Voice AI Cost Calculator
Compare what your call volume costs on managed platforms vs a custom LiveKit stack — using real production pricing, not vendor marketing.
| Provider | $/minute | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retell AI(managed, all-in typical) | 10.0¢ | $2,000 | $24,000 |
| Vapi(platform fee + BYO stack) | 12.0¢ | $2,400 | $28,800 |
| Bland(managed, scale plan) | 11.0¢ | $2,200 | $26,400 |
| Custom LiveKit (Axionry)(our production number) | 2.5¢ | $500 | $6,000 |
Estimates based on published platform pricing ranges and Axionry's production LiveKit costs (2.5¢/min). Your exact numbers depend on STT/TTS choice, model routing and telephony.
Past the crossover point? See our AI voice agent development service — the migration that took production cost from 10¢ to 2.5¢/minute.
Common
questions.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask on a 20-minute call.
How much does voice AI cost per minute in 2026?+
Managed platforms (Retell, Vapi, Bland) run roughly 8–15¢ per minute all-in once you add STT, LLM, TTS and telephony. A custom LiveKit stack with optimized providers runs around 2.5–4¢ per minute at production quality — the 2.5¢ figure is our own production number.
When is a custom voice stack worth it?+
Around 20,000 minutes per month the savings from owning the stack usually exceed the build cost within one quarter. Below that, managed platforms are the right choice — we say this even though we sell custom builds.
What's included in these per-minute estimates?+
Speech-to-text, LLM inference, text-to-speech, WebRTC/telephony transport and infrastructure. Platform fees are included for managed options; engineering cost is excluded on the custom side (that's the one-time build).
Want your stack at 2.5¢/minute?
Twenty minutes, straight to the engineer. No sales rep, no deck.