{
 "meta": {
  "name": "PerMinute voice AI cost index",
  "dataset_version": "2026-10-17",
  "checked": "2026-10-17",
  "currency": "USD",
  "region": "United States list prices, pay-as-you-go, before volume or committed-use discounts",
  "rule": "Every price was read from the vendor's own public pricing page on the checked date. Items whose page could not be fetched, or whose price was ambiguous or not published, are marked unverified and excluded from 'cheapest' calculations."
 },
 "assumptions": {
  "turns_per_min": 4,
  "input_tokens_per_turn": 2000,
  "output_tokens_per_turn": 60,
  "cached_input_share": 0,
  "agent_talk_share": 0.5,
  "chars_per_audio_min": 1000,
  "notes": {
   "turns_per_min": "LLM calls per call-minute (one per caller utterance). Adjustable in the calculator.",
   "input_tokens_per_turn": "System prompt + tools + running conversation history re-sent on every turn. 2,000 is a short prompt; long prompts and late-call history push this well above 5,000.",
   "output_tokens_per_turn": "~60 tokens is roughly 45 spoken words, one or two sentences.",
   "cached_input_share": "Share of input tokens billed at the vendor's cached-input rate. Default 0 (conservative). Only applied where the vendor publishes a cached rate.",
   "agent_talk_share": "Share of the call during which the agent is speaking. TTS is billed only on generated speech; STT, telephony and platform fees are billed on the whole call.",
   "chars_per_audio_min": "Characters of text per minute of generated speech. Rime and ElevenLabs both state ~1,000 characters is about one minute of audio; Cartesia states 750-800. We use 1,000."
  }
 },
 "sources": {
  "deepgram": {
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "url": "https://deepgram.com/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "assemblyai": {
   "vendor": "AssemblyAI",
   "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified",
   "note": "Page states last updated 2026-09-28."
  },
  "openai": {
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "url": "https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "google-stt": {
   "vendor": "Google Cloud",
   "url": "https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "gemini": {
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "url": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified",
   "note": "Page states last updated 2026-10-16."
  },
  "elevenlabs-api": {
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "elevenlabs-agents": {
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/agents",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "cartesia": {
   "vendor": "Cartesia",
   "url": "https://cartesia.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "rime": {
   "vendor": "Rime",
   "url": "https://rime.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "inworld": {
   "vendor": "Inworld",
   "url": "https://inworld.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "soniox": {
   "vendor": "Soniox",
   "url": "https://soniox.com/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "xai": {
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "url": "https://docs.x.ai/docs/models",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "anthropic": {
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "url": "https://www.anthropic.com/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified",
   "note": "Fetched page rendered some price labels without their input/output captions; only models with explicit labels are marked verified."
  },
  "playht": {
   "vendor": "PlayHT",
   "url": "https://play.ht/pricing/",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "unverified",
   "note": "Pricing page returned HTTP 500 to our fetcher and did not connect via curl. Not known whether the API is still sold."
  },
  "vapi": {
   "vendor": "Vapi",
   "url": "https://vapi.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "retell": {
   "vendor": "Retell AI",
   "url": "https://www.retellai.com/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "bland": {
   "vendor": "Bland",
   "url": "https://www.bland.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "synthflow": {
   "vendor": "Synthflow",
   "url": "https://synthflow.ai/pricing",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "unverified",
   "note": "Enterprise-only; contracts from $30,000/year. No public per-minute rate."
  },
  "twilio": {
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "url": "https://www.twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/us",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified",
   "note": "Page says 'Pricing current as of August 2026'."
  },
  "telnyx": {
   "vendor": "Telnyx",
   "url": "https://telnyx.com/pricing/elastic-sip",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  },
  "plivo": {
   "vendor": "Plivo",
   "url": "https://www.plivo.com/voice/pricing/us/",
   "checked": "2026-10-17",
   "status": "verified"
  }
 },
 "items": [
  {
   "id": "deepgram-flux-en",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Flux (English), streaming",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0065
   },
   "native": "$0.0065/min (Pay As You Go)",
   "promo": "Promotional rate; regular $0.0077/min",
   "notes": "Billed per second. Growth plan rates are lower."
