Voice AI vs chatbot: different jobs
A voice agent answers the phone. It picks up missed calls, books appointments, takes messages, and transfers callers to your team. It works when customers call you: after hours, during lunch, when your line is busy.
A chatbot answers typed questions. It sits on your website, in WhatsApp, or inside your helpdesk and resolves support tickets, order questions, and FAQs. It works when customers type instead of call.
The split matters because the two channels rarely overlap. A plumber whose customers phone in emergencies gets nothing from a website chatbot. An e-commerce store whose customers ask "where is my order" by chat gets nothing from a phone agent. Match the tool to the channel your customers already use.
Some businesses need both. A property manager might take maintenance calls by phone and tenant questions by chat. That is a valid setup, but you do not have to buy both on day one. Start where the volume is, prove the savings, then add the second channel.
How billing differs by channel
Voice agents bill per minute. Chatbots bill per resolution, per conversation, or per message credit. The unit changes how you forecast cost.
| Tool | Channel focus | Billing unit | Published rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retell AI | Voice (phone, plus web-chat, SMS, in-app) | Per minute | $0.07-$0.31/minute |
| Vapi | Voice (phone) | Per minute | $0.05/min hosting, plus model, transcription, and voice costs passed through |
| Dialzara | Voice (phone, SMS, web-chat) | Per minute | $29/month with 60 minutes, then $0.48/min overage |
| PolyAI | Voice (phone, web-chat, SMS) | Per minute | 2¢ per connected minute on the API tier; platform pricing via sales |
| Fin (Intercom) | Chat, email, social, voice | Per resolution | $0.99 per outcome ($1.99 for voice) |
| Tidio Lyro | Chat, email, social, WhatsApp | Per resolution | $0.50 per conversation; standalone from $32.50/month |
| Chatbase | Chat, email, voice, WhatsApp | Credits | $40 per 1,000 message credits; plans from $32/month billed yearly |
| Goodcall | Voice (phone, SMS) | Flat monthly | $79/month for 100 unique customers |
| My AI Front Desk | Phone, chat, SMS, email, WhatsApp | Flat monthly | $99/month with 200 voice minutes and 100 chatbot conversations |
Per-minute voice pricing scales with call length. Retell AI bills to the nearest second, and billing continues during silence and hold time because the speech-to-text engine stays active. Vapi's real per-minute cost stacks several components on top of the $0.05/min hosting fee: Deepgram transcription at $0.0095-$0.0099/min, OpenAI intelligence at $0.0077-$0.0452/min, and ElevenLabs voice at $0.0146-$0.0238/min.
Per-resolution chat pricing scales with solved conversations, not length. Fin charges $0.99 per outcome and nothing if the customer asks for a human. Tidio Lyro charges $0.50 per conversation, with the first 50 free for a lifetime.
Flat monthly plans cap the bill. Goodcall charges $79/month for 100 unique customers, then 79¢ each (Goodcall pricing). That suits owners who want one predictable number.
Tools that do both
A few vendors in our directory cover phone and web-chat in one product, so you can start with one channel and add the other without switching platforms.
- Retell AI: phone, web-chat, SMS, and in-app. Voice bills per minute; chat agents start at $0.002 per message. Developer setup.
- ElevenLabs Agents: phone, web-chat, SMS, and WhatsApp. Credit-based billing from a free plan with 10,000 credits per month; paid plans from $6/month. Developer setup. 90+ languages.
- PolyAI: phone, web-chat, and SMS. Per-minute pricing; the API tier is 2¢ per connected minute, platform pricing is quote-only. Enterprise focus.
- Fin (Intercom): web-chat, email, social, and phone. $0.99 per outcome on chat; voice outcomes cost $1.99 and require contacting sales.
- Chatbase: web-chat, email, phone, WhatsApp, social, and in-app. Credit-based; voice and API access start on the Basic plan at $120/month billed yearly.
- My AI Front Desk: phone, web-chat, email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Flat $99/month covers 200 voice minutes and 100 chatbot conversations. Business-owner setup.
- Dialzara: phone, SMS, and web-chat. Voice plans from $29/month; the website chatbot is free with voice plans (100 sessions/month, then $0.15/session) or $39/month standalone.
One caution: "does both" rarely means "bills both the same way." Fin doubles its per-outcome rate for voice. Chatbase gates voice behind a higher plan. Check the per-channel price before assuming a bundle discount.
Which should you start with? A decision matrix
Match your starting point to your business type and where customer contact happens.
| Business type | Main channel | Start with | Example fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home services (plumbing, HVAC) | Phone, often urgent | Voice agent | Goodcall or Dialzara: flat or low entry price, booking built in |
| E-commerce | Web chat, email | Chatbot | Tidio Lyro or Fin: per-resolution pricing, Shopify and helpdesk integrations |
| SaaS or tech support | Chat, email, helpdesk tickets | Chatbot | Fin with Zendesk, Salesforce, or Intercom; Chatbase with a built-in helpdesk |
| Property management | Phone plus chat | Both, one platform | My AI Front Desk: phone, chat, SMS, and Yardi/AppFolio integrations in one flat plan |
| Healthcare or regulated | Phone, compliance required | Voice agent with certifications | Retell AI: HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001 |
| Enterprise, high call volume | Phone at scale | Voice platform | PolyAI or Vapi: per-minute pricing, developer setup, enterprise compliance |
| Multilingual customer base | Phone and chat | Platform with language support | ElevenLabs Agents: 90+ languages with real-time detection |
Two questions settle most cases. First: what percentage of customer contact arrives by phone? If it is over half, voice first. Second: do you have developer time? Vapi, Retell AI, PolyAI, and ElevenLabs assume engineering. Goodcall, Dialzara, and My AI Front Desk are built for owners to set up themselves.
What does each option cost in practice?
Run your own volumes against the published rates before choosing.
Voice example: 300 calls a month at 3 minutes each is 900 minutes. On Retell AI at $0.07-$0.31/minute, that is $63-$279 in usage. On Dialzara's Business Plus at $199/month with 500 included minutes, the remaining 400 minutes at $0.40/min add $160, totaling $359. On Goodcall's flat plans, cost depends on unique customers, not minutes: 300 unique callers fits the Growth plan at $129/month.
Chat example: 1,000 resolved conversations a month. On Fin, that is $990 in outcomes plus $19/seat/month if you use the Intercom helpdesk, or a $49/month minimum if you keep your existing helpdesk (Fin pricing). On Tidio Lyro at $0.50 per conversation, roughly $500, though full per-conversation tiers above self-serve quotas are not published. On Chatbase, cost depends on message credits: 1,000 conversations at several messages each could consume most of the Business plan's 15,000 credits at $400/month billed yearly (Chatbase pricing).
We have not made test calls yet, so treat these as arithmetic from published rates, not measured results. For a deeper cost model, see AI receptionist cost and our AI call center savings calculator.