Vapi vs PolyAI
Zero of fourteen models named Vapi first on the direct prompt; zero named PolyAI. Vapi was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and PolyAI by twelve and Vapi carries 52 labels and PolyAI 24, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
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
VapiFirst choices, of fourteen modelsPolyAI
Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Vapi and PolyAI were named in the same answer forty times, of the 135 answers naming Vapi and the 59 naming PolyAI. In those answers PolyAI took the first choice six times and Vapi two.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | | |
Vapi PolyAI first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Vapi on the left and PolyAI on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
9 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
5 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.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
PolyAI13%#2 of 12Vapi4%#8 of 12What the models said about Vapi
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Multiple AI model reviews flag Vapi with a high negative share (43% negative labels in one analysis).” Mistral Small · negative prompt · hard negative
“Vapi - 43% of labels are negative, and 8 out of 14 models have negative sentiments.” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · hard negative
“Vapi, if you want a turnkey, low-maintenance setup or maximum control over the whole stack. Its docs say recordings, logging, and transcription are enabled by default” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Choose Vapi or Retell AI if you are a developer or team building a scalable, customized phone agent” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Vapi offers the most flexibility—you can swap speech-to-text, LLM, and TTS providers” MiniMax M2.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Often cited as having the most flexible infrastructure... Choose Retell AI or Vapi” 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
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.