Short answer: the design work is genuinely free — you can write the script, design the flow and generate the prompt audio without paying anything. What is never free is the phone number that answers the call, because a real, dialable Indian number carries a real cost, and neither are the call minutes. On Edesy, a new account gets ₹20 free credit on sign-up, enough to build a flow and test it on real calls before you top up, and no credit card is needed to sign up.
Knowing which half is which saves a lot of searching.
Genuinely Free
These are free, with no trial clock:
| What | Tool |
|---|---|
| IVR script and menu wording | IVR script generator |
| Visual flow design | IVR flow builder |
| Prompt audio in several Indian languages | IVR voice generator |
That is most of the work. You can have a complete, well-designed menu with recorded prompts ready to deploy, without spending anything — which is the sensible way to start, because you will revise the script more than once before it is right.
Never Free
The number. A dialable Indian phone number is a real telecom resource with a real cost, and it also requires KYC verification under Indian rules. No provider gives these away indefinitely.
The minutes. Every answered call consumes telecom capacity someone pays for.
If an offer looks like a free working phone menu on a real number, check which of these it is:
- a time-limited trial,
- a shared demo number you do not control,
- a software-only IVR that runs on a number you supply,
- or a free tier with a cap low enough to be a demo.
None of these are dishonest. They just are not a free business phone line.
What "Free Tier" Usually Limits
When a free tier does exist, the limit is normally one of:
- Minutes per month — fine for testing, not for a live line.
- Number of flows — one menu only.
- Concurrent calls — works until two people call at once.
- Branding — a provider message before your greeting.
- No call logs — the thing that tells you whether the menu works.
That last one matters more than it looks. A menu you cannot measure is a menu you cannot improve, and improvement is where most of the value is. See IVR menu design.
A Sensible Free-to-Paid Path
- Write the script free with the script generator.
- Design the flow free with the flow builder.
- Generate the prompts free with the voice generator.
- Read the script aloud, time it, revise. Still free.
- Only then pay for a number and publish.
Most of the mistakes happen in steps 1-4, and all of them are free to fix there.
What Paid Plans Cost
| What you pay for | How it is billed |
|---|---|
| Phone number | Monthly rental for each number |
| Calls | Per connected minute, from a prepaid wallet |
| Higher volume | Monthly package quoted for your volume |
Current detail on the IVR pricing page. On Edesy IVR, typed text-to-speech prompts are in Hindi and English; audio you generate or record for any other language can be uploaded to the menu (IVR in any language with recorded prompts).
Weigh it against the alternative honestly: the question is not whether the monthly cost is low but whether your current unanswered calls cost more than it.
What You Should Not Do to Stay Free
- Running a menu on a personal mobile. It ties the business line to one handset and one person, and there is no way to route or measure it.
- Publishing a shared demo number. It is not yours, and it can change.
- Skipping call logs to save money. You lose the ability to tell whether any of it works.