Short answer: the fastest way to give code, or an AI agent, the ability to make a phone call in 2026 is an API that already owns the carrier, the voice model, the retries and the transcript. LumisReach exposes exactly that three ways: a REST API at api.lumisreach.com, a hosted MCP server at mcp.lumisreach.com that Claude, Cursor or any MCP client plugs into, and Lincoln AI, an agent that takes a whole job in plain language. One self-serve key works on all three, an API and MCP only plan is $20 per month credited back as usage, and a quick AI call is $0.20 per call plus $0.20 per minute.
Prices and limits below are LumisReach's published rates as of October 2026.
What does it take to make an AI phone call from code?
Reaching a real person by phone is mostly plumbing. Built from scratch, the list looks like this: buy a number, stand up SIP and media, wire a speech-to-text model, a language model and a text-to-speech voice (or a speech-to-speech model), handle retries and voicemail detection, register a brand and a 10DLC campaign and wait weeks before a text delivers, store audio, run transcription, write summaries, stitch everything to a contact record, and poll for call state. Then build the agent loop, the planning and the approval UI on top.
The LumisReach API collapses each of those into a request:
| Build it yourself | With the LumisReach API |
|---|---|
| Buy a number, stand up SIP and media, wire a voice model, handle retries and voicemail | POST a phone number and a goal. The agent calls, retries if nobody answers, and reports back |
| Register a brand and a 10DLC campaign, then wait weeks before a message delivers | Registered shared senders, so the first AI text goes out as approved traffic today |
| Provision a number, build an answering agent, bolt on transfers and booking | One request buys the number and configures the AI that answers its calls and texts |
| A mail provider, an Apple device for iMessage, a bot per chat app | Quick Email, Quick iMessage and Slack or Discord posts on the same key |
| Store audio, transcribe, summarize, attach to a contact | Transcripts, AI summaries, recordings, texts and emails per person, free to read |
| Poll for call state and diff it yourself | HMAC-signed call and SMS webhooks, with the full transcript on call.ended |
| Your own agent loop, planning and approval UI over dozens of APIs | Hand the whole task to Lincoln AI; it plans, runs the tools and asks before it spends |
How do you get from a key to a first call?
- Create a key. Settings, then Developer API, in the LumisReach app. The key is shown once and works across the whole v1 API and every MCP tool. Add a card under Billing for anything that costs money; reads are free.
- Connect your agent, or your code. Point Claude, Cursor or any MCP client at
https://mcp.lumisreach.com/mcpwith the key as a bearer header, or callhttps://api.lumisreach.com/api/v1directly. Every MCP tool is a thin wrapper over the same REST endpoint, so scopes, rate limits and tenant isolation behave identically. - Place a call. Send a number and a goal to
start_ai_phone_call(orPOST /v1/quick/ai-calls), then poll the job for per-destination status, the outcome and a summary of what was said. - Hand bigger jobs to Lincoln. When the task is more than one call, message Lincoln AI. It builds the campaign, imports the contacts, sets up the number, and stops for approval before anything that costs money.
- Own a number when you need one. When people need to call you back, or volume outgrows the shared pool, buy a number with its agent attached and subscribe to signed webhooks for every call and text.
No sales call, no number to buy and no brand registration stand between the key and the first conversation, because quick calls and texts go out from LumisReach's registered shared senders.
Connecting from Claude Code is one command:
claude mcp add --transport http lumisreach https://mcp.lumisreach.com/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $LUMISREACH_API_KEY"
What does an MCP session look like?
The tool calls below are what the agent sends on its own; the human only typed the two requests.
You: Call Dana at +1 415 555 0123 and find out if she still wants the quote. Try twice if she doesn't pick up.
start_ai_phone_call → job queued; get_quick_action_status → completed, goal_achieved
Agent: Dana picked up on the second try. She still wants the quote and asked for it by Friday.
You: Great. Ask Lincoln to put everyone who hasn't replied to last week's quote into a follow-up text campaign.
ask_lincoln → awaiting_approval: send_text_message to 14 contacts, $0.05 per message
The call, its recording and transcript, and the contact all land in the LumisReach workspace like any other conversation, so the humans on the team see what the agent did.