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-flux-multi",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Flux Multilingual, streaming",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0078
   },
   "native": "$0.0078/min"
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-nova3-mono",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Nova-3 Monolingual, streaming",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0048
   },
   "native": "$0.0048/min",
   "promo": "Promotional rate; regular $0.0077/min"
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-nova3-multi",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Nova-3 Multilingual, streaming",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0058
   },
   "native": "$0.0058/min",
   "promo": "Promotional rate; regular $0.0092/min"
  },
  {
   "id": "assemblyai-u36pro-rt",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "assemblyai",
   "vendor": "AssemblyAI",
   "product": "Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.45
   },
   "native": "$0.45/hr",
   "notes": "Streaming billed on session duration, not speech duration."
  },
  {
   "id": "assemblyai-us-en",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "assemblyai",
   "vendor": "AssemblyAI",
   "product": "Universal-Streaming (English)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.15
   },
   "native": "$0.15/hr",
   "notes": "Billed on session duration. Streaming diarization +$0.12/hr."
  },
  {
   "id": "assemblyai-us-multi",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "assemblyai",
   "vendor": "AssemblyAI",
   "product": "Universal-Streaming (Multilingual)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.15
   },
   "native": "$0.15/hr",
   "notes": "Billed on session duration."
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-realtime-whisper",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-realtime-whisper (streaming)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.017
   },
   "native": "$0.017/min"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-live-transcribe",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-live-transcribe (streaming)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.017
   },
   "native": "$0.017/min"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-4o-mini-transcribe",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-4o-mini-transcribe (file/batch)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.003
   },
   "native": "$0.003/min",
   "batch": true,
   "notes": "Batch/file transcription; not a streaming model, so excluded from realtime 'cheapest' picks."
  },
  {
   "id": "google-stt-v2",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "google-stt",
   "vendor": "Google Cloud",
   "product": "Speech-to-Text V2 Standard (0-500K min/mo)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.016
   },
   "native": "$0.016/min",
   "notes": "Tiered: $0.01 (500K-1M), $0.008 (1-2M), $0.004 (>2M min/mo)."
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-transcribe-live",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.5-transcribe-live",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.009
   },
   "native": "~$0.009/min (vendor's blended estimate)",
   "notes": "Token-billed; Google's page gives the per-minute estimate."
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-scribe-rt",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Scribe v2 Realtime",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.39
   },
   "native": "$0.39/hr",
   "notes": "Keyterms +$0.08/hr. Batch Scribe v2 is $0.22/hr."
  },
  {
   "id": "cartesia-ink",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "cartesia",
   "vendor": "Cartesia",
   "product": "Ink (streaming STT), Scale plan",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.39
   },
   "native": "3 credits/sec; ~$0.39/hr on Scale plan (vendor figure)",
   "notes": "Credit-based; effective rate depends on plan ($299/mo Scale). Lower plans cost more per credit."
  },
  {
   "id": "soniox-rt",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "soniox",
   "vendor": "Soniox",
   "product": "stt-rt-v5 (real-time)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.12
   },
   "native": "$0.12/hr (token-billed: $2.00/1M input audio tokens)",
   "notes": "Diarization, language ID and formatting included per vendor."
  },
  {
   "id": "inworld-stt",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "inworld",
   "vendor": "Inworld",
   "product": "STT 1 (On-Demand)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.15
   },
   "native": "$0.15/hr on-demand; $0.10/hr on paid plans"
  },
  {
   "id": "xai-stt-stream",
   "layer": "stt",
   "source": "xai",
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "product": "Speech to Text (streaming)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_hour",
    "usd": 0.2
   },
   "native": "$0.20/hr streaming; $0.10/hr REST"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-6-luna",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-6-luna",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.1,
    "cached": 0.01,
    "out": 0.5
   },
   "native": "$0.10 in / $0.01 cached / $0.50 out per 1M tokens"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5-nano",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5-nano",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.05,
    "cached": 0.005,
    "out": 0.4
   },
   "native": "$0.05 / $0.005 / $0.40 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5-mini",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5-mini",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.25,
    "cached": 0.025,
    "out": 2.0
   },
   "native": "$0.25 / $0.025 / $2.00 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5.6-luna",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5.6-luna",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.2,
    "cached": 0.02,
    "out": 1.2
   },
   "native": "$0.20 / $0.02 / $1.20 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5.4-nano",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5.4-nano",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.2,
    "cached": 0.02,
    "out": 1.25
   },
   "native": "$0.20 / $0.02 / $1.25 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5.4-mini",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5.4-mini",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.75,
    "cached": 0.075,
    "out": 4.5
   },
   "native": "$0.75 / $0.075 / $4.50 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-4.1-mini",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-4.1-mini",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.4,
