Handle inbound calls with Bolna voice AI agents

How to set up inbound calls with Bolna?

To handle incoming calls with your Bolna Voice AI agent, you need to assign a phone number to your agent. When someone calls that number, your agent will automatically answer and have a conversation based on your configured prompts and settings.

You will need to assign a phone number to your Bolna Voice AI agent for automatically answering all incoming calls on that phone number

What are my options for getting a phone number?

Method 1. Purchase a phone number from the Bolna Dashboard.

Please refer to a step by step tutorial for purchasing phone numbers on Bolna.

Purchasing phone numbers on Bolna

Method 2. Connect your telephony account and use your own phone numbers.

Connect your Twilio account

Use your own Twilio phone numbers with Bolna

Connect your Plivo account

Use your own Plivo phone numbers with Bolna

Connect your Vobiz account

Use your own Vobiz phone numbers with Bolna

Connect your Exotel account

Use your own Exotel phone numbers with Bolna

Method 3. Connect your own carrier over a SIP trunk.

Point numbers from your own SIP carrier at Bolna with a SIP trunk. Trunk numbers appear in the Inbound number dropdown below with your other numbers, and you can also assign their agents on the trunk’s Numbers tab. Over the API, a trunk number is not listed by /phone-numbers/all: assign its agent with PATCH /trunk/numbers/{number_id} instead of the API steps below. See Receive calls on a SIP trunk.

How to set up inbound calls from the dashboard?

Inbound settings live inside Agent Studio → Calling tab → Inbound Calling (see the Inbound Calling settings for the full reference).

Open the Calling tab and turn on Inbound Calling

Select your agent in Agent Studio, open the Calling tab and switch on the Inbound Calling toggle.

Inbound Calling card in the Calling tab of Agent Studio with the toggle switched off — Inbound Calling toggle in the Calling tab

Choose the phone number to assign to the agent

Open the Inbound number dropdown and pick one of your purchased or connected numbers. If you don’t have one yet, choose Purchase new number.

Inbound number dropdown open inside the Inbound Calling card, with a search box and a Purchase new number option — Select an inbound number for the Bolna Voice AI agent

Save the agent

Optionally configure a caller database and spam prevention below the number, then click Save agent. The number now answers calls with this agent.

Inbound Calling card enabled, showing the Inbound number selector, Database for inbound phone numbers and Spam Prevention Settings — Inbound Calling settings unlocked after enabling the toggle

How to set up inbound calls using APIs?

Step 1. Use List Phone Numbers API to list all available phone numbers.

curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.bolna.ai/phone-numbers/all \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'

[
  {
    "id": "3c90c3cc0d444b5088888dd25736052a",
    "humanized_created_at": "5 minutes ago",
    "created_at": "2024-01-23T05:14:37Z",
    "humanized_updated_at": "5 minutes ago",
    "updated_at": "2024-02-29T04:22:89Z",
    "renewal_at": "17th Dec, 2024",
    "phone_number": "+19876543210",
    "agent_id": "3c90c3cc-0d44-4b50-8888-8dd25736052a",
    "price": "$5.0",
    "telephony_provider": "twilio",
    "rented": true
  }
]

Step 2. Use Set Inbound Agent API to assign a phone number for Bolna Voice AI agent.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.bolna.ai/inbound/setup \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "agent_id": "3c90c3cc-0d44-4b50-8888-8dd25736052a",
  "phone_number_id": "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000"
}'

{
  "url": "https://api.bolna.ai/inbound_call?agent_id=3c90c3cc-0d44-4b50-8888-8dd25736052a&user_id=28f9c34b-8eb0-4af5-8689-c2f6c4daec22",
  "phone_number": "+19876543210",
  "id": "3c90c3cc0d444b5088888dd25736052a"
}

Next steps

Ready to start receiving inbound calls? Configure your agent and explore related features:

Make outbound calls to complement your inbound setup
Supported telephony providers for integration options
Call transfer functions to route to human agents
Monitor call status in real-time

For 24/7 automated support, combine inbound calling with guardrails and custom prompts.

Build

Deploy

Monitor

Go live

Handle inbound calls with Bolna voice AI agents

How to set up inbound calls with Bolna?

What are my options for getting a phone number?

Method 1. Purchase a phone number from the Bolna Dashboard.

Method 2. Connect your telephony account and use your own phone numbers.

Connect your Twilio account

Connect your Plivo account

Connect your Vobiz account

Connect your Exotel account

Method 3. Connect your own carrier over a SIP trunk.

How to set up inbound calls from the dashboard?

How to set up inbound calls using APIs?

Step 1. Use List Phone Numbers API to list all available phone numbers.

Step 2. Use Set Inbound Agent API to assign a phone number for Bolna Voice AI agent.

Next steps