Vapi

Vapi is a developer platform for building AI voice agents that handle phone calls and web conversations for businesses. You describe what the agent should do, choose the models that listen, think and speak, and Vapi runs the real-time plumbing in between. Its defining choice is openness: you can swap transcription, language model and voice vendors per agent rather than accept one bundled stack.

What is Vapi used for?

Vapi is used to automate conversations that would otherwise need a person on the phone. Developers configure agents through the dashboard or API and connect them to business systems with tool calls.

• Inbound customer support lines that resolve common questions and escalate the rest
• Lead qualification and outbound follow-up calls
• Appointment scheduling for clinics, salons and service businesses
• Voice interfaces inside web and mobile apps over WebRTC or WebSockets
• Testing agents against simulated calls before they reach real customers
• Monitoring live calls for failures, compliance issues and success rates

Who Vapi is best for

Vapi suits developers, startups and engineering-led companies that want control over their voice stack and are comfortable wiring up providers and webhooks. Agencies that build agents for clients use it too. Small businesses that just want a ready AI receptionist with no setup will find a packaged product easier.

Vapi pricing

As of October 2026, Vapi charges a hosting fee of $0.05 per minute on its usage plan, and the transcriber, language model and voice are billed at provider cost with no markup. The pricing calculator's example puts a typical stack at roughly $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes, depending on the models chosen. New accounts get $5 in free credits, one phone number and four concurrent calls. The Core support package costs $29 per month and adds more numbers, ten concurrent calls, longer data retention, zero data retention and email support. Pro is billed at 10 percent of hosting fees with a $999 monthly minimum and adds 30 concurrent calls, Slack support and an uptime SLA. Premier is custom priced. HIPAA-eligible handling costs $2,000 per month, and extra concurrency is $10 per line per month.

Limitations to keep in mind

• Total cost per minute depends on the models you pick, so budgets need careful estimates
• You are responsible for prompt design and testing, which takes engineering time
• HIPAA support is an expensive add-on rather than a default
• The free tier allows only four concurrent calls

Vapi vs alternatives

ElevenLabs offers its own agents platform, which is simpler if you already use its voices and want one vendor. Deepgram provides a voice agent API alongside its speech recognition, appealing to teams that prefer fewer moving parts. Cartesia focuses on low-latency voices that many Vapi users plug in as the speaking layer. echowin and DialNexa are more packaged options, with DialNexa focused on Indian languages. Choose Vapi when you want to mix providers freely, own your prompts and data, and scale from a prototype to enterprise volume on one platform.

Tips for getting started with Vapi

Start with one narrow use case, such as booking appointments, rather than a general support agent. Use the pricing calculator with your actual model choices before promising a per-call cost to anyone. Run simulated calls with difficult callers, interruptions and background noise before going live, and set up monitoring alerts for failed tool calls from the first day.

Vapi FAQ

Is Vapi free?

Vapi is not free, but new accounts get $5 in credits to start. After that you pay a $0.05 per minute hosting fee plus provider costs.

What is Vapi used for?

Vapi is used to build AI voice agents that answer and place phone calls or talk with users on the web, for support, scheduling and lead qualification.

Can I use my own models with Vapi?

Yes. Vapi lets you choose transcription, language model and voice providers for each agent, and passes model costs through at cost.

Is Vapi HIPAA compliant?

Vapi lists SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance. HIPAA-eligible data handling with a business associate agreement is a $2,000 per month add-on.