The math behind an AI voice call
An AI voice call has three components: speech-to-text (STT) to transcribe what the caller says, a large language model (LLM) to decide the response, and text-to-speech (TTS) to speak it back. Each component has a provider, and each provider publishes their pricing.
A typical 3-minute voice call at provider rates:
- STT (budget-tier real-time streaming): ~$0.006
- LLM (fast small model): ~$0.003
- TTS (low-latency real-time voice): ~$0.005
- Raw provider cost: ~$0.014
What most AI voice platforms charge you for that same call: $0.05-0.15.
That is a 3-5x markup. The platform takes your audio, routes it through the same providers you could call directly, and charges you three to five times what the providers charge. At 10,000 calls per month, you are paying $500-1,500 in pure markup — not for better AI, not for better voice quality, just for the routing.
Why most platforms bundle inference with orchestration
The standard business model in AI voice platforms bundles everything together — the orchestration layer and the inference layer — into one price. It is simple for the buyer and predictable for the vendor. Nothing wrong with that if you are getting started and want zero configuration.
But at scale, bundled pricing means you are paying a platform premium on every API call even when you already have a direct relationship with the provider. If you have negotiated volume discounts with a major LLM provider, those discounts disappear inside the bundle. Your rate does not matter because the platform sets the price.
How we decided to do it differently
At AYBIZA, we separated two things most platforms bundle together: orchestration (managing the call pipeline, handling failover, routing audio, post-call analysis) and inference (the actual LLM, STT, and TTS processing).
Orchestration is what we built. It is the value of the platform. Inference is what providers built. It is not our value to mark up.
So we built BYOK — Bring Your Own Keys. Plug in your existing API keys from the major LLM providers, the leading speech services, and real-time voice platforms. If you already have an account with a provider, you can bring it to AYBIZA. The full provider list is in your dashboard once you sign in.
When you provide your own keys, AYBIZA automatically applies a 50-70% credit discount. The platform still orchestrates everything — pipeline management, failover, recording, transcription, post-call analysis, CRM updates. But the inference runs on your keys at your rate.
The real numbers
Without BYOK (managed keys):
- Voice call (standard pipeline): ~10 credits/minute
- At $0.05/credit (Starter): $0.50/minute
- At $0.04/credit (Scale): $0.40/minute
With BYOK:
- Same call: ~3-5 credits/minute (50-70% discount)
- At $0.05/credit: $0.15-0.25/minute
- Plus your provider cost (which you are already paying anyway)
A company making 5,000 minutes of AI calls per month:
- Without BYOK: $2,000-2,500/month in credits
- With BYOK: $750-1,250/month in credits + your existing provider bill
- Savings: $750-1,250/month
If you already have enterprise agreements with volume discounts from the big LLM labs, the savings are even larger because your per-call provider cost is below list price.
A different way to think about platform value
If you are already paying your LLM provider directly for API usage, the value of your voice platform is not in reselling those same API calls at a higher price. The value is in everything around the call — the orchestration, the failover, the pipeline management, the post-call analysis, the CRM integration.
That is how we think about it at AYBIZA. BYOK is available on every plan — Starter (free), Scale ($997/month), and Enterprise. Not a premium add-on. Not an enterprise-only feature. Available from day one, on the free tier.
We charge for what we built — the pipeline, the failover, the analytics, the unified API, the MCP tool library, and the fact that your AI agent and your CRM are always in sync. That is the value. The inference layer is yours to bring.
When to use managed keys instead
BYOK is not always the right choice:
- If you are making fewer than 500 calls per month, the savings are marginal and the setup friction is not worth it
- If you want zero configuration, managed keys work immediately with no provider accounts to manage
- If you want AYBIZA to handle automatic failover between providers, managed keys give us more flexibility to route around outages
For everyone else — especially teams with existing provider agreements, high call volumes, or compliance requirements that mandate specific provider relationships — BYOK is the obvious choice. You keep your rate. You keep your relationship. You keep your compliance posture. And you stop paying a 3-5x markup on calls you were already paying for.