Retell alternative
Crackle vs Retell AI.
Retell AI prices each call from its parts (voice engine, voice, model, telephony and add-ons), from $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, and is built for phone calls with numbers, batch calling and SOC 2 and HIPAA. Crackle charges one rate whichever voice and model you choose, for agents in your website or app. Choose Retell for phone operations; choose Crackle for one simple price and voices recorded in Indian languages.
Retell AI’s facts are from its own pages, checked on 14 October 2026. Prices change; the sources are at the foot of the table.
Side by side.
| What | Crackle | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.07 a minute | $0.07 to $0.31 a minute |
| What the price covers | Voice, transcription and model, whichever you choose | Summed per call: voice engine $0.055, voice from $0.015, the model you pick, telephony $0.015; their own example totals $0.11 a minute |
| To start | Free plan with sign-up credit; plans from $29 a month include call credit | $10 of free credit |
| Calls at once | 2 on the free plan; 5, 20, 75 on paid plans | 20 included; more at $8 a call a month |
| Billed by | The second; a call nobody joins costs nothing | The second; calls that fail to connect are free |
| Phone numbers | Not yet | Yes: numbers from $2 a month, or your own SIP |
| Web and mobile apps | Web, iOS, Android and React Native, through LiveKit | Web call SDK; Node.js and Python SDKs |
| Talk button for a website | Yes: one line of HTML | Yes, a website widget |
| Languages | 44, with voices recorded in Hindi, Hinglish, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi | By provider, listed in their docs |
| Answers from documents | Yes: PDF, Word and text, up to 500 documents | Yes: 10 knowledge bases free, then $8 a month each, plus $0.005 a minute |
| Calls your APIs | Yes: your HTTP endpoints, during a call or before it | Yes, function calling |
| How an agent is built | A studio: write instructions, pick a voice, press Test agent; or the API | Prompt agents, or a conversation flow of nodes |
Sources: Retell AI pricing, Retell AI docs index, read on 14 October 2026. Crackle’s figures are from its live price list.
When Retell AI is the better choice.
- You need phone numbers, batch calling or branded caller ID today.
- You need SOC 2 or HIPAA; Retell states both.
- You want to choose the model per agent from a long list, each priced on its own.
When Crackle is the better choice.
- You want one rate whichever voice and model, instead of a sum of parts on every call.
- Your callers speak Hindi, Hinglish or another Indian language and you want a voice recorded in it.
- Your agent lives in your website or app, with a one-line talk button or LiveKit clients for web and mobile.
Moving from Retell AI.
Most of an agent carries straight across. Their names for things, and Crackle’s.
- Agent (single or multi-prompt)
- Agent
- System prompt
- Instructions: paste it in and keep it as it is
- Begin message
- Greeting: a fixed line, one written for each caller, or none
- Custom functions or tools
- Tools: the same HTTP endpoints, described in plain words
- Knowledge base files
- Knowledge: upload the same PDFs, Word and text files
- Web call
- Start a call from your server and join it with LiveKit, or paste the talk button
- Call events to your server
- Webhooks, signed, for each call’s start, lines and end
Other comparisons.
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$0.14 a minute on Start, $0.12 on Build.
See the comparisonCrackle vs ElevenLabs Agents
$0.08 a minute beyond the minutes in your plan; the model is billed separately.
See the comparisonTry Crackle on your own agent.
Paste in the instructions you already have, pick a voice and talk to it. Sign-up credit is there for your first test calls.