Quick answer: On list prices read on 12 November 2026, a month of 20,000 AI-handled calls, 24,000 texts and 20 local numbers costs US$1,148.00 on Twilio and US$674.40 to US$716.40 on Bandwidth, helped by 6-second billing and local numbers at US$0.30 a month (US$0.35 on its SMS page). But Bandwidth publishes no 911 or toll-free number prices, and charges US$20 a month per standard 10DLC campaign.
Twilio and Bandwidth both sell programmable voice, SMS and phone numbers by API, and both pitch AI voice agents, but they are built differently. Bandwidth is a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) and says it is “the underlying PSTN carrier” for calls on its network, the public switched telephone network; its pages name Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandwidth Inc. Twilio describes its Super Network as software that routes traffic across “a reliable global ecosystem of Tier 1 carriers”, chosen on “a provider-agnostic approach”. That design difference shows up in five places a US buyer actually feels: the billing increment, which prices are public, A2P 10DLC fees from The Campaign Registry (TCR) and the carriers, 911 and number porting, and how each vendor sells AI voice (Twilio ConversationRelay against Bandwidth’s bring-your-own-AI integrations with Bland, Cartesia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Pipecat and Vapi). Every figure below comes from the vendor’s own pages, read on 12 November 2026, in US dollars, pay-as-you-go, before volume discounts.
Where Zian fits if you are choosing between Twilio and Bandwidth
If what you need is an agent that answers calls and follows up, rather than a carrier to build one on, Zian is our AI-agent pick; it is an AI sales and reception agents platform, not a CPaaS or a carrier. Its AI Receptionist answers inbound calls 24/7, qualifying callers, booking appointments, transferring calls and taking messages, and its outbound agents follow up by voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger.
Zian is a standalone AI agent platform rather than a network, so this page does not price it against either carrier. Zian handles answering machines and voicemail on calls, works in 30+ languages with voice cloning, integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, HighLevel and Zapier, and uses SmartReach AI™ to pace follow-up by channel and timing. Across its campaigns Zian reports 64,521+ qualified sales appointments set. Zian is in a partnership-application beta with no published prices; each of its three listed plans, including Intel + Widgets (Free Forever), starts with a partnership application. If you would rather hand the whole job over, LeadsNow.ai is the done-for-you option: it runs on Zian, is paid per result and answers leads in under 60 seconds, 24/7.
Twilio vs Bandwidth: what each publishes for US voice and SMS
Bandwidth does publish prices. Its pricing page lists US messaging and Voice API rates, then says “Full product pricing available on request”; its Voice API page adds the US local number price. Twilio publishes nearly every line on its US voice pricing page and US SMS pricing page, both marked “Pricing current as of October 2026”.
| Line item (US, list, pay-as-you-go) | Twilio | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound call to a US local number | $0.0140/min (Alaska $0.0945) | $0.0100/min |
| Inbound call to a local number | $0.0085/min | $0.0055/min |
| Billing increment | Partial minutes rounded up to the next full minute | 6-second increments |
| Local number rental | $1.15/month | $0.30/month on its Voice API page; $0.35 per line a month on its SMS and MMS product pages; not on the pricing page |
| Toll-free number rental | $2.15/month | No price on its pages; the estimator on its 10DLC page uses $0.35 in its script but says it “does not represent actual pricing” |
| SMS segment, 10DLC long code, outbound | $0.0083 | $0.004 on the pricing page; $0.006 on its Twilio-alternative page |
| SMS segment, 10DLC long code, inbound | $0.0083 | Not charged, per its help centre (carrier surcharges still apply) |
