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Voice agent (phone or web): product recipe

For an assistant people talk to: speech in, a model in the middle, speech out, on the phone or in the browser. Every service below is from AgentGid's catalog, with the price and free tier from its official page; the first pick in each part ranks best on free tier, official MCP server, real use and price.

agent.md

What it costs

To start
Paid parts
no free tier listed: Twilio (voice and SMS)
If you outgrow the free tiers
about $56 / month
Cartesia $5, Cal.com $12, LangSmith $39; billed by usage: Deepgram, Twilio (voice and SMS)

One minute of a call

about $0.036 a minute ≈ $36 per 1,000 minutes

Speech-to-textDeepgram · $0.0077 · STT: Nova-3 streaming regular $0.0077/min (promo now $0.0048/min). TTS: Aura-2 $0.030 per 1k characters, at about 1,000 characters per minute of speech (AgentGid conversion from the listed price)
Voice (text-to-speech)Cartesia · $0.0188 ($0.0376/min × 50% of the minute) · TTS: Pro $5 for 100K credits, about 133 TTS minutes as listed = about $0.0376/min. Telephony $0.014/min (AgentGid conversion from the listed price)
Phone line (receiving)Twilio (voice and SMS) · $0.0085 · Receiving a call on a US local number $0.0085/min (number $1.15/month) (AgentGid conversion from the listed price)
ModelClaude Haiku 5.5 · $0.0013 · 4 turns × (~2,500 input × $0.1 + ~150 output × $0.5 per 1M tokens)

AgentGid estimate, not a quote: assumes the agent talks 50% of each minute, about 1,000 characters of speech a minute, 4 model turns a minute at ~2,500 input + 150 output tokens. Per-minute prices are converted from each service's listed price.

All-in-one platforms, per minute as listed: Retell AI from $0.07 · Vapi (voice agent API) $0.05 platform fee + providers · LiveKit $0.01 platform fee + providers · Ultravox from $0.05

How it fits together

  1. The phone provider (or the platform) receives the call and streams the audio to your server, or you use one all-in-one platform for the whole call.
  2. Speech-to-text turns the caller's speech into text as they talk.
  3. The model answers and calls your tools: check free slots and book through the calendar API.
  4. Text-to-speech speaks the answer back over the same call.
  5. Log each call (transcript, tool calls) and hand over to a person when the agent is unsure.

Speech-to-text

Deepgram first pick
MCP
 Real-time and batch speech-to-text, text-to-speech and voice-agent APIs.
Free: $200 credit, no credit card · Nova-3 streaming $0.0048/min (promo; regular $0.0077); pre-recorded $0.0043/min; Flux $0.0065/min (promo); Au… · in 76 public agent repos
npm install @deepgram/sdk pip install deepgram-sdk agent.md
AssemblyAI
MCP
 Speech-to-text API (batch and streaming) with diarization, speech understanding and voice agents.
Free: Up to 185 hours pre-recorded and 333 hours streaming transcription, no credit card · Universal-2 $0.15/hour; Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21/hour; Universal-Streaming $0.15/hour; diarization +$0.02/hour · in 46 public agent repos
npm install assemblyai pip install assemblyai agent.md
Azure AI Speech (speech-to-text) Transcribe audio in real time, in batch or via fast transcription, with optional custom speech models.
Free: Real-time Transcription: 5 audio hours free per month · Standard: real-time $1.00 per hour, batch $0.18 per hour, fast transcription $0.36 per hour; custom real-time… · in 36 public agent repos
npm install microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk pip install azure-cognitiveservices-speech agent.md

Also fits: Cartesia, Whisper (self-hosted), faster-whisper, ElevenLabs · all speech-to-text and transcription

Voice and real-time audio

Cartesia first pick
MCP
 Low-latency text-to-speech (Sonic), speech-to-text (Ink) and managed voice agents.
Free: 20K credits/month + $1 prepaid for agents · paid from $5/mo · Pro $5/month for 100K credits (~133 TTS minutes); Managed Agents $0.06/min; telephony $0.014/min · in 14 public agent repos
npm install @cartesia/cartesia-js pip install cartesia agent.md
Fish Audio API
MCP
 Generate speech from text with cloned or library voices, transcribe audio, and design voices.
Free: s2.1-pro-free model at $0.00 / M UTF-8 bytes · TTS $15.00 / M UTF-8 bytes (s2.1-pro, s2-pro); STT $0.36 / audio hour (transcribe-1-pro); voice design $0.01 … · in 14 public agent repos
npm install fish-audio pip install fish-audio-sdk agent.md
ElevenLabs
MCP
 Text-to-speech, speech-to-text (Scribe), voice cloning and conversational voice-agent APIs.
Free: Free plan: 10,000 TTS characters/month (v4) · paid from $6/mo · TTS v4 $0.08 per 1K characters; Flash/Turbo $0.04 per 1K; Scribe v2 STT $0.22/hour; realtime $0.39/hour
npm install @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js pip install elevenlabs agent.md

