Agent Identity vs AgentPhone: which should give your AI agent a phone number?

By Naol Ketema, founder · 2026-10-27 · Markdown

What is the difference between Agent Identity and AgentPhone?

AgentPhone describes itself as "Phone numbers for AI Agents." Its focus is the number: calls and messages for an agent arrive through one webhook, and your agent replies with text while AgentPhone handles speech. Agent Identity starts from the agent instead. An agent gets a handle, a real mailbox, scoped API keys and an append-only event log, and a phone number is one channel on that identity next to email and Agent2Agent (A2A) tasks.

If the phone is the whole product you are building, AgentPhone covers more of it today. If the phone is one way your agent reaches people, Agent Identity keeps it on the same identity as the inbox.

What do both products do?

• Give an agent its own US or Canadian phone number through the API.
• Inbound and outbound calls.
• A hosted voice agent that runs the call for you (AgentPhone hosted mode, Agent Identity Aid Voice), or your own agent on the line.
• Transcripts of calls.
• An MCP server, so Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients can use the number.
• A REST API and a Node.js/TypeScript SDK.

Where is AgentPhone stronger?

• Texting: SMS and MMS are live and priced per message. Agent Identity is calls only; SMS is not available yet.
• iMessage: AgentPhone sells inbound-only and dedicated iMessage lines. Agent Identity does not offer iMessage.
• More messaging channels: AgentPhone's pricing page lists WhatsApp and RCS, both in beta.
• Python: AgentPhone ships a Python SDK (pip install agentphone) as well as Node.js. Agent Identity's SDK is TypeScript; from Python you call the REST API.
• One webhook for calls and messages: both arrive in the same event shape, so one handler covers both.
• Pay as you go: no plan to choose, no monthly minimum and a $5 starting credit.

Where is Agent Identity different?

• One identity across inbox, phone and A2A: the agent that answers the phone also has a real mailbox with threads, drafts, attachments and custom domains, and an agent card other agents can send tasks to. AgentPhone's homepage and pricing page do not mention email.
• Durable events you can wait on: calls, emails and A2A tasks land in one append-only log per organization. client.events.wait long-polls for the next matching event (up to 55 seconds per request) and resumes from a cursor after a restart, so an agent can place a call and then block until call.ended arrives. Any event can be replayed to signed webhooks.
• Per-agent keys: an org key administers; an agent key acts as exactly one agent. A running agent never needs the org key, and an org key can suspend an agent with a recorded reason.
• Flat plans with numbers included: Builder includes one dedicated VoIP number and Team includes five, instead of a per-number monthly charge.
• Access rules per channel: allow and block lists for who can call or email each agent, plus an append-only audit log.

How much do Agent Identity and AgentPhone cost?

Prices as of 27 October 2026, in USD.

• AgentPhone numbers: $3.00 per number per month. No numbers are included.
• AgentPhone voice: 13 cents a minute with your own agent over its webhook, 22 cents a minute with its hosted agent, billed per second, inbound and outbound. Call recording adds $5.00 per account per month.
• AgentPhone messaging: SMS 2 cents a segment and MMS 3 cents a message, inbound and outbound. iMessage is $150.00 a line a month inbound-only or $250.00 a line a month for a dedicated line that also sends.
• AgentPhone account: $5.00 starting credit, no monthly minimum, no contract.
• Agent Identity Free: $0, 5 agent identities with an inbox, public URL and A2A channel each. No dedicated number.
• Agent Identity Builder: $19 a month, 15 identities, 1 dedicated VoIP number, 15 custom email domains, 2,000 outbound emails a day.
• Agent Identity Team: $149 a month, 120 identities, 5 dedicated VoIP numbers, 150 custom email domains, 20,000 outbound emails a day.
• Agent Identity calls: a published usage rate of $0.02 a minute for US and Canada, not billed yet. Daily limits apply per plan: 1,000 call minutes per 24 hours on Builder and 10,000 on Team.

As a rough example, one number and 500 minutes a month with your own agent on the line is $3 plus $65 on AgentPhone. On Agent Identity it is the $19 Builder plan, which also covers the agent's inbox; per-minute billing has not started. Full plan details: see agent-identity.dev/pricing and AgentPhone's pricing page.

What does placing a call and waiting for the result look like on Agent Identity?

Aid Voice runs the call from a reason you give it. The agent then waits on the event log for that call's call.ended event, which carries the outcome and transcript. Passing since means a call that ends between two waits is still found:

import { AgentClient } from "@agentidentity/sdk";

const client = new AgentClient({
  baseUrl: "https://api.agent-identity.dev",
  apiKey: process.env.AID_KEY!,
});

const identityId = process.env.AID_AGENT!;
const since = new Date();

const call = await client.phone.placeCall({
  identityId,
  to: "+14155550100",
  mode: "hosted_agent",
  reason: "Confirm Thursday's delivery window and ask for a gate code.",
  idempotencyKey: "delivery-7731-confirm",
});

let ended = null;
while (!ended) {
  const { event } = await client.events.wait({
    type: "call.ended",
    aggregateType: "call",
    aggregateId: call.id,
    since,
    timeoutMs: 55_000,
  });
  ended = event;
}

console.log(ended.payload);

On AgentPhone the equivalent is a webhook handler that receives the call events. Both work; the difference is whether your agent's code receives a push or blocks on a read.

Which should you pick for your use case?

• Your agent must send or receive texts today: AgentPhone.
• Your agent needs iMessage, WhatsApp or RCS: AgentPhone.
• Your stack is Python and you want an SDK rather than REST: AgentPhone.
• You want to pay only for what you use with no plan: AgentPhone.
• Your agent emails and calls the same people from one identity: Agent Identity.
• Your agent hands work to other agents over A2A as well as calling people: Agent Identity.
• Your agent's loop is "act, then wait for the result" and you want replay when a consumer breaks: Agent Identity.
• You run many agents and want a flat monthly price with numbers included: Agent Identity.

A note on this comparison

We build Agent Identity. Every AgentPhone fact here comes from agentphone.ai and agentphone.ai/pricing as of 27 October 2026. Both products change often; check the current pages before you commit.