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Index › GTM › Customer › AI voice agents › Retell AI vs PolyAI
AI voice agents · November 2026 Edition

Retell AI vs PolyAI

Four of fourteen models named Retell AI first on the direct prompt; zero named PolyAI. Retell AI was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and PolyAI by twelve and Retell AI carries 55 labels and PolyAI 24, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Retell AI

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

PolyAI

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share17%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate7%21%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#5A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.
Labels5524A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Retell AI reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.CloudTalk was named alongside these two in ten of the fourteen direct answers. CloudTalk vs Retell AI · CloudTalk vs PolyAI · Retell AI vs Vapi

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the AI voice agents page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Retell AIFirst choices, of fourteen modelsPolyAI
Direct402 against PolyAI
Paraphrase301 against PolyAI
Comparative70
Budget-constrained20
Scale-constrained01
Negative104 against Retell AI · 2 against PolyAI
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Retell AI and PolyAI were named in the same answer forty-eight times, of the 152 answers naming Retell AI and the 59 naming PolyAI. In those answers PolyAI took the first choice six times and Retell AI twelve.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Retell AI and PolyAI stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Retell AI PolyAI first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Retell AI on the left and PolyAI on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Retell AI and PolyAI stood in it.

Retell AI first, PolyAI an alternative

4 of 14 modelsPolyAI was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashRetell AI alternatives: Regal.io, Sierra, Synthflow AI, Vapi
Kimi K2Retell AI alternatives: CloudTalk, Synthflow
GLM 4.7 FlashXRetell AI alternatives: Aircall, CloudTalk, Synthflow, Vapi
GPT-6 LunaRetell AI alternatives: PolyAI, Synthflow, Vapi

Neither was the first choice, one was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Claude Haiku 4.5Aloware, CloudTalk alternatives: ElevenLabs Agents, Retell AI, Synthflow, Vapi
Perplexity SonarCloudTalk alternatives: Retell AI
Grok 4.20CloudTalk alternatives: Retell AI, Vapi
DeepSeek V4 FlashCloudTalk alternatives: ElevenLabs Conversational AI, JustCall, Retell AI, Synthflow, Vapi
Qwen 3.7 FlashCloudTalk alternatives: Cresta, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Retell AI, Synthflow AI, Vapi
MiniMax M2.5CloudTalk, Five9 alternatives: Retell AI, Synthflow
Muse Glimmer 30BCloudTalk alternatives: Nextiva XBert, Retell AI, Vapi

Neither was named

3 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
GPT-5.4 miniTalkdesk alternatives: ElevenLabs, Genesys Cloud CX, OpenAI Presence, Vapi
Mistral SmallKore.ai, Synthflow alternatives: Girikon AI
Llama 4 MaverickCloudTalk

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Retell AI leads by fifteen points.
Retell AI15%#1 of 11
PolyAI0%#– of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Retell AI leads by fifteen points.
Retell AI17%#2 of 8
PolyAI2%#5 of 8
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
Retell AI13%#3 of 12
PolyAI13%#2 of 12
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Retell AI

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Not recommended if you need a no-code launch or a predictable flat monthly bill.” Mistral Small · negative prompt · hard negative
“Cautious on data privacy if integrating deeply with CRMs/APIs (extra attack surfaces). Hallucinations remain a core issue.” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · soft negative
“strong overall reviews, but users mention higher cost per call, missing features, and setup complexity in some cases” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“Excellent for production-scale support automation; reliable for regulated industries; good balance of ease and power.” Grok 4.20 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Choose Retell AI if you want to build complex, multi-step workflows ... Their visual editor is superior here.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“Currently a market leader in this space... Choose Retell AI or Vapi if you are building a product feature” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice

What the models said about PolyAI

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Avoid enterprise-heavy options like PolyAI or Cognigy unless your needs are highly regulated” Grok 4.20 · direct prompt · hard negative
“Avoid for Mid-Sized B2B: PolyAI — Excellent but built for enterprise contact centers” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · hard negative
“avoid enterprise-heavy solutions like PolyAI (~$150K/year)” MiniMax M2.5 · direct prompt · hard negative
“PolyAI — strong for enterprise call centers with complex routing and handoff” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“PolyAI if you're closer to enterprise scale and need broader contact-center or omnichannel capabilities” GPT-6 Luna · direct prompt · alternative
“PolyAI is stronger if you want a more managed enterprise-grade inbound voice automation experience” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · alternative
Also compared
CloudTalk vs Retell AICloudTalk vs PolyAIRetell AI vs VapiRetell AI vs SynthflowRetell AI vs ElevenLabsVapi vs PolyAISynthflow vs PolyAIPolyAI vs ElevenLabsAll fifteen head-to-head pages and the full AI voice agents standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.