Exotel

Overview

Exotel was founded in 2011 in Bengaluru and sells cloud telephony, messaging APIs and an AI contact center, mostly to enterprises in India and nearby markets. It says it handles 25B+ interactions a year. For messaging customers it offers SMS with DLT-approved templates and sender IDs, the WhatsApp Business Platform and RCS, which it positions as a fallback for WhatsApp.

Key features

• Voice APIs, ExoML call flows, SIP trunking and voice streaming for AI voice bots
• SMS API and no-code SMS campaigns, WhatsApp and RCS messaging
• REST APIs, SDKs, low-code workflows and webhooks
• AI voice and chat agents with handoff to human agents
• Exotel MCP Server (beta) at mcp.exotel.com that lets Claude and other MCP clients send SMS, place calls and run voice bots; the client setup repo is MIT-licensed

Pricing

API prices are not shown on the pages checked; the pricing page points to sales for custom plans. A 7-day trial includes ₹500 in call and SMS credits.

How it compares to Linq

Exotel has no iMessage. Both cover SMS and RCS, and both publish an MCP server. Exotel adds WhatsApp, outbound and inbound calling and its own AI voice agents, while Linq's API only forwards inbound calls and its WhatsApp API is in beta. Linq publishes a flat monthly price from $260 with no per-message fees.

Best for

Businesses in India that need voice, SMS and WhatsApp with AI agents and a contact center on one platform.

Sources

• exotel.com
• exotel.com/about-us
• exotel.com/pricing
• exotel.com/products/communication-cpaas
• exotel.com/products/business-messaging
• exotel.com/products/sms
• exotel.com/products/rcs
• exotel.com/products/exotel-model-context-protocol
• github.com/exotel/ExotelMCP