AgentPhone alternative: which option suits your agent?

AgentPhone sells phone numbers, calls, and texts for AI assistants that carry out tasks for you. If you want a different service, the choice depends on whether you need a ready-made calling tool or want to build the software yourself.

Bland makes the Agent Phone Plan, a monthly plan that gives your existing AI assistant a phone number. We compare it with six other options below, including AgentPhone. Our plan comes first because we sell it; the rest are grouped by what you want to do.

Before choosing a provider, decide whether your agent needs texts, a dedicated number and several calls at once. You also need to decide how much software you want to build.

What is AgentPhone, and what does it cost?#

AgentPhone gives each AI agent its own number and passes every call and text on that number to the developer's own software over the internet, through a web address called a webhook. The developer's AI then handles them, or AgentPhone runs the AI for a higher rate. The name is close to our Agent Phone Plan's, but AgentPhone is a separate company with no connection to Bland.

AgentPhone is metered, meaning you pay for each minute and text as well as the number. A text is charged by the segment, which is one standard-length text, so a long message counts as more than one. Its own pages list these prices:

• A US or Canadian local number, every 30 days: Price on its own pages: $3.00
• A minute of calling when your own AI handles it: Price on its own pages: $0.13
• A minute of calling when AgentPhone runs the AI: Price on its own pages: $0.22
• A text segment, plus whatever the mobile network charges: Price on its own pages: $0.02
• Registering your business with US mobile networks, which you need before sending texts: Price on its own pages: A one-time $25 or $70
• An Apple iMessage line that only receives, on top of the number: Price on its own pages: $150 a month
• An Apple iMessage line that can start conversations, on top of the number: Price on its own pages: $250 a month

Which alternative fits which situation?#

A dedicated number belongs to one account. A shared number is used by several customers. The services differ in whether they include a number and whether you pay for each minute and text.

• Bland's Agent Phone Plan: Texts: Yes; Billing: Flat after a cheaper first month; Numbers: One; Calls at once: One
• ClawCall: Texts: No; Billing: Flat, with no per-minute charge; Numbers: Shared or one of your own; Calls at once: One
• Hail: Texts: Yes; Billing: Metered from prepaid credit; Numbers: Shared or one of your own; Calls at once: Not published
• Dial: Texts: Yes; Billing: Metered, with its own message billing unit; Numbers: Several; Calls at once: Not published
• Vapi: Texts: Only on a Twilio number; Billing: Metered; Numbers: One free number for incoming calls; Calls at once: Four to thirty by plan
• Twilio phone lines: Texts: Yes; Billing: Metered; Numbers: Several; Calls at once: Not covered here
• AgentPhone: Texts: Yes; Billing: Metered; Numbers: Several; Calls at once: Not published

Bland's Agent Phone Plan, for one flat price and one number#

Our plan gives your agent one US local number. Your agent, ChatGPT for example, decides what needs doing, and Bland's voice AI does the talking on the phone.

Once your agent is connected, you ask it in plain words, such as "call this clinic and ask about moving my appointment". Bland's voice AI makes the phone call from your number and talks to whoever answers. Your agent gets a summary afterward.

Choose your app in the setup guides before subscribing. Check your ChatGPT plan can add a custom connector with write actions before you subscribe. That connector must be allowed to take actions such as placing calls. Keep your AI app's tool-approval prompts switched on; Bland's server does not ask for confirmation before each call itself.

For developers: how does your app connect?#

Bland's docs have setup guides for ChatGPT and Claude, for coding tools such as Codex and Cursor, and for personal agents such as Meta Muse, OpenClaw and Poke. Some apps let you sign in with Bland. Others need an API key, a credential that lets the app use your Bland account.

Your agent can take calls on the number too. When it sends a text, it gives Bland a goal, such as confirming an appointment time, and if the person replies, Bland answers toward that goal.

It's $9.99 for the first month (once per account owner), then $19.99 a month. Calls and texts to US and Canada numbers carry no per-minute or per-text charge, up to these limits:

• Your account can run one call at a time.
• The allowance is 20 calls an hour and 50 a day.
• Incoming and outgoing calls share a daily allowance of 1,000 minutes.
• Each outgoing call can last up to 60 minutes.
• Your agent can send up to 20 texts an hour and 100 a day, including automatic replies.
• Texting uses SMS, the standard text-message service, and does not include Apple iMessage.