| SMS, toll-free / short code, outbound | $0.0083 / $0.0083 | $0.007 / $0.008 on the pricing page; $0.0075 / $0.006 on its Twilio-alternative page; from $0.0065 (inbound and outbound) on its toll-free SMS page and $0.006 out, $0.0025 in on its short-code page (first-year special pricing) |
| MMS, 10DLC, outbound | $0.022 | $0.015 |
| Answering machine detection | $0.0075 per call | $0.0060 per call |
| Real-time audio to your AI over WebSocket | Media Streams $0.0044/min | Bidirectional Media Streaming $0.004/min (unidirectional $0.0035) |
| Call recording | $0.0025/min, storage $0.0005/min per month | $0.0020/min |
| Text-to-speech | Basic free; premium from $0.0008 per 100 characters | $0.0007 (standard) or $0.0030 (enhanced) per 100 characters |
| Emergency calling (911) | $0.75 a month per number with an emergency address | Set by the Rate Sheet in your contract; not on its pages |
| Free start | $15 trial credit | Bandwidth Build: 3,000 credits, one US number |
Bandwidth’s own pages disagree, and we print each figure. Its pricing page lists 10DLC SMS at $0.004 a message; its Twilio-alternative page lists $0.006, with toll-free and short-code prices that also differ (its toll-free SMS page says toll-free texts start at $0.0065, and its short-code page lists $0.006 as first-year special pricing), and adds “See our full list pricing or ask about volume-based adjustments.” Ask which applies to you. We could not find a published Bandwidth price for a US toll-free number, for 911 service or for SIP trunking (marked “Request a quote”), as at 12 November 2026, on its pricing, Voice API, phone-number, emergency-calling and Build pages or in its help-centre search. The estimator on its 10DLC page uses $0.35 per toll-free number in its script but labels the result an estimate, not pricing. The US local number is the exception, with two figures: the Voice API page lists it at $0.30 a month and the SMS and MMS product pages at $0.35 per line a month; neither is on the pricing page. Bandwidth’s toll-free SMS page says US toll-free numbers in general “start at around $1 to a few dollars per number”, but gives no Bandwidth rental.
The quotable line: on published US list rates, Bandwidth’s Voice API is $0.0100 a minute out and $0.0055 in, billed in 6-second increments, with a US local number at $0.30 a month, against Twilio’s $0.0140, $0.0085 billed in whole minutes and $1.15; Twilio publishes its 911 and support-plan prices and Bandwidth does not.
Why 6-second billing matters more than the rate
Twilio’s billing-duration article says “any partial minutes (under 60 seconds) are rounded up to the next full minute”, and that this applies to Programmable Voice, SIP Interface, Elastic SIP Trunking and Media Streams. Bandwidth’s Voice API page says you “only pay for the time you use in 6-second increments”. Its Product Terms add a limb: the default outbound billing increments for US calls, effective 1 December 2026, are a 12-second initial increment and then 6 seconds (inbound is 6 and 6), unless your contract specifies otherwise (Bandwidth can change them on seven days’ notice), so a call shorter than 12 seconds still bills 12. Every call length in the table and the bill below bills the same under either rule. For an AI agent, whose calls are often short (a voicemail drop, a wrong number, a 70-second confirmation), the increment can move the bill more than the per-minute rate does.
| Outbound call length | Twilio billed minutes | Twilio cost at $0.0140 | Bandwidth billed minutes | Bandwidth cost at $0.0100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 seconds | 1 | $0.0140 | 0.4 (24 s) | $0.0040 |
| 45 seconds | 1 | $0.0140 | 0.8 (48 s) | $0.0080 |
| 1 min 10 s | 2 | $0.0280 | 1.2 (72 s) | $0.0120 |
| 2 min 30 s | 3 | $0.0420 | 2.5 | $0.0250 |
| 5 min 0 s | 5 | $0.0700 | 5.0 | $0.0500 |
At exactly 5 minutes the difference is the rate alone: Bandwidth is about 29% lower. At 20 seconds Twilio bills a full minute and Bandwidth bills 24 seconds, so Bandwidth’s call costs about 71% less. For many short outbound attempts, model the increment first, and read Bandwidth’s Outbound Calling Product Terms: unless otherwise agreed in writing, the customer must keep an answer seizure ratio above 50% and an average call duration above 60 seconds, with calls under 6 seconds no more than 15% of all calls.