    "cached": 0.1,
    "out": 1.6
   },
   "native": "$0.40 / $0.10 / $1.60 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-4o-mini",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-4o-mini",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.15,
    "cached": 0.075,
    "out": 0.6
   },
   "native": "$0.15 / $0.075 / $0.60 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-6-sol",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-6-sol",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 2.0,
    "cached": 0.2,
    "out": 10.0
   },
   "native": "$2 / $0.20 / $10 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-5.6-terra",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-5.6-terra",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 2.0,
    "cached": 0.2,
    "out": 12.0
   },
   "native": "$2 / $0.20 / $12 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.8-flash",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.8-flash",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.75,
    "out": 3.75
   },
   "native": "$0.75 in / $3.75 out per 1M",
   "scheduled_change": "Rises to $1.50 / $7.50 per 1M on 2027-01-01 (per Google's page)"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.5-flash-lite",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.5-flash-lite",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.3,
    "out": 2.5
   },
   "native": "$0.30 / $2.50 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.1-flash-lite",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.1-flash-lite",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.25,
    "out": 1.5
   },
   "native": "$0.25 / $1.50 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-2.5-flash",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-2.5-flash",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.3,
    "out": 2.5
   },
   "native": "$0.30 / $2.50 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-2.5-flash-lite",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-2.5-flash-lite",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 0.1,
    "out": 0.4
   },
   "native": "$0.10 / $0.40 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "anthropic-haiku-4.5",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "anthropic",
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "product": "Claude Haiku 4.5 (legacy)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 1.0,
    "cached": 0.1,
    "out": 5.0
   },
   "native": "$1 in / $0.10 cache read / $5 out per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "anthropic-sonnet-5",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "anthropic",
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "product": "Claude Sonnet 5 (legacy)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 2.0,
    "cached": 0.2,
    "out": 10.0
   },
   "native": "$2 in / $0.20 cache read / $10 out per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "anthropic-sonnet-4.6",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "anthropic",
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "product": "Claude Sonnet 4.6 (legacy)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 3.0,
    "cached": 0.3,
    "out": 15.0
   },
   "native": "$3 in / $0.30 cache read / $15 out per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "anthropic-haiku-5.5",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "anthropic",
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "product": "Claude Haiku 5.5",
   "status": "unverified",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Page showed $0.50 and $2.50 per MTok without input/output captions",
   "notes": "Unverified: labels missing in fetched page; Retell lists Claude 5.5 Haiku at $0.0032/min, which does not obviously reconcile. Re-check by hand."
  },
  {
   "id": "anthropic-sonnet-5.5",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "anthropic",
   "vendor": "Anthropic",
   "product": "Claude Sonnet 5.5",
   "status": "unverified",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Page showed $2 and $10 per MTok without input/output captions",
   "notes": "Unverified: labels missing in fetched page."
  },
  {
   "id": "xai-grok-4.3",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "xai",
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "product": "grok-4.3 (<200k prompt)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 1.25,
    "cached": 0.2,
    "out": 2.5
   },
   "native": "$1.25 / $0.20 / $2.50 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "xai-grok-4.7",
   "layer": "llm",
   "source": "xai",
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "product": "grok-4.7 (<200k prompt)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "tokens",
    "in": 2.0,
    "cached": 0.5,
    "out": 6.0
   },
   "native": "$2 / $0.50 / $6 per 1M"
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-flash",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Flash / Turbo",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.04
   },
   "native": "$0.04 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-v4-turbo",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Eleven v4 Turbo",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.04
   },
   "native": "$0.04 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-v3-conv",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Eleven v3 Conversational",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.04
   },
   "native": "$0.04 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-v4",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Eleven v4",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.08
   },
   "native": "$0.08 per 1K characters (page: ~$0.08/min)"
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-mlv2",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Multilingual v2",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.08
   },
   "native": "$0.08 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "cartesia-sonic-startup",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "cartesia",
   "vendor": "Cartesia",
   "product": "Sonic (Startup plan credits)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.0392
   },
   "native": "1 credit = 1 character; Startup $49/mo for 1.25M credits",
   "derived": "Derived: $49 / 1,250,000 credits = $0.0392 per 1K characters. Overage is $45/1M on Startup, $38/1M on Scale, $65/1M on Pro.",
   "notes": "Plan-based; you pay the subscription whether or not you use the credits."
