Retell AI

“Retell is a platform to build, test, deploy, and monitor AI voice and chat agents with telephony, prompts, tools, and analytics built in.” — the vendor’s own words

The developer-first voice stack: real MCP server, real fine-tuning, a live pricing calculator on the homepage — just remember $0.07/min is the floor, not the bill.

The verdict, read by Jan · AI clone of Jan’s voice, generated locally with his consent.

Best for: Engineering teams that want direct, code-level control over a voice agent stack — model choice, prompt iteration, MCP-based tooling — without an enterprise sales cycle or managed-service overhead.

Scope16/20

Quality7/10

Where the quality sits

7Reactive

7Retrieval & Memory

7Orchestration

8Validation

7Models

SpecialistVoice AgentsAutomation & AgentsVoice & SpeechSalesFreemium

Vendor

Retell AI · www.retellai.com

Origin

US — Redwood City, California

Pricing

Pay as you go $0.07-$0.31/min · Enterprise Custom

Users (official only)

3,000+ businesses use Retell's voice agents; 55+ million AI phone calls routed monthly, including customers such as the San Antonio Spurs, Motorola, Lenovo and Anker (source, 2026-06-22)

PRICING

Pay as you go	$0.07-$0.31/min	$10 free credits, 20 free concurrent calls, no platform fee or minimum commitment
Enterprise	Custom	Dedicated stable server, no concurrent call cap, HIPAA/BAA, custom SSO/MSA/DPA, 24/7 support

The advertised rate covers voice infrastructure only ($0.055/min). A realistic setup with TTS, an LLM and telephony stacked on runs $0.11-$0.31/min depending on model choice; this stacked-billing structure is the single most common complaint in independent G2 review round-ups.

checked 2026-08-05 · vendor pricing page

Element scores

Reactive

Retrieval & Memory

Orchestration

Validation

Models

Primitives

Compositions

Deployment

Emerging

Tap or hover any element to see why it got that score.

Strengths

True self-serve, pay-as-you-go pricing with a live cost calculator on the homepage, model-agnostic access to the current frontier LLM lineup (GPT 5.x, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3.x) plus bring-your-own custom model, a working MCP server for managing agents from Cursor or Claude Desktop, and a genuinely deep testing stack — graded regression test sets, live A/B split-testing, and an AI Quality Assurance add-on that auto-scores production calls.

Honest dings

The advertised $0.07/min is voice-infrastructure only; real production cost with LLM, TTS and telephony stacked on runs $0.11-$0.31/min, and G2 reviewers flag this pricing structure as the most common complaint. CRM integrations beyond Cal.com/HubSpot/Salesforce are limited without custom API work, and reported real-world latency (1s+ in some regions) sometimes runs above the ~600-800ms headline benchmark.

Prices and details change — this passport is re-verified at least quarterly.

Sources (11) — every claim traceable

Every audit lists the research it rests on — transparency and traceability are the product. Tools evolve: each audit is a snapshot of its audit date, and re-audits supersede older versions (kept below for reference).

docs.retellai.com/general/introduction — Official docs: product overview, MCP server ('Manage agents from Cursor, Claude Desktop, and more'), build/test/deploy/monitor surfaces (accessed 2026-08-05)
retellai.com/pricing — Official: full component pricing breakdown (voice infra, TTS, LLM, telephony, add-ons), pay-as-you-go vs Enterprise comparison table (accessed 2026-08-05)
retellai.com/customers — Official: '3,000+ businesses trust Retell' customer count claim (accessed 2026-08-05)
finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/voice-ai-s… — Official company press release (GlobeNewswire, 22/06/2026): ARR $10M→$60M in 12 months, 55M+ AI calls/month, named enterprise customers, Best Places to Work ranking (accessed 2026-08-05)
sacra.com/research/retell-ai-60m-yr-up-650-yoy — Independent research: $60M annualized revenue estimate (April 2026, up 650% YoY), competitive positioning vs Vapi/Sierra/Decagon (accessed 2026-08-05)
thoughtly.com/blog/retell-ai-review — Independent review: G2 rating (4.8/5, 2,241 reviews), Trustpilot rating (5.0/5, 816 reviews), compliance status (accessed 2026-08-05)
retellai.com/blog/best-llm-for-voice-ai-agents — Official blog: full LLM menu (GPT 5.x tiers, Claude Sonnet 4.5/4.6), custom/self-hosted LLM endpoint support (accessed 2026-08-05)
retellai.com/blog/training-and-customizing-voice-ag… — Official blog: documented fine-tuning process using real call transcripts (accessed 2026-08-05)
cloudtalk.io/blog/retell-ai-alternative — Independent: G2-sourced complaints on stacked pricing unpredictability, limited CRM integrations, real-world latency variance (accessed 2026-08-05)
retellai.com/changelog — Official changelog: function calling launch history, live transcript feature, fine-tuned LLM for conciseness (accessed 2026-08-05)
startupintros.com/orgs/retell-ai — Independent: founding story (YC W24), early customer traction (Ro telehealth), seed funding total (accessed 2026-08-05)