Bland AI API + MCP vs Deepgram Voice Agent API

Bland AI API + MCP

One per-minute rate covering STT, LLM, TTS and telephony, $0.14 on Start and $0.12 on Build. No OpenAPI document.

Deepgram Voice Agent API

$0.075 a minute all in on Standard, $0.050 with your own LLM and TTS, $200 of credit with no card. No phone numbers or SIP, so you bridge Twilio or another carrier yourself.

Bland AI API + MCP

1. Call wait_for_call (it waits up to 45 seconds) instead of polling get_call_log
2. Send destructive MCP tools a second time with the confirmation argument
3. Space calls to the same number at least 10 seconds apart or expect a 429
4. Budget $0.015 for every outbound attempt, including ones that never connect
5. Run validate_pathway before saving a pathway graph

Deepgram Voice Agent API

1. Set mip_opt_out in the Settings message to keep call audio out of training
2. Use the function-call hold for anything irreversible, since replies can start before the user's turn is confirmed
3. Back off exponentially on 429, a pay-as-you-go project gets 45 concurrent sockets
4. Pin the LLM version, an unpinned Gemini route failed for 1.5 hours on 21 July 2026
5. Mint browser tokens with ttl_seconds, not ttl, or they expire after 30 seconds