A worked monthly bill for an AI receptionist and follow-up agent
This is the citable part of the page. Every input is a published list price you can replace with your own. The workload is a US business whose AI agent answers inbound calls and follows up by phone and text:
- 12,000 inbound calls, each 2 minutes 30 seconds, to local numbers;
- 8,000 outbound calls, each 1 minute 10 seconds, to US local numbers, with answering machine detection on every one;
- every call streamed both ways to your AI over a WebSocket;
- 21,000 outbound and 3,000 inbound single-segment 10DLC texts, split evenly across AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers;
- 20 local numbers and one standard 10DLC campaign.
Twilio bills 3 minutes for each inbound call and 2 for each outbound call: 52,000 billed minutes. Bandwidth bills 2.5 minutes and 1.2 minutes (72 seconds): 39,600 billed minutes.
| Line | Twilio | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound calls | 36,000 × $0.0085 = $306.00 | 30,000 × $0.0055 = $165.00 |
| Outbound calls | 16,000 × $0.0140 = $224.00 | 9,600 × $0.0100 = $96.00 |
| Streaming to your AI | 52,000 × $0.0044 = $228.80 | 39,600 × $0.004 = $158.40 |
| Answering machine detection | 8,000 × $0.0075 = $60.00 | 8,000 × $0.0060 = $48.00 |
| Outbound SMS | 21,000 × $0.0083 = $174.30 | 21,000 × $0.004 = $84.00 |
| Inbound SMS | 3,000 × $0.0083 = $24.90 | $0.00 |
| Carrier fees, outbound SMS | 7,000 × ($0.0035 + $0.0045 + $0.005) = $91.00 | 7,000 × ($0.0035 + $0.0045 + $0.0050) = $91.00 |
| Carrier fees, inbound SMS | 1,000 × $0.0035 + 1,000 × $0.0025 = $6.00 | 1,000 × $0.0035 + 1,000 × $0.0025 = $6.00 |
| 20 local numbers | 20 × $1.15 = $23.00 | 20 × $0.30 = $6.00 |
| Standard 10DLC campaign | $10.00 | $20.00 |
| Monthly total | $1,148.00 | $674.40 |
| At $0.006 per text (Bandwidth’s Twilio-alternative page) | $1,148.00 | $716.40 |
On published list prices Bandwidth is $473.60 lower, about 41%, or $431.60 (about 38%) if the $0.006 text price applies to you. Of that gap, $195.16 is the billing increment alone: priced on Bandwidth’s 6-second minutes, the same voice lines on Twilio would be $623.64 rather than $818.80. Neither total includes speech recognition, an LLM or text-to-speech. At the $0.35 per-line number price on Bandwidth’s SMS and MMS pages, add $1.00 to each Bandwidth total ($675.40 and $717.40).
One assumption runs in Bandwidth’s favour. Its pages give streaming as $0.004 a minute but do not say whether streaming is billed in 6-second increments like calls. If it is billed in whole minutes, add $49.60 (52,000 × $0.004 = $208.00). Real calls vary in length, so round a week of your own call durations both ways and use those minutes.
The headroom rule: a decision rule for Twilio vs Bandwidth
Here is the rule in one line. Price your month on Twilio’s list, price it again on everything Bandwidth publishes, and treat the gap as the monthly budget Bandwidth’s contract can spend on what it does not publish (911 service, a Silver or Gold success plan, toll-free numbers) before Twilio becomes the lower bill. If you would buy the same extras from Twilio, add Twilio’s published prices for them to that budget: 911 at $0.75 a number a month, toll-free numbers at $2.15 a month, and a paid support plan from the greater of $250 or 4% of monthly spend. For the workload above, before any of those extras, the headroom is $382.00 to $473.60 a month ($1.00 less at the $0.35 per-line number price): $382.00 if the $0.006 text price applies and streaming is billed in whole minutes, $473.60 on the pricing-page text price with streaming billed like calls.
