TL;DR
Cloud telephony in India costs ₹950 to ₹1,999 per agent a month for an IVR system with unlimited Indian calling, or ₹5,000 a month for 10 users billed yearly (MyOperator), before 18% GST. A 10-agent IVR desk pays ₹5,000 to ₹22,590 a month depending on the pricing model. Metered calls cost 38 to 80 paise a minute on the rate cards we checked.
Cloud telephony in India costs ₹950 to ₹1,999 per agent a month for an IVR system with unlimited Indian calling, or ₹5,000 a month for up to 10 users on MyOperator's yearly bundle, before 18% GST. A shared business number on an app, without a full IVR, costs ₹300 to ₹999 a month, and pay-per-minute routes charge 38 to 80 paise a minute plus number rental.
The model you pick matters more than the headline price: the same 10-agent desk costs ₹5,000 a month on one plan and ₹22,590 on another. Three worked bills below show why.
How is cloud telephony priced in India?
Indian providers price it in one of four ways.
| Model | How you pay | Examples, before GST | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per agent, unlimited calls | Monthly fee per licence or seat | Tata Smartflo Lite ₹950; Acefone ₹1,599 (6-seat minimum) | Set-up fees, seat minimums, fair-use caps |
| Team bundle | One price for a set number of users | MyOperator Sedan ₹5,000 for 10 users | Yearly billing, paid up front |
| Prepaid pack | Rental plus call credits for months | Exotel Dabbler ₹9,999 for 5 months | Credits run out on busy months |
| Per minute | Number rental plus metered calls | Plivo ₹200 a number + ₹0.38 a minute | Pulse rounding, incoming calls metered |
How we compared: prices and features from each provider's official page, checked in September 2026. Prices exclude 18% GST unless stated.
What does an IVR system cost?
An IVR ("press 1 for sales, 2 for support") comes inside most cloud telephony plans. The cheapest ways to get one, before GST:
- Heyo Phone Pro: ₹600 a month for 5 users, IVR with 2 departments.
- Superfone Business Phone: ₹599 a month for 3 users, a 1-level IVR.
- Zoho Voice Basic: ₹699 per user a month billed yearly, multi-level IVR, calls metered.
- Tata Tele Smartflo Lite: ₹950 per licence a month plus ₹5,000 once, 5-level IVR.
- CallHippo Professional: ₹3,000 per user a month billed yearly, multilingual IVR. Multilevel IVR needs Ultimate at ₹3,800.
- MyOperator Sedan: ₹5,000 a month for 10 users billed yearly, IVR included.
- Exotel Dabbler: ₹9,999 for 5 months, multi-level IVR, 3 agents.
Worked bill 1: a 10-agent support desk with IVR
Assume 10 agents who each take 2.5 hours of incoming calls a day for 26 days: 10 × 150 minutes × 26 = 39,000 minutes a month.
| Plan | How we worked it out | Monthly, before GST | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyOperator Sedan | Flat ₹5,000 (₹60,000 a year) | ₹5,000 | Paid yearly, ₹70,800 with GST |
| Tata Smartflo Lite | 10 × ₹950 | ₹9,500 | Plus ₹5,000 once; fair use 50,000 minutes pooled |
| Acefone Professional | 10 × ₹1,599 | ₹15,990 | Unlimited India calls, APIs included |
| Knowlarity Premium (prepaid) | ₹2,850 + (34,000 × ₹0.40) | ₹16,450 | 5,000 free minutes, then 20 paise per 30 seconds |
| Zoho Voice Basic | (10 × ₹699) + (39,000 × ₹0.40) | ₹22,590 | Incoming calls metered at 0.4 credit a minute |
Our calculation from each provider's list price, checked in September 2026. Knowlarity Premium is ₹34,200 a year (₹2,850 a month) for 10 users, and we assume every answered minute counts against its free minutes. Zoho: 1 credit is ₹1, incoming calls cost 0.4 credit a minute, and its free minutes cover outgoing calls only.
The takeaway: for a busy inbound desk, flat bundles and per-seat unlimited plans (₹5,000 to ₹15,990) cost less than metered ones (₹16,450 to ₹22,590), and the cheapest flat plan costs under a quarter of the dearest metered one. Metered plans such as Zoho Voice make sense when call volume is low, or when most calls are outgoing and fit inside the 1,000 free minutes per licence.
Tata shows the ₹5,000 one-time cost without saying whether it is charged per account or per licence. Spread over a year, it adds about ₹417 a month if charged once, or ₹4,167 for 10 licences (our calculation). MyOperator shows no set-up fee for Sedan, but its optional dedicated onboarding costs ₹20,000 once.
Worked bill 2: a 3-person clinic with light call volume
Assume about 3,000 incoming minutes a month, or roughly 115 minutes a day over 26 days.
- Plivo (voice API): ₹200 number rental + 3,000 × ₹0.38 = ₹1,340. You also need a developer to build the call flow.
