Hear your first AI voice agent call with zero spend

The fastest way to evaluate an Orbit AI voice agent is a real phone call, and you do not need to buy a number first. A new organization can claim one free trial number from the shared pool, bind an agent to it, and listen to a live call before spending anything. This guide runs the whole loop once: claim, bind, call, listen, and then keep the number or hand it back before the 24-hour lease lapses.

1. Prerequisites

An active AI agent. If you do not have one yet, build and activate one in Build an AI agent from a prompt. Only active agents can answer calls; note the agent id (agt_…) from the AI Agents hub.
A fresh organization. The trial claim is for organizations evaluating Orbit. It returns 409 if your org already owns purchased numbers, and the free claim is one per org, lifetime. If your org has bought numbers before, or already used a trial, go straight to Buy numbers instead.
A mobile phone you can call from, so you hear exactly what your callers will hear.
An API key, if you prefer the API path. Every step below shows the dashboard and the equivalent curl.

Plan for one sitting of about five minutes: the lease clock starts the moment you claim.

export AGENT_ID="agt_..."   # the active agent from AI Agents

2. Claim the trial number

One call claims a number from the shared pool. It takes no request body:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/numbers/claim-trial" \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..."

A 201 returns the lease:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "poolAssignment_01j…",
    "phoneNumber": "+14155550100",
    "organizationId": "org_…",
    "assignedAt": "2026-10-24T09:00:00.000Z",
    "expiresAt": "2026-10-25T09:00:00.000Z",
    "lastUsedAt": "2026-10-24T09:00:00.000Z",
    "releasedAt": null
  }
}

Two facts decide how you schedule the tutorial:

The lease runs 24 hours. expiresAt is the deadline; when it passes, the number returns to the pool and stops ringing for you. There is no extension and no renewal.
The claim is one free claim, lifetime, per org. Claim when you are ready to run this guide end to end, not to have a look. Section 7 shows how to keep the same number permanently; if you let the lease lapse, the free claim is spent either way.

The claimed number also appears under Numbers in the dashboard alongside any numbers you buy later. A 409 means your org already holds an active trial or already owns purchased numbers; a 429 means the org used its one free claim on an earlier occasion.

3. Bind the agent to the number

In the dashboard, open Numbers, select the trial number, and under inbound routing choose AI agent, pick your active agent, and save. The equivalent API call sets the number’s inbound route to agent:

export PHONE_NUMBER="+14155550100"   # phoneNumber from the claim response

curl -s -X PUT "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/numbers/$PHONE_NUMBER/routing" \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "agent",
    "config": {
      "agentId": "'"$AGENT_ID"'"
    }
  }'

Read the route back to confirm it took:

curl -s "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/numbers/$PHONE_NUMBER/routing" \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..."

Expect "type": "agent" with your agentId in the response. If the write returns a 422, the config shape is wrong; if the agent id is rejected, the agent is not active or not in this workspace. The binding is per number: nothing else in your workspace changes.

4. Put the AI disclosure in the opening line

A PSTN call has no consent screen between the caller and the agent, so the disclosure lives in what the agent says when it answers. Make sure the agent’s opening line states that the caller is speaking with an AI assistant, and set your workspace posture under Settings → Compliance → AI Disclosure. AI disclosure pre-publish setup & evidence walks through choosing the regimes that apply to your traffic and verifying the notice actually renders. Do this before you dial: your own test call is the moment to hear the notice the way a caller will.

5. Hear it two ways

From your mobile. Dial the number. Within a couple of seconds you should hear the agent’s greeting, disclosure included. Ask something the agent knows, interrupt it mid-sentence, and, if you configured a handoff, ask for a human. From the dashboard. On the voice page, the softphone’s Place test call dials your own number, so you can run the loop without picking up a separate phone: press it and answer the call it places to you. Either way, while the call is live, open Voice → Calls and watch the row appear with its status. When the call ends, the row keeps the duration, the disposition, and links into the recording and transcript. Run both paths if you can: the mobile call confirms the PSTN route your callers will use, and the dashboard call is the loop you will reuse every time you tweak the prompt.

6. Read the result

After the call, three surfaces tell you how the agent did:

Transcript and tool history. Open the call’s conversation to see every turn, including which tools the agent called and what they returned. Debug an agent conversation walks through reading it.
Quality score. Voice agent quality (VAQI) explains the per-call score and its components, so a bad call tells you whether understanding, latency, or task completion was the problem.
The call log entry. The row in Voice → Calls carries the duration, disposition, and recording for the call you just placed.

Then close the loop: tighten the prompt, call again. Agent changes apply to the next call; no re-bind needed, and every iteration is free while the lease runs.

7. Before the 24 hours lapse

When the evaluation is done, decide what happens to the number:

# Keep the exact number, permanently
curl -s -X POST "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/numbers/purchase-trial" \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..."

# Or hand it back to the pool
curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/numbers/release-trial" \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..."

purchase-trial converts the trial into a dedicated number and keeps the exact DID your agent already answers on; the lease deadline stops applying. release-trial returns the number to the pool immediately. If you do nothing, the lease simply expires at expiresAt, but the free claim is spent either way, so release only when you are sure you will provision a different number. Buy a DID instead of converting when your requirements outgrow the pool: you need a specific area code, a particular line type, or capabilities the shared pool does not guarantee. Buy numbers covers search, capabilities, and regulatory holds; Number Lifecycle covers renewals and expiry for numbers you own.

8. Common misconfigs

Agent not active. A draft or paused agent cannot answer; the routing picker lists active agents only, and the API rejects any other status. Activate the agent under AI Agents, then save the binding again.
Old route type still bound. The call rings a person, an IVR, or a queue because the number still carries its previous route. Read the route back and confirm "type": "agent".
Quiet hours mute the call. Business hours or quiet hours set on the number or the workspace mute calls outside their window. Check the schedule before suspecting the agent.
Lease lapsed mid-tutorial. At expiresAt the number returns to the pool without further notice. If more than 24 hours passed since the claim, continue on a purchased number.

WhatsApp

Developer console

Contact center

Guides

Messaging Controls

Audience & Support Tools

Hear your first AI voice agent call with zero spend

Hear your first AI voice agent call with zero spend

1. Prerequisites

2. Claim the trial number

3. Bind the agent to the number

4. Put the AI disclosure in the opening line

5. Hear it two ways

6. Read the result

7. Before the 24 hours lapse

8. Common misconfigs

See also

​Hear your first AI voice agent call with zero spend

​1. Prerequisites

​2. Claim the trial number

​3. Bind the agent to the number

​4. Put the AI disclosure in the opening line

​5. Hear it two ways

​6. Read the result

​7. Before the 24 hours lapse

​8. Common misconfigs

​See also

Hear your first AI voice agent call with zero spend

1. Prerequisites

2. Claim the trial number

3. Bind the agent to the number

4. Put the AI disclosure in the opening line

5. Hear it two ways

6. Read the result

7. Before the 24 hours lapse

8. Common misconfigs

See also