Connect Twilio (full guide)

When to pick Twilio over Exotel

Twilio is the right choice when your AI agent calls outside India — US, UK, EU, SEA, LATAM, ANZ. It's the global standard, has the broadest country coverage, and most ops teams already know it.

For India-only outbound, Exotel is usually cheaper per-minute and plays better with DLT registration. You can connect both side-by-side in Cualify and pick per campaign.

Prerequisites

• An email address + a phone number Twilio can SMS for verification
• A credit card for the initial $20 top-up (Twilio is prepaid)
• ~5 minutes to complete the post-signup questionnaire

Trial mode caveat: Twilio trial accounts can only call verified recipient numbers and prepend "you have a trial account" to every call. Top up at least $20 to leave trial mode — required for any real customer call.

Step 1 — Create a Twilio account

1. Sign up at twilio.com/try-twilio
2. Verify your email (link in inbox) and phone number (SMS code)
3. Twilio asks 4 onboarding questions: "What are you building?" → pick Voice / IVR. "Will you write code?" → Yes. Doesn't affect functionality, just the dashboard tour.
4. Open Billing → Pay-as-you-go and top up at least $20. This exits trial mode immediately.

Step 2 — Buy a phone number

Your AI agent will dial out FROM this number, and it's what your recipient sees on caller ID. Pick one in the country you'll mostly call (US for US, UK for UK, etc.) — Twilio routes most country-to-country combinations but per-minute rates are lower when the FROM and TO are in the same country.

1. Twilio console → Phone Numbers → Manage → Buy a number
2. Filter by country, capability = Voice
3. Pick a number (~$1.15/mo for US, more for vanity / mobile)
4. Click Buy. Number is active within seconds.

Step 3 — Get Account SID + Auth Token

1. Twilio console home page (the one that loads on sign-in)
2. Top-right Account Info card shows Account SID (starts with AC followed by 32 hex chars) and Auth Token (32 chars, masked — click the eye icon to reveal)
3. Copy both somewhere safe

Security note: Twilio's Auth Token is full-access — anyone with it can drain your balance. For production, rotate it after this one-time setup (Console → Settings → Auth Tokens → Promote a new Auth Token). Cualify only stores the value AES-256 encrypted; we never log it.

Step 4 — Connect Twilio in Cualify

1. In Cualify, go to /integrations/telephony
2. Click the Twilio tile
3. Paste your Account SID + Auth Token
4. Click Verify & connect — we hit Twilio's Accounts API to confirm the credentials work before saving. Nothing is persisted if Twilio rejects them.

Once saved, Cualify can dispatch calls through your Twilio account. The test-call panel auto-discovers your purchased number as the FROM.

Step 5 — Configure Bolna's Twilio provider

Same as Exotel — our voice infrastructure (Bolna) needs its own connection to your Twilio account. One-time setup.

1. Sign in at platform.bolna.ai
2. Open Providers → + Add Provider → pick Twilio
3. Paste the same Account SID + Auth Token from Step 3
4. Unlike Exotel, Twilio doesn't need an App ID — Twilio's TwiML model handles routing differently. Just save.

Step 6 — Add your number to Bolna's My Numbers

1. In Bolna sidebar → My Numbers
2. Your Twilio number should auto-appear. If it doesn't, click + Add Phone Number → pick Twilio → enter the number in E.164 format (e.g. +14155552671)

Test the full chain

1. Back in Cualify, open any playbook
2. Open the Test call to me panel
3. Type any phone number (your account is in pay-as-you-go now, no verification needed)
4. Click Dispatch test call
5. The recipient's phone rings, showing your Twilio number as caller ID

Troubleshooting

Error: "Twilio rejected those credentials"

You probably copied the Account SID as Auth Token by mistake, or rotated the Auth Token after the initial setup. Re-fetch both from the console and try again.

Calls fail with "Permission to send an SMS has not been enabled"

For voice we don't need SMS permissions, but Twilio sometimes shows this on the API response. Check Twilio console → Geo Permissions → enable the destination country for Voice. India + many APAC countries are disabled by default to prevent toll fraud.

Recipient says "this is a Twilio trial account" plays before greeting

You're still in trial mode. Top up at least $20 in Billing → Pay-as-you-go to remove the trial preamble.

What's next?

• Connect Exotel too if you also do India outbound — run both side-by-side per campaign
• Wire Cualify into your CRM