Developer market research
Voice AI API pricing: what the developer rate actually includes
Dvaarik publishes ₹1.50–₹3.75 per minute by voice grade as an all-in API rate covering speech, model, voice and turn-taking. Vapi publishes $0.05 per minute for hosting plus model-provider costs at cost; the two numbers are different bases and must not be compared without that qualifier. Every row below was read on the named first-party domain on 8 Aug 2026.
| Platform | Published rate | Includes | Platform / subscription fee | Concurrency | Telephony | Free tier | Open source | INR billing | Indian carriers | Indian languages | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dvaarik Voice APIPublishes a price? Yes | ₹1.50–₹3.75/min by voice grade | Speech recognition, model, voice and turn-taking; whole-minute billing | ₹0 platform fee; prepaid | Tier-dependent | Bring your own carrier; Setu bridges seven carriers | None | Setu carrier bridge is MIT; API is hosted | Yes | Yes | Up to 23 by grade | 2026-08-08 |
| VapiPublishes a price? Yes | $0.05/min hosting | Hosting only; model provider costs passed through at cost, or $0 with BYOK | $0.05/min; HIPAA $2,000/mo; zero-data-retention $1,000/mo | 10 included; $10/line/mo | Provider transport charged separately | 60+ minutes included | No | No | Not stated on pricing page | Not stated on pricing page | 2026-08-08 |
| RetellPublishes a price? Yes | $0.07–$0.31/min | All-in range varies by voice/model stack; add-ons can apply | Included in published range | 20 free; $8/concurrency/mo | US telephony listed at $0.015/min | Starts at $0 | No | No | Not stated on pricing page | Not stated on pricing page | 2026-08-08 |
| BlandPublishes a price? Yes | $0.14/min Start; $0.12 Build; $0.11 Scale | LLM, STT and TTS; carrier billed separately | $0 Start; $299/mo Build; $499/mo Scale | 10 / 50 / 100 by plan | Own carrier or Bland/Twilio pass-through | Two credits and inbound number on Start | No | No | BYOT/SIP stated; India not specified | Not stated | 2026-08-08 |
| BolnaPublishes a price? Yes | 6.00¢/min (₹5.52 displayed); 4.51¢ volume | Voice AI plus token-based components; BYOK supported | Platform fee amount not separately published | Pilot lists up to 100 | Telephony component; Twilio, Plivo and Vobiz integrations | $5 credits | No | Displayed INR conversion; billing in USD | Integrations named, carrier-specific | 10+ vernacular languages | 2026-08-08 |
| DograhPublishes a price? No | Managed cloud custom | Open-source orchestration; bring models and telephony | Cloud pricing not published | Not published | Pluggable; Twilio shown | Self-hosted free | BSD-2 open source | No public INR price | Pluggable; India not specified | 70+ claimed | 2026-08-08 |
| LiveKit AgentsPublishes a price? No | Not published as an all-in voice-agent rate | Open-source agents framework; infrastructure/model/carrier components vary | Not published for a complete agent | Not published | SIP/telephony integrations | Open-source framework | Yes | No | SIP-compatible; India not stated | Depends on providers | 2026-08-08 |
| PipecatPublishes a price? No | Not published as an all-in voice-agent rate | Open-source real-time voice framework; providers billed separately | No hosted all-in rate published | Not published | Provider integrations | Open-source framework | Yes | No | Provider-dependent | Provider-dependent | 2026-08-08 |
| MillisPublishes a price? Yes | $0.02/min base plus provider charges | Platform base; LLM, TTS and STT are additional | $0.02/min base | Not published | SIP trunking and imported numbers documented | Not published | No public status verified | No | Not published | Provider-dependent | 2026-08-08 |
| VogentPublishes a price? No | Not published | All-in voice-agent platform; custom models and voices | Not published | Not published | Hosted phone numbers; carrier details not published | Not published | Not published | No | Not published | Not published | 2026-08-08 |
| LayercodePublishes a price? No | Not published | Realtime voice-agent SDK and stream primitives | Not published | Not published | Telephony documented; price not published | Not published | Not published | No | Not published | Provider-dependent | 2026-08-08 |
| ElevenLabs AgentsPublishes a price? No | Not published as an all-in agent rate | Voice/model components; carrier and orchestration depend on setup | Agent price not separately published | Not published | Not published for India | Provider free tiers vary | No | No | Not stated | Voice-language support varies | 2026-08-08 |
The key comparison is basis, not headline currency: Dvaarik’s ₹1.50 Essential rate includes speech, model, voice and turn-taking, while Vapi’s $0.05/min is hosting and passes model costs through separately. Missing prices are recorded as “Not published”, never estimated.
Developer alternatives and finished products
Developers comparing infrastructure can start with the Vapi alternative pages. Dvaarik is genuinely different from an orchestration-only API: developers can use the API, while agencies can ship the finished vertical application and keep their own carrier through the Setu bridge.