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-tts-1",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "tts-1",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "$15 per 1M characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-tts-1-hd",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "tts-1-hd",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.03
   },
   "native": "$30 per 1M characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-4o-mini-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-4o-mini-tts",
   "status": "unverified",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "$0.60/1M text input + $12/1M audio output tokens",
   "notes": "Token price verified, but OpenAI's page does not state audio tokens per minute, so we do not publish a per-minute figure."
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-aura-2",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Aura-2",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.03
   },
   "native": "$0.030 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-aura-1",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Aura-1",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "$0.015 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-flux-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Flux TTS",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.045
   },
   "native": "$0.045 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "rime-mist-v3",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "rime",
   "vendor": "Rime",
   "product": "Mist v3",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.03
   },
   "native": "$0.03 per 1K characters (~$0.03/min per vendor)"
  },
  {
   "id": "rime-coda",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "rime",
   "vendor": "Rime",
   "product": "Coda",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.05
   },
   "native": "$0.05 per 1K characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "inworld-tts-2",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "inworld",
   "vendor": "Inworld",
   "product": "Realtime TTS-2 (On-Demand)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.025
   },
   "native": "$25 per 1M characters on-demand (as low as $12.50 on Growth)"
  },
  {
   "id": "inworld-tts-2-flash",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "inworld",
   "vendor": "Inworld",
   "product": "Realtime TTS-2 Flash (On-Demand)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "$15 per 1M characters on-demand ($7-10 on paid plans)"
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.8-flash-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.8-flash-tts",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_audio_min",
    "usd": 0.0135
   },
   "native": "$9 per 1M audio output tokens (~$0.00225 per 10s of audio)",
   "derived": "Derived: $0.00225 per 10s x 6 = $0.0135 per minute of generated audio (25 audio tokens/sec).",
   "scheduled_change": "Google's page says prices double on 2027-01-01."
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_audio_min",
    "usd": 0.009
   },
   "native": "$6 per 1M audio output tokens (~$0.0015 per 10s of audio)",
   "derived": "Derived: $0.0015 per 10s x 6 = $0.009 per minute of generated audio.",
   "scheduled_change": "Google's page says prices double on 2027-01-01."
  },
  {
   "id": "soniox-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "soniox",
   "vendor": "Soniox",
   "product": "Text-to-Speech (real-time)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_audio_min",
    "usd": 0.011667
   },
   "native": "~$0.70 per hour of generated speech (vendor figure); $4/1M text tokens + $21.50/1M audio tokens",
   "derived": "Derived: $0.70 / 60 = $0.0117 per minute of generated audio."
  },
  {
   "id": "xai-tts",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "xai",
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "product": "Text to Speech",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_1k_chars",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "$15 per 1M characters"
  },
  {
   "id": "playht",
   "layer": "tts",
   "source": "playht",
   "vendor": "PlayHT",
   "product": "PlayHT API",
   "status": "unverified",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Pricing page unreachable on 2026-10-17",
   "notes": "Could not fetch; status of the product unknown."
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-live-1",
   "layer": "s2s",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-live-1",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.05
   },
   "native": "$0.05/min",
   "excludes": "Backend model and tools are billed separately (per OpenAI's page).",
   "plus_llm": true
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-realtime-2.1",
   "layer": "s2s",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-realtime-2.1",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Audio: $32 in / $0.40 cached / $64 out per 1M tokens",
   "notes": "OpenAI does not publish audio tokens per minute, so no per-minute figure. For reference Retell resells it at $0.38/min."
  },
  {
   "id": "openai-gpt-realtime-mini",
   "layer": "s2s",
   "source": "openai",
   "vendor": "OpenAI",
   "product": "gpt-realtime-2.1-mini / gpt-realtime-mini",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Audio: $10 in / $0.30 cached / $20 out per 1M tokens",
   "notes": "No published per-minute figure. Retell resells GPT Realtime mini at $0.07/min."
  },
  {
   "id": "gemini-3.8-live",
   "layer": "s2s",
   "source": "gemini",
   "vendor": "Google Gemini API",
   "product": "gemini-3.8-live",
   "price": {
    "kind": "s2s_in_out_min",
    "in": 0.005,
    "out": 0.018
   },
   "native": "Audio input $0.005/min, audio output $0.018/min; text $0.75 in / $4.50 out per 1M",
   "derived": "Per call-minute = $0.005 x 1 (caller audio, whole call) + $0.018 x agent talk share. Context/text tokens not included.",
   "scheduled_change": "Check Google's page: Gemini prices scheduled to change 2027-01-01."
