Step 1: Sign up everywhere · Voice AI Guide

Take a breath. This is the boring part. Once you are through it, the fun begins.

All five services have free tiers or trial credit. You will not pay anything during this step. Two of them will ask for a card on file later (Twilio and Google Cloud, but Google Cloud only if you exceed a generous free quota, which you will not).

Open Chrome. Open five new tabs. Walk through each card below. Click the signup link, follow their flow, then come back and tick the checkbox.

ElevenLabs

Voice agent · ~3 min

Powers the voice itself. Your agent's brain and mouth. Sign up, verify email, that is it. Free tier works for testing; you only need a card later when you make real outbound calls.

I'm signed up

Twilio

Phone & WhatsApp · ~5 min

Provides the actual phone line your agent dials from, and the WhatsApp connection you message it from. Sign up, verify your real phone, add a card. Twilio gives you trial credit; add $20 when prompted to skip the verification limits.

I'm signed up

Cloudflare

Hosting · ~3 min

Hosts the small piece of code that connects WhatsApp to your voice agent. Free, no card required. The free tier covers a hundred thousand requests a day, far more than personal use will ever need.

I'm signed up

Google account

Email & calendar · ~1 min

You almost certainly already have one. This is the Gmail and Calendar account your agent will read from and write to. If you have a Workspace account through work, you can use that, but personal Gmail is simpler and we recommend starting there.

I have one ready

Google Cloud

API access · ~5 min

Free with your Google account. You will use the Google Cloud Console to enable Gmail and Calendar APIs and create OAuth credentials in step 6. No project needed yet, just sign in once so the dashboard is familiar.

I'm signed in

Optional: install Node.js

Only if you plan to use the terminal route in step 4 and step 5. Browser-route users can skip this entirely.

You are good to go. Click next. The browser route handles everything in chapter four and five through Cloudflare's web dashboard, no Node.js required.

Node.js is the runtime. Wrangler (the Cloudflare CLI) needs it.

On Mac

Open Chrome. Go to brew.sh. Copy the install command shown on the homepage.
Open Terminal (Cmd+Space, type "terminal"). Paste the brew install command. Hit Return. Follow the prompts.
When brew finishes, run brew install node in the same Terminal window.
Verify with node -v. You should see v20 or higher.

On Windows

Open Chrome. Go to nodejs.org.
Download the LTS installer (the green button on the left).
Run the installer. Click Next through every screen. Use the defaults.
Open PowerShell (Windows key, type "powershell"). Run node -v. You should see v20 or higher.

Save the credentials

As you sign up for each, you will be given identifiers and keys. Save them somewhere you can find again. A note in your Apple Notes or Google Keep is fine.

What to save now: Twilio Account SID, Twilio Auth Token, ElevenLabs API key. You will collect more values as you go. The progress widget bottom-right does not save credentials; you do.

Where to find them

ElevenLabs API key. In the EL dashboard, click your avatar (top right) → API Keys → create a new one. Copy and save.
Twilio Account SID and Auth Token. On the Twilio Console homepage, scroll to "Account info" near the bottom. Both values are there. Click "show" on the auth token to reveal it.

When all five cards above show "I'm signed up" and your credentials are saved, click next.

Sign up everywhere.

Optional: install Node.js

On Mac

On Windows

Save the credentials

Where to find them