Bland AI Pricing (2026): Per Minute Rates and Real Costs
Every Bland plan, what the per minute rate includes, transfer and call fees, the December 2025 price change, and the monthly bill at five volumes, as of October 2026.
By , research by the BestBots team · Updated Oct 19, 2026
Fact checked against each company's published pricing, documentation and verified user ratings. How we score
Bland AI costs $0.14 per connected minute on its Start plan in October 2026, $0.12 on Build ($299 a month) and $0.11 on Scale ($499 a month), with the LLM, speech, voice and telephony included. Transfers to a human add $0.03 to $0.05 a minute on Bland numbers. A line taking 10,000 minutes a month costs $1,400 on Start.
- Starting price
- $0.14 per minute
- Pricing model
- per connected minute plus optional platform fee
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- None listed
- Per minute cost
- $0.14 Start, $0.12 Build, $0.11 Scale per connected minute; models and telephony included
- Telephony
- Bland numbers included in the minute rate, or bring your own Twilio
- Concurrency
- 10 Start, 50 Build, sized to volume on Enterprise
- Voices
- 1 clone on Start, 5 on Build, unlimited on Enterprise
- Languages
- 40+ languages, real time translation in 23
- HIPAA
- Yes, BAAs available
- SOC 2
- SOC 2 Type I and Type II; site also lists FedRAMP, PCI DSS, GDPR and ISO 27001
The price list
| Plan | Platform fee | Connected minute | Transfer minute | Concurrent calls | Calls per day | Voices | Knowledge bases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $0 | $0.14 | $0.05 | 10 | 100 | 1 | 10 |
| Build | $299 a month | $0.12 | $0.04 | 50 | 2,000 | 5 | 50 |
| Scale | $499 a month | $0.11 | $0.03 | 100 | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Sized to volume | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Scale appears in Bland's billing documentation but not on the public pricing page; confirm availability with sales. Enterprise adds on premises or VPC deployment, SMS and web chat, appointment scheduling, warm transfers and compliance features including BAAs, SSO and data residency.
Other fees in Bland's docs: a $0.015 minimum per outbound call attempt on Bland telephony, including failed calls, and SMS at $0.02 per message.
What the rate includes
Bland's FAQ says one per minute rate covers the language model, speech to text, text to speech and telephony, with no per token charges, per feature surcharges or separate vendor invoices. That is the main difference from itemized platforms: on Retell or Vapi you add each component yourself.
Connected time is the full AI conversation. Transfer time is billed additionally once the call moves to a human on a Bland number. Bland's example: a 10 minute call with 2 minutes after transfer costs $1.50 on Start, $1.28 on Build and $1.16 on Scale.
The December 2025 change
Before December 5, 2025, every self serve plan paid a flat $0.09 per minute. Bland moved to plan based pricing: Start rose to $0.14 (+56%), Build to $0.12 and Scale to $0.11, and transfer rates became plan specific. Every organization got a one time credit equal to the difference on its previous 30 days. Existing enterprise contracts were not affected. Third party reviews that quote $0.09 are out of date.
Worked examples
All examples assume no transfers unless stated and use the cheapest plan for the volume.
| Line | Minutes a month | Best plan | Math | Monthly bill | Per minute all in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 1,000 | Start | 1,000 x $0.14 | $140 | $0.140 |
| Small business line | 5,000 | Start | 5,000 x $0.14 | $700 | $0.140 |
| Busy line | 20,000 | Build | $299 + 20,000 x $0.12 | $2,699 | $0.135 |
| Contact center | 50,000 | Scale | $499 + 50,000 x $0.11 | $5,999 | $0.120 |
| Contact center with 20% transfer time | 50,000 + 10,000 transfer | Scale | $5,999 + 10,000 x $0.03 | $6,299 | $0.126 |
The Start plan's 100 calls a day is the real constraint on the pilot and small business rows: at an average of 3 minutes per call, 100 calls a day is about 9,000 minutes a month. Outbound programs above that need Build.
Break even points: Build beats Start at 14,950 minutes a month. Scale beats Build at 20,000 minutes.
Hidden costs to plan for
- Transfers. Every minute after a warm transfer on Bland numbers is billed on top.
- Failed outbound attempts. Bland's docs list a $0.015 minimum per outbound attempt on Bland telephony.
- Daily caps. 100 calls a day on Start blocks campaigns; you may need Build earlier than the per minute math says.
- SMS. $0.02 per message if agents text follow ups.
- Enterprise features. BAAs, SSO and data residency are listed with Enterprise.
How Bland compares per minute
| Platform | Published per minute | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Telnyx Voice AI | About $0.06 all in, per Telnyx | Orchestration, STT, TTS; LLM and carrier small extras |
| Vapi | $0.05 hosting, about $0.0818 budget stack | Hosting; models pass through |
| ElevenLabs Agents | $0.08 after plan minutes | Voice and platform; LLM and carrier extra |
| Retell AI | $0.055 infra, about $0.0946 budget stack | Infra and STT; LLM, voice, telephony extra |
| Bland AI | $0.11 to $0.14 | LLM, STT, TTS and telephony |
Bland is the most expensive published rate here, and the simplest. If your Retell or Vapi stack uses premium voices and frontier models, the gap narrows or flips: Retell with GPT 5.6 Terra ($0.064) and ElevenLabs v4 ($0.10) is $0.234 a minute. See the AI Price Index and the voice agent cost per minute guide.
How to keep the bill down
- Bring your own Twilio to avoid transfer fees.
- Move to Build or Scale as soon as volume passes the break even points.
- Keep agents concise; connected minutes are the whole bill.
- Negotiate Enterprise above roughly 100,000 minutes a month.
Is Bland worth the price?
Yes, for regulated and high stakes lines where one vendor, one bill and on premises options matter more than the cheapest minute. No, for price sensitive volume work, where Telnyx or a lean Vapi stack costs about half. Read the full Bland AI review or compare Bland AI alternatives.
Bland AI plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Start | $0 per month | $0.14 per connected minute, 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls per day, 1 voice |
| Build | $299 per month | $0.12 per connected minute, 50 concurrent calls, 2,000 calls per day, 5 voices |
| Enterprise | Custom | Concurrency sized to volume, unlimited calls, SMS and web chat, custom voice actor |
Frequently asked questions
How much does Bland AI cost per minute?
$0.14 per connected minute on Start, $0.12 on Build and $0.11 on Scale. Bland says the rate covers the LLM, speech to text, text to speech and telephony. Enterprise rates are contracted.
Does Bland AI have a free plan?
Start has no platform fee, but every connected minute is billed at $0.14. It allows 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls a day and 1 voice.
What are Bland transfer fees?
When an AI call is transferred to a human on a Bland number, the transferred time costs $0.05 a minute on Start, $0.04 on Build and $0.03 on Scale. Customers who bring their own Twilio pay no transfer fee.
When is Bland Build worth $299 a month?
Build saves $0.02 per minute against Start, so it pays for itself at about 15,000 connected minutes a month. It also raises limits to 50 concurrent calls and 2,000 calls a day.
Why did Bland raise prices?
Bland's billing docs say it moved from a flat $0.09 per minute to plan based rates on December 5, 2025 to align price with each tier, and issued one time credits based on each organization's prior 30 days of usage.
Is Bland AI cheaper than Retell or Vapi?
No, on published rates. A budget Retell stack is about $0.0946 a minute and a budget Vapi stack about $0.0818, against Bland's $0.11 to $0.14. Bland's rate includes everything, so premium voices or LLMs on Retell or Vapi can close the gap.