Also fits: Daily, OpenAI Realtime API, Rime, Typecast TTS API · all voice (speech-to-text, text-to-speech)

Phone numbers and calls

Twilio (voice and SMS) first pick Phone numbers, voice calls and SMS through one API; the usual phone line for voice agents.
No free tier listed · US: calls $0.0140/min out, $0.0085/min in (local number $1.15/mo); SMS $0.0083 per segment · in 278 public agent repos
npm install twilio pip install twilio agent.md
Bandwidth
MCP
 US-focused carrier-grade SMS, MMS and voice API on Bandwidth's own network.
No free tier listed · US 10DLC SMS $0.004 per message, MMS $0.015; toll-free SMS $0.007; short code SMS $0.008; US local outbound v…
npm install bandwidth-sdk pip install bandwidth-sdk agent.md

Also fits: Infobip, MessageBird, Plivo · all sms, chat and notifications

Or one voice-agent platform (all in one, per minute)

Retell AI first pick
MCP
 Platform and API for phone voice agents and chat agents, billed per minute or message.
Free: $10 in free credits · $0.07-$0.31/min for AI voice agents; $0.002+/msg for chat agents · in 254 public agent repos
npm install retell-sdk pip install retell-sdk agent.md
Vapi (voice agent API)
MCP
 API to build and run phone and web voice agents with your choice of speech, model and voice providers.
Free: $5 free credits to start · paid from $29/mo · $0.05/min Vapi hosting; models, speech and telephony billed at cost on top · in 15 public agent repos
npm install @vapi-ai/server-sdk pip install vapi_server_sdk agent.md
LiveKit Deploy and host AI voice and video agents with real-time communication.
Free: Build plan: 1,000 agent session minutes, 1 free US phone number, inference credits · paid from $50/mo · $0.01 per agent session minute, $0.01 per inbound calling minute, model-based inference pricing · in 32 public agent repos
npm install livekit-client agent.md

Also fits: Ultravox · all voice (speech-to-text, text-to-speech)

Calendar and booking

Cal.com first pick Meeting scheduling and booking platform with calendar integration and automation.
Free: Free forever, 1 user, unlimited event types & calendars · paid from $12/mo · in 10 public agent repos
npm install @calcom/embed-react agent.md

Also fits: Calendly, Cronofy · all business apps with apis

Traces and evals

LangSmith first pick
MCP
 Tracing, evaluation and monitoring of LLM apps and agents, including prompt and dataset management.
Free: Developer plan: 1 seat, up to 5k base traces / mo, then pay-as-you-go · paid from $39/mo · Plus: $39 / seat per month incl. up to 10k base traces / mo; trace overage is pay-as-you-go (rate not listed … · in 678 public agent repos
npm install langsmith pip install langsmith agent.md

Also fits: LangWatch, W&B Weave, Ragas, Pydantic Logfire · all llm observability and evals

Model

Default: fast and cheapClaude Haiku 5.5 · $0.1 input / $0.5 output per 1M tokens · or GPT-6 Luna, MiMo V2.6 Flash
Harder questionsGemini 3.8 Flash · $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens · or Kimi K2.7 Code, DeepSeek V4 Pro
Hardest workKimi K3 · $3 input / $15 output per 1M tokens · or Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Fable 5.1

The cheapest model of each price tier that can call tools, from model prices. Try the default first and move up only for the questions it gets wrong.

Or start from a ready platform

ElevenLabs AgentsElevenLabs' conversational agent platform (formerly Conversational AI) for building and deploying voice and chat agents across web, mobile, telephony and messa…
Free tier · from $6/mo
LiveKit AgentsA framework for building realtime voice and video AI agents on LiveKit's WebRTC infrastructure.
Free tier
Retell AIPlatform for building, testing, deploying and monitoring AI voice and chat agents, with built-in telephony, prompt and flow builders, tool calling and analytic…
Free tier
VapiDeveloper platform and API for building, testing and deploying voice AI agents for phone and web calls, combining third-party speech-to-text, language model an…
Free tier · from $29/mo

