8 best AI phone agents in 2026, ranked
Samuel Oram-Jones, 12 min read
The best AI phone agents in 2026 are Bland, Vapi, Synthflow, ElevenLabs, PolyAI, Thoughtly, Goodcall, and Retell, and Bland ranks first for enterprise calls because one company builds every model on a call. The ranking compares them on who builds the AI, how they handle compliance, and what a minute costs, as of November 2026.
What are the best AI phone agents?
The best AI phone agent overall is Bland, because it builds its own language, speech, and transcription models and runs inbound and outbound calls on one platform, while the other seven lean on outside companies for at least part of a call or sell a narrower job.
- Bland: Best overall for enterprise calls
- Vapi: Best for developers assembling their own voice stack
- Synthflow: Best for sales-led, multi-channel voice teams
- ElevenLabs: Best for teams that already build on ElevenLabs voices
- PolyAI: Best for enterprises that want a managed, quoted agent
- Thoughtly: Best for inbound lead conversion across voice and text
- Goodcall: Best for small businesses that want per-customer pricing
- Retell: Best for developer teams that pick their own model and voice
What should buyers check in AI phone agents?
Buyers should check who builds each model on a call, because price, security review, and how a call sounds all depend on how many companies sit behind it.
Vapi takes its language model from other companies, Retell takes most of its models from other companies, ElevenLabs, Synthflow, Thoughtly, and PolyAI mix their own models with outside ones, and Bland builds its language, speech, and transcription models itself. Each outside company is one more name in a security review, and a headline rate rarely includes all of them.
Where a call may run comes next. Enterprise customers get dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland. Security rules decide which companies may hear a call, so it is worth reading each vendor's security program.
Compliance paperwork matters as much as the feature list. A BAA is the contract HIPAA requires before a vendor handles patient information, and card payments need a clear PCI DSS statement. Goodcall signs a BAA only on its Scale plan and Enterprise.
Bland self-attests to PCI DSS v4.0.1 and shares its attestation under NDA on Enterprise, while Retell has no PCI status and bars card data unless it agrees in writing.
Bland holds FedRAMP 20x Class A, a level of the US government's cloud security program, which Vapi, Synthflow, Retell, and PolyAI don't hold as of November 2026. A buyer who needs messaging beside voice should ask about iMessage too: Bland runs branded iMessage agents natively on Enterprise, Thoughtly offers iMessage through partner integrations via Linq, and the other six agents here don't offer iMessage agents.
Proof at volume is the last check, such as a customer replacing an IVR (an automated phone menu) with an AI phone agent, and a demo reveals less about it. Idaho Housing and Finance Association saves $750,000 a year by replacing its IVR with Bland, which handles 4,000 inbound calls a day and cut average call time by 20%.
"We save thousands of dollars a day."
Greg Blake, Chief Information Officer, Idaho Housing and Finance Association
How do the 8 best AI phone agents compare?
These eight AI phone agents differ most in how much of a call they build themselves, and Bland is the one that builds all of it.
1. Bland: Best overall for enterprise calls
What does it do? Bland is a full stack AI phone agent platform that builds and runs its own language, speech, and transcription models for inbound and outbound calls, with a visual builder called Pathways where teams connect steps and test them before launch. It publishes sub-200ms latency, support for 1 million concurrent calls, and a 99.9% uptime SLA, and it serves more than 250 enterprise customers.
Who is it for? Bland suits enterprises and contact centers in any industry that run high-stakes calls at volume. Enterprise customers get dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland.
Bland also measures how fast a caller speaks and adjusts how soon the agent cuts in. A browser-use subagent can fill out a web form for a caller while the main agent keeps talking. Evaluations grade call audio as well as the transcript, so tone and satisfaction count.
