Air AI Alternatives: 8 Options After the FTC Ban

There is no Air AI left to buy. The FTC sued the company and its owners in August 2025, a March 2026 settlement banned the operation from marketing business opportunities, and the air.ai domain now loads a defense-sector platform with the same name and no phone agents. So this page works differently from most alternatives roundups: the question is not whether to leave Air AI, it is where the calling goes now. Eight options below, with every price verified on the vendor's own pricing page in August 2026.

What happened to Air AI#

The short version, all documented in federal filings. The FTC's August 2025 complaint named Air AI, five related companies, and owners Caleb Maddix, Ryan O'Donnell, and Thomas Lancer, alleging that since at least February 2023 the operation sold "conversational AI" products and high-priced reseller licenses on false earnings claims and refund guarantees that were rarely honored. Licenses ran up to $100,000, some buyers ended up $100,000 in debt through defendant-brokered third-party loans, and the software frequently glitched or never arrived. Alleged losses to consumers total roughly $19 million.

The March 2026 settlement leaves little room for interpretation. Air AI and its owners are banned from marketing or selling any business opportunity, banned from false earnings and refund claims in telemarketing, and carry an $18 million judgment that is largely suspended because they cannot pay. A further $50,000 goes to consumer relief. The stipulated order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (No. 2:25-cv-03068-SMB), and the documents sit on the FTC case page.

Two practical consequences for anyone holding something from Air AI:

• You used it for calling: there is no vendor to renew with, migrate off in stages, or ask for support. The next step is a replacement, and the eight below cover every shape of one.
• You bought an Access Card or reseller license expecting earnings: no software on this page fixes that. The remedy route is the FTC's consumer relief process plus your card issuer's dispute window.

What to demand from the replacement#

Air buyers were promised zero work and outsized returns. The returns were fraud; the zero-work part is a legitimate standard. Hold your replacement to it.

1. Who owns the telephony? Platforms that run their own carrier layer have fewer hops to tune and fewer vendors to blame when calls degrade. Pass-through telephony gives more control and more work.
2. What is the pricing shape? Per-minute pass-through forecasts badly at volume. Bundled per-minute rates are simpler. Per-agent monthly pricing is simplest. Match the shape to how predictable you need the invoice, and after Air, prefer month-to-month contracts and published prices over any upfront license.
3. How much assembly is left? No-code still means someone designs flows, connects the CRM, and maintains the result. Only done-for-you services remove the build entirely.
4. How are claims substantiated? The case turned on earnings and performance claims the company could not prove. Ask every vendor below what they will put in writing, and treat any "our customers typically see" without a source the way the court did.

The 8 Air AI alternatives#

1. Bland AI: the closest like-for-like for outbound at volume#

Best for: teams that used Air for high-volume B2B outbound and want the same throughput from an API platform.

Bland is the natural first pilot for an Air refugee: its product is automated phone agents at scale, developer-first, with per-minute pricing you can actually forecast. The published ladder runs Start at $0.14 per minute with no platform fee, Build at $0.12 plus $299 per month, and Scale at $0.11 plus $499 per month, with transfers adding $0.03 to $0.05 per minute and concurrency tiers at 10, 50, and 100 lines. Compared to Air's five-figure access cards, the entire first year of Bland's Build plan costs less than $4,000 before minutes. The work lands on your team, though: conversation design, prompt tuning, and integration wiring are yours to build. Our Vapi vs Bland head-to-head works through where the bundled rate wins and where it loses.

2. Synthflow: the no-code enterprise build#

Best for: ops buyers with budget and a procurement process who want fewer moving parts than an API.

Synthflow replaces the build with a visual flow designer and in-house calling infrastructure, cutting two of the five integration hops out of the stack. The gate is the entry point: the only published number is an enterprise contract starting at $30,000 a year, scoped around call volume, concurrency, telephony setup, and integrations. After Air, committing a year of spend up front to a vendor that publishes nothing below an enterprise contract repeats the contract shape that just burned people. Pilot first and push for a quarterly ramp. Full vendor breakdown in our Synthflow alternatives guide.

3. Vapi: maximum control for teams with engineers#

Vapi sells the orchestration layer and bills $0.05 per minute on the Build plan, with transcription, the model, the voice, and the carrier all billed on top at provider rates. All in, third-party guides put the realistic total between $0.15 and $0.36 per minute (our Vapi pricing breakdown does the five-layer math). Build keeps 10 concurrent lines, extra lines at $10 each per month, and 14 days of call history; HIPAA is a $2,000 monthly add-on. It is the right tool for product engineering teams and the wrong one for a company that needs calls made. Wider field view in our Vapi alternatives guide.

4. Retell AI: the pre-assembled builder#

Retell sits between Vapi's raw components and Bland's bundle: an API platform with more of the call logic built in (warm transfers, IVR navigation, batch calling) and a published range of $0.07 to $0.31 per minute, $10 in free credits, and 20 free concurrent calls. The pricing page itemizes the stack ($0.055 per minute for voice infrastructure, $0.015 to $0.040 for voices, $0.015 for telephony), so you can reckon a blended rate before writing code. For a displaced Air customer this is the cheapest credible pilot on the list: the free credits cover roughly 30 to 140 conversational minutes depending on configuration, enough to hear your own script behave. Full breakdown in our Retell AI alternatives guide.

