Retell AI

Retell AI is a platform for building and operating AI agents for phone calls and related conversations. It is best suited to teams that need configurable call workflows, testing and oversight across live interactions. Its breadth is a strength, but per-minute charges and concurrent-call costs make usage planning essential.

Overview

Retell combines agent design, deployment, call management and QA. Agents can handle inbound calls and outbound campaigns, as well as web and in-app chat, SMS and custom API-based experiences. This gives teams a path to extend voice automation across digital channels, although the product’s center of gravity remains phone conversations.

A visual drag-and-drop canvas builds call flows from functions, integrations, transfers, DTMF and custom logic. That flexibility is useful when a fixed script cannot match the process, but teams must be prepared to design and maintain their own flows. Deployment options include websites through a widget, as well as inbound and outbound phone work and SMS.

Key features

Call operations and handoff

Retell supports IVR navigation, outbound campaigns and live call monitoring, with human takeover or transfer when automation should yield to a person. That combination suits teams that need both automated handling and a route for calls requiring intervention. Twilio elastic SIP trunking lets teams use numbers they already own there and supports two-way SMS on connected numbers.

Testing and quality assurance

Teams can simulate thousands of scenarios, turn production calls into regression tests and QA up to 100% of calls. These tools address both pre-deployment checking and ongoing review, a meaningful advantage for teams managing many call paths. Retell also provides call analytics and transcripts on its Pay as you go plan.

Integrations, security and deployment

The integrations directory includes Twilio, GoHighLevel, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Make, n8n and Google Workspace. Retell states that it is compliant with HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001. Its homepage also lists single sign-on, user-defined personal-information redaction and configurable module-level role permissions. Enterprise on-prem deployment runs within a customer’s infrastructure for security and data-residency requirements, which makes the enterprise offering relevant where that control is required.

Pricing

The Pay as you go plan is priced at $0.07 a month and includes AI voice agents priced at $0.07-$0.31 per minute, $10 in free credits, 20 concurrent calls, full platform access, call analytics and transcripts, and simulation testing. The headline monthly price is not the whole cost: voice usage is charged by the minute, and additional concurrent capacity costs $8 per concurrent call per month. This plan fits teams that want full platform access without an enterprise commitment, but costs will depend on call volume and peak concurrency.

Call duration is tracked to the nearest second. Billing includes silence or hold time while the speech-to-text engine remains active, so long pauses can contribute to usage charges. Review expected call patterns and concurrency before projecting spend.

Enterprise has custom pricing, a high cap on concurrent calls, custom SSO, role-based access control and dedicated support options. It is aimed at teams needing greater capacity and support than the standard plan provides. Enterprise Plan also uses custom pricing for AI voice agents and AI chat agents, with no cap on concurrent calls, 24/7 omnichannel support through a dedicated portal and custom SSO. That option is the clearer fit for organizations requiring uncapped concurrency and round-the-clock support. Both enterprise offerings are custom pricing rather than fixed-price plans.

A free plan and free trial are available. The Pay as you go plan’s $10 in free credits can help a team begin evaluating usage, while its included 20 concurrent calls establish the starting capacity; additional calls are billed monthly per concurrent call.

Platforms

Retell supports API, self-hosted and web platforms. It supports inbound and outbound calls, human handoff and custom phone numbers, and lists 55 supported languages. The Enterprise on-prem option can suit organizations that need deployment inside their own infrastructure.

Who it's for

Retell is a strong candidate for teams automating substantial phone workflows that need custom call logic, regression testing and visibility into live or completed calls. Its chat, SMS and API channels also help teams extend those workflows beyond voice. It is less suitable for buyers seeking a simple fixed monthly cost: per-minute rates, billable silence or hold time and concurrency charges all affect the total.

Pros and cons

Pros: Flexible call flows support functions, transfers, DTMF and custom logic, making the builder relevant to workflows beyond basic scripts.

Pros: Simulation, production-call regression tests and QA coverage up to 100% support both pre-launch checks and ongoing call review.

Pros: Human takeover, live monitoring and multiple deployment channels give teams options to supervise calls and route conversations across phone, web and SMS.

Cons: Per-minute pricing ranges from $0.07-$0.31, and active silence or hold time can be billed, so call patterns affect costs.

Cons: The included 20 concurrent calls may not fit peak demand; extra capacity costs $8 per concurrent call per month.

Alternatives

For a small voice-agent trial with a stated low cap, Sonalyx offers 20 free minutes and one concurrent call on its free plan; its Starter plan is billed 400 s. Teams considering a broader AI platform with a free tier and web, iOS and Android support could compare Yellow.ai, whose free plan includes one AI agent, 500/month included, a two-agent limit, 1,000 records and one active campaign.

For a website chatbot rather than a voice-centered system, Chatbyte has an Essential plan at $45 a month, or $38/mo billed annually, with one chatbot and 100 conversations per month. Mujib is another option for buyers comparing voice-only or chat-only plans, with quotas and rates quoted per account for voice-only service. SoundHound is an alternative for people seeking a consumer mobile voice assistant: its free app includes ads, while SoundHound∞ costs $6.99, paid once as a one-time fee for an ad-free experience.

Ada is another paid alternative. Guzli offers a free option and a Hobby plan at $39 a year, billed yearly, with 1,000 message credits per month and one AI agent. Haptik offers an enterprise alternative with pricing not published and a demo request.

Readers comparing categories can also browse Voicebot Software, AI Voice Agents and Conversational AI Platforms.

Verdict

Choose Retell if your team needs configurable voice-agent workflows backed by simulation, call review and live handoff, and can manage variable per-minute and concurrency costs. Look elsewhere if predictable fixed pricing matters more than that combination of call controls and QA.