Pros
- No outside AI lab in the call path, so a security team reviews one AI company
- Dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland, on Enterprise
- BAA on Enterprise, PCI DSS self-attested, FedRAMP 20x Class A
- Bland Speech v3 ranked first of 13 AI voices on Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026
- Forward-deployed engineers on Enterprise
- Native iMessage agents on Enterprise, sharing pathways with voice
- Staged releases that pause a new agent version when it performs worse than the last
- Call grading on the audio as well as the transcript
Cons
- Overkill for a small prototype, because Bland is built for production calls at volume
Pricing: Self-serve Start is $0.14 per minute with no platform fee, self-serve Build is $0.12 per minute with a $299 monthly platform fee, and Enterprise pricing is custom. Phone is billed separately at carrier cost. Enterprise adds native iMessage agents, warm transfers, a BAA, SSO, data residency, dedicated GPUs run by Bland, and forward-deployed engineers, alongside SMS and web chat.
2. Vapi: Best for developers assembling their own voice stack
What does it do? Vapi is a developer platform that hosts phone agents and bills the language model, transcription, and voice from other companies on top at cost. Vapi says it passes these through with "no markup", so a team picks and wires every provider itself.
Who is it for? Vapi suits developers who want to pick and swap each AI provider themselves and can run a stack of several vendors.
Pros
- A team can choose every model and voice
- Imported numbers are billed by a customer's own phone provider
- Vapi says it is SOC 2 Type II attested
Cons
- Language model, transcription, and voice bill from other companies on top of $0.05 hosting
- HIPAA is a $2,000 monthly add-on
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: $0.05 per minute for hosting, plus a language model, transcription, and voice at provider cost, which Vapi's pricing calculator puts at up to $0.0452, $0.0099, and $0.0238 a minute, before phone.
3. Synthflow: Best for sales-led, multi-channel voice teams
What does it do? Synthflow sells phone agents through one annual enterprise agreement that scopes in telephony, integrations, and launch support, and it offers WhatsApp and SMS chat beside voice. Synthflow says it is built on "proprietary orchestration and models from OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and custom in-house logic".
Who is it for? Synthflow suits mid-market and enterprise teams that want a sales-scoped platform and are happy to sign an annual agreement before they launch.
Pros
- Reports SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR coverage
- Forward-deployed engineers launch agents with a customer's team where the agreement includes launch support
- WhatsApp and SMS chat channels
Cons
- Annual enterprise agreement only, with no free plan or trial and no rate by the minute
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: Annual agreement only, with no public per-minute rate, and purchased phone numbers cost $1.50 a month.
4. ElevenLabs: Best for teams that already build on ElevenLabs voices
What does it do? ElevenLabs sells ElevenAgents, a platform for voice and text agents built on its own speech and transcription models, with a choice between its Realtime models and an outside language model. ElevenLabs charges no telephony fee, and a connected provider such as Twilio bills its own carrier charges.
Who is it for? ElevenLabs suits developer and enterprise teams that want ElevenLabs voices inside an agent platform and will pick a language model themselves.
Pros
- Runs its own speech and transcription models
- Plans from $6 a month with a call allowance
Cons
- Language model usage billed on top in Custom mode
- ElevenLabs says "HIPAA support is available when Zero Retention Mode is enabled and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is in place"
- Call grading looks at transcripts only, not audio
- Eleven v3 ranked 12th of 13 AI voices on Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: $0.08 per minute past a plan's allowance, with plans from $6 a month and language model usage billed on top in Custom mode.
Teams weighing ElevenLabs against other options can read ElevenLabs alternative for enterprises and Best ElevenLabs alternatives.
5. PolyAI: Best for enterprises that want a managed, quoted agent
What does it do? PolyAI builds and runs a phone agent for a customer on quoted per-minute pricing, with its own Raven model family beside GPT and Claude models. PolyAI also sells a Dialog-RSN-1 model API at 2¢ per connected minute, without telephony or orchestration.
Who is it for? PolyAI suits large consumer-facing companies that want it to build and run their agent for them.
Pros
- PolyAI handles the build and the ongoing running
- Reports SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001
Cons
- No public rate for a managed agent
- Its contract says "the total handle time is rounded up to the next 30-second increment"
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: A managed agent is quoted per minute with no public rate.
6. Thoughtly: Best for inbound lead conversion across voice and text
What does it do? Thoughtly sells agents that call, text, and email inbound leads, qualify them, book meetings, and write back to a CRM. Thoughtly describes its product as "inbound lead conversion, not cold outbound and not an AI SDR", and a customer picks a GPT, Claude, or Gemini language model with stock voices from a Cartesia and ElevenLabs catalog.
