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Signals containing parameter trade‐offs are likely to be honest indicators of signaler quality because they are difficult to produce. Signals with a trill‐rate/bandwidth trade‐off have been described for many songbird species, one mouse, and one non‐human primate species. However, there were no reports about whether there is a vocal performance trade‐off in social calls of bats. This study investigated (1) a possible vocal performance trade‐off in territorial calls of male Great Himalayan leaf‐nosed bats, Hipposideros armiger, recorded from 9 locations in south China, and (2) the relationships between vocal performance (vocal deviation and consistency) and caller's quality (body mass) to determine whether vocal performance honestly indicates a caller's quality. Vocal deviation measures the deviation of a call relative to an extreme call and vocal consistency measures the spectral consistency across a string of syllables. Our results showed a significant negative correlation between syllable repetition rate and frequency bandwidth, suggesting a vocal performance trade‐off similar to the one in songbirds. Further, there was a significant negative relationship between body mass and vocal deviation, but no significant correlation between body mass and vocal consistency. This study provides the first empirical evidence for a vocal performance trade‐off of social calls in bats, and the potential for the level of performance to indicate caller quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]