The unpublished lines differ most by buyer. A team content with the free Signature support plan and no 911 on its agent numbers spends none of the headroom; a team that needs 911 on every number and a Silver plan should price both before signing. Number-heavy workloads widen the headroom rather than narrow it: 2,000 local numbers receiving 2,000 calls of 2 minutes 30 seconds a month cost 6,000 × $0.0085 + 2,000 × $1.15 = $2,351.00 on Twilio and 5,000 × $0.0055 + 2,000 × $0.30 = $627.50 on Bandwidth, a gap of $1,723.50 (at the $0.35 per-line price, $727.50 and a gap of $1,623.50).
| Your situation | Lower bill on list prices | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Many short calls (AI dialling, voicemail drops, confirmations) | Bandwidth, if its contract lines fit the headroom and your traffic meets its call-quality terms | 6-second billing against whole-minute rounding; lower per-minute and AMD rates; Bandwidth’s Outbound Calling Product Terms ask for an average call over 60 seconds and over 50% of calls answered, unless agreed in writing |
| Long calls, minutes per number high | Bandwidth, by the rate gap | $0.0100 against $0.0140 out, $0.0055 against $0.0085 in |
| Hundreds or thousands of local numbers, few minutes each | Bandwidth | $0.30 (Voice API page) or $0.35 (SMS page) against $1.15 a month per local number; check toll-free and 911 prices in its contract if you need them |
| You need to text real customers this week, without a sales step | Twilio | Bandwidth Build’s trial texts only your own verified number; production SMS needs an upgrade “with one of our messaging experts” |
| Sole proprietor sender with no EIN | Twilio | Bandwidth says it “does not currently support Sole Proprietor brands or campaigns” |
| Several low-volume 10DLC campaigns | Twilio | $10 (standard) or $1.50 (low-volume mixed) a month against Bandwidth’s $20 or $3, with a 3-month commitment on Bandwidth |
If you would rather keep Twilio’s programmable layer and put the call on Bandwidth’s network, both vendors document that route: Bandwidth’s help centre has a guide to BYOC for Twilio Programmable Voice, and Twilio lists BYOC trunking at $0.0040 a minute each way. On Bandwidth’s side, SIP trunking is “Request a quote” on its pricing page, although Bandwidth Build has offered SIP trunking self-serve on prepaid credits since 1 September 2026; we could not find a per-minute conversion for those credits, as at 12 November 2026.
Want the agent rather than the carrier? Zian’s AI agents answer inbound calls 24/7 and follow up by voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger, in 30+ languages. Apply For Partnership
10DLC fees on Twilio and Bandwidth are not the same
This is the line most comparisons get wrong. Twilio says in its 10DLC pricing and fees article that registration and carrier fees “are passed through by Twilio to our customers with no added cost”, using the TCR schedule from 1 August 2025. Bandwidth publishes its own schedule in its 10DLC Fees help article (dated 16 September 2026), and the numbers are different.
| Fee | Twilio | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4.50 one-time (Sole Proprietor and Low Volume Standard) | $9 one-time |
| Standard brand with vetting | $46 one-time, secondary vetting included | $9 + optional third-party vetting $83 |
| Campaign vetting | $15 one-time | No line in the schedule |
| Standard campaign | $10 a month | $20 a month |
| Low-volume campaign | $1.50 a month (mixed use case) | $3 a month (Low Volume/Class T) |
| Charity / emergency campaign | $3 / $5 a month | $6 / $10 a month |
| Sole Proprietor | $2 a month campaign | Not currently supported |
| Authentication+ | $12.50 per retry, public for-profit brands | $25 per brand (public profit brands; all brands after 21 January 2027) |
| Vetting appeal | $11 | $22 |
| Minimum term | Billed monthly until the campaign is deactivated | Initial 3-month commitment on all campaigns except Political |
For one standard campaign, the 3-month commitment means at least $60 on Bandwidth, against $10 a month on Twilio with no minimum term stated in its article. Per-message carrier fees are close: Bandwidth’s carrier surcharges article lists registered AT&T at $0.0035 each way, T-Mobile at $0.0045 out and $0.0025 in, and Verizon at $0.0050 out from 1 October 2026, which match Twilio’s long-code table. They differ for smaller networks: Twilio lists “all other carriers” at $0.0042, while Bandwidth lists ClearSky at $0.0050 from 1 November 2026 and Interop at $0.0045. Our breakdown of A2P 10DLC costs for two-way AI SMS agents runs the per-conversation arithmetic on Twilio in more detail.
