
It charges a flat hosting fee per minute and passes the other providers' costs through at cost. So your real price depends on the choices you make. It's built for developers, and there's no visual-first builder aimed at non-technical staff.
Vapi is based in San Francisco and has raised $72 million in total, including a $50 million round announced in May 2026. It sits in our AI audio tools section.
What happens after you sign up
Building a Vapi agent takes four steps, and the first needs technical know-how.
1. Configure your agent. Pick a transcriber, language model and voice, then write the agent's instructions and the tools it can use.
2. Connect a phone line. Use Vapi's own numbers, bring numbers from Twilio, Telnyx or Vonage, or take calls in a web browser.
3. Run calls. Inbound and outbound calls run through Vapi, billed per connected minute plus the providers' costs.
4. Monitor and test. Review call logs, run simulated calls and track failures in the dashboard.
What you get
Vapi's features are about control: choosing providers and watching calls.
Bring your own models
Choose language models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and others, transcription from Deepgram or AssemblyAI, and voices from ElevenLabs, Cartesia and more.
Unlimited agents
There's no cap on how many agents you build. You pay for the minutes they use.
Testing and simulation
Run simulated test calls before going live, and monitor for critical problems.
Integrations
Connects with phone systems like Twilio and Genesys, and tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier and Google Calendar.
Zero data retention
From the Core plan up, you can choose not to store call data after each call.
HIPAA mode
A paid add-on on any plan, with a signed agreement, for handling health information.
Who gets the most out of Vapi
Vapi is a toolkit, not a finished product. It can work for a team with engineers who want full control. For everyone else, a simpler platform will get you further.
A good fit for
- Developers who want to swap models and voices freely
- Teams building their own voice product on an API
- Businesses wanting a low start with no monthly minimum
- Larger companies needing SOC 2, HIPAA and SSO options
Not a good fit for
- Non-technical teams without an engineer
- Buyers who want one all-in price per minute
- Teams that want the vendor to build and manage the agent
- Small teams that can't pay $2,000 a month for HIPAA
Vapi vs Retell AI, Bland AI and building it yourself
Retell AI came first in our test with 3 out of 5, a point ahead of Vapi. Both charge per minute, but Retell bundles more, such as a visual flow builder, for a slightly higher engine fee. Bland AI scored 2.5 out of 5 and charges one bundled rate, starting at $299 a month on its Build plan, while Vapi's $0.05 headline fee excludes the speech, model and voice costs.
You could also build directly on the providers' own APIs. Vapi saves you from coding call handling, phone connections and monitoring by hand, though our build still took over two hours.
| Option | Price | How it compares |
|---|---|---|
| Vapi | Free plan; Core from $29 a month plus usage | Developer platform where you pick each provider and pay hosting per minute plus their costs. |
| Retell AI | No monthly fee; pay per minute | Self-serve voice platform with itemised per-minute pricing and a visual builder. |
| Bland AI | Free plan; paid from $299 a month | Enterprise voice AI on its own models, with one bundled per-minute rate. |
| Build it yourself | Provider costs only | Connect speech, model, voice and phone APIs with your own code. |
Our 7-day Vapi test
We tested Vapi from October 20 to October 26, 2026, 7 days in all. Every platform in the group built the same thing: a phone booking agent. We then ran 20 scripted test calls with interruptions and a range of accents, and checked how many went right, how failures were handled and how quickly the agent replied. The full set-up is in how we test.
Building the agent took 128 minutes from sign-up, much of it spent choosing and configuring separate providers for speech, model and voice. Only 6 of the 10 connections the booking agent needed worked without code.
Then we made the calls. 12 of the 20 went right first time, and 8 failed. When we retried those 8, 5 worked, so 3 calls never got there. Vapi's alerts caught 6 of the 10 problems we checked for, which means some failures could slip by unnoticed.
Response speed was reasonable. The median reply came after 1.24 seconds, which is noticeable in a conversation but not awkward. Every test call included interruptions or accents, and those are what real callers bring every day.
| What we measured | Result | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Test calls handled correctly first time, out of 20 | First-pass 12/20 calls correct | Four in ten callers didn't get what they needed first time, which is too many for a business line. |
| Time to build the booking agent from sign-up | 128 min/build; 1 workflow(s) | Expect over two hours to build a simple agent. |
| How failures were handled: retries and alerts | Retries recovered 5/8; alerts 6/10 | Retries rescued most failed calls, but alerts missed some problems you'd want to know about. |
| Connections the agent needed that worked without code | 6/10 required connections no-code | Four of the ten connections needed coding, so non-technical teams will get stuck. |
Vapi gave us lots of control, but it was slow to build and too many calls went wrong. Retries helped, and reply speed was fine. Still, 8 of 20 callers ran into trouble first time, and only 6 of 10 connections worked without code. That's why it came last of six.
