Features, pricing, and fit
Compare PolyAI Voice Assistants and Retell AI on voice capabilities, pricing, and fit.
Compare PolyAI and Retell AI for AI phone agents, then match channels, workflows, and deployment models to your call flow.
Enterprise voice-and-chat platform with Agent Studio, a Git-oriented Python ADK, REST APIs, knowledge/flows, and analytics.
Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Contact-center AI.
Hosted voice and chat agent platform built around either node-based conversation flows or single prompts, with telephony, tools, knowledge base, and analytics.
Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Voice AI platforms · Voice evaluation and observability.
Both profiles checked 2026-09-04.
Use the table below to compare each provider’s documented scope.
Before you decide
PolyAI: Not publicly documented Retell AI: Pay-as-you-go per-minute component pricing with optional add-ons; Enterprise uses custom volume pricing and terms. Ask both vendors to quote the same expected workload, required channels, and implementation scope. Include required subscriptions and usage charges before comparing the total; the listed starting prices alone may cover different work.
The recorded knowledge and data sources for PolyAI include Not publicly documented. For Retell AI, they include Not publicly documented. Ask each provider to demonstrate access for the exact systems you use, with permissions, freshness, and failure behavior. A source missing from this directory is not proof that a provider cannot support it.
Use the same representative calls, approved instructions, and escalation rules in both pilots. How does it handle interruption and uncertainty? Which actions can it complete, and which require approval? What context reaches a human during transfer? Record conversation quality, completed tasks, human handoffs, and total cost in the buyer worksheet. Check these specific cautions before launch: PolyAI: Confirm current architecture, availability, call controls, data handling, language coverage, and complete cost in a scoped pilot. Retell AI: Component rates may not equal complete cost. Confirm concurrency, premium model/voice, transfer, storage, QA, and carrier charges.
Record your requirements and pilot results in the buyer worksheet →
Swipe or scroll the table to see every column.
| Criterion | PolyAI Voice Assistants | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Provider type | Enterprise contact-center voice AI | Voice agent platform |
| Best fit | Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces. | Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control. |
| Key capabilities | realtime voice conversations; tool or workflow integration; call controls | inbound and outbound agents; flow builder; testing; analytics; functions; SIP |
| Team sizes | enterprise; contact centers | startup; mid-market; enterprise; developer |
| Call surfaces | phone / PSTN; API / SDK | phone / PSTN; API / SDK |
| Voice stack | Cascaded ASR-LLM-TTS architecture | Configurable STT-LLM-TTS pipeline with custom LLM option |
| Telephony | Not publicly documented | managed numbers; SIP trunking; bring-your-own telephony |
| Call controls | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Languages | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Integrations | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Knowledge and data | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Pricing model | Not publicly documented | Pay-as-you-go per-minute component pricing with optional add-ons; Enterprise uses custom volume pricing and terms. |
| Pricing signal | Not publicly documented. | Vendor range $0.07-$0.31/min; infrastructure $0.055, typical TTS $0.015, telephony $0.015, KB $0.005, guardrails $0.005, PII removal $0.01, and QA $0.10 after 100 minutes. |
| Free plan or trial | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| What stands out | PolyAI exposes three build surfaces—Agent Studio, ADK, and APIs—over shared flows, knowledge, tools, and deployments; its voice path documents configurable ASR and TTS providers around the agent service. | Retell documents two agent shapes—node-based flows and single prompts—and pairs them with built-in telephony, knowledge, tools, analytics, and MCP/API access. |
| Considerations | Confirm current architecture, availability, call controls, data handling, language coverage, and complete cost in a scoped pilot. | Component rates may not equal complete cost. Confirm concurrency, premium model/voice, transfer, storage, QA, and carrier charges. |
Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces.
PolyAI exposes three build surfaces—Agent Studio, ADK, and APIs—over shared flows, knowledge, tools, and deployments; its voice path documents configurable ASR and TTS providers around the agent service.
Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control.
Retell documents two agent shapes—node-based flows and single prompts—and pairs them with built-in telephony, knowledge, tools, analytics, and MCP/API access.
Verify current pricing, limits, security, and required integrations directly with each provider before purchasing.
Test recognition, speech quality, interruptions, language switching, tool use, and human transfer with your own calls in the required language. Availability can vary by model, plan, and phone route.
DocsBot documents multilingual voice workflows and Japanese support. Verify the exact voice, phone path, and transfer behavior in your pilot. Review DocsBot language information ↗
Other providers’ language claims reflect cited vendor material; confirm Japanese and other required languages directly with each provider.
Listing does not imply endorsement or a performance guarantee. This directory is published by DocsBot. Editorial policy
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