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What is a voice API?

What is a voice API?

A voice API lets software make, receive and control phone calls. See what it does, common examples, how it differs from a voice AI API, and free options.

A voice API is a set of programming tools that lets software make, receive and control phone calls. Developers use it to place calls, answer them, play or record audio, collect keypad input, transfer calls and connect them to other systems, without building their own phone network.

Common voice APIs include Twilio Programmable Voice, Vonage Voice API, Telnyx Voice API and Bandwidth. They handle the phone connection itself. To have an AI hold the conversation on that call, teams connect a voice API to a voice AI platform such as Retell AI, which adds speech recognition, a language model and a natural voice, and exposes its own API for creating agents, starting calls and reading call results.

Voice API vs voice AI API

A voice API controls the call: dialing, routing, recording. A voice AI API controls the conversation: what the agent understands, says and does. Most AI phone agents use both.

Is there a free voice API?

Most voice APIs offer free trial credit and then charge per minute and per phone number. Retell AI includes $10 in free credit for new accounts.

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