  },
  {
   "id": "xai-grok-voice-3",
   "layer": "s2s",
   "source": "xai",
   "vendor": "xAI",
   "product": "grok-voice-3.0",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.08
   },
   "native": "$0.08/min ($4.80/hr), $0.004 per text input"
  },
  {
   "id": "vapi",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "vapi",
   "vendor": "Vapi",
   "product": "Hosting",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.05
   },
   "native": "$0.05/min hosting, prepaid",
   "model": "orchestrator",
   "includes": [],
   "notes": "STT/LLM/TTS providers passed through at cost (no markup per Vapi). Telephony transport billed by your telephony provider. Free tier: $5 credit, 4 concurrent calls, 1 number. Pro: 10% of hosting fee with $999/mo minimum."
  },
  {
   "id": "retell",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "retell",
   "vendor": "Retell AI",
   "product": "Voice Infra",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.055
   },
   "native": "$0.055/min voice infra + Retell-priced LLM, TTS, telephony",
   "model": "orchestrator",
   "includes": [
    "stt"
   ],
   "notes": "Retell prices components itself (see breakdown). Speech-to-text is not listed as a separate charge; we infer it is inside the $0.055 voice infra because Retell's published floor of $0.07/min equals $0.055 infra + $0.015 voice + the cheapest LLM. Knowledge base +$0.005/min, PII removal +$0.01/min. Numbers $2/mo; first 20 concurrent calls free, then $8 per concurrency/mo. Retell's own page range: $0.07-$0.31/min. Billed per second.",
   "retell_components": {
    "tts": {
     "Retell platform / Cartesia / OpenAI / Inworld / Minimax / Fish voices": 0.015,
     "ElevenLabs Flash": 0.04,
     "ElevenLabs Multilingual v2": 0.06,
     "ElevenLabs v4 Turbo": 0.08,
     "ElevenLabs v4": 0.1
    },
    "llm": {
     "GPT 6 Luna": 0.0032,
     "GPT 5 nano": 0.0016,
     "GPT 5 mini": 0.008,
     "GPT 4.1 mini": 0.0128,
     "GPT 5.4 mini": 0.024,
     "GPT 5.6 Terra": 0.064,
     "Claude 5.5 Haiku": 0.0032,
     "Claude 5 Sonnet": 0.064,
     "Gemini 3.8 Flash": 0.048,
     "Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite": 0.008
    },
    "s2s": {
     "GPT Realtime 2.1": 0.38,
     "GPT Realtime mini": 0.07
    },
    "telephony": {
     "Retell Twilio (US)": 0.015,
     "Custom SIP (BYO carrier)": 0
    }
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "bland-start",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "bland",
   "vendor": "Bland",
   "product": "Bland Start plan",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.14
   },
   "native": "$0.14/min, $0 platform fee, 10 concurrent calls",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "llm",
    "tts"
   ],
   "notes": "Telephony separate (BYO or Bland's at pass-through). Transfer time $0.05/min."
  },
  {
   "id": "bland-build",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "bland",
   "vendor": "Bland",
   "product": "Bland Build plan",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.12
   },
   "native": "$0.12/min + $299/mo, 50 concurrent calls",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "llm",
    "tts"
   ],
   "monthly_fee": 299,
   "notes": "Transfer time $0.04/min. Telephony separate."
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-agents",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "elevenlabs-agents",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "ElevenLabs Agents",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.08
   },
   "native": "$0.08 per additional call minute (burst $0.16/min)",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "tts"
   ],
   "plus_llm": true,
   "notes": "LLM billed separately; telephony billed by your own provider. Plans include minutes: Free 15, Starter $6/75, Creator $22/275, Pro $99/1,238, Scale $299/3,738, Business $990/12,375."
  },
  {
   "id": "deepgram-voice-agent",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "deepgram",
   "vendor": "Deepgram",
   "product": "Voice Agent API (Standard)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.075
   },
   "native": "$0.075/min; BYO LLM or BYO TTS $0.065; BYO LLM+TTS $0.050; Advanced $0.163",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "llm",
    "tts"
   ],
   "notes": "Telephony separate."
  },
  {
   "id": "assemblyai-voice-agent",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "assemblyai",
   "vendor": "AssemblyAI",
   "product": "Voice Agent API",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.075
   },
   "native": "$0.075/min, all-inclusive",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "llm",
    "tts"
   ],
   "notes": "Telephony separate."
