How much do AgentPhone and Chert cost?

AgentPhone: Pay as you go with $5 of starting credit: $3 per number a month, $0.13 to $0.22 a voice minute and $0.02 per SMS segment, with iMessage lines at $150 or $250 a month and no per-message charge. Chert: A free 24-hour trial includes 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line; Shared is $25 a month and a dedicated line is $250 a month, but paid checkout is paused.

Does Chert support threaded replies?

Chert does not list threaded replies on its site or in its docs.

Does Chert support chat backgrounds?

Chert does not list chat backgrounds on its site or in its docs.

Does Chert support iMessage availability check?

Chert does not list iMessage availability check on its site or in its docs.

AgentPhone vs Chert

Compare AgentPhone and Chert side by side: iMessage features, channels, developer tools, pricing and compliance, checked on each provider's own site.

AgentPhone

Phone numbers with voice, SMS and iMessage for AI agents

Starting price: $3/month per number plus usage; iMessage from $150/month per line
Free plan: $5 starting credit, no card required

Visit AgentPhone Read more

Chert

iMessage and FaceTime numbers for AI agents

Starting price: $25/month (Shared)
Free plan: 24-hour trial: 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line

Visit Chert Read more

AgentPhone supports 44 of the 77 features compared here, and Chert supports 47.

Where AgentPhone is ahead

and 5 more in the table below.

Where Chert is ahead

and 8 more in the table below.

Feature comparison

Feature	AgentPhone	Chert
iMessage messaging
iMessage	SupportediMessage lines are a separate number type (type=imessage).	Supported
Group chats	SupportediMessage groups arrive as one conversation with roster and sender; reply to the group id.	Supported2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.
Group management	PartialStart a new group by listing recipients and rename it; adding or removing members is not documented.	SupportedCreate, add or remove participants, and leave a group.
Group name and photo	PartialGroup name can be set by API; the group icon is only readable.	SupportedSet a group's display name and icon.
Mentions	Not listed	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSix classic tapbacks, custom emoji on newer lines; inbound reactions via agent.reaction.	SupportedSix standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.
Threaded replies	Supportedreply_to_message_id; also on WhatsApp.	Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.
Typing indicators	SupportedSend only, best-effort, auto-expires after a few seconds.	SupportedBest effort; group typing is not supported on every line.
Read receipts	Not listedThe pricing page mentions read receipts; no API or webhook for them is documented.	SupportedMark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.
Edit and unsend	Not listed	PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.
Message effects	Supported12 screen and bubble effects via send_style.	SupportedApple send effects, validated against an allowed list.
Animated text effects	Not listed	Not listed
Stickers	Not listed	Not listed
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedImages, video and files by URL; several images arrive as a carousel on iMessage.	SupportedUpload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.
Live Photos	Not listed	Supportedlive_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.
Rich link previews	Not listed	Supportedrich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.
Voice messages	Not listed	SupportedNative voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.
Contact cards	SupportedvCard files can be sent as media (listed as a supported MMS type).	SupportedBuilds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.
Polls	Not listed	SupportedEnabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.
Chat backgrounds	SupportedSet or remove a background image per iMessage conversation.	Not listed
Location sharing	Not listedThe API has location endpoints returning coordinates per number, but their use is not described.	PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.
iMessage apps	Not listed	Not listed
Live app cards	Not listed	Not listed
Sender name and photo	PartialContact card sets a display name and avatar on the iMessage number; $250/month line only.	SupportedNative name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).
FaceTime calls	Not listed	SupportedInbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.
Delivery status	PartialMessages carry a status and failure reason; no delivery or read webhooks are documented.	SupportedPer-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).
iMessage availability check	SupportedLive check of iMessage, SMS and RCS reachability for a number before sending.	Not listed
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportediMessage lines are ordered through the API and run by AgentPhone.	SupportedChert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.
Dedicated numbers	SupportedUS and Canada numbers at $3/month; dedicated iMessage lines at $250/month.	Supported$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.
Shared numbers	Not listed	SupportedFree 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.
Bring your own number	Not listed	Not listed
Line pooling	Not listed	SupportedPicks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.
SMS fallback	SupportedFalls back to SMS/MMS when iMessage is not available.	PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.
RCS fallback	SupportediMessage-capable numbers deliver over RCS or SMS to non-Apple recipients.	Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.
Outbound-first messaging	PartialOutbound iMessage lines: 50 new contacts a day per line; inbound-only lines do not start chats; SMS needs 10DLC.	SupportedFirst send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.
Calls on the iMessage number	Not listed	PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.
Other channels
SMS	SupportedSMS and MMS; inbound works at once, outbound needs 10DLC.	PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.
RCS	BetaRCS Business Messaging is beta and concierge-onboarded: branded sender, quick-reply chips.	Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.
WhatsApp	BetaBeta, enabled per account. Connect your own WhatsApp Business Account; Meta bills you.	Not supportedNot offered
Telegram	Not supportedNot offered	Not supported
Slack	Not supported	Not listed
Email	Not supported	Not supportedNot offered
Phone calls	SupportedInbound and outbound calls in webhook mode or hosted AI mode; also browser web calls.	Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.
Apple Messages for Business	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API	SupportedOne send endpoint for SMS, MMS, iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp; one agent.message webhook incl. voice.	PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	Supported
TypeScript SDK	Supportednpm install agentphone	Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.
Python SDK	Supportedpip install agentphone	BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.
Other SDKs	Not listedDocs list only TypeScript and Python; an agentphone-go repo holds only a placeholder README.	BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.
CLI	Not listedNo own CLI found; numbers can be provisioned through the Stripe Projects CLI.	BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.
Webhooks	SupportedProject default webhook with per-agent overrides.	SupportedMultiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and body, with a timestamp header for replay protection.	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.
MCP server	SupportedHosted MCP server (mcp.agentphone.ai) and npm package agentphone-mcp.	Not listed
Open source	Not supportedClosed platform. The MCP server and framework integrations are MIT-licensed on GitHub.	PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.
Self-hosting	Not supportedHosted cloud service only	Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.
Local testing	PartialBrowser web calls test a voice agent without a phone number; no message simulator found.	Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.
Custom channel providers	Not listed	Not listed
Event replay	PartialFailed webhooks retry 5 times over about 20 hours; deliveries can be listed but not replayed.	SupportedDurable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	PartialAgentPhone block in Sim's no-code workflow builder; no Zapier, Make, n8n or GoHighLevel found.	Not listed
CRM integrations	Not listed	SupportedSalesforce managed package and HubSpot app.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	SupportedHosted voice mode runs calls from a system prompt; conversation state rides along in webhooks.	PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.
Agent framework integrations	SupportedVercel Chat SDK adapter, LangChain, CrewAI and OpenAI Agents SDK tools, Google ADK guide.	PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.
Streaming replies	PartialVoice only: NDJSON streamed webhook replies start speech on the first chunk.	Not listed
Agent group chats	PartialAgents can create and take part in iMessage groups; agent-to-agent groups are not described.	Not listed
Human handoff	PartialVoice only: cold transfer of a call to a transferNumber, by the AI or your webhook.	SupportedSlack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.
Audit logs	Not listed	Not listed
Message history API	SupportedConversations with paginated messages and custom metadata; call transcripts.	PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	Partial$5 starting credit, no card. Outbound calls need a top-up first.	Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.
Public pricing	Supported	Supported
No per-message fees	PartialiMessage lines and WhatsApp have no per-message charge; SMS is $0.02 a segment, MMS $0.03.	SupportedFlat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.
Uptime SLA	Not supportedTerms promise no uptime; SLAs only if set in an order or separate agreement.	Not listed
Isolated infrastructure	Not listedSub-accounts isolate agents, numbers and data per client; no dedicated infrastructure offer found.	SupportedDedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines
SOC 2 Type II	PartialSOC 2 Type I report as of July 30, 2026; Type II examination in progress.	Not listed
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases for processing.	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases and rights.

