Bland AI vs Ruby
Bland AI starts $115/mo cheaper than Ruby.
Both pages checked by August 19, 2026
- Bland AIAI only
- $0/mo
- Start plan
- Developer and enterprise voice AI platform that owns its own telephony, speech-to-text, LLM, text-to-speech and pathway orchestration stack and sells it on a per-minute rate plus a monthly platform fee, so buyers build and operate their own phone agents rather than buying a packaged receptionist.
- RubyHuman agents
- $115/mo
- Bundled chat add-on — 10 chats plan
- Ruby is a US-based live virtual receptionist and website chat service for small businesses, sold in monthly buckets of receptionist minutes and chats, where AI is used only to assist its human receptionists rather than to answer calls.
The differences that matter
- Bland AI is ai only; Ruby is human agents. That is the real decision here, not the price.
- Ruby can put a human on the line; Bland AI is bot-only.
Feature by feature
| Capability | Bland AI | Ruby |
|---|---|---|
| Live transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Books appointments | Yes | Yes |
| Text follow-up | Yes | Yes |
| Outbound calls | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes |
| Human backup | No | Yes |
| Call recordings | Yes | unstated |
| Transcripts | Yes | Yes |
| Spam screening | unstated | Yes |
| Custom voice | Yes | unstated |
| API | Yes | unstated |
"unstated" means the vendor doesn't claim it in their own documentation. It is not the same as no — it means nobody will put it in writing.
Bland AI plans
| Plan | Published price | Includes | Over that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $0.14 /min — $0 platform fee. No card required. | — | — |
| Build | $0.12 /min — $299/month platform fee | — | — |
| Scale | $0.11 /min — $499/month platform fee | — | — |
| Enterprise | Custom — Contracted to your volume.(annual billing) | — | — |
Ruby plans
| Plan | Published price | Includes | Over that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual receptionist — 50 minutes | $250 /month | 50 min | — |
| Virtual receptionist — 100 minutes | $395 /month | 100 min | — |
| Virtual receptionist — 200 minutes | $720 /month | 200 min | — |
| Virtual receptionist — 500 minutes | $1,725 /month | 500 min | — |
| Live chat — 10 chats | $143 /month | — | — |
| Live chat — 30 chats | $335 /month | — | — |
| Live chat — 50 chats | $520 /month | — | — |
| Bundled chat add-on — 10 chats | Up to 10 chats for $115 (a 20% savings) | — | — |
| Bundled chat add-on — 30 chats | Up to 30 chats for $268 (a 20% savings) | — | — |
| Bundled chat add-on — 50 chats | Up to 50 chats for $416 (a 20% savings) | — | — |
Bland AI sources
- Pricing page (plan cards, full plan comparison table, pricing FAQ)bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Billing & Plans (rate table, plan tiers, voice billing, warm transfer billing, per-second proration)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: SMS (Enterprise gating, $0.02 per message)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Warm Transfer (enterprise requirement, live translation)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: Integration Tools (Cal.com booking tool)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs: SIP Integration (trunks, number porting, BYO carrier)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- API reference: Send Call (full supported-language list)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Docs index (recordings, corrected transcripts, blocked numbers, custom Twilio, $15/mo number purchase)docs.bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Integrations page (19 listed connectors: Salesforce, HubSpot, Cal.com, Calendly, Twilio, SIP, Genesys, Five9, NICE CXone, Amazon Connect, Talkdesk, Slack, Notion, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, Custom API, SMS & RCS, iMessage)bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- Site llms.txt (40+ languages, full-stack claim, compliance certifications)bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
- About page (~100 people in San Francisco, 611M+ calls handled to date)bland.ai · read August 19, 2026
Ruby sources
- Plans and pricing (receptionist minute tiers, chat tiers, bundled chat pricing, included features); canonical URL is https://www.ruby.com/plans-and-pricing/ruby.com · read August 19, 2026
- Plans and pricing (canonical URL, same tiers)ruby.com · read August 19, 2026
- FAQs — money-back guarantee, no long-term contract, 60-second rounding statement, Spanish, scheduling, transfers, porting/forwarding, HQ in Portland OR, service arearuby.com · read August 19, 2026
- Ruby billing FAQs PDF (first-party asset host) — 30-second increments, hold time billable, no rollover, overage billed in arrearsassets.ruby.com · read August 19, 2026
- AI at Ruby — Call Nav, transcripts, sentiment analysis, robocall filtering; AI included at no extra cost; explicitly not used to replace human receptionistsruby.com · read August 19, 2026
- Integrations directory (CRM, calendars, legal software, Zapier)ruby.com · read August 19, 2026
- About Ruby — "In 2003, Ruby started as a small business"ruby.com · read August 19, 2026