Call center outsourcing costs by country

What it costs to outsource your call center in 18 countries, from $9 an hour in Kenya to $35 in the US, plus the English level and US time-zone overlap you get for the money.

Compare all 18 countries
$9–35/hr
Fully loaded, per agent$1,440 to $5,600 per agent per month

Depending on the country, an outsourced call center agent costs about $9 to $35 an hour, all in: roughly $12 in the Philippines, $15 in Mexico, and $35 onshore in the US.

Price is only part of the decision, so the index sets each country's voice rate beside its English proficiency and its live overlap with the US business day. Pick a country for the full breakdown.

Compare all 18 destinations

Ranked by typical voice rate, lowest first. Every figure is fully loaded, meaning wages, benefits, management, tools, and facilities are all included.

  1. 01KenyaAfrica$9/hr$7–12$1,440 /moEnglish 593 HighUS overlap Partial
  2. 02EgyptAfrica$12/hr$9–15$1,920 /moEnglish 459 LowUS overlap Partial
  3. 03PhilippinesAsia$12/hr$8–15$1,920 /moEnglish 569 HighUS overlap Minimal
  4. 04Dominican RepublicLatin America$13/hr$10–16$2,080 /moEnglish 503 ModerateUS overlap Full
  5. 05IndiaAsia$13/hr$8–18$2,080 /moEnglish 484 LowUS overlap Minimal
  6. 06South AfricaAfrica$13/hr$9–17$2,080 /moEnglish 602 Very HighUS overlap Partial
  7. 07TunisiaAfrica$13/hr$10–15$2,080 /moEnglish 498 LowUS overlap Partial
  8. 08ColombiaLatin America$14/hr$11–18$2,240 /moEnglish 480 LowUS overlap Full
  9. 09JamaicaLatin America$14/hr$11–18$2,240 /moEnglish NativeUS overlap Full
  10. 10MexicoLatin America$15/hr$12–20$2,400 /moEnglish 440 Very LowUS overlap Full
  11. 11MoroccoAfrica$16/hr$14–18$2,560 /moEnglish 492 LowUS overlap Partial
  12. 12Costa RicaLatin America$17/hr$14–20$2,720 /moEnglish 516 ModerateUS overlap Full
  13. 13RomaniaEurope$17/hr$12–22$2,720 /moEnglish 605 Very HighUS overlap Partial
  14. 14BulgariaEurope$18/hr$12–22$2,880 /moEnglish 594 HighUS overlap Partial
  15. 15PortugalEurope$24/hr$20–28$3,840 /moEnglish 612 Very HighUS overlap Partial
  16. 16PolandEurope$25/hr$18–32$4,000 /moEnglish 600 Very HighUS overlap Partial
  17. 17CanadaNorth America$32/hr$25–40$5,120 /moEnglish NativeUS overlap Full
  18. 18United StatesNorth America$35/hr$28–42$5,600 /moEnglish NativeUS overlap Full

The English column shows each country's national score on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025. BPO vendors hire well above the national average, so read it as a floor, not a ceiling. Per-month figures are the typical rate times 160 billable hours.

How vendors price it: hourly vs FTE vs per-ticket In-house vs outsourced: how to decide

Outsourcing costs by region

Typical voice rates run from $9 an hour in Africa to $35 in North America. Read down a column to compare neighboring markets head to head.

$9–16

Africa

$12–13

Asia

$13–17

Latin America

$17–25

Europe

$32–35

North America

Nearshore outsourcing: costs, benefits and tradeoffs The best BPO locations for call centers

Outsourcing costs, answered

How much does call center outsourcing cost by country?

From about $9 an hour in Kenya to $35 in the United States, fully loaded, across the 18 countries in the index. For a full-time agent, that is roughly $1,440 to $5,600 a month at 160 hours. The Philippines, the largest English-speaking outsourcing market, sits at $12 an hour, about $1,920 a month.

Which offshore customer service destinations offer the best cost savings?

On rate alone: Kenya ($9), then Egypt and the Philippines ($12), then India, South Africa and Tunisia ($13). Those are 63 to 74% cheaper than a US onshore agent at $35 an hour. English and time-zone overlap vary widely between them, which is why the index shows both beside the rate.

What is the cheapest nearshore option for US companies?

The Dominican Republic at about $13 an hour. Every Latin American and Caribbean country in the index works the US business day, and they range from $13 to $17: the Dominican Republic ($13), Colombia ($14), Jamaica ($14), Mexico ($15) and Costa Rica ($17).

Which native-English country is cheapest for call center outsourcing?

Jamaica at about $14 an hour, well below Canada ($32) and the United States ($35). All three work the US business day.

Is Poland or Portugal cheaper for pan-European support?

Romania ($17), Bulgaria ($18), Portugal ($24) and Poland ($25) are the four European markets in the index, cheapest first. Portugal is about $1 an hour cheaper than Poland, and both rate very high for English on the EF English Proficiency Index.

What does a BPO agent cost per month?

Multiply the hourly rate by 160 billable hours. Across the index, that runs from $1,440 per agent per month in Kenya to $5,600 in the United States, before any 24×7 premium.

Methodology and sourcesRate data v2026.2 · May 2026
  1. 01

    Rates are billable US dollars an hour, fully loaded, drawn from vendor disclosures and the contracts rethinkCX sees when running outsourcing engagements. Refreshed quarterly.

  2. 02

    Channel, complexity, and shift-premium multipliers come from Crescendo.ai 2026 and Business.com shift-differential data.

  3. 03

    English proficiency scores come from the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (123 countries). Time-zone offsets are standard time, per the IANA time-zone database.

Using this data. The BPO Cost Index is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You can republish the figures, chart them, or build on them, commercially or otherwise, as long as you credit the source: “rethinkCX BPO Cost Index, rethinkcx.com”.

Not sure which country fits?

Cost is one input. We help teams decide whether to outsource at all, which market fits their customers, and how to run a vendor once the contract is signed.

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