Feature

AgentPhone

Chert

iMessage messaging

iMessage

iMessage lines are a separate number type (type=imessage).

Group chats

iMessage groups arrive as one conversation with roster and sender; reply to the group id.

2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.

Group management

PartialStart a new group by listing recipients and rename it; adding or removing members is not documented.

Create, add or remove participants, and leave a group.

Group name and photo

PartialGroup name can be set by API; the group icon is only readable.

Set a group's display name and icon.

Mentions

Not listed

Tapbacks

Six classic tapbacks, custom emoji on newer lines; inbound reactions via agent.reaction.

Six standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.

Threaded replies

reply_to_message_id; also on WhatsApp.

Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.

Typing indicators

Send only, best-effort, auto-expires after a few seconds.

Best effort; group typing is not supported on every line.

Read receipts

Not listedThe pricing page mentions read receipts; no API or webhook for them is documented.

Mark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.

Edit and unsend

Not listed

PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.

Message effects

12 screen and bubble effects via send_style.

Apple send effects, validated against an allowed list.

Animated text effects

Not listed

Stickers

Not listed

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

Images, video and files by URL; several images arrive as a carousel on iMessage.

Upload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.

Live Photos

Not listed

live_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.

Rich link previews

Not listed

rich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.

Voice messages

Not listed

Native voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.

Contact cards

vCard files can be sent as media (listed as a supported MMS type).

Builds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.

Polls

Not listed

Enabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.

Chat backgrounds

Set or remove a background image per iMessage conversation.

Not listed

Location sharing

Not listedThe API has location endpoints returning coordinates per number, but their use is not described.

PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.

iMessage apps

Not listed

Live app cards

Not listed

Sender name and photo

PartialContact card sets a display name and avatar on the iMessage number; $250/month line only.

