The best Retell AI and Vapi alternatives for Indian teams are platforms built for Indian telephony and languages: Edesy, Bolna and Sarvam's Samvaad, plus open-source frameworks such as Pipecat and LiveKit Agents if you have engineers to run them. They work with +91 numbers through Indian providers, bill in rupees, and handle Hindi, Hinglish and regional languages, which is exactly where US-first platforms create friction. Several of them, like Retell and Vapi themselves, let you start free.
Vapi and Retell are good products. This guide explains why Indian teams still switch, compares real per-minute costs, and lists the free and cheaper options honestly.
Why do Indian teams look for Vapi and Retell alternatives?
Four reasons come up again and again:
- Indian phone numbers. Vapi's free numbers are "only available for US national use", and international numbers have to be imported from Twilio (Vapi docs). Retell supports your own numbers through elastic SIP trunking or imported Twilio, Telnyx or Vonage numbers (Retell docs). Both routes can work, but getting a +91 number live takes real effort, and community threads on Vapi and Retell show users stuck on exactly this.
- Dollar billing. Usage billed in USD on an international card adds forex costs and makes monthly spend harder to predict for an Indian business.
- Indian languages on phone audio. Hindi, Hinglish code-switching and regional accents on 8 kHz phone lines need the right speech models and tuning. You can assemble that yourself on a developer platform, but it is work.
- Indian calling rules. DND scrubbing, 140-series numbers for promotional calls and 1600-series numbers for regulated service calls are Indian realities that US platforms do not handle for you.
What do Vapi and Retell actually cost?
From their pricing pages as of September 2026:
| Platform | Voice/platform layer | Plus | Realistic all-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vapi | $0.05/min hosting | Speech, LLM and TTS at cost (or free with your own keys), telephony | Roughly $0.07-0.25/min |
| Retell AI | $0.055/min voice infrastructure | $0.015/min TTS, LLM $0.003-0.16/min, $0.015/min telephony | Roughly $0.09-0.25/min |
Other line items worth knowing: Vapi's Build plan includes 10 call lines at $10 per extra line per month and offers HIPAA as a $2,000 per month add-on. Retell includes 20 concurrent calls, charges $8 per extra concurrent call per month, and rents numbers from $2 per month.
At an assumed rate of about Rs 87 per dollar, the platform layer alone is roughly Rs 4.35 per minute on Vapi and Rs 4.80 on Retell, before any models or telephony.
Try it yourself: Build this agent free on Edesy — self-serve, no demo needed.
Vapi and Retell alternatives for India, compared
| Option | Pricing | Free start | Indian numbers | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edesy | Plans Rs 4-6/min; BYOK Rs 1.5/min platform fee | Rs 50 trial credits, no monthly fee on pay-as-you-go | Exotel, Plivo, Vobiz or your SIP trunk | Indian SMBs and mid-market teams |
| Bolna | $0.06/min Pilots plan (Rs 5.52) | $5 credits | Exotel integration | Developers who like open-source roots |
| Sarvam Samvaad | Not published per minute | Free tier announced in 2026 | Enterprise telephony | Teams wanting Indian-built models |
| Pipecat / LiveKit Agents | Free software; pay models, telephony, hosting | Free to self-host | Any provider you integrate | Engineering teams building their own stack |
| Retell AI (for reference) | ~$0.09-0.25/min all-in | $10 credits | Via SIP or imported numbers | US/EU callers |
| Vapi (for reference) | ~$0.07-0.25/min all-in | Build plan, pay-as-you-go | Import from Twilio | Developers wanting maximum control |
The cleanest like-for-like comparison is the bring-your-own-keys platform fee, because it strips out model choice: Vapi's is $0.05 per minute (about Rs 4.35), Edesy's is Rs 1.5 per minute. Our BYOK cost guide shows the full math.
The free options, honestly
"Free alternative" means different things, so here is what each actually gives you:
- Free credits to test a hosted platform. Retell ($10), Bolna ($5) and Edesy (Rs 50 plus demo agents) let you build and place real calls before paying. This is the fastest way to compare.
- Free tiers. Sarvam announced a free tier for Samvaad when it opened the platform to self-serve use in 2026. Check current limits before relying on it.
- Free software. Pipecat, LiveKit Agents and Bolna's framework are open source. The software costs nothing, but you still pay for speech-to-text, the LLM, text-to-speech, telephony and servers, and someone has to build, host and maintain it. For most businesses that is not cheaper than a hosted platform once engineering time is counted.
Where Vapi and Retell are still the better choice
- Your callers are in the US or Europe. Their default telephony and numbers are built for that.
- You want deep developer control and have a team comfortable assembling the stack.
- You need specific compliance add-ons they offer, such as Vapi's HIPAA option or the enterprise data-residency terms on Vapi's Scale plan.
If that is you, stay. The detailed one-to-one comparisons are here: Edesy vs Vapi and Edesy vs Retell AI.
How to switch from Vapi or Retell
Switching is mostly a rebuild of prompts and flows, not a rewrite of your business:
- Export your prompts, tools and variables from the current agent.
- Recreate the agent on the new platform and connect your knowledge base and webhooks.
- Connect Indian telephony. If you already have Exotel numbers, our Exotel AI calling setup guide walks through it.
- Run both in parallel on a slice of traffic, compare outcomes, then cut over.
Step-by-step guides: migrating from Vapi and migrating from Retell. For a wider market view, see our AI voice agent platforms comparison, and the dedicated Retell AI alternatives and Vapi alternatives pages.
FAQ
What is the best Retell AI alternative for India?
For Indian teams, the best Retell AI alternative is usually a platform built for Indian telephony and languages: one that works with +91 numbers through providers like Exotel, Plivo or Vobiz, bills in INR, and handles Hindi, Hinglish and regional languages. Edesy, Bolna and Sarvam's Samvaad are the common shortlist; open-source frameworks suit teams with engineers.
Is there a free alternative to Retell AI or Vapi?
Several options let you start free. Retell itself gives $10 in credits and Bolna gives $5. Edesy gives Rs 50 in trial credits with no monthly fee on pay-as-you-go. Open-source frameworks such as Pipecat and LiveKit Agents cost nothing for the software, but you pay for speech, LLM, telephony and hosting, plus the engineering time to run them.
Can I use an Indian +91 number with Vapi or Retell?
Not natively. Vapi's free numbers are US-only and international numbers must be imported from Twilio. Retell supports your own numbers through elastic SIP trunking or imported Twilio, Telnyx or Vonage numbers. Getting a working Indian number through those routes takes setup, and community threads on both platforms show users struggling with it.
Which is cheaper for India: Vapi, Retell or an Indian platform?
Compare platform fees like for like. Vapi charges $0.05 per minute and Retell $0.055 per minute for the voice layer before models and telephony, roughly Rs 4.35 to Rs 4.80. Edesy's bring-your-own-keys platform fee is Rs 1.5 per minute, and its bundled plans run Rs 4 to Rs 6 per minute.
When should I stay on Vapi or Retell?
Stay if your callers are mainly in the US or Europe, you depend on their developer tooling and integrations, or you need compliance add-ons they offer, such as Vapi's HIPAA option. For Indian callers, Indian numbers and INR billing, an India-first platform is usually simpler and cheaper.
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