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Stop Paying Three Vendors for Plumbing | SignalWire
BYOAI Cost Analysis

Stop Paying Three Vendors for Plumbing

In a typical multi-vendor stack, AI inference is roughly 16% of your per-minute cost. The rest is orchestration and vendor markup.

$0.16
per minute, AI runtime
84%
of cost is plumbing in a typical multi-vendor model
1
bill instead of five
$0
orchestration surcharge
The Cost Stacking Problem

Four Vendors Billing Per-Minute Compounds at Scale

Orchestration costs overtake LLM costs

At 30,000 minutes per month, the middleware connecting your STT to your LLM to your TTS costs more than the LLM itself. You pay the orchestrator more than your AI provider.

Each vendor adds a per-minute surcharge

STT bills per minute. TTS bills per character. Telephony bills per minute. Orchestration adds another per-minute fee on top. These costs compound at every layer.

Hidden minimums and overage rates

Minimum monthly commitments per vendor, overage rates at 1.5 to 2x base rate, and premium charges for high concurrency. The invoice never matches the pricing page.

Billing reconciliation across systems

Matching call records across four billing systems with different cycles, formats, and usage tiers that reset independently.

Build a Voice AI Agent

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase
from signalwire_agents.core.function_result import SwaigFunctionResult

class SupportAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="Support Agent", route="/support")
        self.prompt_add_section("Instructions",
            body="You are a customer support agent. "
                 "Greet the caller and resolve their issue.")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore:mistv2")

    @AgentBase.tool(name="check_order")
    def check_order(self, order_id: str):
        """Check the status of a customer order.

        Args:
            order_id: The order ID to look up
        """
        return SwaigFunctionResult(f"Order {order_id}: shipped, ETA April 2nd")

agent = SupportAgent()
agent.run()

What Multi-Vendor Plumbing Actually Costs

Four-Vendor Stack

  • STT vendor: $0.01 to $0.05/min
  • LLM provider: $0.01 to $0.10/min equivalent
  • TTS vendor: $0.02 to $0.15/min equivalent
  • Telephony vendor: $0.01 to $0.04/min plus number fees
  • Orchestration middleware: $0.05 to $0.15/min surcharge
  • Total: $0.10 to $0.49/min stacked
  • Four account managers, four support tickets, four invoices

SignalWire

  • Native AI: $0.16/min (STT + LLM + TTS + orchestration). Transport at carrier rates.
  • BYOAI mode: carrier-rate telephony, bring your own AI stack
  • No orchestration surcharge or middleware markup
  • No minimum monthly commitments
  • One bill, one vendor, one support channel

Monthly Cost at Scale (30,000 Minutes)

Cost ComponentFour-Vendor StackSignalWire Native AI
Speech-to-text$1,200Included
LLM orchestration$900Included
Text-to-speech$2,400Included
Transport (PSTN/SIP)$600 + number feesCarrier rates (separate)
Orchestration middleware$2,100$0 (no middleware)
Monthly total~$7,200$4,800

Hidden Costs of Multi-Vendor Stacks

Hidden CostImpact
Integration maintenanceEach vendor API changes independently. Upgrades break integrations.
Debugging across boundariesWhen a call fails, which vendor caused it? Hours of log correlation.
Compliance multiplicationEach vendor needs a separate BAA/DPA. Each is a separate audit surface.
Vendor managementFour account managers, four support tickets, four escalation paths.
Latency stackingEach hop adds milliseconds. More vendors means more latency per turn.

Consolidate in Under 10 Minutes

1

Install the SDK

pip install signalwire-agents. One dependency replaces the middleware layer.

2

Define your agent

Python or YAML. Your prompts, your tools, your conversation logic. No orchestration vendor.

3

Assign a phone number

Carrier-rate telephony. No separate number provider, no trunk configuration.

4

Ship and track one invoice

One bill, usage-based pricing, no minimum commitments. See what your calls actually cost.

At 30,000 minutes per month, the orchestration layer alone costs $2,100. You pay the middleware vendor more than your LLM provider for the privilege of connecting vendors together.

FAQ

What does $0.16/min include?

AI processing: speech-to-text, LLM orchestration, text-to-speech, and orchestration. Transport (PSTN, SIP) is billed separately at carrier rates. One vendor, one bill.

What if I want to keep my own LLM, STT, and TTS?

BYOAI mode provides carrier-rate telephony with call control, recording, and compliance infrastructure. No per-agent fees. No orchestration surcharges. You bring your own AI stack.

Are there minimum monthly commitments?

No. Usage-based pricing from the first minute. Volume discounts are available when your application is validated, not before.

How does SignalWire offer carrier rates?

SignalWire is the carrier infrastructure, built by the team that wrote FreeSWITCH. There is no markup on top of a third-party telephony provider because SignalWire is the telephony provider.

What about existing vendor contracts?

You can run SignalWire alongside existing providers during migration. No lock-in, no minimum terms. Test with real calls before committing.

Trusted by 2,000+ companies

Your AI Is the Hard Part. The Plumbing Should Not Be.

One vendor, one bill, no orchestration surcharge. See what your calls actually cost.