Native name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).

FaceTime calls

Not listed

Inbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.

Delivery status

PartialMessages carry a status and failure reason; no delivery or read webhooks are documented.

Per-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).

iMessage availability check

Live check of iMessage, SMS and RCS reachability for a number before sending.

Not listed

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

iMessage lines are ordered through the API and run by AgentPhone.

Chert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.

Dedicated numbers

US and Canada numbers at $3/month; dedicated iMessage lines at $250/month.

$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.

Shared numbers

Not listed

Free 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.

Bring your own number

Not listed

Line pooling

Not listed

Picks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.

SMS fallback

Falls back to SMS/MMS when iMessage is not available.

PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.

RCS fallback

iMessage-capable numbers deliver over RCS or SMS to non-Apple recipients.

Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.

Outbound-first messaging

PartialOutbound iMessage lines: 50 new contacts a day per line; inbound-only lines do not start chats; SMS needs 10DLC.

First send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.

Calls on the iMessage number

Not listed

PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.

Other channels

SMS

SMS and MMS; inbound works at once, outbound needs 10DLC.

PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.

RCS

BetaRCS Business Messaging is beta and concierge-onboarded: branded sender, quick-reply chips.

Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.

BetaBeta, enabled per account. Connect your own WhatsApp Business Account; Meta bills you.

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

Slack

Not supported

Not listed

Not supported

Not supportedNot offered

Phone calls

Inbound and outbound calls in webhook mode or hosted AI mode; also browser web calls.

Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.

Apple Messages for Business

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

One send endpoint for SMS, MMS, iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp; one agent.message webhook incl. voice.

PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.

Developer tools

REST API

TypeScript SDK

npm install agentphone

Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.

Python SDK

pip install agentphone

BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.

Other SDKs

Not listedDocs list only TypeScript and Python; an agentphone-go repo holds only a placeholder README.

BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.

CLI

Not listedNo own CLI found; numbers can be provisioned through the Stripe Projects CLI.

BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.

Webhooks

Project default webhook with per-agent overrides.

Multiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.

Signed webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and body, with a timestamp header for replay protection.

HMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.

MCP server

Hosted MCP server (mcp.agentphone.ai) and npm package agentphone-mcp.

Not listed

Open source

Not supportedClosed platform. The MCP server and framework integrations are MIT-licensed on GitHub.

PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.

Self-hosting

Not supportedHosted cloud service only

Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.

Local testing

PartialBrowser web calls test a voice agent without a phone number; no message simulator found.

Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.

Custom channel providers

Not listed

Event replay

PartialFailed webhooks retry 5 times over about 20 hours; deliveries can be listed but not replayed.

Durable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

PartialAgentPhone block in Sim's no-code workflow builder; no Zapier, Make, n8n or GoHighLevel found.

Not listed

CRM integrations

Not listed

Salesforce managed package and HubSpot app.

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

Hosted voice mode runs calls from a system prompt; conversation state rides along in webhooks.

PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.

Agent framework integrations

Vercel Chat SDK adapter, LangChain, CrewAI and OpenAI Agents SDK tools, Google ADK guide.

PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.

Streaming replies

PartialVoice only: NDJSON streamed webhook replies start speech on the first chunk.

Not listed

Agent group chats

PartialAgents can create and take part in iMessage groups; agent-to-agent groups are not described.

Not listed

Human handoff

PartialVoice only: cold transfer of a call to a transferNumber, by the AI or your webhook.

Slack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.

Audit logs

Not listed

Message history API

Conversations with paginated messages and custom metadata; call transcripts.

PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.

Plans and compliance

Free plan

Partial$5 starting credit, no card. Outbound calls need a top-up first.

Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.

Public pricing

No per-message fees

PartialiMessage lines and WhatsApp have no per-message charge; SMS is $0.02 a segment, MMS $0.03.

Flat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.

Uptime SLA

Not supportedTerms promise no uptime; SLAs only if set in an order or separate agreement.

Not listed

Isolated infrastructure

Not listedSub-accounts isolate agents, numbers and data per client; no dedicated infrastructure offer found.

Dedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines

SOC 2 Type II

PartialSOC 2 Type I report as of July 30, 2026; Type II examination in progress.

Not listed

GDPR

Checked on each provider's own site and docs on 2026-10-25. “Not listed” means the provider does not mention it.

Pricing

AgentPhone

Pay as you go with $5 of starting credit: $3 per number a month, $0.13 to $0.22 a voice minute and $0.02 per SMS segment, with iMessage lines at $150 or $250 a month and no per-message charge.

Pricing model: usage-based, flat per line for iMessage

Source

Chert

A free 24-hour trial includes 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line; Shared is $25 a month and a dedicated line is $250 a month, but paid checkout is paused.

Pricing model: flat monthly per line, with usage limits

Source