Smith.ai vs Vapi
Smith.ai publishes its pricing; Vapi does not.
Both pages checked by August 19, 2026
- Smith.aiAI + human backup
- $0/mo
- AI Receptionist — Free plan
- Smith.ai sells small and mid-sized businesses two products off one platform: an AI Receptionist that answers, qualifies and books 24/7 with escalation to its North America-based Live Agent Network, and a fully human Virtual Receptionist service, both billed per call rather than per minute.
- VapiAI only
- Pricing not published
- no published plan
- Developer platform for building voice AI agents: Vapi hosts the orchestration layer and charges a per-minute hosting fee, while you pick and pay for your own speech-to-text, LLM, text-to-speech and telephony providers and write the assistant, tools and server hooks yourself.
The differences that matter
- Smith.ai is ai + human backup; Vapi is ai only. That is the real decision here, not the price.
- Smith.ai offers a trial (AI Receptionist Free tier: "$0 mo", "25 calls/mo ($3.00/call after that)", described as "try it free forever". Virtual Receptionist: "30-day money-back guarantee to all new clients" — "a full refund of your plan and any add-on services, regardless of how many calls or chats you have used, up to $1,000" (overage excluded).); Vapi advertises none.
- Smith.ai can put a human on the line; Vapi is bot-only.
- Smith.ai publishes prices. Vapi makes you ask.
Feature by feature
| Capability | Smith.ai | Vapi |
|---|---|---|
| Live transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Books appointments | Yes | Yes |
| Text follow-up | Yes | Yes |
| Outbound calls | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes |
| Human backup | Yes | No |
| Call recordings | Yes | Yes |
| Transcripts | Yes | Yes |
| Spam screening | Yes | unstated |
| Custom voice | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
"unstated" means the vendor doesn't claim it in their own documentation. It is not the same as no — it means nobody will put it in writing.
Smith.ai plans
| Plan | Published price | Includes | Over that |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Receptionist — Free | $0 mo | 25 calls | 25 calls/mo ($3.00/call after that) |
| AI Receptionist — Pro (75 calls) | $150 /mo — $2.00/call (~2–3 calls/day) | 75 calls | $2.50 |
| AI Receptionist — Pro (150 calls) | $270/mo | 150 calls | $2.30 |
| AI Receptionist — Enterprise (300 calls) | $500 /mo — $1.67/call (~10 calls/day) | 300 calls | $2.17 |
| AI Receptionist — Enterprise (500 calls) | $800/mo | 500 calls | $2.10 |
| AI Receptionist — Enterprise (1,000+ calls) | Custom | — | Custom |
| Virtual Receptionist (human) — Starter | $300 / month | 30 calls | Overage: $11.50/call over 30 |
| Virtual Receptionist (human) — Basic | $810 / month | 90 calls | Overage: $10.50/call over 90 |
| Virtual Receptionist (human) — Pro | $2,100 / month | 300 calls | Overage: $8.50/call over 300 |
| Virtual Receptionist (human) — Enterprise | Custom | — | — |
Vapi plans
| Plan | Published price | Includes | Over that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | $0.05 / min | — | — |
| Scale | Fixed Platform fee and committed volume(annual billing) | — | — |
Smith.ai sources
- AI Receptionist plans & pricing (tiers, per-call rates, feature table, FAQ)smith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Virtual Receptionist plans & pricing (tiers, overage, add-ons, FAQ)smith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Pricing hub (AI-first vs human-first toggle, add-on price list, money-back guarantee, porting)smith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- AI Receptionist product page (capabilities, live agent network, integrations FAQ)smith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- All features listsmith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Integrations directorysmith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Sitemap — enumerates 147 /integrates-with/ integration pagessmith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Why us / leadership — "we started out in Palo Alto, CA", fully remotesmith.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Privacy policy (entity name Smith.ai, Inc.; no address published)smith.ai · read August 19, 2026
Vapi sources
- Pricing page (Build and Scale plan cards, full comparison table, usage calculator)vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs FAQ (developer positioning, vendor cost pass-through, Server URL requirement, volume discounts, white-labelling, on-prem)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Introduction ("the developer platform for building voice AI agents", provider choice)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Understanding Call Concurrency (10 slots default, queueing behaviour, buying reserved lines)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: How voice agent component costs work (billing units: transcriber per minute of audio, model per million tokens, voice per character)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Vapi Enterprise (what an enterprise contract can include)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Multilingual support (automatic language detection via Deepgram, Google STT, Gladia)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Manage pay-as-you-go billing and credits (buy credits, $10 minimum purchase, auto reload, invoices)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs index (transfer-call tool, Google Calendar and GoHighLevel integrations, call recording/logging/transcribing, outbound campaigns, inbound SMS US-only, Twilio/Telnyx/DIDWW number import, custom voices)docs.vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Terms of Service (entity: Vapi Inc., a Delaware corporation)vapi.ai · read August 19, 2026