  },
  {
   "id": "cartesia-agents",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "cartesia",
   "vendor": "Cartesia",
   "product": "Managed Agents",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.06
   },
   "native": "$0.06/min (+$0.014/min if using a Cartesia phone number)",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "tts"
   ],
   "notes": "Check Cartesia's page for what LLM usage is included."
  },
  {
   "id": "elevenlabs-speech-engine",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "elevenlabs-api",
   "vendor": "ElevenLabs",
   "product": "Speech Engine (STT+TTS for your agent)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.08
   },
   "native": "$0.08/min",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "tts"
   ],
   "plus_llm": true
  },
  {
   "id": "twilio-conversation-relay",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "twilio",
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "product": "ConversationRelay",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.07
   },
   "native": "$0.07/min",
   "model": "bundled",
   "includes": [
    "stt",
    "tts"
   ],
   "plus_llm": true,
   "notes": "You bring the LLM via websocket. Voice minutes billed on top."
  },
  {
   "id": "synthflow",
   "layer": "platform",
   "source": "synthflow",
   "vendor": "Synthflow",
   "product": "Synthflow Enterprise",
   "status": "unverified",
   "price": {
    "kind": "none"
   },
   "native": "Contracts from $30,000/year; no public per-minute rate",
   "model": "bundled"
  },
  {
   "id": "twilio-local-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "twilio",
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "product": "Local number, inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0085
   },
   "native": "$0.0085/min + $1.15/mo number",
   "direction": "inbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "twilio-local-out",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "twilio",
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "product": "US/Canada, outbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.014
   },
   "native": "$0.0140/min",
   "direction": "outbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "twilio-tollfree-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "twilio",
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "product": "Toll-free, inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.022
   },
   "native": "$0.0220/min + $2.15/mo number",
   "direction": "inbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "twilio-sip",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "twilio",
   "vendor": "Twilio",
   "product": "SIP interface / BYOC",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.004
   },
   "native": "$0.0040/min each way",
   "direction": "sip"
  },
  {
   "id": "telnyx-sip-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "telnyx",
   "vendor": "Telnyx",
   "product": "Elastic SIP, local inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0032
   },
   "native": "from $0.0032/min; numbers $1.00/mo",
   "direction": "inbound",
   "notes": "'Starting at' rate. Voice API adds $0.002/min if you use it instead of raw SIP."
  },
  {
   "id": "telnyx-sip-out",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "telnyx",
   "vendor": "Telnyx",
   "product": "Elastic SIP, local outbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.005
   },
   "native": "from $0.005/min",
   "direction": "outbound",
   "notes": "'Starting at' rate; varies by destination."
  },
  {
   "id": "telnyx-tollfree-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "telnyx",
   "vendor": "Telnyx",
   "product": "Toll-free, inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "from $0.015/min",
   "direction": "inbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "plivo-local-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "plivo",
   "vendor": "Plivo",
   "product": "Local, inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0055
   },
   "native": "$0.0055/min; numbers $0.50/mo",
   "direction": "inbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "plivo-local-out",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "plivo",
   "vendor": "Plivo",
   "product": "Local, outbound (US)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0115
   },
   "native": "$0.0115/min",
   "direction": "outbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "plivo-sip",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "plivo",
   "vendor": "Plivo",
   "product": "Browser SDK / SIP calls",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.0033
   },
   "native": "$0.0033/min each way",
   "direction": "sip"
  },
  {
   "id": "plivo-tollfree-in",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "plivo",
   "vendor": "Plivo",
   "product": "Toll-free, inbound",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.018
   },
   "native": "$0.0180/min",
   "direction": "inbound"
  },
  {
   "id": "retell-twilio",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "retell",
   "vendor": "Retell AI",
   "product": "Retell-provided Twilio number (US)",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.015
   },
   "native": "$0.015/min",
   "direction": "inbound",
   "notes": "Only when using Retell."
  },
  {
   "id": "cartesia-number",
   "layer": "telephony",
   "source": "cartesia",
   "vendor": "Cartesia",
   "product": "Cartesia phone number",
   "price": {
    "kind": "per_min",
    "usd": 0.014
   },
   "native": "$0.014/min",
   "direction": "inbound",
   "notes": "Only with Cartesia Managed Agents."
  }
 ]
}