# What does a voice agent really cost?

> Build a voice agent stack and see the real combined cost per minute: pick a voice AI platform, a speech-to-text API, and a text-to-speech voice, from verified published rates.

A production voice agent is three billed layers stacked together: the platform that runs the call, the speech-to-text that hears the caller, and the text-to-speech that answers. Pick one of each to see the combined cost per minute, built from verified published rates, not estimates.

## Platform layer, per minute

| Platform | $/min |
| --- | --- |
| [Bland AI](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/bland/) | $0.13 |
| [Deepgram Voice Agent API](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/deepgram-voice-agent-api/) | $0.075 |
| [ElevenLabs Agents](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/elevenlabs-agents/) | $0.05 |
| [Google Gemini Live API](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/gemini-live-api/) | $0.018 |
| [Retell AI](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/retell/) | $0.25 |
| [Telnyx Voice AI Agents](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/telnyx-voice-ai/) | $0.0585 |
| [Twilio ConversationRelay](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/twilio-conversationrelay/) | $0.0815 |
| [Vapi](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/vapi/) | $0.11 |
| [Bolna](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/bolna/) | $0.06 |
| [Dasha](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/dasha/) | $0.08 |
| [Hume EVI](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/hume-evi/) | $0.07 |
| [LiveKit Agents](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/livekit-agents/) | $0.18 |
| [Millis AI](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/millis/) | $0.36 |
| [Phonely](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/phonely/) | $0.28 |
| [Ringly.io](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/ringly/) | $0.27 |
| [Ultravox](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/ultravox/) | $0.055 |
| [Voiceflow](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/voiceflow/) | $0.05 |
| [Dialzara](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/dialzara/) | $0.48 |
| [echowin](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/echowin/) | $0.20 |
| [Frontdesk (My AI Front Desk)](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/my-ai-front-desk/) | $0.25 |
| [Pipecat](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/pipecat/) | $0.01 |
| [Rapida](https://www.versusref.com/voice-ai/tools/rapida/) | $0.006 |

## Speech-to-text layer, per audio minute

| Speech-to-text | Mode | $/min |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Amazon Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/) | streaming | $0.01 |
| [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/) | streaming | $0.0075 |
| [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/azure-speech/) | streaming | $0.0167 |
| [Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/) | streaming | $0.0048 |
| [ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/elevenlabs-scribe/) | streaming | $0.0065 |
| [Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gladia/) | streaming | $0.0125 |
| [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/google-stt/) | streaming | $0.016 |
| [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/) | streaming | $0.006 |
| [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gpt-4o-transcribe/) | batch | $0.006 |
| [OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisper/) | batch | $0.006 |
| [Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/speechmatics/) | batch | $0.0022 |
| [Groq (hosted Whisper)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/groq-whisper/) | batch | $0.0019 |
| [IBM watsonx Speech to Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/ibm-watson-stt/) | streaming | $0.02 |
| [Microsoft MAI-Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/mai-transcribe/) | batch | $0.006 |
| [Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/rev/) | batch | $0.0033 |
| [Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/soniox/) | streaming | $0.002 |
| [xAI Grok Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/grok-stt/) | streaming | $0.0033 |
| [Aqua Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/aqua-voice/) | streaming | $0.0065 |
| [DeepInfra (ASR)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepinfra-stt/) | streaming | $0.0002 |
| [Lemonfox.ai](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/lemonfox/) | batch | $0.0028 |
| [Qwen3-ASR](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/qwen3-asr/) | streaming | $0.0054 |
| [Salad Transcription API](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/salad-transcription/) | batch | $0.0033 |
| [Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/smallest-pulse/) | streaming | $0.005 |
| [Together AI Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/together-stt/) | streaming | $0.0035 |

## Text-to-speech layer, per audio minute

| Text-to-speech | Rate | $/1M chars | $/min |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Amazon Polly](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/amazon-polly/) | flagship | $30 | $0.0285 |
| [Azure Speech](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/azure-speech/) | flagship | $22 | $0.0209 |
| [Deepgram Aura-2](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/deepgram-aura/) | flagship | $30 | $0.0285 |
| [ElevenLabs](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/elevenlabs/) | flagship | $100 | $0.095 |
| [Google Cloud TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/google-tts/) | flagship | $30 | $0.0285 |
| [MiniMax Speech](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/minimax-speech/) | flagship | $100 | $0.095 |
| [OpenAI TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/openai-tts/) | flagship | $30 | $0.0285 |
| [Voxtral TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/voxtral-tts/) | flagship | $16 | $0.0152 |
| [Fish Audio](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/fish-audio/) | flagship | $15 | $0.0143 |
| [Inworld TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/inworld-tts/) | flagship | $25 | $0.0238 |
| [Murf API](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/murf/) | flagship | $30 | $0.0285 |
| [Rime](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/rime/) | flagship | $50 | $0.0475 |
| [Speechify API](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/speechify-api/) | flagship | $10 | $0.0095 |
| [Grok TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/grok-tts/) | flagship | $15 | $0.0143 |
| [Speechmatics TTS](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/speechmatics-tts/) | flagship | $11 | $0.0104 |
| [Typecast](https://www.versusref.com/tts/tools/typecast/) | flagship | $70 | $0.0665 |

## How this number is built

Each layer’s rate is normalized to dollars per audio minute by the same deterministic cost engine that powers every comparison on the site: speech-to-text stays in dollars per minute (streaming where a vendor publishes it), and text-to-speech converts from its per character price at about 950 characters per minute of speech. The three add up to a conversational minute. Language model tokens vary by model and conversation and are excluded; most platforms pass them through at cost. See the [methodology](https://www.versusref.com/methodology/) for how every rate is sourced and verified.

Source: https://www.versusref.com/stack/