Bland AI vs Ultravox (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Bland AI grades higher than Ultravox: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Bland AI grades higher on the free plan, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Ultravox
Speech-native voice AI platform and API for building voice agents
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 Ultravox if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants one model that listens and speaks
- Makes sense if you will pay by the minute and build your own call flow
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a no-code builder: it is APIs and SDKs
- Watch out: the site says Ultravox has been acquired by Inworld, and plans and pricing may change
- Tight if you scale on Pay as You Go: it is capped at 5 concurrent calls
- Watch out: the pricing page marks prices as an annual rate and shows no monthly-billed price
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABland AIFair | 1.6GPAUltravoxWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPay as You Go is $0.05 a minute and Pro is $100 a month billed yearly, between the category's $50 dearer-quarter and $150 dearest-tenth lines. |
| 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. | DThe first 30 minutes of calls are free. That is a short taste, not a plan. |
| Features | CConversational pathways, knowledge bases, voices, messaging and telephony, but telephony is billed separately and limits scale by plan. | CA speech-native model, APIs and SDKs, telephony, an outbound scheduler and retrieval corpora. It is a building block, so you build the product around it. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. Pathways, voices and phone numbers all need setting up. | DYou need to write code against REST APIs and SDKs, and no store rating exists. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with eight named integrations and your own carrier option. | CWeb, with APIs and SDKs. No integrations are listed. |
| Best for | AI phone agents billed by the minute | developers building voice agents on one speech model |
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 Ultravox. How we grade
Where they differ
- Bland AI also covers chatbots.
- Ultravox also covers voice cloning.
At a glance
| Bland AI | Ultravox | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | $100 per month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | Sign-up includes 2 credits and an inbound number valued at $15 a month; no card. | First 30 minutes of calls free, then $0.05 per minute on Pay as You Go |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Bland | Fixie.ai |
| Price read from | bland.ai | ultravox.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.
Ultravox
- The site announces that Ultravox has been acquired by Inworld; future plans and pricing may change.
- The pricing page marks prices as an annual rate; a monthly-billed price is not shown.
- Pay as You Go is capped at 5 concurrent calls.
- Threads pricing is $2.00 per 1M uncached input tokens and $15.00 per 1M output tokens.
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.
Ultravox
- Speech-native model
- Processes audio directly so tone and cadence are not lost in transcription, and the vendor runs its own inference stack.
- REST APIs and SDKs
- Developer APIs plus kits for web and mobile platforms.
- Telephony
- Built-in telephony support, with SIP calls priced from about half a cent per minute.
- Outbound call scheduler
- Schedules outbound calls; available on Pro and Enterprise.
- RAG corpora
- Attach knowledge corpora to an agent: 2 on Pay as You Go and 20 on Pro.
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.
Ultravox
Pay as You Go$0
per month, plus $0.05 per minute
30 free minutes, then 5 cents a minute; up to 5 concurrent calls and 2 RAG corpora.
Pro$100
per month, billed yearly
No hard cap on concurrency, outbound call scheduler, 5 custom voices and 20 RAG corpora.
EnterpriseCustom
Priority SLA, org support and customizable limits.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Bland AI or Ultravox?
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 Ultravox starts at $100 per month, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, Bland AI or Ultravox?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Bland AI nor Ultravox 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.