Retell AI vs Thoughtly (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Retell AI if

• Fits if you want to pay per minute with no monthly commitment
• Works for developers wiring phone agents into Twilio or HubSpot

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you add it up, as model, voice and telephony sit on top of the $0.055 base
• Watch out: HIPAA and BAA, SSO, role-based access and custom retention are Enterprise only
• Watch out: AI quality assurance and PII removal are charged per minute on top
• Not for you if you want a fixed bill, because cost moves with minutes

Pick Thoughtly if

• Fits if you want inbound leads answered by voice, text and email
• Works for teams on HubSpot or Salesforce that want two-way sync

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price list, as Flex and Scale are quoted
• Tight if you need volume, since Flex is 10 concurrent calls and 100+ starts at Scale
• Watch out: HIPAA with a BAA, SSO, SCIM and data residency are Enterprise only
• Watch out: usage above a plan's allowance is billed in arrears each cycle

Retell AI

• The rate is a sum of parts: voice infrastructure is $0.055 per minute, with model, voice and telephony on top, hence $0.07 to $0.31.
• The comparison table lists HIPAA and BAA, SSO, role-based access and custom data retention for Enterprise only.
• Dedicated implementation support and a dedicated stable server are Enterprise add-ons.
• Add-ons such as AI quality assurance and PII removal are charged per minute on top of the base rate.

Thoughtly

• No prices are shown: Flex is sold through sales, Scale by quote and Enterprise for 1M+ minutes a month or regulated verticals.
• Flex allows 10 concurrent calls; 100+ concurrent calls, Auto-QA and a 99.9% uptime SLA start at Scale.
• HIPAA with a BAA, PCI scope review, SSO and SCIM and data residency are Enterprise only.
• Usage above a plan's monthly allowances is billed in arrears at the end of each cycle.

Retell AI

Inbound and outbound phone agents

Agents answer or place calls, transfer to a human, book appointments, use a knowledge base and navigate keypad menus.

Batch calls and caller ID

The deploy menu lists batch calling for high-volume campaigns, branded caller ID and verified phone numbers.

Testing and monitoring

Simulation testing, call transcripts and analytics, post-call analysis and AI quality assurance are listed for monitoring agents.

Model and voice choice

The cost estimator offers language models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google and voices from Retell, ElevenLabs, Cartesia, Minimax, Fish and OpenAI.

Chat agents

The same platform runs chat agents, priced from $0.002 per message.

Thoughtly

Voice, SMS and email together

Inbound and outbound voice agents, SMS or iMessage and email follow-up are part of every plan, with multi-step workflows.

Two-way CRM sync

The plan table lists write-back to CRMs including HubSpot, Salesforce and Zoho, plus a REST API, webhooks and 200+ native integrations.

Voices and languages

34+ languages, stock Cartesia and ElevenLabs voices, and custom voice cloning from a 20-second sample are listed on every plan.

Knowledge base

Genius ingests text, PDF, audio, CSV and URL sources into an agent's context, and agents can use GPT, Claude or Gemini models.

Auto-QA and evals

Automated quality checks and evaluations on every conversation are listed from the Scale plan up.

Retell AI

• Pay as you go$0

  to start, then $0.07-$0.31 per minute

  Voice agents at $0.07-$0.31 per minute, chat agents from $0.002 per message, 20 free concurrent calls, API access and email support.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom voice and chat pricing, role-based access, custom SSO, MSA, DPA and BAA terms, and 24/7 support with a dedicated portal.

Thoughtly

Pricing could not be confirmed. See thoughtly.com.