Sarvam AI pricing in India: what a voice agent pays for TTS, STT and the LLM
As on 17 September 2026, Sarvam AI publishes pay-as-you-go prices in rupees: Bulbul v3 text to speech at ₹30 per 10,000 characters, speech to text at ₹30 per hour of audio, and Sarvam-105B at ₹29.28 input and ₹73.2 output per 1 million tokens. New accounts get ₹100 in free credits, and credits never expire. On Convo360 you connect your own Sarvam key and pay Sarvam directly.
Prices as on 17 September 2026. Figures were checked against the provider's official pages on that date. Providers change prices and rules without notice, so confirm on the official page before you budget. Convo360 adds no markup: you pay the provider directly with your own account. Convo360 is not affiliated with Sarvam AI. Sarvam, Bulbul, Saaras and other product names are trademarks of their owner. Prices were read from Sarvam's official pages on 17 September 2026 and may change; always confirm on the official pricing page.
- Sarvam bills text to speech per character, speech to text per second of audio and LLMs per token, all from one prepaid credit balance in rupees.
- Bulbul v3 is listed at ₹30 per 10,000 characters and speech to text at ₹30 per hour, as on 17 September 2026.
- Every new Sarvam account gets ₹100 of free credits, and Sarvam says credits never expire.
- Sarvam's pricing pages do not say whether GST is included, so check your invoice before you budget.
- Convo360 adds zero markup: your Sarvam key goes in Settings → Provider Keys and Sarvam bills you directly.
Sarvam API prices as on 17 September 2026
These figures were read from Sarvam's official pricing pages on 17 September 2026. Sarvam publishes every price in Indian Rupees, so there is no dollar conversion to do. The table covers only the parts a voice or chat agent uses; the full list is on Sarvam's pricing page.
| API | Model | Published price | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text to speech | Bulbul v3 | ₹30 | per 10,000 characters |
| Speech to text | Saaras | ₹30 | per hour of audio |
| Speech to text with diarization | Saaras | ₹45 | per hour of audio |
| Speech to text and translate | Saaras | ₹30 | per hour of audio |
| Chat LLM | Sarvam 105B and Sarvam 105B Chat | ₹29.28 input, ₹10.98 cached input, ₹73.2 output | per 1 million tokens |
| Translation | Sarvam Translate V1, Mayura V1 | ₹20 | per 10,000 characters |
| Language identification | ₹3.5 | per 10,000 characters |
Sarvam's marketing pricing page shows the same text to speech rate as ₹3.00 per 1,000 characters, for both real-time and streaming. One caution: for translation, that page lists ₹0.005 per character while the docs page lists ₹20 per 10,000 characters. The two official pages differ, so confirm the translation rate in your Sarvam dashboard before you budget for it.
Convo360 is not affiliated with Sarvam AI. Prices can change at any time, and the Sarvam page is always the final word.
What you are actually billed for
Sarvam works on prepaid credits. Its pricing FAQ says a payment of ₹1,000 gives you 1,000 credits, every supported API draws from the same balance, and there are no monthly payments. You pay again only when you choose to top up.
- Text to speech: charged per character, rounded up to the nearest character in each request. Only the text your agent speaks is counted.
- Speech to text: charged per second of audio, rounded up to the nearest second in each request. ₹30 per hour works out to ₹0.50 per minute of audio.
- LLM: charged per token, with separate rates for input, cached input and output.
- Free credits: Sarvam gives ₹100 worth of free credits to every user on signup, usable on any API. At the Bulbul v3 rate that is roughly 33,000 characters of speech.
- Expiry: Sarvam states that credits never expire. It also states that payments are final and non-refundable.
- When credits finish: API calls return errors until you add credits.
Sarvam says an official invoice is generated after every payment. Neither pricing page states whether the listed prices include GST, so we do not state it either. Check the first invoice, or ask Sarvam, before you fix a budget.
Plans: pay as you go, Pro, Business and Enterprise
The usage prices above apply on the pay-as-you-go Starter plan. Sarvam's credits and rate limits page lists these tiers as on 17 September 2026:
| Plan | Listed price | Bonus credits | Bulbul v3 REST rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Pay as you go | None | 30 requests per minute |
| Pro | ₹10,000 | ₹100 | 200 requests per minute |
| Business | ₹50,000 | ₹7,500 | 1,000 requests per minute |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Sarvam's licensing page says plan tiers mainly affect rate limits and bonus credits. For text to speech and speech to text, Sarvam lists one price with no per-plan variation, and topping up credits does not change your rate limit. The bonus credit figures are shown exactly as Sarvam lists them. The page does not state a billing period for the plan price, so confirm that in the dashboard before upgrading.
Rate limits apply to the whole account, not to each key. For a small business running a few calls at a time, Starter is usually where testing begins. Move up only when Sarvam starts returning rate limit errors.
A worked cost-per-call formula
The numbers below are ILLUSTRATIVE. Replace the call length and character count with figures from your own call logs.
