How to compare AI interview vendors when pricing is not public
Jul 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Most AI interview vendors do not publish a price, so comparison turns into a series of sales calls that are hard to line up against each other. This is a practical way to compare them anyway, and to get a real number out of each one.
Compare at your volume, not theirs
The most useful move is to fix your own numbers before any call. Decide the number of candidates you expect to screen a month, the number of people on your team who need access, and the roles you hire repeatedly. Then ask every vendor to quote the all-in annual cost for exactly that. A quote built on your volume can be compared. A rate card cannot.
This also protects you from a common pattern, where the headline price is sized for a company much larger or smaller than yours and the gap gets made up in minimums or overage.
Can I just book demos and decide from those?
Demos are worth doing, and they are a poor comparison tool on their own. Every demo is run by the vendor on their best-prepared example, so you end up comparing sales craft. Two changes make them useful. Ask each vendor to run the demo on one of your real job descriptions, and ask to take the candidate side of the interview yourself rather than only watching the recruiter dashboard.
Taking the interview yourself surfaces what a dashboard tour hides, such as whether the follow-up questions are real or scripted, how it handles an accent, and how long it takes. If a vendor will not let you do that, note it.
The checklist to send every vendor
- All-in cost for our expected monthly volume, including overage.
- Is there an annual minimum or a multi-year term?
- Is there an implementation or onboarding fee?
- Do we pay per seat, per interview, or both?
- Can we use our own scoring rubric for a role?
- Which languages are supported for the interview itself?
- What does the candidate need, and is any install required?
- What do we get per candidate: score only, transcript, recording?
- How long from signing to the first live interview?
Send it by email to every vendor at once. Any serious vendor can answer it in one reply. The ones that cannot answer without a discovery call have told you something about how they sell.
Compare on time to value too
Price is half of it. The other half is how long it takes to get a working first interview out. Ask each vendor what setup actually involves. If it needs an integration project, a training period, or a services engagement before anyone is screened, that is real cost even when it is not on the invoice. A reasonable target is that you can create a role, add candidates, and have interviews running the same week.
What the candidate side tells you
Sitting the interview yourself answers questions a dashboard cannot. Whether the follow-up questions genuinely respond to what you said or run from a script. Whether the voice is easy to follow. How it handles an accent, a long pause, or a candidate who asks for the question again. How long it really takes.
Those details drive completion rate, and completion rate decides how many candidates you actually end up screening.
The mistakes that spoil comparisons
Three things spoil most vendor comparisons. Comparing headline prices sized for different volumes. Evaluating the recruiter dashboard while never experiencing the candidate side. And leaving contract terms until after a preferred vendor is chosen, when you have lost the room to negotiate. Fix all three by doing the volume, the candidate-side test, and the terms question at the start.
Where AI Interview Agents sits
AI Interview Agents publishes its plans, so it can be compared without a call. Pricing is usage-based, one credit covers 15 minutes of interview time, and there is no annual minimum. Candidates take the interview in a browser with no install, and every interview returns a transcript and a video recording alongside the score.