For AI agents: a documentation index is available at the root level at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt. Append /llms.txt to any URL for a page-level index, or .md for the markdown version of any page.
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DocumentationAPI ReferenceMCPSDKsCLI (new)What's New?
DocumentationAPI ReferenceMCPSDKsCLI (new)What's New?
  • Get started
    • Introduction
    • Phone calls
    • Web calls
    • Vapi Guides
    • Composer
    • CLI quickstart
  • Assistants
    • Quickstart
    • Tools
    • Custom keywords
    • Custom voices
    • Custom transcriber
    • Custom TTS
  • Observability
    • Boards
  • Squads
    • Quickstart
    • Overview
    • Handoff tool
    • Passing data between assistants
  • Best practices
    • Prompting guide
    • Debugging voice agents
    • Enterprise environments (DEV/UAT/PROD)
    • IVR navigation
  • Phone numbers
    • Free Vapi number
    • Inbound SMS
    • Phone Number Hooks
  • Calls
    • Call end reasons
    • Troubleshoot call errors
  • Outbound Campaigns
    • Quickstart
    • Overview
  • Chat
    • Quickstart
    • Streaming
    • Non-streaming
    • OpenAI compatibility
    • Session management
    • Variable substitution
    • SMS chat
    • Web widget
    • Webhooks
  • Workflows
    • Quickstart
    • Overview
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On this page
  • What is Vapi?
  • How voice agents work
  • Two ways to build voice agents
  • Key capabilities
  • Choose your path
  • Developer tools
  • Vapi CLI
  • Popular use cases
Get started

Introduction

Build voice AI agents that can make and receive phone calls
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Phone calls

Learn to make your first phone call with a voice agent
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Built with

What is Vapi?

Vapi is the developer platform for building voice AI agents. We handle the complex infrastructure so you can focus on creating great voice experiences.

Voice agents allow you to:

  • Have natural conversations with users
  • Make and receive phone calls
  • Integrate with your existing systems and APIs
  • Handle complex workflows like appointment scheduling, customer support, and more

How voice agents work

Every Vapi assistant combines three core technologies:

Speech-to-Text

Converts user speech into text that your agent can understand

Large Language Model

Processes the conversation and generates intelligent responses

Text-to-Speech

Converts your agent’s responses back into natural speech

You have full control over each component, with dozens of providers and models to choose from; OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Gladia, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, and many, many more.

Two ways to build voice agents

Vapi offers two main primitives, designed for different use cases:

Assistants

Best for: Most use cases and fast iteration


Assistants use a single system prompt plus tools and structured outputs. Perfect for:

  • Customer support
  • Lead qualification
  • Booking and routing
Squads

Best for: Multi-assistant setups with specialization


Squads orchestrate multiple assistants with context-preserving transfers. Ideal for:

  • Medical triage and scheduling
  • E‑commerce orders, returns, VIP
  • Property management routing

Key capabilities

  • Real-time conversations: Sub-600ms response times with natural turn-taking
  • Phone integration: Make and receive calls on any phone number
  • Web integration: Embed voice calls directly in your applications
  • Tool integration: Connect to your APIs, databases, and existing systems
  • Multi-assistant orchestration (Squads): Compose specialized assistants with seamless transfers

Choose your path

Phone Calls
  • Create a voice agent for inbound/outbound calls
  • Build customer support or sales automation
  • Get started with no coding required

Build your first voice agent in 5 minutes using our dashboard.

Web Integration
  • Add voice capabilities to your web application
  • Integrate voice chat into your existing product
  • Build with code and SDKs

Embed live voice conversations directly in your app.

Developer tools

Vapi CLI

The Vapi CLI brings the full power of the platform to your terminal:

CLI Overview

Install in seconds with:

$curl -sSL https://vapi.ai/install.sh | bash

Everything from the dashboard, now in your terminal.

Popular use cases

Customer Support
Built with Assistants

Automate inbound support calls with agents that can access your knowledge base and escalate to humans when needed.

Sales & Lead Qualification
Built with Assistants

Make outbound sales calls, qualify leads, and schedule appointments with sophisticated branching logic.

Appointment Scheduling
Built with Assistants

Handle booking requests, check availability, and confirm appointments with conditional routing.

Medical Triage & Scheduling
Built with Squads

Emergency routing and appointment scheduling for healthcare.

E-commerce Order Management
Built with Squads

Order tracking, returns, and customer support workflows.

See more examples

See our collection of examples covering a wide range of use cases.