specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Vocode
providerId: vocode
created: '2026-06-21'
modified: '2026-06-21'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Voice AI
- Voice Agents
- Telephony
- Conversational AI
- Phone Calls
- FinOps
- Cost Management
- FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps view of Vocode spend. The hosted Vocode platform bills usage-based
  per-call-minute charges metered against a monthly plan allowance
  (monthly_usage_minutes / monthly_usage_limit_minutes via GET /v1/usage),
  plus pass-through telephony costs for provisioned or linked phone numbers.
  The open-source vocode-core library carries no Vocode license cost; spend
  there is entirely the third-party STT, LLM, TTS, and telephony providers
  you configure. Public hosted per-minute rates are not published, so dollar
  figures here are unreconciled.
notes: >-
  Hosted per-minute rates and plan prices are not published on a public
  pricing page; verify with Vocode on reconciliation. For self-hosted
  vocode-core, track cost at each underlying provider (e.g. Deepgram /
  AssemblyAI STT, OpenAI / Anthropic LLM, ElevenLabs / Azure / PlayHt TTS,
  Twilio / Vonage telephony) rather than at Vocode.
sources:
- https://docs.vocode.dev/hosted-quickstart
- https://www.vocode.dev
- https://github.com/vocodedev/vocode-core
- https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
publisherName: Vocode
serviceCategory: AI and Machine Learning
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Usage-Based
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Usage
  - Purchase
  - Adjustment
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Vocode Hosted API
  ServiceCategory: AI and Machine Learning
  ProviderName: Vocode
  PublisherName: Vocode
  InvoiceIssuerName: Vocode
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
  PricingCategory: Usage-Based
meters:
- name: call_minutes
  description: Minutes of hosted voice agent call time, metered monthly against the plan allowance.
  unit: minutes
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - plan
  - agent
- name: phone_number_rental
  description: Monthly rental for phone numbers bought through Vocode; pass-through telephony cost.
  unit: numbers
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - telephony_provider
- name: recording_storage
  description: Storage and retrieval of call recordings downloaded via /v1/calls/recording.
  unit: recordings
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
- name: oss_provider_passthrough
  description: >-
    Third-party STT / LLM / TTS / telephony spend incurred when self-hosting
    vocode-core; billed by those providers, not Vocode.
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - provider
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: Poll GET /v1/usage for monthly_usage_minutes vs monthly_usage_limit_minutes; for self-hosted, aggregate spend across each underlying provider.
- name: Allocation
  description: Tag agents and phone numbers per workload/team; map hosted call minutes and number rentals to internal cost centers.
- name: Optimization
  description: Self-host vocode-core when volume justifies it to swap per-minute hosted billing for provider-rate control; pick cheaper STT/LLM/TTS providers; right-size voices and models per use case.
- name: Accountability
  description: Assign owners per agent/campaign; review monthly call-minute burn against the plan limit before overage.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com