Formulas
- Voice cost = characters spoken by the agent ÷ 10,000 × ₹30
- Transcription cost = seconds of audio sent to Sarvam speech to text ÷ 3,600 × ₹30
- LLM cost = (input tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × ₹29.28) + (output tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × ₹73.2)
Illustrative call: a 3-minute appointment confirmation where the agent speaks 1,500 characters in total.
| Line | Illustrative volume | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bulbul v3 voice | 1,500 characters | ₹4.50 |
| Speech to text, if your stack uses it | 180 seconds | ₹1.50 |
| Sarvam 105B, if your stack uses it | 6,000 input and 600 output tokens | about ₹0.22 |
On these assumptions, 1,000 such calls would use about ₹4,500 of Bulbul v3 credits. Telephony minutes and your LLM provider are billed separately by those providers. For the full picture, see AI voice agent cost per minute in India.
Indian-language scripts count characters too, and Sarvam's Bulbul page recommends native script over romanised text for quality. Measure characters on real replies in the language you will actually use, not on an English draft.
How to connect your Sarvam key in Convo360
Convo360 is BYOK. You bring your own Sarvam account, Sarvam bills you directly, and Convo360 adds zero markup on characters or minutes. AI voice calls are part of the Pro plan at ₹2,999 per month, excluding 18% GST.
- Create an account on the Sarvam dashboard, open the API Keys section and generate a key. Sarvam shows the key value only once, so copy it straight away.
- In Convo360, open Settings → Provider Keys and paste the Sarvam key. Keys are encrypted at rest.
- Open your voice AI agent, choose Sarvam as the voice provider and pick a voice. Convo360 lists the available Sarvam voices dynamically, so you do not type a voice ID.
- Place a test call to your own phone and listen in the language your customers speak.
In Convo360 the Sarvam key powers the agent's voice. The agent's brain runs on your own OpenAI, Anthropic Claude or Google Gemini key, so that usage is billed by that provider.
If the key is wrong, deleted, or the account runs out of credits, Sarvam starts returning errors. Convo360's Provider Health monitoring detects this and shows a clear alert, so you know the fix is a top-up or a new key and not a broken flow. Setup details are in the voice docs.
Ways to keep the Sarvam bill down
Because voice is billed per character, every saving comes from speaking fewer characters or making fewer requests.
- Shorter replies. Tell the agent in its system prompt to answer in one or two short sentences. A reply of 120 characters costs half of one with 240.
- Do not re-synthesise fixed lines. A greeting or a recorded disclaimer that never changes can be recorded once and played with the Play Audio voice block, instead of being generated on every call.
- Pick the right model. On Sarvam's list, diarization raises speech to text from ₹30 to ₹45 per hour. A two-party phone call rarely needs it.
- Skip translation you do not need. If the agent already replies in Marathi, there is no reason to pay for a separate translation step. See AI calls in Marathi.
- Watch the balance. Credits never expire, so a larger top-up is not wasted, but an empty balance stops calls. Check usage in the Sarvam dashboard every week.
- Check your telephony provider's inbound rate. Incoming call charges vary by provider and plan — for example, Plivo lists an India inbound rate and Exotel bills incoming calls at your plan's rate — so confirm the current price list before assuming inbound is free.
Comparing voices before you commit? Read Indian voices for AI calls, then test on a real phone line.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there a free tier on Sarvam AI?
Sarvam does not list a permanent free tier. Its docs state that every new user receives ₹100 worth of free credits on signup, usable across any API, and that credits never expire. After they are used, you add credits from the dashboard and pay only for usage.
Is GST extra on Sarvam AI prices?
Sarvam's pricing pages, as read on 17 September 2026, do not say whether GST is included or extra. Sarvam does say an official invoice is generated after every payment, so check that invoice or ask Sarvam support before finalising your budget.
What is the Sarvam text to speech price per minute of a call?
Sarvam does not price text to speech per minute. Bulbul v3 is billed per character at ₹30 per 10,000 characters. To estimate a per-minute figure, count the characters your agent speaks in a typical minute and apply the formula to your own calls.
Do Sarvam credits expire?
No. Sarvam states that credits are universal across its APIs and never expire. It also states that payments are final and non-refundable, so top up in amounts you expect to use.
Can I use my own Sarvam account with Convo360?
Yes, that is the only way it works. Convo360 is BYOK, so you paste your own Sarvam API key under Settings → Provider Keys, select a Sarvam voice on the agent, and Sarvam bills your account directly with zero markup from Convo360.
What happens when my Sarvam credits run out during a campaign?
Sarvam says API calls return errors once credits are exhausted, until you add more. In Convo360, Provider Health monitoring detects the provider error and shows a clear alert, so you can top up your Sarvam balance and resume calling quickly.
Official sources
- Sarvam AI docs: Pricing (official)
- Sarvam AI: API pricing page and pricing FAQ (official)
- Sarvam AI docs: Credits and rate limits (official)
- Sarvam AI docs: Commercial licensing (official)
- Sarvam AI docs: Authentication and API keys (official)
- Sarvam AI docs: Bulbul text to speech model (official)
Related reading
Available across India — see WhatsApp & AI calling automation by state and city.