Tested October 20, 2026 to October 26, 2026.
The good and the bad from our test
Full control over providers
You choose the speech, model, voice and phone providers yourself and pay their costs at cost. That's why Vapi scored 2.5 for flexibility, its best result.
Retries rescued most failed calls
Of the 8 calls that failed first time, 5 worked when retried. That cut the number of callers left stuck to 3 out of 20.
Strong security paperwork
Vapi lists SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, PCI DSS, GDPR and CCPA, plus HIPAA with a signed agreement. That matters for regulated businesses.
Too many calls went wrong
Only 12 of our 20 test calls went right first time. Every call included interruptions or accents, which real callers bring every day.
Slow to build
Our booking agent took 128 minutes to build, and only 6 of the 10 connections it needed worked without code. You'll need a developer.
Hard-to-predict costs
The $0.05 per minute hosting fee is only part of the bill. Vapi's own calculator estimates $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes once speech, model and voice costs are added.
Pros
- Mix and match speech, model, voice and phone providers
- No monthly fee to start, with $5 in free credits
- Retries rescued 5 of 8 failed calls
- Unlimited agents on every plan
- SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS and HIPAA options
Cons
- Only 12 of 20 test calls went right first time
- 128 minutes to build our booking agent
- Only 6 of 10 needed connections worked without code
- Real cost per minute is far above the headline fee
- Poor 2.5 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot
How much Vapi costs
Vapi has a free pay-as-you-go option with no monthly fee and $5 in free credits. Every call is billed per minute: Vapi charges $0.05 per minute for hosting, and the providers you choose are added at cost. For example, Deepgram transcription costs about $0.0095 to $0.0099 per minute and an ElevenLabs voice about $0.0146 to $0.0238. Vapi's own phone and web connections are free, while Twilio adds $0.008 per minute inbound and $0.014 outbound. Vapi's calculator estimates 1,000 minutes at $82 to $129 a month in total.
Core costs $29 a month plus usage and raises your limits. Pro costs 10% of the hosting fee with a $999 a month minimum, and Premier is a custom plan sold directly. Most small teams would start on pay as you go, then move to Core when they need more numbers or calls at once. Prices were checked on November 2, 2026.
Pay as you go
$0
a month, plus $0.05 per minute hosting and provider costs
- $5 in free credits
- 4 calls at once, 1 phone number
- Community and email support
Core
$29
a month, plus per-minute usage
- 10 calls at once, 5 phone numbers
- 30-day data retention, zero retention option
- Email support within 2 business days
Pro
$999
a month minimum (10% of the hosting fee)
- 30 calls at once, 10 numbers
- Role-based access, 180-day retention
- Dedicated Slack and 99% uptime SLA
Premier
Custom
direct sales only
- Higher limits, SSO and dedicated SIP
- Named team and 99.9% uptime SLA
There's no timed free trial; the pay-as-you-go option comes with $5 in credits. Extra calls at once cost $10 per line a month, extra organizations $20 each a month, and HIPAA mode $2,000 a month.
Per-minute usage fees aren't refundable unless the law requires it. On subscription plans, Vapi may offer a pro-rata refund of unused days at its discretion. You can end your account by telling Vapi. We found no discounts.
Prices checked November 2, 2026. Prices can change, so check before you buy.
Is Vapi safe for your business calls and data?
Vapi lists SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, PCI DSS v4.0.1, GDPR and CCPA, and offers HIPAA with a signed agreement. Its terms say it uses customer content, without identifying you or your callers, to improve features like speech recognition, and doesn't share it with others for their AI training.
Raw call data is kept for 14 days on the free option, 30 days on Core and 180 days on Pro, with zero data retention from Core up. Health data needs the signed agreement and HIPAA mode, and card data a separate written agreement.
The biggest practical risk is cost. Vapi doesn't block incoming calls unless you set traffic limits, and you pay for every minute used. You're also responsible for following calling laws and getting consent to record.
Set traffic and spend limits before a number goes live, and turn on zero data retention if calls include personal data.
What Vapi users say
There's very little user feedback. On Trustpilot, checked November 2, 2026, Vapi has 2.5 out of 5 from just 13 reviews, labelled Poor, with 4 in the last 12 months. The profile is unclaimed. 77% give 1 star and 15% give 5 stars. Developer-focused review sites rate it better, but on small samples.
