Bland AI vs Bolna (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Bland AI and Bolna share a 2.2 GPA, neither has a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on which features you need.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
Pick Bland AI if
- Fits if you want to build voice agents and pay by the minute
- Works for a team that wants its own telephony carrier
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you grow: Start is capped at 100 calls a day and Build at 2,000
- Watch out: telephony is billed separately, plus $0.05 or $0.04 a transfer minute
- Not for you if you need BAA, SSO or data residency, which are Enterprise
- Watch out: its comparisons with Vapi and Retell are the vendor's own marketing
Pick Bolna if
- Fits if you want voice agents that speak Indian languages
- Works for teams running bulk outbound call campaigns
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: telephony and a platform fee are added to the 6 cent per minute rate
- Tight if you forget top-ups: agents stop making calls when credits run out
- Watch out: Pilot plan rates hold only until the purchased minutes are used, then standard prices apply
- Skip it if you want a monthly flat fee, as billing is by the minute
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABland AIFair | 2.2GPABolnaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStart has no platform fee and $0.14 a minute, which has no monthly figure to compare, so it sits in the middle. | C$0.06 a minute on pay-as-you-go with bundled models, from a $10 credit purchase. Telephony and a platform fee are added per minute, so the real rate is higher. |
| Free plan and trial | CSign-up includes 2 credits and an inbound number valued at $15 a month, and no card is needed. It is a trial, not a free plan. | C$5 in free credits on sign-up. No card is mentioned, but it is only a few minutes of calls. |
| Features | CConversational pathways, knowledge bases, voices, messaging and telephony, but telephony is billed separately and limits scale by plan. | CNo-code builder and API, Indian-language voice, bulk campaigns, live API calls and human handoff. Pilot rates hold only until the purchased minutes run out. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. Pathways, voices and phone numbers all need setting up. | CNo store rating on record. You build the agent, pick models and connect a phone provider such as Twilio. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with eight named integrations and your own carrier option. | BWeb dashboard and API, with n8n, Make, Zapier, Twilio and Plivo listed. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | AI phone agents billed by the minute | voice AI agents with Indian-language support |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Bland AI and Bolna. How we grade
Where they differ
- Bland AI also covers chatbots.
- Bolna also covers workflow automation and no-code.
At a glance
| Bland AI | Bolna | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $0 platform fee at $0.14 per minute; Build is $299 per month at $0.12 per minute | $10 minimum credit purchase, used as you go (from 6¢ per minute) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | Sign-up includes 2 credits and an inbound number valued at $15 a month; no card. | $5 in free credits when you sign up |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Bland | Whismurwave Inc. |
| Price read from | bland.ai | bolna.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Bland AI
- Telephony is billed separately, on your own carrier or at Bland's pass-through cost, and transfer minutes carry their own rate.
- Start is capped at 100 calls a day and Build at 2,000; unlimited calls are Enterprise only.
- BAA, SSO, data residency and on-prem or VPC deployment are listed for Enterprise.
- The per-minute rates are the vendor's own comparison basis; its FAQ comparisons with Vapi and Retell are its marketing claims.
Bolna
- Pay-as-you-go lists 6¢ per minute with bundled models; telephony and a platform fee are added per minute, and the Pilot plan has fixed minutes.
- Agents stop making calls when credits run out unless automatic top-ups are set.
- Pilot plan rates hold only until the purchased minutes are used, then the account reverts to standard pricing.
Key features
Bland AI
- All-in per-minute rate
- The talk-time rate includes the language model, real-time transcription and premium voices, with no token charges. Telephony is billed separately.
- Conversational pathways
- Call flows are built as pathways, with knowledge bases, automations and integrations available on every plan.
- Telephony choices
- Connect an existing Twilio account or a SIP trunk, or use Bland's built-in Twilio at pass-through cost.
- Messaging
- SMS and web chat, in-call text nodes and iMessage appear in the plan table with dashes under Start and Build, so they look Enterprise-only.
- Compliance claims
- The FAQ says Bland holds SOC 2 Type I and II and ISO 27001, signs a HIPAA BAA and is GDPR compliant. Documentation is under NDA.
Bolna
- No-code agent builder and API
- Agents are built from a template or from scratch in a dashboard, and calls can also be triggered through a REST API with Python, JavaScript or cURL examples.
- Indian-language voice
- The site says agents work across 10+ vernacular Indian languages including Hinglish, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, and lists 20+ languages overall.
- Bulk campaigns
- Outbound campaigns can run thousands of AI calls at once, for uses such as reminders, lead qualification and announcements.
- Live API calls and human handoff
- An agent can call external APIs mid-conversation and transfer the call to a human agent when needed.
- Model choice
- The site lists 20+ speech-to-text, language and text-to-speech models, and says you can bring your own API keys to cut costs.
Plans
Bland AI
Start$0
platform fee, then $0.14 per minute
Transfer minutes $0.05, 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls a day, 10 knowledge bases and 1 voice.
Build$299
per month platform fee, plus $0.12 per minute
Transfer minutes $0.04, 50 concurrent calls, 2,000 calls a day, 50 knowledge bases and 5 voices.
EnterpriseCustom
Rates contracted to volume, with on-prem or VPC deployment, BAA, SSO, data residency and forward-deployed engineers.
Bolna
Pay-as-you-go$10
minimum credit top-up, used as you go
Credits from $10 to $5,000, billed by usage. Standard rate starts at 6¢ per minute and falls to about 4.5¢ at larger top-ups.
Pilots$300
one-time, for 6,500 minutes
Fixed per-minute rate (about 4.6¢), up to 25 concurrent calls, WhatsApp support and four 1:1 calls. A $500 tier gives 12,000 minutes.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom volume pricing, customised integrations and deployment, priority support and a dedicated account manager.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Bland AI or Bolna?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Bland AI starts at $0 platform fee at $0.14 per minute; Build is $299 per month at $0.12 per minute, and Bolna starts at $10 minimum credit purchase, used as you go (from 6¢ per minute).
Which has a free plan, Bland AI or Bolna?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Bland AI nor Bolna has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.