Libraries

PipecatOpen source framework for building voice and multimodal AI assistants with real-time support.
pip install pipecat-ai · BSD-2-Clause · Gid Score 55
AI SDKVercel's unified SDK for building AI apps with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and more.
npm install ai · Apache-2.0 · Gid Score 80
FastAPIHigh-performance Python web framework with automatic API docs and async support.
pip install fastapi · MIT · Gid Score 91
Pydantic AIAI agent framework built with Pydantic for structured, typed agent development.
pip install pydantic-ai · MIT · Gid Score 62

Agent Skills

speech openai/skillsUse when the user asks for text-to-speech narration or voiceover, accessibility reads, audio prompts, or batch speech generation via the OpenAI Audio API; run the bundle… has scripts
npx skills add openai/skills --skill speech
krillinai-tts krillinai/OpenCreatorUse when generating target-language dubbing with KrillinAI CLI from SRT subtitles, including TTS audio creation and optional dubbed video generation.
npx skills add krillinai/OpenCreator --skill krillinai-tts
add-voice cursor/pluginsUse when the user runs /add-voice, types Voice Mode, or asks to add Grok realtime voice to an app, including replacing an STT-LLM-TTS cascade or OpenAI Realtime. Wire sp…
npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill add-voice
qwen3-tts-local anbeime/skill内容创作者与影片与视频编辑在制作视频配音、有声书或无网环境朗读时，请用此技能一键生成多语言、多音色的本地高质量音频。基于Edge-TTS引擎，零配置完全离线，高效产出专业级语音，彻底告别网络限制。 has scripts
npx skills add anbeime/skill --skill qwen3-tts-local
elevenlabs-tts midudev/autoskillsElevenLabs text-to-speech via inference.sh: Eleven v4 and v4 Turbo (newest, most expressive, audio tags, realtime streaming), Eleven v3, Multilingual v2 and Flash v2.5, …
npx skills add midudev/autoskills --skill elevenlabs-tts
elevenlabs-tts MengTo/SkillsGenerate ElevenLabs text-to-speech audio from scripts or inline text using local voice profiles. Use when the user asks for ElevenLabs, text-to-speech, TTS, narration, v… has scripts
npx skills add MengTo/Skills --skill elevenlabs-tts

Read a skill before you install it: skills can run scripts.

Coding agent to build it

OpenAI Codex Claude Code OpenCode Pi Compare coding agents

Also on AgentGid

Video and audio to text kit Voiceover sources Sound effects

Before you ship

  • Calls carry personal data: say at the start that the caller is talking to an AI and whether the call is recorded, where the law asks for it.
  • For health or other sensitive data (a clinic), check whether each service signs the agreement your rules need (a BAA under HIPAA in the US, a DPA under GDPR) before real callers use it.
  • Keep API keys on the server, never in the browser or app; set spending limits where the provider offers them.
  • Read each service's terms for your use: data retention, commercial use, rate limits.
  • Log model calls (traces) and test with your own real inputs before launch.

The brief

# Product recipe: Voice agent (phone or web) (AgentGid)

For an assistant people talk to: speech in, a model in the middle, speech out, on the phone or in the browser.

Parts were picked from AgentGid's catalog by rules: free tier, official MCP server, use in public projects built with AI agents, downloads, price. Prices are list prices from the official pages (see each card for the check date); confirm before you commit.

## What it costs
- Start: these first picks have no free tier listed: Twilio (voice and SMS).
- If you outgrow the free tiers, the lowest paid plans of the first picks are Cartesia $5, Cal.com $12, LangSmith $39 (together about $56/month); usage beyond a plan's credits is billed on top.
- Billed by usage (grows with traffic): Deepgram, Twilio (voice and SMS).
- One minute of a call: about $0.036 (≈ $36 per 1,000 minutes) = speech-to-text Deepgram $0.0077 + voice (text-to-speech) Cartesia $0.0188 ($0.0376/min × 50%) + phone line (receiving) Twilio (voice and SMS) $0.0085 + model Claude Haiku 5.5 $0.0013. AgentGid estimate; assumes the agent talks 50% of each minute, about 1,000 characters of speech a minute, 4 model turns a minute at ~2,500 input + 150 output tokens.
- All-in-one platforms, per minute as listed: Retell AI from $0.07; Vapi (voice agent API) $0.05 platform fee + providers; LiveKit $0.01 platform fee + providers; Ultravox from $0.05.
- Model, default: fast and cheap: about $0.33 per 1,000 conversation turns with Claude Haiku 5.5 (AgentGid estimate at ~2,500 input + 150 output tokens each).
- Model, harder questions: about $2.44 per 1,000 conversation turns with Gemini 3.8 Flash (AgentGid estimate at ~2,500 input + 150 output tokens each).
- Prices of the picks below were checked on the official pages between 2026-10-09 and 2026-10-22.

