# Placing & receiving calls

At Messagebird we offer you several ways to place and receive voice calls. This article outlines each option.

**Placing a call** **via API**:

You can make and receive outbound calls with our Rest API via a simple JSON Request. You can find the full Voice API documentation, including error codes and their meaning, in our [Developers Documentation for Voice Calling](https://developers.messagebird.com/docs/voice-calling). It might be possible that you would have to whitelist our [SIP Server & connection details](/connectivity-platform/sip-trunking/sip-server-and-connection-details.md)

**Placing a call via SIP Trunking:**

Outbound calling is also possible through SIP Trunking which can be set up in the [Dashboard](https://dashboard.messagebird.com/en/sip-trunking). In our "[How to set up an outbound SIP Trunk](/connectivity-platform/sip-trunking/how-to-set-up-an-outbound-sip-trunk.md)" article you can find a full guide which explains how to set this up. please have a look at our [SIP Trunking articles.](/connectivity-platform/sip-trunking/sip-trunking.md) It might be possible that you would have to whitelist our [SIP Server & connection details](/connectivity-platform/sip-trunking/sip-server-and-connection-details.md)

**Receiving a call**:

To receive a call you will have to create a Flow using our [Flow Builder.](https://dashboard.messagebird.com/en/flow-builder) We have multiple [templates](https://dashboard.messagebird.com/en/flow-builder#templates) available for the voice solution. These vary from a simple forward call set-up to a full IVR template. In our "[How to set up an inbound SIP-Trunk](/connectivity-platform/sip-trunking/how-to-set-up-an-inbound-sip-trunk.md)" article you can find a few more examples of flows that you could use.

**How the calls are charged**

There are a few things to note when it comes to how we bill you, one of these things is that we charge voice calls by the second, not by the minute. Another thing to note is if you forward an incoming call to another number, that means that you are charged for two legs (the incoming call, and the outbound one)

As pricing differs per country we suggest to take a look at the overview of our pricing on our [Pricing Page](https://www.messagebird.com/en/pricing/api).


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