Key takeaways
- An outbound call to a US number costs $0.0140 a minute on Twilio, plus $0.0040 a minute for the browser leg.
- Twilio rounds every call up to the next whole minute, so a 61-second call bills two minutes.
- Recording adds $0.0025 per recorded minute, and a US local number costs $1.15 a month.
- Twilio may add $0.015 per call once unanswered or six-second calls reach 20% of a month’s North America calls.
Twilio charges $0.014 per minute for an outbound call to a US number and $0.0085 per minute for an inbound call to a US local number, on its published pay-as-you-go rates (Twilio US voice pricing). A call placed from a browser also bills a browser leg at $0.004 per minute, so a typical browser call to a US number costs $0.018 per minute, plus $0.0025 per minute if it is recorded. Twilio rounds each call up to the next whole minute, and a local number costs $1.15 a month.
What is Twilio’s voice pricing per minute in the US?
Twilio’s US rates are $0.014 a minute out, $0.0085 a minute in and $0.004 a minute for the browser leg. The full list:
| Item | Twilio’s price |
|---|---|
| Outbound call to a US number | $0.014 per minute |
| Inbound call to a US local number | $0.0085 per minute |
| Browser (Voice SDK) leg of a call | $0.004 per minute |
| Call recording | $0.0025 per recorded minute |
| US local phone number | $1.15 per month |
These are list prices for pay-as-you-go accounts, checked in October 2026; high-volume accounts can negotiate. A toll-free number is $2.15 a month, calls to other countries are priced by destination, and taxes and fees come on top.
How much does a Twilio outbound call cost compared with other carriers?
A Twilio outbound call to a US number costs $0.014 a minute; Plivo, another programmable voice provider, lists $0.0115 a minute for outbound calls to US local numbers on its Voice API (Plivo US pricing). The gap is 0.25 cents a minute, or $2.50 per 1,000 minutes. Twilio’s per-minute price is rarely the deciding cost for a sales team: seats, numbers, recording and surcharges move the monthly total more than the gap between carriers.
Why does a browser call bill two legs?
A browser call bills two legs because it is really two connected calls, and Twilio prices each one. When a rep calls from a browser softphone, there are two connected calls. The browser leg runs between the rep’s browser and Twilio, over the internet. The phone leg runs from Twilio to the number dialed, over the phone network. Twilio bills both, so for outbound calls from a browser the real rate is $0.014 + $0.004 = $0.018 per minute.
Calls from a desk phone or a mobile through Twilio follow the same idea: every leg that touches Twilio is billed at its own rate.
Does Twilio round partial minutes up?
Yes. Twilio bills voice calls per minute and rounds each call up to the next whole minute. A 61-second call bills two minutes; a 10-second voicemail greeting you hang up on bills one. For a sales team, that means many short calls cost more than their seconds suggest. On average, rounding adds roughly half a minute to each answered call.
Example: one rep’s calling day
Say a rep has 20 conversations averaging 3 minutes 20 seconds and leaves 15 live voicemails of about 40 seconds each. Rounding bills the conversations at 4 minutes each (80 minutes) and the voicemails at 1 minute each (15 minutes), so 95 billed minutes. If both legs bill those rounded minutes, that is 95 × $0.018 = $1.71, plus $0.24 for recording: about $1.95 for the day, and about $39 over 20 working days.
The surcharges most guides skip
Twilio’s North America terms include two charges that rarely show up on pricing pages but matter for cold calling (Twilio North America terms):
- Short and unanswered calls. If 20% or more of a month’s calls to North American numbers are unanswered or last six seconds or less, Twilio may charge $0.015 for each of those calls.
- Short average call length. If the month’s average call lasts under 30 seconds, Twilio may charge an extra $0.01 for each billed minute.
Cold calling easily crosses the first line, because most dials are not answered. On 8,000 dials a month with 70% unanswered, the first surcharge alone could add $84. Twilio says it “may” apply these charges, so budget for them rather than assume them away. Ways to reduce the risk: clean lists so fewer calls fail, avoid hanging up on voicemail greetings within seconds, and call at times people answer.
What a sales team pays per month
Here is a month at about 1,000 billed minutes per rep (roughly 50 minutes of talk and voicemail a day for 20 days), with recording on and one local number per rep, calling from the browser. The last column adds Rapidialer’s regular $5 seat price:
| Team | Phone leg | Browser leg | Recording | Numbers | Twilio total | With Rapidialer seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 rep | $14.00 | $4.00 | $2.50 | $1.15 | $21.65 | $26.65 |
| 3 reps | $42.00 | $12.00 | $7.50 | $3.45 | $64.95 | $79.95 |
| 5 reps | $70.00 | $20.00 | $12.50 | $5.75 | $108.25 | $133.25 |
| 10 reps | $140.00 | $40.00 | $25.00 | $11.50 | $216.50 | $266.50 |
Your volume will differ, so treat these rows as a worked example of the rates rather than a quote. To model your own team, use the Twilio call cost calculator.
