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Connect Exotel (full guide)

Production telephony for Indian outbound, on your own Exotel account. ~30 minutes end-to-end, including Exotel KYC.

Why Exotel?

Exotel is the most popular Indian telephony provider for SMB outbound calling, and it is the carrier every Cualify call runs on. Connect your own Exotel account and your calls are placed on it, from your ExoPhones, under your DLT registration. Transcripts and call results land in your Cualify dashboard.

Twilio and Plivo credentials can be stored in Cualify, but calls don't run on them today — Exotel is the only carrier calls are placed on.

Prerequisites

  • An Indian business entity (Pvt Ltd, LLP, Proprietorship, or registered MSME)
  • GSTIN + PAN for KYC
  • A bank account for prepaid wallet top-ups (Exotel is prepaid)
  • ~₹500 minimum top-up to start placing calls
No Exotel account? You don't need one. Ask for a Cualify number — an Indian ExoPhone from Cualify's own Exotel account, which our team assigns to your workspace (request the Cualify Dialer add-on during onboarding). Calls and inbound answering run on it with no carrier account, API keys or top-ups on your side. See /integrations/telephony → Cualify number.

Step 1 — Create an Exotel account

  1. Sign up at exotel.com → choose "Sales" as the use case
  2. Upload your KYC documents (GSTIN cert, PAN, address proof, signing authority's PAN) — usually verified within 1 business day
  3. Once approved, you'll get an Account SID like yourcompany1 and access to the Exotel dashboard at my.exotel.com
  4. Top up your Exotel wallet with at least ₹500 (Settings → Make a Payment)

Step 2 — Buy an ExoPhone

An ExoPhone is the Indian phone number your calls dial out FROM. It's also the number your recipient sees on their caller ID.

  1. In Exotel dashboard → ExoPhones (left sidebar)
  2. Click "+ Buy an ExoPhone" → pick a number you like
  3. Most ExoPhones are ₹100-200/month (separate from per-call charges)
  4. Within minutes the number is active and shows up under "My ExoPhones"

Pick a regular mobile or landline number. Toll-free and other service numbers (1800, 1860, 1900) take calls but can't be used as a caller ID, so Cualify never dials from them.

Step 3 — Ask Exotel to enable Connect Voice AI

Cualify places each call through Exotel's Connect Voice AI: Exotel rings your customer from your ExoPhone and, once they answer, streams the call's audio to your agent. Exotel switches this on per account.

  1. Write to Exotel support (or your Exotel account manager) and ask them to enable AgentStream / Connect Voice AI on your account
  2. Mention the Account SID so they enable the right account

Without it, calls from your account can't reach your agent. You can do Steps 4 and 5 while you wait.

Step 4 — Get your API credentials

You need 3 values from Exotel — copy them somewhere safe:

  1. Open Settings → API Settings on the Exotel dashboard
  2. Note the Account SID (the URL-friendly form, e.g. yourcompany1)
  3. Note the API Key
  4. Note the API Token

You don't need the API subdomain. Exotel runs two clusters (Mumbai and Singapore) and an account lives on one of them; Cualify finds yours when it verifies the credentials and remembers it.

Step 5 — Connect Exotel in Cualify

Only workspace admins and the owner can connect a carrier account.

  1. In Cualify, go to /integrations/telephony
  2. Under Connect a phone provider, pick the Exotel tile
  3. Paste the Account SID, API Key, and API Token. The connection name is just a label — Default is fine.
  4. Optionally enter the ExoPhone to call from in Outbound caller ID, in E.164 (e.g. +912248972262). Leave it blank and Cualify uses the first ExoPhone on your account that can be a caller ID.
  5. Click "Verify & connect" — we check the credentials with Exotel before saving. Nothing is stored if Exotel rejects them.

Once saved, campaigns, API calls and test calls dial from your ExoPhone on your Exotel account. Exotel bills those minutes to your Exotel wallet; Cualify bills its usage to your Cualify wallet.

Also have a Cualify number? A Cualify number assigned to your workspace is used first. Calls go out from your own Exotel account when the workspace has no Cualify number.

Want callers who ring your ExoPhone to reach your agent too? That takes one flow in Exotel's App Bazaar — see Answer inbound calls on your ExoPhone.

Step 6 — Test the full chain

  1. Back in Cualify, open an agent from Playbooks
  2. Find the Test panel on the right of the editor
  3. Type your phone in E.164 (e.g. +919812345678) — test calls go to Indian (+91) numbers
  4. Click "Call me"
  5. Your phone rings, showing your ExoPhone as caller ID

The usual call rules apply to test calls too: your workspace must be approved, your Cualify wallet needs a balance, and calls go out only within the TRAI calling window (09:00–21:00 IST). Make your first test call covers each of these.

Troubleshooting

Error: "Exotel rejected those credentials"

The Account SID, API Key or API Token is wrong — often a key that was rotated in Exotel. Copy all three again from API Settings. To update a saved connection, connect again with the same connection name; it's replaced in place.

Error: "The connected Exotel account has no ExoPhone to call from"

Your account has no ExoPhone that can be a caller ID (toll-free numbers don't count). Buy one (Step 2), or enter the one you want in Outbound caller ID and connect again.

Calls queue but never reach the agent

Check that Exotel has enabled AgentStream / Connect Voice AI on your account (Step 3), and that your Exotel wallet has balance. Exotel bills the calls placed on your account directly; Cualify never draws on your Exotel balance.

Calls dispatch but recipient says caller ID shows a different number

Exotel routes through their carrier partners; for some operator-to-operator paths the caller ID is masked. This is operator behavior, not configurable from Cualify.

What's next?