- Bonvoice Basic: ₹1,500 includes 1,666 incoming minutes; 1,334 more minutes × ₹0.60 = ₹800. Total ₹2,300. This plan takes incoming calls only.
- Knowlarity Advance: ₹16,800 ÷ 12 = ₹1,400 with 1,200 free minutes; 1,800 × ₹0.60 (30 paise per 30 seconds) = ₹1,080. Total ₹2,480, for up to 5 users, on the same free-minutes assumption as bill 1.
- Heyo Phone Pro: ₹600 flat for 5 users with unlimited minutes and a 2-department IVR.
- TalkEasy by GrowEasy Pro: ₹999 flat for unlimited users. On an average day of 115 minutes, the team stays inside the 3 hours of talktime included, even if that allowance is shared across the whole account.
The takeaway: below a few thousand minutes a month, a flat-priced app number costs less than metered cloud telephony, and needs no developer.
Per minute or unlimited: where the break-even sits
Divide a per-seat price by a per-minute rate to find the minutes at which unlimited becomes cheaper. Using Plivo's ₹0.38 a minute as the metered rate (our calculation):
- Tata Smartflo Lite: ₹950 ÷ ₹0.38 = 2,500 minutes per agent a month, about 96 minutes a day over 26 days.
- Acefone Professional: ₹1,599 ÷ ₹0.38 = about 4,208 minutes, or 162 minutes a day.
- MyOperator Sedan with 10 users: ₹500 per user ÷ ₹0.38 = about 1,316 minutes, or 51 minutes a day.
Agents who are on calls for more than an hour or two a day belong on an unlimited plan. Part-time phone users are cheaper on metered calling or a flat app number.
Worked bill 3: a toll-free helpline
A toll-free number reverses the charges: callers pay nothing, and you pay for every incoming minute. Take 3,000 incoming minutes a month on Knowlarity's Basic toll-free plan:
- Rental: ₹21,000 ÷ 12 = ₹1,750 a month, including 500 free incoming minutes.
- Extra minutes: 2,500 × ₹1.05 = ₹2,625.
- Total: ₹4,375 a month before GST, or ₹5,162.50 with 18% GST.
Acefone sells the same thing as add-ons to its contact-centre plans: ₹500 a month for the number and ₹4,500 for a 3,000-minute pack, then ₹1.60 a minute.
What pushes a cloud telephony bill up
- GST. Add 18% to almost every price here: ₹9,500 becomes ₹11,210 (CBIC).
- Paying a year up front. MyOperator bills yearly only; Tata's Smartflo Lite has a 3-month minimum (₹2,850 per licence).
- Seat minimums. Acefone Professional needs 6 seats (₹9,594 a month) even for 3 agents.
- One-time fees. Tata Smartflo: ₹5,000 (Lite) or ₹10,000 (Pro and ITS).
- Extra numbers. Acefone charges ₹100 a month per DID and ₹500 for a virtual mobile or toll-free number; Zoho ₹499 a month for a landline and ₹799 for a mobile number.
- Recording retention. Tata Smartflo Lite, Acefone Professional and Knowlarity Advance keep recordings 3 months. Acefone charges ₹100 per seat a month for 12 months or more.
- Pulse and rounding. Plivo and Knowlarity bill in 30-second pulses; Zoho rounds each call up to the next full minute.
- WhatsApp messages. MyOperator's rates are ₹0.95 per marketing message and ₹0.13 per utility message, on top of the plan.
- SMS and promotional calls. Business SMS needs a DLT-registered header and template, and promotional calls need a 140-series number. Registering your business once on a DLT platform costs ₹5,000 on Vi's, non-refundable and valid for a year (Vi DLT FAQ).
Get a line-item quote: 8 questions to ask
- What is the price per user or per bundle, and is it billed monthly, quarterly or yearly?
- Is there a one-time set-up fee or a minimum term?
- How many minutes are included, are incoming calls counted, and what is the pulse?
- What is the fair-use limit behind "unlimited"?
- How many numbers are included, and what does each extra number cost?
- How long are recordings kept, and what does longer storage cost?
- Which features are add-ons (IVR levels, WhatsApp, CRM integration, APIs)?
- Is GST included in the quoted figure?
For how these plans compare with SIMs, landlines and toll-free numbers, read what a business phone number costs in India. For providers and the legal side of internet calling, see VoIP providers in India; for Exotel's packs in detail, the Exotel alternatives. If your team mostly makes sales calls, read outbound calling costs, and for campaign numbers that cut calls after a ring, the missed call alert service guide.
No IVR needed, just one number for the team? TalkEasy by GrowEasy Pro costs ₹999 a month plus GST for unlimited users, with 3 hours of talktime a day (then ₹49 an hour plus GST), call recording and team management. Compare TalkEasy plans.
Last reviewed 24 September 2026.