## How it fits together
1. The phone provider (or the platform) receives the call and streams the audio to your server, or you use one all-in-one platform for the whole call.
2. Speech-to-text turns the caller's speech into text as they talk.
3. The model answers and calls your tools: check free slots and book through the calendar API.
4. Text-to-speech speaks the answer back over the same call.
5. Log each call (transcript, tool calls) and hand over to a person when the agent is unsure.

## Speech-to-text
- Deepgram: free: $200 credit, no credit card · usage: Nova-3 streaming $0.0048/min (promo; regular $0.0077); pre-recorded $0.0043/min; Flux $0.0065/min (promo); Aura-2 TTS $0.030 per 1k characters · official MCP · npm @deepgram/sdk · pip deepgram-sdk · card https://agentgid.com/apis/deepgram/agent.md
- AssemblyAI: free: Up to 185 hours pre-recorded and 333 hours streaming transcription, no credit card · usage: Universal-2 $0.15/hour; Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21/hour; Universal-Streaming $0.15/hour; diarization +$0.02/hour · official MCP https://assemblyai.com/docs/mcp · npm assemblyai · pip assemblyai · card https://agentgid.com/apis/assemblyai/agent.md
- Azure AI Speech (speech-to-text): free: Real-time Transcription: 5 audio hours free per month · usage: Standard: real-time $1.00 per hour, batch $0.18 per hour, fast transcription $0.36 per hour; custom real-time $1.20 per hour (East US) · official MCP @azure/mcp · npm microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk · pip azure-cognitiveservices-speech · card https://agentgid.com/apis/azure-speech-to-text/agent.md · MCP server card https://agentgid.com/mcp/servers/com-microsoft-azure/agent.md
- Also fits: Cartesia, Whisper (self-hosted), faster-whisper, ElevenLabs (https://agentgid.com/apis/speech-to-text/)

## Voice and real-time audio
- Cartesia: free: 20K credits/month + $1 prepaid for agents · paid from $5/mo · usage: Pro $5/month for 100K credits (~133 TTS minutes); Managed Agents $0.06/min; telephony $0.014/min · official MCP cartesia-mcp · npm @cartesia/cartesia-js · pip cartesia · card https://agentgid.com/apis/cartesia/agent.md
- Fish Audio API: free: s2.1-pro-free model at $0.00 / M UTF-8 bytes · usage: TTS $15.00 / M UTF-8 bytes (s2.1-pro, s2-pro); STT $0.36 / audio hour (transcribe-1-pro); voice design $0.01 / successful request · official MCP https://docs.fish.audio/overview/mcp · npm fish-audio · pip fish-audio-sdk · card https://agentgid.com/apis/fish-audio/agent.md
- ElevenLabs: free: Free plan: 10,000 TTS characters/month (v4) · paid from $6/mo · usage: TTS v4 $0.08 per 1K characters; Flash/Turbo $0.04 per 1K; Scribe v2 STT $0.22/hour; realtime $0.39/hour · official MCP elevenlabs-mcp · npm @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js · pip elevenlabs · card https://agentgid.com/apis/elevenlabs/agent.md
- Also fits: Daily, OpenAI Realtime API, Rime, Typecast TTS API (https://agentgid.com/apis/voice/)

## Phone numbers and calls
- Twilio (voice and SMS): no free tier listed · usage: US: calls $0.0140/min out, $0.0085/min in (local number $1.15/mo); SMS $0.0083 per segment · npm twilio · pip twilio · card https://agentgid.com/apis/twilio/agent.md
- Bandwidth: no free tier listed · usage: US 10DLC SMS $0.004 per message, MMS $0.015; toll-free SMS $0.007; short code SMS $0.008; US local outbound voice $0.0100 per minute, inbound $0.0055 per minute · official MCP https://dev.bandwidth.com/docs/mcp · npm bandwidth-sdk · pip bandwidth-sdk · card https://agentgid.com/apis/bandwidth/agent.md
- Also fits: Infobip, MessageBird, Plivo (https://agentgid.com/apis/messaging/)

