What does Bland include in its per-minute price?

More than most. Its Start tier is $0.14 a minute with no platform fee, and that rate covers the language model, real-time transcription and premium voices, as of September 2026. Telephony is billed separately, either through your own provider at pass-through or through its Twilio integration, and call transfers cost extra at three to five cents a minute depending on tier.

Are Bland's higher tiers actually cheaper?

Only above a certain volume. Build is $0.12 a minute with a $299 monthly platform fee and Scale is $0.11 with $499. The break-even against Start's $0.14 and zero fee is roughly 15,000 minutes a month for Build. Below that, the entry tier is cheaper despite the higher per-minute rate.

Why choose Bland over Vapi or Retell?

Fewer decisions. Bland bundles the model, the transcription and the voices into one rate, so you are not choosing providers and reconciling four line items. That is the trade: simpler pricing and setup in exchange for less control over which components run your calls.

Does Bland record what happened after the call?

It gives you the call outcome through webhooks, like every platform here. Whether that becomes a booked meeting, a disposition on a contact record and a follow-up task is a separate system's job. Choosing a voice platform never answers the question of where the outcome lives.

Bland AI alternatives

Bland bundles the model and transcription into one per-minute rate with no platform fee. Five alternatives compared on what each price actually covers.

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Pipeline with weighted forecast and stage breakdown

Switch if you need to choose your own model and voice providers, or if inbound latency is the binding constraint. Before you move, check your monthly minutes against Bland's zero-fee Start tier.

The short answer

Bland Start is $0.14 a minute with a $0 platform fee, and the rate covers the language model, real-time transcription and premium voices. Telephony is separate and transfers cost three to five cents a minute more.
The higher tiers only pay off at volume: Build at $0.12 a minute costs $299 a month and Scale at $0.11 costs $499. Below roughly 15,000 minutes a month, Start is the cheaper plan despite the higher rate.
Bland's free entry is unusually generous: two credits and an inbound number, with no card at signup. Use it to run test calls before you compare prices.

How we compared these

Rates, platform fees and inclusions come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked in September 2026. Aircall is the one entry we could not price at all: its page renders every figure client-side and returned empty placeholders on repeated checks, so it is described rather than quoted.

Evaluated from Bland's own documentation and pricing, September 2026. SalesCrew runs Vapi for outbound calls, so Vapi's details come from operating it and everything about Bland comes from what its site states.

The table separates the headline rate from what that rate excludes, because in this category the exclusions are where the money is. Bland is unusual in bundling more in, which makes it look expensive per minute and often cheaper in total.

Bland and its alternatives, on what the price actually covers

	Bland	Vapi	Retell	ElevenLabs Agents	Twilio Voice	SalesCrew
Entry rate	$0.14/min on Start	$0.05/min platform fee	$0.07 to $0.31/min blended; $0.055/min floor	$0.080/min standard, $0.160 burst	US outbound to local $0.0140/min	$299/mo Core, flat; the CRM the call lands in
Platform fee at entry	$0	None on usage; $10 per line/mo beyond 10 concurrent	None. Pay as you go	A subscription from $6/mo	None. Numbers from $1.15/mo	$299/mo, unlimited seats
Model included in the rate	Yes, with transcription and premium voices	No. At cost, or free with your own key	No. Itemised on top	No. Billed separately at cost	No. You supply everything	AI assist included, with a fair-use allowance
Telephony included	No. Own provider at pass-through, or its Twilio integration	No	No. Roughly $0.015/min itemised	No	This is the telephony	Calls run through Vapi and land on the contact
Volume tiers	Build $0.12/min at $299/mo; Scale $0.11/min at $499/mo	Concurrency priced per line	Enterprise pricing on request	Subscription ladder to $990/mo	Usage only	Core to Agency, $299 to $1,200/mo
Free entry	2 credits and an inbound number, no card	Not stated on its pricing page	$10 in credits, 20 concurrent calls	15 minutes, 4 concurrent	$15 credit, no card at signup	14-day trial, card required
Where the call outcome lands	Webhooks you handle yourself	Webhooks you handle yourself	Webhooks you handle yourself	Webhooks you handle yourself	Whatever you build	A logged call on the contact, in your own database

Figures checked on vendor pricing pages, September 2026.

The field, ranked for a team leaving Bland

1. Vapi

The move if the bundling is the problem. Vapi hands you every provider choice and charges its model costs at cost, or nothing at all if you bring your own key, which can beat Bland's bundled rate outright at volume. It is the platform SalesCrew runs for outbound. Best for: teams who want the stack to be theirs. Not for: anyone who valued having fewer decisions.

2. Retell

The inbound answer: itemised pricing from a $0.055 a minute infrastructure floor and a reputation for low latency on live calls. Best for: receptionist lines where a caller is waiting. Not for: outbound campaigns, where the latency advantage matters much less than the added complexity.

3. ElevenLabs Agents

$0.080 a minute plus a subscription that starts at $6, with the model and telephony separate, from a vendor whose core competence is the voice itself. Best for: teams for whom the voice quality is the product. Not for: anyone avoiding a monthly floor.

4. Twilio Voice with your own agent

The absolute floor at $0.0140 a minute for US outbound, since it is the raw telephony everyone else resells. You build the rest. Best for: engineering teams with time. Not for: anyone who chose Bland because it removed decisions.

5. SalesCrew

The layer beneath the voice platform rather than a replacement for it: the call logged against a contact, the disposition recorded, the follow-up as a cadence step, with unlimited seats at $299 a month. Outbound calls run through Vapi. SalesCrew provides the phone numbers, inbound routing and an AI receptionist that books the meeting or transfers the caller. Best for: teams whose call outcomes currently live in a webhook log. Disclosure: SalesCrew is our product.

What to check before you switch

Price the full bill, not the headline rate. Bland's rate covers the model, the real-time transcription and the premium voices, so you reason about one line item plus telephony rather than four. Vapi and Retell are cheaper on paper. Add their model, voice and transcription costs to the rate before you compare.

Check your monthly minutes. Below roughly 15,000 minutes a month, Start's zero platform fee makes it the cheapest Bland tier, even at the highest per-minute rate. Work out your own break-even before you assume a lower headline rate means a lower bill.

Run test calls on the free tier. Bland gives two credits and an inbound phone number, with no card asked. Use them to place real calls in your own use case, then write down what one finished call cost you. That number is the one to compare.

Questions

What does Bland include in its per-minute price?: More than most. Its Start tier is $0.14 a minute with no platform fee, and that rate covers the language model, real-time transcription and premium voices, as of September 2026. Telephony is billed separately, either through your own provider at pass-through or through its Twilio integration, and call transfers cost extra at three to five cents a minute depending on tier.
Are Bland's higher tiers actually cheaper?: Only above a certain volume. Build is $0.12 a minute with a $299 monthly platform fee and Scale is $0.11 with $499. The break-even against Start's $0.14 and zero fee is roughly 15,000 minutes a month for Build. Below that, the entry tier is cheaper despite the higher per-minute rate.
Why choose Bland over Vapi or Retell?: Fewer decisions. Bland bundles the model, the transcription and the voices into one rate, so you are not choosing providers and reconciling four line items. That is the trade: simpler pricing and setup in exchange for less control over which components run your calls.
Does Bland record what happened after the call?: It gives you the call outcome through webhooks, like every platform here. Whether that becomes a booked meeting, a disposition on a contact record and a follow-up task is a separate system's job. Choosing a voice platform never answers the question of where the outcome lives.