Is AI calling cheaper than outsourcing to a call center?
For routine outbound work, it often is. Outsourced telecalling agencies in India usually price per seat per month, per hour or per lead, and those rates must cover agents, supervisors, infrastructure and margin. Outpero bills only connected talk time at ₹5 to ₹6.8 per minute. A BPO can still be the better fit for complex, regulated or high-empathy calls that need trained people. Prices exclude 18% GST.
How call centre pricing is built
An outsourced seat has to cover at least an agent's salary, which for a telecaller in India is roughly ₹15,000–₹25,000 a month, plus supervision, office space, telephony, quality checks and the agency's margin. Most agencies also set minimums: a number of seats, a ramp-up period for training and a notice period to exit.
Converting a BPO quote into a per-minute figure
- 01Ask the agency for the expected connected minutes per seat per month.
- 02Divide the monthly seat price by those minutes.
- 03Compare that with ₹5 or ₹6.8 per connected minute on Outpero, plus ₹649 a month for a number.
If a seat delivers 3,000 connected minutes a month, a seat price at the ₹18,000 telecaller reference would already be ₹6 a minute before supervision and margin are added. Actual agency quotes will be higher than salary alone.
Side by side
| Outsourced call centre | Outpero | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing basis | Per seat, hour or lead | Per connected minute |
| Minimum commitment | Often seats and notice period | None |
| Time to start | Hiring and training ramp | Self-serve signup |
| Parallel calls | One per agent | One call per channel; extra channels ₹649/month |
| Records | Varies by agency | Recording, transcript, summary for every call |
| Complex conversations | Stronger | Weaker |
Where the call centre wins
Trained human agents handle angry customers, complicated product questions, collections that need negotiation and calls where a regulator expects human judgement. A mixed setup is common: AI handles first contact, reminders and qualification, and the agency or in-house team takes the qualified leads.
What to measure in a pilot
- —Connected conversations per rupee spent.
- —Share of leads that end up qualified or booked.
- —Time from enquiry to first call.
- —Hours your own team spends on follow-up for each channel.
Run the AI and the agency on comparable lead sets for the same month, then compare cost per qualified lead rather than cost per call. Agencies sometimes convert better on complex products; the pilot shows whether that difference is worth the price gap.
Want to hear an AI voice agent handle this on a real call?