Moving from Bland AI to Calldesk

A step-by-step checklist for teams moving a phone agent from Bland AI to Calldesk, based on Bland AI's public pages as of October 10, 2026.

Last verified October 10, 2026.

Details about Bland AI come from its public pages as they were on October 10, 2026. Bland AI may have changed them since, and a page that was unclear to us may be clear to you. Corrections: support@calldesk.tech. We make Calldesk, so read this page with that in mind and check anything important with Bland AI directly.

Moving from Bland AI: what kind of move this is

How Bland AI positions itself: A vertically integrated voice agent platform that owns telephony, speech, language model and orchestration and sells a single bundled per-minute rate, with a forward-deployed engineering service for larger deployments.

Bland AI is aimed at larger organisations. If you are on a written agreement with it, read the notice and data-return terms before you pick a cut-over date. Calldesk is self-serve, billed per minute with no monthly minimum and cancellable any time.

Bland AI's pages and our reading of them suggest it fits: mid-market and enterprise teams that want a single bundled per-minute rate and hands-on engineering help for regulated or high-volume phone automation.

Before you leave Bland AI

  • Exporting your agents: Bland AI documents a way to read your agents back out (the steps below list it).
  • Connected tools: list what you connected to Bland AI (Twilio (bring your own account), SIP trunks from any carrier or contact-center platform, SMS and web chat, Web Agent SDK, Webhooks and custom tools and Knowledge bases) so you can reconnect each one.
  • Recordings and transcripts: download anything you need to keep from Bland AI before you cancel.

Steps to leave Bland AI

These steps come from Bland AI's public pages. Sources are listed at the end.

  1. Read pathway definitions (nodes and edges) with the Get All Pathways / Get Single Pathway API. (source: docs.bland.ai)
  2. Export conversations and transcripts from the Conversations view or API. (source: docs.bland.ai)
  3. Numbers on your own Twilio account or SIP trunk stay with you and can be repointed; numbers bought from Bland would need a replacement or a port-out request (port-out process not documented in pages read). (source: docs.bland.ai)
  4. Recreate prompts, tools and knowledge in the new platform and test before cutover. (source: docs.bland.ai)

Your phone numbers

What Bland AI's pages say about numbers: Bland numbers on its built-in Twilio at pass-through cost; own Twilio account and SIP trunks (with number porting) are supported. Specific countries for Bland numbers were not listed on the pages read.

Bland AI describes SIP trunks, and Calldesk does not offer SIP trunking. A number that reaches Bland AI through a trunk therefore cannot be pointed straight at Calldesk. Keep the number with its carrier and forward calls from there, or use one of the other routes below.

  • Forward: keep the number with its carrier, register it in the dashboard at no extra charge, and forward calls to it. This is the easiest route to undo.
  • Buy a new number from Telnyx or Twilio, a priced extra.
  • Port: a dashboard form sends a port-in request to Twilio. Treat it as a later step, not a promise that a number can move.

Steps on the Calldesk side

  1. Create an agent in Calldesk from an agent template or build the conversation flow in the flow builder.
  2. Add what the agent should know to a knowledge base, and connect a Cal.com account if it books appointments.
  3. Choose a plan; the costs section below lists them, and a language other than English needs the Standard or Pro voice.
  4. Connect your number by one of the routes above.
  5. Run test calls and simulation test cases, then promote the tested version from staging to production. The Live Calls page shows calls in progress, not audio.
  6. Rebuild your Bland AI connections with webhooks, the REST API or the MCP server (/docs).
  7. When calls look right, point your number at the Calldesk agent and keep Bland AI available for a short overlap period.

What Bland AI does well, to test before you switch

These are strengths Bland AI's own pages describe. Test the ones you rely on in Calldesk before you cancel.

  • Simple bundled pricing: one per-minute rate covers the language model, transcription and voice, with no token charges or model pass-throughs. (source: bland.ai)
  • Hands-on enterprise delivery: a forward-deployed engineering team and a documented 28-day deployment framework for enterprise rollouts. (source: bland.ai)
  • Visual Conversational Pathways builder for branching call flows, with SIP trunk support, number porting and Twilio integration. (source: docs.bland.ai)
  • Large-scale infrastructure: docs state it owns the full stack and supports very high concurrency (up to 1 million concurrent calls on the vendor's own claim). (source: docs.bland.ai)

What may not carry over

Plan on rebuilding the flow by hand: no automatic import from Bland AI is described here. Re-check voices, prompts and custom functions afterwards.

A notice on Bland AI's own pages that may affect your timing:

  • Bland states that all production pathways and personas must be migrated to its new agent architecture by November 15, 2026. (source: docs.bland.ai)
  • Not confirmed about Bland AI: the Scale plan ($499, $0.11 per minute) appears in docs but not on the public pricing page; which is current is unconfirmed.
  • Not confirmed about Bland AI: whether telephony is included or extra on the self-serve per-minute rate: the pricing FAQ says it is billed separately at pass-through, but no per-minute carrier rate was found.
  • Not confirmed about Bland AI: free-trial credit amount ('2 credits') is not defined in dollars.
  • Not confirmed about Bland AI: number port-out process for Bland-purchased numbers not found.
  • Not confirmed about Bland AI: compliance reports are under NDA and were not seen.

Comparing costs before you move

Bland AI's own description of its pricing: Plan-based per-minute rate that bundles LLM, speech-to-text and text-to-speech (no token charges); platform fee on higher plans; custom enterprise contracts. Its published starting point: $0.14 per minute on the free Start plan, $0.12 per minute on Build ($299 per month); LLM, speech-to-text and text-to-speech are included, telephony is billed separately.

Charges Bland AI's pages list outside that starting point, which are worth finding on your own invoice:

  • Telephony: billed separately, either on your own carrier or Bland's at pass-through cost (pricing FAQ).
  • Transfer minutes when using Bland-provided numbers.
  • SMS: $0.02 per message; web-widget agent messages $0.01 per message (docs).
  • Outbound minimum $0.015 per call attempt on Bland telephony (docs).

Pricing limits Bland AI's pages state:

  • Per-day and per-hour call caps apply on self-serve plans (100 calls per day on Start, 2,000 on Build); no cap is listed for Enterprise. (source: bland.ai)

Plan terms Bland AI lists, which decide what you pay while you run both side by side:

  • Start: $0 platform fee, $0.14 per minute talk time, $0.05 per transfer minute, 10 concurrent calls, 100 calls per day, 10 knowledge bases, 1 voice.
  • Build: $299 per month, $0.12 per minute, $0.04 per transfer minute, 50 concurrent calls, 2,000 calls per day, 50 knowledge bases, 5 voices.
  • Enterprise: custom pricing; BAA, SSO, data residency, on-prem/VPC and forward-deployed engineers listed.
  • Bland docs also list a Scale plan ($499 per month, $0.11 per minute, $0.03 transfer) that did not appear on the public pricing page read on the retrieval date.
  • Docs also list an Agent Phone plan at $29.99 for a single agent number with US/Canada voice minutes and SMS included without a stated minute cap.
  • Outbound calls on Bland telephony carry a $0.015 minimum charge per attempt (docs); transfer fees do not apply when using your own Twilio account.

On trial terms, Bland AI states: Start plan is free with no card required and includes starter credits and an inbound number valued at $15 per month (the credit amount is not specified on the page). Calldesk's free offer is a free demo call, with no trial credit.

On the Calldesk side: per minute of call time on three plans: Lite 2¢, Standard 5¢, Pro 9¢. No monthly minimum. Phone carrier charges are billed separately. Ask both for a month at your own volume with every charge included.

Sources