5. Lindy: a generalist agent that also calls#

Lindy is wider than voice calling: one agent platform where the phone is a skill alongside email, calendar, and CRM work. Plans run from $29.99 per user per month for 3,000 credits to $199.99 for 35,000, with HIPAA on the enterprise tier. If calling is one chore among many, that breadth is the appeal. If you need Air's outbound volume replaced, a generalist's phone skill is the thinner replacement.

6. Goodcall: inbound reception, done for you#

Goodcall is the small-business receptionist: it picks up, routes the caller, and leaves you a message record, billed as a $79 to $249 per agent subscription, unlimited minutes included, with $0.50 per unique customer beyond each plan's allowance. It replaces an inbound answering load. It does not replace Air's outbound motion; the next entries matter more if that was the job.

7. Upfirst: the answering-service tier#

Upfirst covers the same inbound job with per-call bundles: $24.95 per month for 30 calls, up to $299 for 600, overages of $0.70 to $1.50 per extra call, and a 14-day trial that needs no credit card. Sensible default when the whole problem is missed calls, and again, inbound only.

8. Rezora IO: the done-for-you successor to what Air was sold as#

Best for: teams who want Air's original promise (calls happen without anyone on your side dialing) delivered as a month-to-month service instead of a license.

Air was marketed as autonomy in a box: hand over your leads and the calls get made. What buyers needed was exactly that, delivered honestly. Rezora IO ships the finished caller: upload a CSV or connect the CRM, and the agent calls new leads within seconds, qualifies intent on the call, and books the appointment on your calendar. It works without prompts because the training happened before you arrived: supervised fine-tuning on real sales conversations first, preference optimization after, on hosted models built for this job. Training data runs deepest in real estate and home services right now; on enterprise plans, your own recorded calls become the training data for your industry.

It prices like a service, not a license: $289 per month plus $0.20 per conversational minute. No annual contract; the meter runs only while the agent is talking. Enterprise plans are available. The tradeoff is the one Air's idea carried: you give up conversation-tree control to get the outcome without the build. This time you can cancel next month.

The side-by-side#

If you are leaving Air AI#

Do these in order.

1. Export everything you still can. Call recordings, transcripts, contact lists. If the dashboards are already down, assume they will not come back.
2. Separate the two losses. A working software subscription that vanished is a replacement problem, solved above. A license bought as a business opportunity is a consumer-harm problem: file through the FTC's consumer relief process and your card issuer's dispute window.
3. Pick one replacement and run a real pilot. One to two weeks, 100 to 500 calls, your own lists and your own script. Every month-to-month option on this page permits that.
4. Hold the no-prepay rule until a quarter of data exists. Five-figure upfront licenses are the contract shape this whole article is about.

How to choose#

• Replace the high-volume outbound machine: Bland AI for API teams, Synthflow for no-code budgets, with the enterprise-contract caution above.
• Keep maximum control and you have engineers: Vapi. Same control with more pre-built call logic: Retell AI.
• Inbound answering is the actual job: Goodcall or Upfirst, both month to month.
• The job is calls handled, not software operated: Rezora IO, the only entry here that matches what Air was sold as and the only one with nothing to build.

Between the two API favorites, our Vapi vs Bland head-to-head found Bland's no-fee Start rate the saner default below roughly 15,000 monthly minutes; above that, pricing tiers and tuning effort decide it.

The one combination to avoid: paying a second vendor a five-figure annual contract to escape the first vendor's five-figure license. Month-to-month exists at every price point on this page. Use it.

FAQ#

Is Air AI still in business?#

Operationally, no. The March 2026 settlement bans the company and its owners from marketing business opportunities, and the air.ai domain now belongs to a defense-sector platform. There is no public calling product left to buy, renew, or get support for.

What did the FTC settlement actually do?#

Three things: a permanent ban on marketing or selling business opportunities, bans on false earnings and refund claims in telemarketing, and an $18 million judgment, largely suspended for inability to pay, with $50,000 directed to consumer relief. The stipulated order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (No. 2:25-cv-03068-SMB), and the FTC case page carries the documents.

What is the closest alternative to Air AI?#

For the use case Air was deployed on, high-volume B2B outbound, Bland AI is the closest match, with a published entry of $0.14 per minute and no platform fee. For the way Air was pitched, calls happening without your team, the match is a done-for-you service like Rezora IO.

What is the cheapest Air AI alternative?#

For inbound answering, Upfirst at $24.95 per month. For outbound testing, Retell AI's $10 in free credits, covering roughly 30 to 140 minutes depending on configuration. For done-for-you calling, Rezora IO at $289 per month plus usage is the cheapest entry that requires no build; compare it against the platforms' build-time cost on top of their sticker rates.

Can Air AI customers get a refund?#

The settlement directs $50,000 to consumer relief against alleged losses of roughly $19 million, so full recovery through the fund is unlikely. File through the FTC's process, and check your card issuer's dispute rules while their windows are open. The complaint's central allegation was that promised refund guarantees were not honored, so treat the fund as partial relief.

How fast can you switch to an alternative?#

Done-for-you services (Rezora IO, Goodcall, Upfirst) take days. Platform speed depends on your build: a basic Retell or Bland pilot can run the same day, while Synthflow's enterprise process runs at procurement speed. The realistic constraint is your own script and list.