## Or one voice-agent platform (all in one, per minute)
- Retell AI: free: $10 in free credits · usage: $0.07-$0.31/min for AI voice agents; $0.002+/msg for chat agents · official MCP @retell-ai/mcp-server · npm retell-sdk · pip retell-sdk · card https://agentgid.com/apis/retell-ai/agent.md
- Vapi (voice agent API): free: $5 free credits to start · paid from $29/mo · usage: $0.05/min Vapi hosting; models, speech and telephony billed at cost on top · official MCP @vapi-ai/mcp-server · npm @vapi-ai/server-sdk · pip vapi_server_sdk · card https://agentgid.com/apis/vapi-api/agent.md
- LiveKit: free: Build plan: 1,000 agent session minutes, 1 free US phone number, inference credits · paid from $50/mo · usage: $0.01 per agent session minute, $0.01 per inbound calling minute, model-based inference pricing · npm livekit-client · card https://agentgid.com/apis/livekit/agent.md
- Also fits: Ultravox (https://agentgid.com/apis/voice/)

## Calendar and booking
- Cal.com: free: Free forever, 1 user, unlimited event types & calendars · paid from $12/mo · npm @calcom/embed-react · card https://agentgid.com/apis/cal-com/agent.md
- Also fits: Calendly, Cronofy (https://agentgid.com/apis/business-apps/)

## Traces and evals
- LangSmith: free: Developer plan: 1 seat, up to 5k base traces / mo, then pay-as-you-go · paid from $39/mo · usage: Plus: $39 / seat per month incl. up to 10k base traces / mo; trace overage is pay-as-you-go (rate not listed on pricing page); 1 LSU = $1 (Deployment/Fleet/Sandbox usage) · official MCP https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/langsmith-mcp-server · npm langsmith · pip langsmith · card https://agentgid.com/apis/langsmith/agent.md
- Also fits: LangWatch, W&B Weave, Ragas, Pydantic Logfire (https://agentgid.com/apis/observability/)

## Model (all of these can call tools; prices per 1M tokens)
- Default: fast and cheap: Claude Haiku 5.5 ($0.1 in / $0.5 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/claude-haiku-5-5/agent.md · or GPT-6 Luna, MiMo V2.6 Flash
- Harder questions: Gemini 3.8 Flash ($0.75 in / $3.75 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/gemini-3-8-flash/agent.md · or Kimi K2.7 Code, DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Hardest work: Kimi K3 ($3 in / $15 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/kimi-k3/agent.md · or Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Fable 5.1

## Or start from a ready platform
- ElevenLabs Agents: free tier, from $6/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/elevenlabs-agents/agent.md
- LiveKit Agents: free tier · https://agentgid.com/agents/livekit-agents/agent.md
- Retell AI: free tier · https://agentgid.com/agents/retell-ai/agent.md
- Vapi: free tier, from $29/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/vapi/agent.md

## Libraries
- `pip install pipecat-ai`: Pipecat (BSD-2-Clause) · https://agentgid.com/tools/pipecat-ai/agent.md
- `npm install ai`: AI SDK (Apache-2.0) · https://agentgid.com/tools/ai/agent.md
- `pip install fastapi`: FastAPI (MIT) · https://agentgid.com/tools/fastapi/agent.md
- `pip install pydantic-ai`: Pydantic AI (MIT) · https://agentgid.com/tools/pydantic-ai/agent.md

## Agent Skills (read a skill before you install it: skills can run scripts)
- `npx skills add openai/skills --skill speech`
- `npx skills add krillinai/OpenCreator --skill krillinai-tts`
- `npx skills add cursor/plugins --skill add-voice`
- `npx skills add anbeime/skill --skill qwen3-tts-local`
- `npx skills add midudev/autoskills --skill elevenlabs-tts`
- `npx skills add MengTo/Skills --skill elevenlabs-tts`

## Coding agent to build it
- OpenAI Codex: free tier, from $8/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/openai-codex/agent.md
- Claude Code: from $20/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/claude-code/agent.md
- OpenCode: free tier, from $10/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/opencode/agent.md

## Also on AgentGid
- Video and audio to text kit: https://agentgid.com/build/kits/transcribe/
- Voiceover sources: https://agentgid.com/assets/voiceover/
- Sound effects: https://agentgid.com/assets/sound-effects/

## Before you ship
- Calls carry personal data: say at the start that the caller is talking to an AI and whether the call is recorded, where the law asks for it.
- For health or other sensitive data (a clinic), check whether each service signs the agreement your rules need (a BAA under HIPAA in the US, a DPA under GDPR) before real callers use it.
- Keep API keys on the server, never in the client; set spending limits where the provider offers them.
- Read each service's terms for your use (data retention, commercial use, rate limits).
- Log model calls (traces) and test with your own real inputs before launch.

Recipe page: https://agentgid.com/build/recipes/voice-agent/ · all product recipes: https://agentgid.com/build/recipes/agent.md

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Picked by rules from AgentGid's catalog, not paid placement. Prices are list prices from the official pages, checked between 2026-10-09 and 2026-10-22; check them before you commit.