Who is it for? Thoughtly suits revenue teams in mortgage, insurance, real estate, and similar fields that get 500+ opted-in inbound leads a month.
Pros
- Offers a 99.9% uptime SLA on its Scale plan
- Imports numbers from Twilio or Telnyx
- Books meetings and writes back to a CRM
Cons
- No public rate, because Flex, Scale, and Enterprise all route to sales
- A customer's language model is a GPT, Claude, or Gemini model, and stock voices come from Cartesia and ElevenLabs
Pricing: No public rate. Flex, Scale, and Enterprise are sold through sales, with 10 concurrent calls on Flex and 100+ on Scale.
7. Goodcall: Best for small businesses that want per-customer pricing
What does it do? Goodcall sells an AI phone agent for small businesses that answers calls, books work, and texts callers, billed per unique customer instead of per minute. Goodcall says "No per-minute charges".
Who is it for? Goodcall suits solo operators and small shops that miss calls on the job and want a predictable monthly bill.
Pros
- Every plan includes a local number, or a business can forward its existing one
- Every call is recorded and transcribed for review in its app
- A BAA on its Scale plan and Enterprise
Cons
- Its agent can send texts and can't receive replies yet
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: Starter is $79 a month for 100 unique customers, then 79¢ each, Growth is $129 a month for 500, then 26¢ each, and Scale is $299 a month for 2,000, then 15¢ each. Enterprise is volume pricing with an SLA.
8. Retell: Best for developer teams that pick their own model and voice
What does it do? Retell is a platform for building and monitoring AI voice and chat agents, billed per minute with the language model and voice priced as separate lines. A customer's own SIP trunk (a connection to the phone network) carries no Retell phone charge, and phone on Twilio or Telnyx is billed on top.
Who is it for? Retell suits developer-led teams that want to choose their own language model and voice and pay per minute.
Pros
- A wide choice of language models and voices
- Reports SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR coverage
Cons
- Advertises "We guarantee >99.9% uptime", while its terms say "at least 99.5% uptime"
- PII (personal data) Removal adds $0.01 a minute
- No iMessage agents
Pricing: $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on the language model and voice, with Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice coming to $0.14 per minute before phone.
How were these agents ranked?
Agents were compared on who builds the AI, price before phone, compliance, and voice realism, with weight on what enterprise calls need. Every claim about an agent comes from its own public pages as read in November 2026, and voice scores come from Design Arena's chart of 4 August 2026.
Closer comparisons sit in Bland vs Vapi, Bland vs Synthflow, Bland vs ElevenLabs, Bland vs PolyAI, Bland vs Thoughtly, and Bland vs Retell. Related rankings cover AI voice agent builders, AI voice agent services, AI customer service agent platforms, and Best Air AI competitors.
How much do AI phone agents cost?
AI phone agents charge per minute, per customer, or by quote, so each price below states its basis. Bland's self-serve Start plan is $0.14 per minute for its language model, transcription, and speech together. Enterprise pricing is custom, set with Bland's sales team. Bland replaced an earlier flat $0.09 rate with Start and Build in December 2025.
Every total below is AI before phone, with Vapi and ElevenLabs at their calculator defaults. Retell's card adds Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice to reach $0.14 per minute, while Retell publishes a range of $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on the model and voice.
Vapi's card adds hosting to the top of each range on its pricing calculator, ElevenLabs' card adds the calculator's default model to a call minute, and phone is billed by whichever provider a customer connects. Synthflow, Thoughtly, and PolyAI publish no per-minute rate for a managed agent, and Goodcall bills per unique customer, so no per-minute bill can be added up for them.