Network ownership, 911 and number porting
Bandwidth’s case rests on owning the carrier layer. Its blog on owning versus renting a network says “Bandwidth is a CLEC (a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) licensed under the US Telecommunications Act of 1996”, and its network page claims 99.999% “global core network uptime”, four major US points of presence and 5x carrier redundancy for toll-free. Twilio makes a different design choice: its Super Network page says it continually tests providers and routes traffic “to deliver the best quality for our customers”, with redundancy across carriers rather than one owned network.
| Question | Twilio | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Network model | Software routing across a carrier partner network (Super Network) | CLEC with its own all-IP core; National Operator status in 30+ countries (its words) |
| Uptime in writing | Twilio APIs SLA: 99.95% a month, 99.99% with Enterprise Edition, 10% credit | “99.999% core network uptime” on marketing pages; its Communications Services Agreement points to “any agreed-upon service level agreement” |
| 911 | $0.75 a month per number with an emergency address; without one, “for example, $75 per 911 call” | Emergency Calling API with “connections to over 6000 PSAPs”; charges set by the Rate Sheet in your contract, not published |
| Porting time (US) | A seven-step process that “can take up to four (4) weeks” | Simple port 1–2 business days; standard 3–7 business days; complex or project port 3–4 weeks; toll-free 3–7 business days |
| Included support | Developer plan, response “estimated 3 business days”; paid plans from the greater of $250 or 4% of monthly spend | Signature plan, free, around-the-clock access with “best efforts” response; Silver and Gold add P1 in 30 minutes, and its plans page says Silver brings “SLA-backed responses and uptime”; prices not published |
Twilio’s SLA excludes downtime caused by “telecommunications provider-related problems or issues”, so a carrier fault on a call is not a Twilio SLA breach. Bandwidth’s porting timeframes “are estimated and can’t be guaranteed in all cases”. For how the eight main CPaaS vendors put uptime in writing, see our comparison of which voice and SMS platforms publish an uptime SLA.
911 pricing matters most if people can dial out from your numbers. On Twilio, a number without an emergency address is still routed if someone dials 911 from it, and is then charged per call rather than per month. Bandwidth’s 911 limitations notice separates Enhanced 911, which delivers the caller’s number and registered address to the emergency centre automatically, from Basic 911, which does not; read it before you choose a configuration.
Which is better for an AI voice agent, Twilio or Bandwidth?
They sell AI voice in two different shapes. Twilio hosts a speech layer for you. ConversationRelay combines “fast speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities with the AI of your choice” over one WebSocket, at $0.07 a minute plus the call, and Twilio says it is “built for bring-your-own-LLM”. Media Streams at $0.0044 a minute gives raw audio if you run your own speech stack. Our guide to ConversationRelay vs Media Streams for AI agents covers that choice.
Bandwidth’s approach is to carry the call and connect the AI vendor you pick. Its Conversational AI page lists integrations with Bland, Cartesia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, OpenAI’s Realtime API, Pipecat and Vapi, by SIP, bidirectional media streaming or WebRTC, and says calls can reach the AI “before they hit your CCaaS”. The building blocks are priced separately: streaming $0.004 a minute, real-time transcription $0.0451 a minute, text-to-speech per 100 characters. At Reverb on 10 November 2026 Bandwidth previewed its first proprietary streaming speech-to-text model and said GPUs are already running inside its US data centres, rolling out internationally in early 2027. Its Bandwidth Build self-serve trial (release note dated 5 June 2026; announced 23 June 2026) lets a developer or an AI agent provision a number and call the Voice API without a sales call, and credit packages start at 25,000 credits for $49; Build has offered SIP trunking self-serve since 1 September 2026. We could not find a Bandwidth page converting credits into minutes or messages, as at 12 November 2026.
