Telnyx Voice AI alternatives

8 tools we tested head to head against Telnyx Voice AI, ranked — and what each one actually does differently.

last reviewed 29 jul 2026 · from our best 9 ai voice agent platforms ·list curated by Onur Ozcanx in

first — what you'd be leaving

Telnyx Voice AI ranks #6 of 9 in our ai voice agent platforms testing. calls its rate 'all-in' on a page that lists telephony and llm tokens as separate charges..

74/100

genuinely fast infrastructure and a genuinely misleading label — 'all-in' excludes the phone call and the model.

why people look for an alternative

−'all-in' excludes telephony and llm tokens
−premium voices billed per character on top
−concurrency limits not published
−no free tier figure disclosed

stay with Telnyx Voice AI if sub-200ms latency claim from co-located infrastructure is the thing you care about most — nothing below beats it on that.

the short version

best alternativeRetell AIteams who want one number they can plan against rather than five they have to assemble.89/100 best free optionPipecatteams who want to swap any component without changing platform, and pay nobody for the privilege.84/100

Retell AI

#1 in ai voice agent platforms · the only vendor whose headline band already includes telephony, stt, tts and the llm — with the sub-rates printed underneath.

89/100

verdictthe most transparent pricing in the category and close to a real all-in figure — provided you resist the add-on menu that can double it.

Retell AI vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Retell AI
price	$0.05/min	$0.07/min
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.07-0.31/min
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	infra, stt, tts, llm, us telephony
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	$0.08-0.31 plus add-ons
self-host	not offered	enterprise on-prem
concurrency	not published	20 included

switch forteams who want one number they can plan against rather than five they have to assemble.

pros

+publishes per-component sub-rates, unique here
+band already includes telephony, stt, tts and llm
+20 concurrent calls included as standard
+genuine on-premise enterprise deployment

cons

−add-ons can roughly double the effective per-minute cost
−ai quality assurance alone is $0.10/min after 100 minutes
−premium llm choices push the band to $0.31
−training on customer calls not addressed

visit Retell AI →full Retell AI review →

LiveKit Agents

#2 in ai voice agent platforms · apache 2.0 top to bottom — self-host it and the platform fee simply stops existing.

87/100

verdictthe best licence in the category and the most honest component pricing — you just have to do the addition yourself.

LiveKit Agents vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	LiveKit Agents
price	$0.05/min	$0.01/min
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.01/min session
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	orchestration only
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	~$0.095/min mid-tier
self-host	not offered	yes, apache 2.0
concurrency	not published	5 free, up to 600

switch forengineering teams who want to own the deployment and pay providers directly.

pros

+apache 2.0 framework and media server, verified in the repo
+self-hosting eliminates the platform fee entirely
+publishes rate ranges for every billed component
+1,000 free agent session minutes a month

cons

−no blended all-in figure anywhere
−cloud pricing means summing five metered lines
−free tier caps at five concurrent sessions
−no published latency figure

visit LiveKit Agents →full LiveKit Agents review →

Pipecat

#3 in ai voice agent platforms · bsd-licensed, provider-agnostic, and free if you run it yourself — the framework the others are competing with.

84/100

verdictthe most flexible option here and the one that requires the most assembly — there is no bundled price anywhere in the stack because there is no bundle.

Pipecat vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Pipecat
price	$0.05/min	free self-hosted
free tier	no	no
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.01-0.03/min compute
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	compute only
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	$0.07-0.18/min hosted
self-host	not offered	yes, bsd 2-clause
concurrency	not published	unlimited (pay-per-use)

switch forteams who want to swap any component without changing platform, and pay nobody for the privilege.

pros

+bsd 2-clause, fully open and self-hostable
+cheapest hosted compute at $0.01-0.03/min
+unlimited concurrency on pay-per-use
+free 1:1 voice transport and 10,000 minutes of noise removal

cons

−no bundled pricing anywhere in the stack
−you must supply and pay every ai provider yourself
−no free-minute allowance on cloud compute
−no published latency figure

visit Pipecat →full Pipecat review →

Bland AI

#4 in ai voice agent platforms · bundles the llm, stt and tts with no token charges — the simplest bill here, with telephony left outside it.

81/100

verdictgenuinely bundled where it matters and honest about the one thing it isn't — plus the highest published concurrency ceiling in the category.

