AI Agent API
Build and deploy voice AI agents with full control over logic, media, and telecom.
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Build and deploy voice AI agents with full control over logic, media, and telecom.
| What's Included |
|---|
| Real-time STT, LLM, and standard TTS |
| AI orchestration with barge-in, memory, and tool calls |
| Full media control and real-time API triggers |
| Voice transport and TTS playback billed transparently at cost |
| Built-in Agent memory and retrieval (RAG-style grounding) |
*Standard TTS is included in the $0.16/min runtime. Premium TTS available for a small additional pre-minute cost.
**Voice transport (SIP/PSTN/WebRTC) is billed at standard rates.
**Most customers see an all-in rate of ~$0.163–$0.168/min for standard SIP/PSTN usage with standard TTS.>
Why Building Your Own Stack Can Get Expensive Fast
DIY stacks, where you piece together STT, LLM, TTS, and orchestration from multiple vendors, reprocess audio and context at every step, burning extra tokens, adding latency, and inflating compute costs. SignalWire runs it all in one runtime with built-in memory and local RAG, so you only pay for one token burn per interaction.
| Category | SignalWIre | DIY Stack (Vapi, Telnyx, LiveKit, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
| AI Runtime | One Flat Rate ( e.g., $0.16/min for full-stack AI voice). | Multiple Vendors: LLM, STT, TTS, logic with each billed separately. |
| Voice Infra + TTS | Telecom and TTS passed through at cost. | Separate contracts and fees across providers (SIP, WebRTC, TTS). |
| Setup Complexity | No integrations required, hosted SDK and APIs. | Orchestrate 4-6 APIs for voice, media, AI, routing, memory and more. |
| Billing | Single invoice with transparency, bundled pricing. | Fragmented invoices with unpredictable usage costs. |
| Operations & Scaling | Fully hosted, runs in containers or serverlessly. No infrastructure or token limits. | Dev time to deploy, scale, and monitor usage across APIs. Hidden costs from token spikes. |
| Price Predictability | Transparent pre-minute rate includes media, logic, and AI. | Pre-minute cost is unclear; token usage varies by vendor and model. |
| Context & Memory | Built-in Memory and local RAG included via Datasphere. | Requires custom vector DBs (e.g., Pinecone) and external LM tools to manage memory or context grounding. |
How much can you save by switching to SignalWire?
Skip the overhead of stitching together multiple APIs, SignalWire gives you one platform, one rate, and full control.
Example: 10,000 calls/month, 2 minutes/call
| Category | SignalWire | DIY Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Total Minutes | 20,000 | 20,000 |
| Rate per Minute | $0.163 ¹ | $0.13 ² |
| Total Hard Cost | $3,260 | $2,600 |
| Dev + Ops Overhead | $0.00 (Fully Hosted Platform) | $2,000/month ( 20+ hrs of integration, monitoring, and issue resolution) |
| Overages + Spikes | $0.00 (Flat rate includes LLMs, STT, TTS generation, and logic) | $500.00+ (token burn, retries, and compute charges) |
| Total Monthly Cost | $3,260 | $5,100+ |
| Savings with SignalWire | - | 56% |
¹ Based on inbound SIP transport and standard TTS playback (~$0.008/min passthrough). Includes full AI runtime: STT, LLM, orchestration, and media.
² Blended estimate based on public pricing for Deepgram (STT), OpenAI GPT-4o (LLM), ElevenLabs (TTS), Telnyx (SIP), and Vapi (orchestration layer). Assumes average usage across standard 2-minute calls with minimal retries. Real-world rates often exceed this due to token spikes, retries, or premium voices.
SignalWire AI Runtime – $0.16/min
Includes real-time STT, LLM, orchestration, and standard TTS.
⚬ SIP / WebRTC: $0.0030/min
⚬ PSTN (10DLC): Inbound $0.0066/min · Outbound $0.0080/min
⚬ Toll-Free: Inbound $0.0147/min · Outbound $0.0069/min
⚬ TTS Playback: Standard voices included in runtime; premium voices available for a small additional fee.