What does the API cover?
The same platform the dashboard runs on, not a preview shim. Each area is available as REST endpoints (more than 90) and, for the ones an agent needs, as MCP tools (37 at the time of writing):
- Quick agent actions. An AI phone call toward a goal with automatic retries and voicemail handling, an AI text thread that keeps answering replies, or a single text sent exactly as written. No number of your own required. Poll or cancel any job.
- Messaging. Quick Email to up to 20 people with no sending domain, Quick iMessage from a shared Apple line, or a post to a Slack or Discord channel connected by webhook URL.
- Numbers and their agents. Search, buy, configure and release numbers. Read and change everything on a number's answer page: voice, prompt, greeting, SMS auto-reply, knowledge, qualifying questions, booking, transfers, forwarding and the keypad menu.
- Contacts and history. Everyone you have called, texted or emailed, with speaker-labelled transcripts, AI summaries and tags per call, whole SMS threads, email history and raw recording audio. All free reads.
- Lincoln AI. Send it a task and it runs outreach campaigns, contacts and segments, email marketing, automations, bookings, knowledge, lead generation, social accounts and AI video. Threads show up in the dashboard too.
- Video. The Viral Videos studio through the Videos API and video-schedules API.
What does it cost?
| Action | Price |
|---|---|
| Quick AI phone call | $0.20 per call placed (including retries) plus $0.20 per minute, billed by the second |
| Quick AI text | $0.05 per outbound message; replies are free |
| Quick email | $0.01 per recipient |
| Quick iMessage | $0.10 per message |
| Your own AI phone number | $5 per month, with its calls and texts at your plan's rates |
| History, config and billing reads | Free |
| Lincoln through the API or MCP | AI model cost plus a small markup per message |
| API and MCP only plan | $20 per month, credited back as $20 of usage |
The API and MCP only plan is for developers who do not need the dashboard: the subscription is the monthly top-up, and the balance auto-refills from your card at a threshold you set. Current rates are on the pricing page.
How does this compare with Twilio, Vapi or Retell for developers?
Twilio gives you the carrier and nothing above it; Vapi and Retell give you a voice-agent pipeline you configure and host the logic for. All three are excellent if the phone agent is your product and you want to control every layer. LumisReach is the layer above: the agent already exists, the number is already registered, the text sender is already approved, and the transcript already lands on a contact. You trade control of the pipeline for a working result in minutes. For a deeper look at the platform side, see LumisReach vs Retell AI.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an API for making AI phone calls?
Yes. The LumisReach REST API places an AI phone call toward a goal with one request: send a phone number and a goal to the quick AI calls endpoint, and the agent calls, retries if nobody answers, handles voicemail and returns the outcome with a summary and transcript. Pricing is $0.20 per call plus $0.20 per minute.
What is an MCP server for phone calls?
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposes tools that an AI agent such as Claude or Cursor can call directly. LumisReach hosts one at mcp.lumisreach.com with 37 tools for placing AI calls, running AI text conversations, buying and configuring numbers, reading transcripts and delegating whole jobs to Lincoln AI. Connect with an API key as a bearer header over Streamable HTTP.
Do I need my own phone number to send an AI text or make a call?
No. Quick calls and quick texts go out from LumisReach's registered shared senders, so an agent can reach someone minutes after the key is created. Buy your own number for $5 per month when people need to call you back or volume outgrows the shared pool.
How much does the LumisReach API cost?
The API and MCP only plan is $20 per month, credited back as $20 of usage. Quick AI calls are $0.20 per call plus $0.20 per minute, quick texts $0.05 per message with free replies, quick emails $0.01 per recipient, and all reads of history, configuration and billing are free.
Can my AI agent spend money without asking?
Lincoln AI stops for approval before anything that costs money or cannot be undone, such as buying a number, sending a campaign or rendering a video, and shows the cost in the approval request. You can turn on auto-approve for tasks you trust it with.