PolyAI vs Retell AI — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Retell AI starts at Free. PolyAI uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- PolyAI (Per Usage) — PolyAI bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
- Retell AI (Per Usage) — Retell AI bills purely on usage — PAYG. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Enterprise voice AI for customer-facing conversational agents in contact centers. Enterprise-only, all pricing custom-quoted. Focus on large enterprises (banks, retail, healthcare) replacing IVR trees with conversational voice agents. Deployed by JetBlue, Marks & Spencer, PG&E and other Fortune 500 brands.
AI voice agent platform. PAYG at $0.07+/min base ($10 free credits, 20 free concurrent calls); real all-in cost $0.13–0.31/min. Enterprise drops to $0.05+/min base rate. Supports GPT-5.x variants and Claude 4.5/4.6 Sonnet; Fast Tier LLM adds 1.5–2× charge for lower latency. Direct competitor to Vapi and Bland AI.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | PolyAI monthly | PolyAI annual | Retell AI monthly | Retell AI annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | — / PAYG | — | — | Free | Free |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
PolyAI is worth it if… enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations. Deals typically start at $250K/year and go into the millions for high-volume deployments.
Retell AI is worth it if… developers who want a slightly more opinionated voice stack than Vapi — bundled defaults that ship faster, with paid unlocks for premium voices and Fast Tier LLM latency. Free credits make prototyping frictionless.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose PolyAI over Retell AI if…
Choose PolyAI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, custom pricing).
- You match the profile PolyAI is built for: enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations.
- You're building for healthcare and contact centers.
Choose Retell AI if…
- You want bundled defaults that ship faster than assembling components yourself.
- You're building voice agents where developer experience and UI matter more than stack flexibility.
- You want premium voices and low-latency model tiers behind a simple paid unlock.
At a glance
| PolyAI | Retell AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Entry price | Custom | Free |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 10, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.