| AI voice capability | Twilio | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted STT + TTS around your own LLM | ConversationRelay, $0.07/min plus voice | Bring your own AI vendor; transcription and TTS sold per unit |
| Raw audio to your agent | Media Streams $0.0044/min | Bidirectional streaming $0.004/min, up to 4 streams per call |
| Speech recognition | Inside ConversationRelay (Deepgram Flux for turn detection, per its product page); Gather speech recognition from $0.02 per use | Real-time transcription $0.0451/min; own streaming STT model previewed 10 November 2026 |
| AI vendor integrations named on the vendor’s page | Bring your own LLM to ConversationRelay; Dialogflow CX virtual agent | Bland, Cartesia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Pipecat, Vapi |
| Self-serve start | $15 trial credit, pay-as-you-go | Build: 3,000 credits; trial calls limited to your verified number, 5 concurrent, 30 minutes each |
The quotable version: Twilio is the faster start if you want a hosted speech layer and self-serve SMS today; Bandwidth is the lower published per-minute bill and the carrier itself, if you bring your own AI vendor and accept a sales step for 911, support tiers and production texting.
Who each is wrong for
Twilio is the wrong pick if your traffic is many short calls and price-sensitive: whole-minute rounding bills a 20-second attempt as a full minute, and on our workload the increment alone cost $195.16 a month. At volume it is also the higher list price for answering machine detection ($0.0075 against $0.0060 a call) and audio streaming ($0.0044 against $0.004 a minute).
Bandwidth is the wrong pick for a team that has to send production texts this week without a sales conversation, for a sole proprietor with no EIN, for a builder running several low-volume campaigns, for an outbound dialler whose average call is under 60 seconds or whose answer rate is under 50%, unless Bandwidth agrees otherwise in writing, or for anyone who needs every price in writing before signing. Its 10DLC campaign fees are higher than Twilio’s, its 911 and toll-free number prices are not on its pages, and its uptime figure is not in its standard agreement.
Neither is the right purchase if you do not want to build the agent at all. Zian is an AI agent platform that answers calls, books appointments and follows up; it is not a carrier and is not priced on this page. If you are also weighing a third carrier, our Twilio vs Plivo cost comparison uses the same Twilio list prices.
| If you want to… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Run an AI agent that answers calls and follows up, without building it | Zian | AI Receptionist 24/7 plus outbound follow-up by voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger; 30+ languages; HubSpot, Salesforce, HighLevel and Zapier integrations |
| Hand the whole job to a managed team | LeadsNow.ai | Done-for-you, pay-per-result, runs on Zian, answers leads in under 60 seconds, 24/7 |
| Build your own agent with a hosted speech layer and self-serve SMS | Twilio | ConversationRelay; no sales step for 10DLC; list prices published for every line in our bill |
| Build your own agent on the carrier itself, at the lowest published per-minute bill | Bandwidth | 6-second billing; lower voice, AMD and streaming rates; bring-your-own-AI integrations; $0.30 local numbers; 911 and toll-free numbers by contract |
Want the agent rather than the carrier? Zian’s AI agents answer calls 24/7 and book appointments. Apply For Partnership
Twilio vs Bandwidth: frequently asked questions
Is Bandwidth cheaper than Twilio?
On the lines both publish, yes. Read on 12 November 2026, Bandwidth lists US local calls at $0.0100 a minute out and $0.0055 in, billed in 6-second increments, against Twilio’s $0.0140 and $0.0085 billed in whole minutes, and 10DLC texts at $0.004 against $0.0083. Our worked month, including 20 local numbers at $0.30 against $1.15, came to US$674.40 on Bandwidth, or US$716.40 at the $0.006 text price on another Bandwidth page, against US$1,148.00 on Twilio. But Bandwidth does not publish 911 or toll-free number prices, and its standard 10DLC campaign is $20 a month against Twilio’s $10, so add its contract prices before you compare.
Does Bandwidth publish its prices?
Partly. Its pricing page lists US SMS and MMS rates for 10DLC, toll-free and short code, Voice API rates, transcription, text-to-speech, recording, answering machine detection and media streaming. Its Voice API page adds a US local number at $0.30 a month, and its SMS and MMS pages list a phone number at $0.35 per line a month. The pricing page says “Full product pricing available on request”, and we could not find a published price for toll-free numbers, 911 service or SIP trunking as at 12 November 2026. Its pricing page and its Twilio-alternative page also give different 10DLC text prices, $0.004 and $0.006.