| Vendor | What a minute pays for | Total per minute | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bland Start (self-serve) | All AI: model, transcription, speech $0.14 | $0.14 before phone | Billed separately at carrier cost |
| Retell | Voice infrastructure $0.055, GPT-4.1 $0.045, ElevenLabs Flash voice $0.04 | $0.14 before phone | Twilio at $0.015 a minute, billed on top |
| Vapi | Hosting $0.05, Transcription $0.0099, Language model $0.0452, Voice $0.0238 | $0.1289 before phone | Free on Vapi numbers, billed on top on Twilio at up to $0.014 a minute |
| ElevenLabs Agents | Call minute $0.08, Gemini 2.5 Flash, the calculator's default model $0.0029 | $0.0829 before phone | No ElevenLabs telephony fee, with a connected provider billing on top |
Bland Start (self-serve): Self-serve Start has no platform fee. Self-serve Build is $0.12 a minute plus $299 a month. Phone and transfers bill separately. Retell: Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice, before Twilio phone minutes. Vapi: Hosting plus the top of each range on Vapi's pricing calculator, before phone. ElevenLabs Agents: ElevenLabs call minute plus its pricing calculator's default model, before the customer's own phone provider.
Which AI phone agent sounds most like a real person?
Bland Speech v3 ranked 1st of 13 AI voices on Design Arena's Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026, at 1365, and every outside voice in those results that the other agents here let a customer choose scored lower.
- #1BlandBland Speech v31365
- 4thOpenAI, on RetellGPT Realtime 21119
- 4thOpenAI, on VapiGPT Realtime 21119
- 6thCartesia, on PolyAISonic 3.51096
- 12thElevenLabsEleven v3Near the bottom938
- Not rankedRetell's own voicesNot ranked
- Not rankedVapi's own voicesNot ranked
- Not rankedPolyAI's own voicesNot ranked
Ranks are among 13 AI voices, and each rival shows the highest listed voice a customer can choose on it, named for the company that made it. Real human recordings scored 1500, at the right edge of this scale. Bars start at 600, not zero. Source: Design Arena's published results.
On Retell and Vapi the highest outside voice was OpenAI's GPT Realtime 2, 4th at 1119.
ElevenLabs' Eleven v3 ranked 12th at 938, and it is the one outside voice in those results that Synthflow offers. PolyAI uses outside voice providers and no PolyAI voice was in the results, and Thoughtly uses stock voices from other companies. Retell's own platform voices, Vapi's own voices, and Synthflow TTS were not in the results either.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI phone agent?
Bland is the best AI phone agent for enterprise calls as of November 2026, because one company builds every model on a call. Enterprise customers get dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland.
Which AI phone agents are HIPAA compliant?
Bland is HIPAA compliant and includes its BAA on Enterprise, and Retell, Synthflow, and PolyAI offer a BAA as of November 2026. Vapi sells HIPAA mode as a $2,000 monthly add-on, ElevenLabs applies its BAA only while Zero Retention Mode is on, Thoughtly offers a BAA on Enterprise, and Goodcall signs one on its Scale plan and Enterprise.
Is Bland only for outbound calls?
No, Bland runs inbound and outbound calls, including AI receptionist and contact center work, and it also runs SMS and web chat.
Is Bland only for developers?
No, Bland isn't only for developers. Pathways gives teams a visual builder, Norm helps build agents, and on Enterprise forward-deployed engineers build alongside a customer's team.
Does Bland use an open-source model?
No, Bland operates a closed-source model that it developed itself, so its language model isn't an open-source model and no outside AI lab sits behind it.
Which AI phone agents support iMessage?
Bland runs branded iMessage agents natively on its Enterprise plan. Thoughtly offers iMessage on every plan, through partner integrations via Linq, and Vapi, Synthflow, ElevenLabs, PolyAI, Goodcall, and Retell don't offer iMessage agents as of November 2026.
How much does an AI phone agent cost per minute?
Rates run from $0.05 per minute for hosting alone on Vapi to $0.07 to $0.31 on Retell depending on the model and voice, while Synthflow, Thoughtly, and PolyAI publish no per-minute rate for a managed agent and Goodcall charges per unique customer. Bland is $0.14 per minute on its self-serve Start plan for all of its AI, before phone. Enterprise pricing is custom, set with Bland's sales team.
Can I keep my phone carrier if I move to Bland?
Yes, Bland connects to a carrier or phone system over SIP, so numbers and routing stay in place.
