Deepgram vs Vapi: voice AI pricing compared
Updated 2026-11-10 · listed A to Z, not ranked
Deepgram sells speech APIs billed by usage: speech-to-text per minute of audio (billed per second), text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, and its Voice Agent per minute of connection time. A prepaid annual Growth plan lowers the rates.
Vapi is a platform for building voice AI agents. A call’s cost is Vapi’s own hosting fee plus the providers you pick for transcription, the language model and the voice, which Vapi passes through at cost, plus telephony if you use an outside carrier.
Listed A to Z, from deepgram.com and vapi.ai. Every figure below is quoted from those pages.
- Main price table
- Flux STT English, Flux STT Multilingual, Nova-3 Monolingual, Nova-3 Multilingual
- Free option
- None in the published plan table
- Published prices
- Speech-to-text from $0.0077 per minute, Aura text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, Voice Agent per minute, and Growth plan rates.
- Main price table
- Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)
- Free option
- Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free
- Published prices
- $0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons.
How we checked: Prices quoted from each official pricing page: Deepgram checked Nov 10, 2026, Vapi checked Nov 10, 2026. Taxes, usage overages and promotions can change what you pay; confirm with each provider before you buy.
How they compare
- Main price table. Deepgram lists 4 entries (Flux STT English, Flux STT Multilingual, Nova-3 Monolingual, Nova-3 Multilingual); Vapi lists 5 (Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)).
- Free option. Deepgram: none in the published plan table. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
- How prices are quoted. Deepgram: “Speech-to-text”. Vapi: “What a minute is made of”.
Deepgram plans and prices
| Model | Pay as you go | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Flux STT English | $0.0077 / min | $0.0065 / min |
| Flux STT Multilingual | $0.0078 / min | $0.0068 / min |
| Nova-3 Monolingual | $0.0077 / min | $0.0065 / min |
| Nova-3 Multilingual | $0.0092 / min | $0.0078 / min |
Add-ons are billed on top, for example speaker diarization $0.0020 / min and redaction $0.0020 / min pay as you go; smart formatting is included.
| Product | Pay as you go | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Aura-2 TTS | $0.030 / 1k characters | $0.027 / 1k characters |
| Aura-1 TTS | $0.0150 / 1k characters | $0.0135 / 1k characters |
| Flux TTS | $0.0450 / 1k characters | $0.0450 / 1k characters |
| Voice Agent, Standard | $0.075 / min | $0.068 / min |
| Voice Agent, Custom with your own LLM and TTS | $0.050 / min | $0.041 / min |
| Voice Agent, Advanced | $0.163 / min | $0.146 / min |
Voice Agent is one rate covering speech-to-text, a managed language model and text-to-speech; bringing your own LLM or TTS lowers it.
From deepgram.com, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Deepgram pricing.
Vapi plans and prices
| Line | Price on vapi.ai/pricing |
|---|---|
| Vapi hosting | $0.05 per minute (prepaid) |
| Transcriber, model, voice | Passed through at the provider’s cost, no markup |
| Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC | Free |
| Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier) | $0.008 / $0.014 per minute |
| Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier) | $0.00814 / $0.0055 per minute |
New accounts get $5 in free credits. Vapi’s calculator shows ranges for one example setup: Deepgram transcriber $0.0095–$0.0099, OpenAI model $0.0077–$0.0452 and ElevenLabs voice $0.0146–$0.0238 per minute; its 1,000-minute example totals $82–$129 a month (Nov 3, 2026).
| Package | Price | Concurrent calls | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage only | Pay per minute | 4 | 2 organizations, 1 Vapi phone number, 14 days data retention |
| Core | $29 / month | 10 | 5 Vapi numbers, 30 days retention, ZDR, 2 business day email SLA |
| Pro | 10% of the Vapi hosting fee, $999 / month minimum | 30 | 10 numbers, 180 days retention, Slack support, 99% uptime SLA |
| Premier | Contact sales | Custom | 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO, dedicated SIP available |
Add-ons seen Nov 1, 2026: extra concurrent lines $10 per line per month, extra organizations $20 each per month, HIPAA $2,000 per month.
From vapi.ai, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Vapi pricing.
FAQ
How much does Deepgram cost?
Speech-to-text from $0.0077 per minute, Aura text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, Voice Agent per minute, and Growth plan rates. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
How much does Vapi cost?
$0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
Do Deepgram and Vapi have a free option?
Deepgram: none in the published plan table. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
Which is better, Deepgram or Vapi?
We do not pick a winner. The two price and package their products differently; the tables above quote each official pricing page so you can match a plan to your own usage.
Where do these prices come from?
Each vendor's own pricing page: deepgram.com (checked Nov 10, 2026) and vapi.ai (checked Nov 10, 2026). Prices change; confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-10)
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