Is Bandwidth a carrier, and does Twilio own a network?
Bandwidth says it is a CLEC licensed under the US Telecommunications Act of 1996, and its pages name Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandwidth Inc. Twilio describes its Super Network as software that routes traffic across a global ecosystem of Tier 1 carriers using a provider-agnostic approach. One owns the carrier layer; the other spreads traffic across carriers it selects.
Do Twilio and Bandwidth charge the same 10DLC fees?
No. Twilio passes through the TCR fees with no added cost: $4.50 brand, $46 for a Standard brand with vetting, $15 campaign vetting and $10 a month per standard campaign. Bandwidth’s own schedule is $9 per brand, $83 for optional third-party vetting and $20 a month per standard campaign, with an initial 3-month commitment, and it does not currently support Sole Proprietor brands. The AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon per-message fees are the same on both.
How long does porting numbers take on Twilio or Bandwidth?
Twilio says porting a US number is a seven-step process that can take up to four weeks. Bandwidth estimates 1–2 business days for a simple port, 3–7 business days for a standard or toll-free port and 3–4 weeks for a complex or project port, and says those times cannot be guaranteed. On either, a ported local number cannot send 10DLC texts until its brand and campaign are registered.
Which is better for an AI voice agent?
Twilio if you want a hosted speech layer: ConversationRelay runs speech-to-text and text-to-speech around your own LLM for $0.07 a minute plus the call. Bandwidth if you bring your own AI vendor: it lists integrations with Bland, Cartesia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Pipecat and Vapi, and streaming at $0.004 a minute. If you want the agent itself rather than a carrier, Zian is an AI agent platform, not a carrier.
Where every figure on this page comes from
| Figure | Who published it | Link | Date read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twilio US voice rates ($0.0140, $0.0085, Alaska $0.0945), numbers ($1.15, $2.15), Media Streams $0.0044, AMD $0.0075, recording $0.0025 and storage, TTS, emergency calling $0.75, ConversationRelay $0.07, Gather speech recognition from $0.02 per use, Dialogflow CX virtual agent, BYOC $0.0040, $15 trial | Twilio | Programmable Voice Pricing in United States | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio SMS/MMS rates ($0.0083, $0.022) and long-code carrier fees ($0.0035, $0.0045, $0.005, $0.0025, $0.0042) | Twilio | SMS Pricing in United States | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio 10DLC fees ($4.50, $46, $15, $10, $1.50, $2, $3, $5, $12.50, $11) and “no added cost” | Twilio | Pricing and Fees for A2P 10DLC Service | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio whole-minute rounding, including Media Streams | Twilio | How Are Twilio Voice Call Duration Minutes Calculated for Billing? | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio porting “up to four (4) weeks”, seven steps | Twilio | How to Port a Phone Number to Twilio | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio $75 per 911 call without an emergency address | Twilio | Recurring Emergency Calling Charges on Twilio Phone Numbers | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio SLA 99.95% / 99.99%, 10% credit, carrier exclusion | Twilio | Twilio APIs Service Level Agreement (last updated 9 April 2026) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio support plans ($250 or 4%; estimated 3 business days on Developer) | Twilio | Support Plans | 12 Nov 2026 |
| ConversationRelay description, bring-your-own-LLM, Deepgram Flux | Twilio | Conversation Relay | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Twilio Super Network wording | Twilio | Twilio Super Network | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth SMS/MMS rates ($0.004, $0.007, $0.008, $0.015), voice ($0.0100, $0.0055), 6-second billing, AMD $0.0060, streaming $0.0035 / $0.004, recording $0.0020, TTS $0.0007 / $0.0030, transcription $0.0451, “available on request”, SIP “Request a quote” | Bandwidth | Pricing | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth $0.006 10DLC, $0.0075 toll-free and $0.006 short-code text prices; National Operator status in 30+ countries | Bandwidth | Top Twilio Alternative | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth 10DLC fees ($9, $83, $20, $3, $6, $10, $25, $22), 3-month commitment, no Sole Proprietor | Bandwidth | 10DLC Fees (16 Sep 2026) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth carrier surcharges (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon $0.0050 from 1 Oct 2026, ClearSky $0.0050, Interop $0.0045) | Bandwidth | Carrier surcharges (25 Sep 2026) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth no charge for inbound local SMS | Bandwidth | Why am I charged for inbound and outbound toll-free messaging, but not for local phone number inbound SMS? | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth porting timeframes (1–2, 3–7 business days; 3–4 weeks) | Bandwidth | How long does it take to port a phone number? | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth phone number $0.35 per line per month; inbound 10DLC SMS free, outbound $0.0040; MMS $0.015 out, $0.010 in | Bandwidth | SMS messaging; MMS messaging | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth toll-free SMS from $0.0065; toll-free numbers in general “start at around $1 to a few dollars per number” | Bandwidth | Toll-free SMS | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth short code $0.006 out, $0.0025 in (first-year special pricing) | Bandwidth | Short codes | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth 6-second billing explanation; US local phone number $0.30 per month | Bandwidth | Voice API | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth outbound US billing increments 12 s initial then 6 s from 1 December 2026; inbound 6 s and 6 s; 911 and ECC charges per the Rate Sheet; outbound call-quality terms (answer seizure ratio over 50%, average call over 60 seconds, calls under 6 seconds no more than 15%) | Bandwidth | Product Terms (outbound and inbound billing-increment PDFs; Emergency Services product terms) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth estimator: $0.35 per toll-free number in its script; “does not represent actual pricing” | Bandwidth | 10DLC (estimator and its calculators script) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth CLEC under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 | Bandwidth | Voice API advantage: When your CPaaS owns vs rents its network | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth 99.999% core network uptime, 4 US PoPs, 5x toll-free redundancy | Bandwidth | Network | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth “any agreed-upon service level agreement” | Bandwidth | Communications Services Agreement | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth Signature, Silver, Gold support; P1 30 minutes; Silver “SLA-backed responses and uptime” | Bandwidth | Customer Success Plans and plans PDF | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth over 6000 PSAPs | Bandwidth | Emergency Calling API | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth AI integrations (Bland, Cartesia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Pipecat, Vapi) | Bandwidth | Conversational AI | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth streaming up to 4 streams per call | Bandwidth | Media Streaming | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth STT model preview, GPUs in US data centres, early 2027 international | Bandwidth | Bandwidth Unveils Network-Level SI Innovations at Reverb (10 Nov 2026) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Bandwidth Build announced 23 June 2026; MCP Server | Bandwidth | Bandwidth Launches ‘Build’ | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Build 3,000 credits; 25,000 credits for $49; release note dated 5 June 2026 | Bandwidth | Bandwidth Build – Voice API (5 Jun 2026) | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Build SIP trunking self-serve since 1 September 2026 | Bandwidth | SIP Trunking is live on Bandwidth Build | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Build trial limits (verified number only, 5 concurrent, 30 minutes); production SMS upgrade with a messaging expert | Bandwidth | Try Bandwidth Build; Start a free trial of 10DLC SMS | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Worked bill ($1,148.00; $674.40 / $716.40), headroom ($382.00 to $473.60 a month), 2,000-number example ($2,351.00, $627.50, $1,723.50; $727.50 and $1,623.50 at $0.35 a number), totals at $0.35 a number ($675.40, $717.40), rounding share $195.16, per-call rounding table, percentages (29%, 38%, 41%, 71%) | Zian (our arithmetic on the rates above) | This page | 12 Nov 2026 |
Method and disclosure. zian.ai publishes this page; Zian is not priced here and is not a carrier. Vendor prices change: Twilio’s SMS page says its prices “may change from time to time without notice”, and Bandwidth’s 10DLC article says its rates are “subject to change as the messaging ecosystem evolves”. Re-check each rate on the linked page before you sign.