Voice fallback configuration

Configure fallback voices that activate automatically if your primary voice fails.

Overview

Voice fallback configuration gives you the ability to continue your call in the event that your primary voice fails. Your assistant will sequentially fallback to only the voices you configure within your plan, in the exact order you specify.

Without a fallback plan configured, your call will end with an error in the event that your chosen voice provider fails.

How it works

When a voice failure occurs, Vapi will:

Detect the failure of the primary voice
If a custom fallback plan exists:
- Switch to the first fallback voice in your plan
- Continue through your specified list if subsequent failures occur
- Terminate only if all voices in your plan have failed

Configure via Dashboard

Open Voice tab

Navigate to your assistant and select the Voice tab.

Expand Fallback Voices section

Scroll down to find the Fallback Voices collapsible section. A warning indicator appears if no fallback voices are configured.

Add a fallback voice

Click Add Fallback Voice to configure your first fallback:

Select a provider from the dropdown (supports 20+ voice providers)
Choose a voice from the searchable popover (shows gender, language, and deprecated status)
The model is automatically selected based on your voice choice

Configure provider-specific settings (optional)

Expand Additional Configuration to access provider-specific settings like stability, speed, and emotion controls.

Add more fallbacks

Repeat to add additional fallback voices. Order matters—the first fallback in your list is tried first.

Configure via API

Add the fallbackPlan property to your assistant’s voice configuration, and specify the fallback voices within the voices property.

Fallback voices must be valid JSON configurations, not strings. The order matters—Vapi will choose fallback voices starting from the beginning of the list.

1 {
2   "voice": {
3     "provider": "openai",
4     "voiceId": "shimmer",
5     "fallbackPlan": {
6       "voices": [
7         {
8           "provider": "cartesia",
9           "voiceId": "248be419-c632-4f23-adf1-5324ed7dbf1d"
10         },
11         {
12           "provider": "11labs",
13           "voiceId": "cgSgspJ2msm6clMCkdW9",
14           "stability": 0.5,
15           "similarityBoost": 0.75
16         }
17       ]
18     }
19   }
20 }

Provider-specific settings

Each voice provider supports different configuration options. Expand the accordion below to see available settings for each provider.

ElevenLabs

stability (0-1): Controls voice consistency. Lower values allow more emotional range; higher values produce more stable output.
similarityBoost (0-1): Enhances similarity to the original voice. Higher values make the voice more similar to the reference.
style (0-1): Voice style intensity. Higher values amplify the speaker’s style.
useSpeakerBoost (boolean): Enable to boost similarity to the original speaker.
speed (0.7-1.2): Speech speed multiplier. Default is 1.0.
optimizeStreamingLatency (0-4): Controls streaming latency optimization. Default is 3.
enableSsmlParsing (boolean): Enable SSML pronunciation support.
model: Select from eleven_multilingual_v2, eleven_turbo_v2, eleven_turbo_v2_5, eleven_flash_v2, eleven_flash_v2_5, or eleven_monolingual_v1.

Cartesia

model: Model selection (sonic-english, sonic-3, etc.).
language: Language code for the voice.
experimentalControls.speed: Speech speed adjustment (-1 to 1). Negative values slow down; positive values speed up.
experimentalControls.emotion: Array of emotion configurations (e.g., ["happiness:high", "curiosity:medium"]).
generationConfig (sonic-3 only):
- speed (0.6-1.5): Fine-grained speed control.
- volume (0.5-2.0): Volume adjustment.
- experimental.accentLocalization (0 or 1): Toggle accent localization.

Azure

speed (0.5-2): Speech rate multiplier. Default is 1.0.

OpenAI

speed (0.25-4): Speech speed multiplier. Default is 1.0.
model: Select from tts-1, tts-1-hd, or realtime models.
instructions: Voice prompt to control the generated audio style. Does not work with tts-1 or tts-1-hd models.

LMNT

speed (0.25-2): Speech rate multiplier. Default is 1.0.
language: Two-letter ISO 639-1 language code, or auto for auto-detection.

Rime AI

model: Select from arcana, mistv2, or mist. Defaults to arcana.
speed (0.1+): Speech speed multiplier.
pauseBetweenBrackets (boolean): Enable pause control using angle brackets (e.g., <200> for 200ms pause).
phonemizeBetweenBrackets (boolean): Enable phonemization using curly brackets (e.g., {h'El.o}).
reduceLatency (boolean): Optimize for reduced streaming latency.
inlineSpeedAlpha: Inline speed control using alpha notation.

PlayHT

speed (0.1-5): Speech rate multiplier.
temperature (0.1-2): Controls voice variance. Lower values are more predictable; higher values allow more variation.
emotion: Emotion preset (e.g., female_happy, male_sad, female_angry, male_surprised).
voiceGuidance (1-6): Controls voice uniqueness. Lower values reduce uniqueness.
styleGuidance (1-30): Controls emotion intensity. Higher values create more emotional performance.
textGuidance (1-2): Controls text adherence. Higher values are more accurate to input text.
model: Select from PlayHT2.0, PlayHT2.0-turbo, Play3.0-mini, or PlayDialog.

Deepgram

model: Select from aura or aura-2. Defaults to aura-2.
mipOptOut (boolean): Opt out of the Deepgram Model Improvement Partnership program.

Hume

model: Model selection (e.g., octave2).
description: Natural language instructions describing how the speech should sound (tone, intonation, pacing, accent).
isCustomHumeVoice (boolean): Indicates whether using a custom Hume voice.

Minimax

model: Select from speech-02-hd (high-fidelity) or speech-02-turbo (low latency). Defaults to speech-02-turbo.
emotion: Emotion preset (happy, sad, angry, fearful, surprised, disgusted, neutral).
pitch (-12 to 12): Voice pitch adjustment in semitones.
speed (0.5-2): Speech speed adjustment.
volume (0.5-2): Volume adjustment.

WellSaid

model: Model selection.
enableSsml (boolean): Enable limited SSML translation for input text.
libraryIds: Array of library IDs to use for voice synthesis.

Neuphonic

model: Model selection (e.g., neu_fast).
language: Language code (required).
speed (0.25-2): Speech speed multiplier.

SmallestAI

model: Model selection (e.g., lightning).
speed: Speech speed multiplier.

Best practices

Use different providers for your fallback voices to protect against provider-wide outages.
Select voices with similar characteristics (tone, accent, gender) to maintain consistency in the user experience.
Test your fallback configuration to ensure smooth transitions between voices.

FAQ

How will pricing work?

There is no change to the pricing of the voices. Your call will not incur any extra fees while using fallback voices, and you will be able to see the cost for each voice in your end-of-call report.

How many fallback voices can I configure?

You can configure as many fallback voices as you need. However, we recommend 2-3 fallbacks from different providers for optimal reliability.

Will users notice when a fallback is activated?

Users may notice a brief pause and a change in voice characteristics when switching to a fallback voice. Selecting voices with similar properties helps minimize this disruption.

1	{
2	"voice": {
3	"provider": "openai",
4	"voiceId": "shimmer",
5	"fallbackPlan": {
6	"voices": [
7	{
8	"provider": "cartesia",
9	"voiceId": "248be419-c632-4f23-adf1-5324ed7dbf1d"
10	},
11	{
12	"provider": "11labs",
13	"voiceId": "cgSgspJ2msm6clMCkdW9",
14	"stability": 0.5,
15	"similarityBoost": 0.75
16	}
17	]
18	}
19	}
20	}