Phone carriers compared
A carrier supplies the phone number and carries the call. For a UK agent, the numbers that matter are the monthly cost of a UK number, the per-minute rate in and out, and what identity or address proof the carrier asks for before it issues one.
Inbound UK call a minute. The highest is 2 times the lowest.
- Lowest
- $0.005Telnyx
- Median
- $0.008Of 5 with a US dollar price
- Highest
- $0.01Twilio
- Compared
- 8Read 29 October 2026 or later
8 compared, read 29 October 2026 or later. Click a bar to open its row, a column heading to sort, ↗ for the source. Tick Compare on up to four rows.
Showing 8 of 8
Inbound UK call a minute
List pricesWhat the carrier charges a minute for a call to your UK number.
Not on this chart. No US dollar UK rate published: SignalWire, Bandwidth, Simwood.
- Inbound, lowestTelnyx $0.005
- UK number, lowestSinch $0.80
- Out to landline, lowestTelnyx $0.0042
- Out to mobile, lowestTelnyx $0.02
Bar length is the figure itself, so the shortest bar is best in every column.
| US$ a minute | US$ a month | US$ a minute | US$ a minute | Checks✓ yes, ✕ no, ~ partly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twilio Programmable Voice and Elastic SIP Trunking (UK numbers) | $0.01 | $3.50 | $0.0158 | $0.0305 | SIP trunks |
| Telnyx Voice API and Elastic SIP Trunking (UK numbers) | $0.005Lowest | $1.00 | $0.0042Lowest | $0.02Lowest | SIP trunks |
| Vonage (Communications APIs) Voice API, Programmable SIP and virtual numbers | $0.0087 | $1.22 | $0.0145 | $0.0872 | SIP trunks |
| Plivo Voice API and Zentrunk SIP trunking (UK numbers) | $0.0055 | $0.85 | $0.0075 | $0.027 | SIP trunks |
| SignalWire Voice and SIP (UK numbers by request) | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | SIP trunks |
| Sinch Voice API (UK numbers) | $0.008 | $0.80Lowest | Not published | Not published | SIP trunks |
| Bandwidth Voice and Global SIP Trunking | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | SIP trunks |
| Simwood UK carrier services and SIP trunks | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | SIP trunks |
Vendor claims, data regions and compliance are in each row’s Details, in the vendor’s own words. Claims are never charted or ranked. RingTru has measured none of these yet. Add up a whole call in the calculator.
Ofcom’s caller ID (CLI) rules in brief
The UK regulator's rule that every call must carry a valid, dialable number that identifies the caller, and that bad caller IDs get blocked.
Any provider of a calling service that uses telephone numbers, including voice over IP, applies from 29 January 2025 Ofcom
Caller ID on every call must be a valid, dialable number that uniquely identifies the caller. An AI phone agent calling out needs a number it is entitled to use as the caller ID. Ofcom
Calls with inaccurate caller ID should be stopped or blocked Ofcom
How to read these numbers
- Proof for a UK number varies by carrier
- Twilio and Telnyx ask for identity and address documents before they issue a UK number. Vonage lists a UK address as required. Plivo says on its numbers page that UK numbers need no compliance documents. The other four carriers publish nothing we could find. Check before you plan a launch date.
- Mobile calls cost more
- Among the four carriers that print both rates, outbound calls to UK mobiles cost about two to six times as much a minute as calls to landlines. An agent that calls customers back may be calling mostly mobiles, so use the mobile rate when you estimate.
Go deeper
Your agent, tested on real calls.
- test calls
- 506
- passed
- 96.8%
- median reply
- 0.94 s
Holds the new day when a caller changes their mind.