Twilio usage vs unlimited-minute dialers
All-in-one dialers fold calling into the seat price. PhoneBurner, for example, includes unlimited calling in plans from $140 per user per month billed annually (source), and Mojo Dialer includes unlimited minutes from $89 per license per month (Mojo pricing). The PhoneBurner alternative and Mojo Dialer alternative pages compare each with Rapidialer, and the PhoneBurner pricing guide breaks down its plans.
To match a $140 seat on Twilio usage alone, a rep would need roughly 7,000 billed minutes a month at $0.018 per minute plus recording, which is more than five hours of talk every working day. Below that volume, paying Twilio directly costs less. Unlimited plans still make sense when you want one predictable invoice, or when the seat includes features you would otherwise pay for. See power dialers ranked by price for the full comparison.
How can you keep Twilio calling costs down?
You keep Twilio costs down by paying only for the minutes, recordings and numbers you use, and by avoiding the patterns that trigger surcharges.
- Record only when you need to. Recording adds about 14% to the per-minute cost of a browser call. Check the call recording laws by state before you leave it on.
- Keep only the numbers you use. Each local number is $1.15 a month whether it rings or not, so buy local numbers for the area codes you call most and release the rest.
- Clean lists before dialing. Wrong and disconnected numbers waste minutes and push you toward the short-call surcharge.
- Do not hang up on greetings. If you skip voicemail, let the call run past six seconds or leave a short message instead.
- Watch your usage. Twilio’s Console shows usage by category; check it after the first month and compare it with your estimate.
Where Rapidialer fits
Rapidialer runs on your own Twilio account, so Twilio bills your calls at the rates above with no markup, and Rapidialer charges $5 per seat a month, or $49 per seat a year, for the dialer. Call recording is on by default; an owner or admin can switch off Automatically record calls in Telephony settings for the whole team. See pricing for plans and the 14-day free trial.
Questions and answers
How much does Twilio charge per minute for US calls?
Twilio’s published pay-as-you-go rate is $0.014 per minute for an outbound call to a US number and $0.0085 per minute for an inbound call to a local number. Calls placed from a browser add $0.004 per minute for the browser leg.
Does Twilio charge for unanswered calls?
Twilio does not bill the phone leg of an unanswered call by the minute. However, Twilio’s North America terms allow a $0.015 surcharge for each unanswered call, or call of six seconds or less, once those calls reach 20% of your month’s North America calls. Cold calling lists with low answer rates can cross that line.
Is Twilio cheaper than a dialer with unlimited minutes?
At about 1,000 minutes a month, Twilio usage for one rep is about $20.50, or $21.65 with one local number, which is well below an unlimited plan’s per-user price. An unlimited plan wins on minutes only if reps talk for more than five hours every working day, and its price often covers features as well as calling.
Does Twilio charge extra for call recording?
Twilio charges $0.0025 per recorded minute for call recording, on top of the call’s voice minutes. In Rapidialer, recording is controlled for the whole team by the Automatically record calls switch in Telephony settings, so a team that does not need recordings can turn it off and save about 12% on each browser call.
How much does a Twilio phone number cost per month?
A US local phone number costs $1.15 a month on Twilio’s published pay-as-you-go pricing, charged whether the number makes calls or not. Toll-free numbers are priced differently. A team with one line per rep and five extra local presence numbers in its busiest area codes pays $1.15 for each one, every month.
What does a Twilio toll-free number cost?
A US toll-free number costs $2.15 a month on Twilio’s published pricing, against $1.15 for a local number, and inbound calls to a toll-free number cost $0.0220 a minute because the business pays for the caller’s call. For outbound sales calls a local number is usually the better caller ID, since people are more likely to answer a familiar area code.
Does Twilio charge more for international calls?
Yes. Twilio prices outbound calls by destination country and often by network within it, so a call abroad can cost several times the $0.014 US rate, and mobile numbers often cost more than landlines. Look up each country on Twilio’s voice pricing pages before a campaign, and enable only the countries you call in Voice Geographic Permissions.
Is Twilio more expensive than Plivo for US calls?
On published list prices, slightly. Plivo’s Voice API page lists $0.0115 a minute for outbound calls to US local numbers, against Twilio’s $0.014. At 1,000 minutes a month that is a $2.50 difference per rep. Rapidialer only runs on Twilio, so a team that wants Rapidialer’s dialer pays Twilio’s rates; compare features and support as well as the rate.