Calls and texts are limited to US and Canada destinations. Once an allowance is used up, your agent cannot place more calls or send more texts until it resets. Hourly allowances reset on the hour, and daily allowances reset at midnight UTC, the international time standard. Incoming texts still arrive after the texting limit, but Bland stops replying until it resets. Bland returns call details for your agent to read back, and our privacy policy says information is kept "as long as necessary to provide you with the Service".

Our plan suits an agent that runs errands one at a time, like phoning a clinic, on a bill that stays flat after the first month. It can't run two calls at once. The price and limits are also on our AI phone number cost page.

ClawCall, if you only need calls at a low flat price#

ClawCall is an AI that makes phone calls for your agent and talks to whoever answers. It costs $8.99 a month on shared numbers, which ClawCall uses for many customers, or $14.99 for a reserved number of your own, with no per-minute charge. Its $18.99 Reserve Plus plan also answers calls to that number. ClawCall makes one call at a time, only calls US numbers and doesn't send texts. For calls alone, all three of its plans cost less than our $19.99 a month.

Hail, for calls and texts on a low prepaid bill#

Hail is a prepaid service that gives an AI agent a phone number, calls, texts and email. You buy credit up front and your agent's use draws it down. Its pricing page lists:

• A minute of calling, excluding recording: Hail charges: $0.10
• A text to a US number: Hail charges: $0.018
• A dedicated US number, each month: Hail charges: $1.00
• Recording, which is on by default: Hail charges: $0.01 more per recorded minute

Hail's published calling rate is lower than either AgentPhone calling rate. Check how each service counts text messages before comparing the texting bill. Hail's instructions for AI agents say limits apply per hour, per day and per person contacted, but don't give the numbers, and its pages don't publish a limit on calls at once.

Dial, for similar calling rates and WhatsApp#

Dial is another developer service that sells numbers, calls and texts for AI agents. It lists $3.00 a number per month, $0.13 a minute when your own AI handles calls, $0.22 when Dial runs the AI, and $0.02 a US message. AgentPhone charges $0.02 per text segment, so a long message can cost several segments. The identical numeric text rates use different billing units. Dial also offers WhatsApp, and an Apple iMessage number costs $250 a month. It works with the coding tools Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, and with OpenClaw and Hermes, which are AI agents that run tasks for you.

Vapi, if you're building a voice product#

Vapi is a platform for developers who build their own voice AI product. It charges $0.05 a minute for hosting, meaning running your agent on Vapi's servers, plus separate charges for the transcriber, which turns speech into text, the AI model and the voice. Vapi's free number takes incoming calls only, so calling out needs a line you bring from a provider such as Twilio, and texting works only on a Twilio number. Vapi allows 4 calls at once on pay-as-you-go, 10 on its $29 a month Core plan and 30 on its Pro plan, priced at 10% of hosting fees with a $999 monthly minimum, so it fits better than our plan when your product runs many calls at once.

Twilio, if you want to build it yourself#

Twilio is a phone provider that sells lines to developers. Its pricing pages list a US local number at $1.15 a month, calls out at $0.0140 a minute and texts at $0.0083 a segment, plus mobile network fees. You build the agent on top, choosing the AI model, the speech-to-text and the voice yourself. Building on Twilio makes sense when you want to own every part. Bland is an official Twilio partner. Twilio hasn't reviewed this list.

When is AgentPhone the better pick?#

AgentPhone beats our plan in four cases: your agent rarely calls, so paying by the minute may cost less than our flat price, depending on usage and fees; you want Apple iMessage lines; you need more than one number; or you're a developer who wants calls and texts sent to your own software. Our plan allows one call at a time. AgentPhone's docs describe limits on calls at once without publishing a number, so ask AgentPhone before you plan around several at once. Dial lists the same numeric calling rates, but compare the number billing period and message-versus-segment texting units as well as the extras you need. If you want the figures lined up row by row, see Bland's Agent Phone Plan vs AgentPhone.

You can try ours for free. That try covers outbound calls only, from a shared Bland number: no dedicated number, no texting, no incoming calls. The plan is what gives your agent its own number, texting and incoming calls.

How does texting work on Bland's plan?#

Give Bland a goal with your first text, such as asking a clinic to confirm an appointment time. Bland answers replies toward that goal. More setup details are on the AI phone number to text page.

Compare the ongoing monthly cost on our AI phone number cost page before choosing a plan.