Bland AI vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Bland AI
price	$0.05/min	$0.11/min
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.11-0.14/min
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	llm, stt, tts
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	$0.12-0.17/min
self-host	not offered	enterprise on-prem
concurrency	not published	10 to 100

switch forteams that want a predictable talk-time rate and already have telephony sorted.

pros

+llm, stt and tts genuinely bundled with no token charges
+highest published concurrency at 100 on scale
+on-premise with regional data residency for enterprise
+bring your own twilio removes transfer fees

cons

−telephony sits outside the bundled rate
−transfer time billed at $0.03-0.05/min unless byot
−latency comparison is bland's own
−training on customer calls not addressed

visit Bland AI →full Bland AI review →

Vapi

#5 in ai voice agent platforms · five cents a minute for vapi, and everything that makes a phone call work costs extra.

77/100

verdictthe cheapest markup in the category, attached to a pricing page that never shows you what a complete call costs.

Vapi vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Vapi
price	$0.05/min	$0.05/min
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.05/min
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	orchestration only
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	$0.15-0.30/min (our estimate)
self-host	not offered	not offered
concurrency	not published	10, +$10/line

switch forteams with existing provider contracts who want orchestration and nothing else.

pros

+lowest orchestration markup at $0.05/min
+bring your own keys zeroes the pass-through entirely
+clear split between vapi's fee and provider cost
+10 concurrent lines on the entry plan

cons

−headline covers none of stt, llm, tts or telephony
−no worked example of a complete call anywhere
−trust and security page returns 404
−training on customer calls unverifiable

visit Vapi →full Vapi review →

ElevenLabs Agents

#7 in ai voice agent platforms · the best voices in the business, sold without an agent price anywhere on the site.

66/100

verdictthe voice quality is the reason anyone considers it, and it is the only platform here whose own pages never state what a minute of conversation costs.

ElevenLabs Agents vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	ElevenLabs Agents
price	$0.05/min	unverified
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	not published
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	shared credit pool
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	not derivable
self-host	not offered	not offered
concurrency	not published	not published

switch forteams already on elevenlabs credits who value voice quality above cost predictability.

pros

+the strongest voice quality in the category
+zero-retention mode available for stricter data control
+free plan with 10,000 shared credits a month
+one credit pool across tts, stt and agents

cons

−no agent per-minute rate published anywhere
−no credits-per-agent-minute conversion given
−retention is the default; opt-out is manual
−concurrency not published — seats are not sessions

visit ElevenLabs Agents →full ElevenLabs Agents review →

Millis AI

#8 in ai voice agent platforms · the lowest teaser rate in the category, on a pricing page that returns 404.

60/100

verdicta live, working product whose price cannot be verified because the page that would state it does not load.

Millis AI vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Millis AI
price	$0.05/min	$0.02/min
free tier	no	no
headline rate	$0.05/min	$0.02/min teaser
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	unconfirmed
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	not derivable
self-host	not offered	not offered
concurrency	not published	not published

switch fornobody yet — check back when the pricing page is restored.

pros

+lowest headline rate at $0.02/min
+choose your own llm and voice provider
+supports custom voice clones
+confirmed active with a maintained changelog

cons

−pricing page returns 404 on both domains
−what the $0.02 covers is entirely unconfirmed
−no free tier, concurrency or latency figures published
−data handling not addressed anywhere reachable

visit Millis AI →full Millis AI review →

Synthflow

#9 in ai voice agent platforms · free to build, undisclosed to run, and $30,000 a year to buy properly.

56/100

verdicta coherent enterprise offering with the least public pricing of the nine — you can build an agent for free and cannot find out what running it costs.

Synthflow vs Telnyx Voice AI

	Telnyx Voice AI	Synthflow
price	$0.05/min	unpublished
free tier	no	yes
headline rate	$0.05/min	not published
what it covers	stt, tts, orchestration	unconfirmed
realistic all-in	$0.07-0.10/min	not derivable
self-host	not offered	not offered
concurrency	not published	custom, enterprise only

switch forenterprises who want telephony, concurrency, integrations and a security review scoped into one contract.

pros

+free to build and test agents from templates
+enterprise contract covers telephony, concurrency and security review
+custom routing, escalation and fallback logic
+no cost until an agent goes live

cons

−no published per-minute rate for any tier
−enterprise floor of $30,000 a year
−data fine-tuning scope not clarified
−no self-hosting or on-premise option

visit Synthflow →full Synthflow review →

how these were compared

every tool on this page went through the same test as Telnyx Voice AI — same tasks, same order, scored the same way. the comparison tables are the figures from that testing, not vendor spec sheets.

the ai voice agent platforms test in full →

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