Complaints focus on the total price rising once model, voice and phone costs are added, slow support on live problems, and editor bugs such as settings not saving. Developers praise fast setup, flexible customisation and, in some reviews, responsive support.
What users praise
- Fast setup for developers
- Flexible customization
- Responsive support in some reviews
What users complain about
- Total price rises once model, voice and telephony costs are added
- Slow or poor support on production issues
- Bugs in the agent editor (settings not saving)
- Very small review base on every site
Recent user reviews, in short
Summarised in our own words, not quoted. Reviewer names are left out.
★★★★★Trustpilot · December 2025
A customer described slow support on deployment problems and recurring bugs, and claimed large losses from downtime.
★★★★★Trustpilot · December 2025
A reviewer called the pricing misleading because model and telephony provider charges come on top of the headline fee.
Our test matches the complaints about layered pricing and fits the picture of a tool built for engineers. We didn't hit editor bugs, but setup took us over two hours.
Ratings checked November 2, 2026.
Vapi alternatives worth a look
Every other voice agent platform in our test scored higher than Vapi. Here's how they compared.
Retell AI
Retell AI came first with 3 out of 5, a point ahead of Vapi on reliability, integrations and value. It suits teams wanting visible per-minute costs.
PolyAI
PolyAI scored 3 out of 5 and was easier to set up. It's a managed service for large contact centres, priced by quote.
Synthflow
Synthflow scored 3 out of 5, with a visual builder for non-technical teams. It's sold on annual contracts, priced by quote.
Bland AI
Bland AI scored 2.5 out of 5, with better reliability than Vapi and one bundled rate, from $299 a month.
Dapta
Dapta scored 2.5 out of 5 and starts at $99 a month. It suits small businesses automating sales follow-up.
2/5
Should you use Vapi?
We don't recommend Vapi for most small businesses. Only 12 of our 20 test calls went right first time, the agent took 128 minutes to build, and only 6 of 10 connections worked without code. Its headline $0.05 per minute is only part of the real cost. That's why it scored 2 out of 5 and came last of six.
It does have a place. If your engineers want to choose every provider and build a custom voice product, Vapi gives them that freedom, with no monthly fee to start. For a business that just wants a booking line that works, Retell AI did better in our test.
Vapi suits engineering teams that want full control of their voice stack; non-technical teams should look elsewhere.
Still deciding?
Compare AI voice agents →
See how Vapi compares
Every tool in our AI voice agents test got the same jobs. Our ranking puts the results side by side.
Disagree with our review?
Make your case
If you use Vapi, or work there, and think we got something wrong, email us. Tell us what you saw and attach screenshots if you have them. We'll take another look and update the review if it changes our findings.
review.now.team@gmail.com
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Frequently asked questions
How much does Vapi cost?
Vapi has a pay-as-you-go option with no monthly fee and $5 in credits. Calls cost $0.05 per minute for hosting, plus the speech, model, voice and phone providers at cost. Vapi's calculator estimates $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes in total. Core costs $29 a month plus usage, and Pro starts at $999 a month. We checked on November 2, 2026.
How did you test Vapi?
We tested Vapi for 7 days in October 2026, alongside five other voice agent platforms. Each one built the same phone booking agent. We timed the build, then ran 20 scripted calls with interruptions and different accents, counted correct calls, checked retries and alerts, measured reply speed and checked which connections worked without code.
Is Vapi free?
You can start without a monthly fee. The pay-as-you-go option includes $5 in free credits, 4 calls at once and 1 phone number. But every call is billed per minute, for Vapi's hosting and for the providers you choose, so it isn't free once you use it. There's no timed free trial.
Is Vapi HIPAA compliant?
Vapi offers HIPAA mode as an add-on costing $2,000 a month, with a signed business associate agreement. Its terms say you mustn't send health data without that agreement and HIPAA mode switched on, as a setting alone isn't enough. It also lists SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS v4.0.1, GDPR and CCPA.
Does Vapi train on my calls?
Vapi's terms, updated in September 2026, say it uses customer content to improve features like speech recognition and response speed, without identifying your business or callers. It doesn't share content with other companies for their AI training. From Core up, you can turn on zero data retention so call data isn't stored.
Is Vapi better than Retell AI?
Not in our test. Retell AI came first with 3 out of 5, while Vapi came last with 2. Both charge per minute. Vapi passes provider costs through and suits engineers who want full control. Retell itemises its prices and has a visual flow builder, which makes it easier for non-developers to use.
Written by
Liam Foster
If there's a strange new AI tool making its way around the internet, I've probably already bookmarked it. My favorite part is figuring out what these platforms can actually do.