Compare realtime APIs
Pick up to four APIs from any category and see them side by side.
| LiveKit Agents + LiveKit Cloud LiveKit | Pipecat + Pipecat Cloud Daily | Plivo Voice + Audio Streaming Plivo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Platforms | Platforms | Platforms |
| Status | GA | GA | GA |
| Est. per minute | $0.03 - 0.08 | $0.03 - 0.10 | $0.03 - 0.10 |
| How that was worked out | LiveKit's own calculator default is $0.0479/min (agent session $0.01 + telephony $0.01 + STT $0.0075 + LLM $0.0014 + TTS $0.009 + observability $0.01). Low end: WebRTC only, cheap STT/TTS, small LLM. High end: phone calls, premium TTS (Cartesia/ElevenLabs class) and a larger LLM. Speech-to-speech realtime models cost much more and are priced in the model segment. | $0.01 agent-1x hosting + ~$0.005-0.01 STT + ~$0.002-0.02 LLM + ~$0.015-0.05 TTS (provider list prices, billed by providers) + $0 for 1:1 WebRTC or $0.018 for Daily PSTN. Not a vendor figure; it is an assembly of the listed rates with typical provider prices. | $0.0055-$0.0115 telephony + your own STT/LLM/TTS ($0.02-$0.09). Not a vendor figure. |
| Pricing model | usage | usage | per-minute |
| Free tier | Build plan: 1,000 agent session minutes/month, $2.50 inference credit, 1 US number with 50 inbound minutes, no credit card. | Page says 'Start building for free'; 1:1 Daily WebRTC voice labelled free; Krisp free up to 10k min/month. No explicit credit amount found. | Not verified. |
| Connects by | WebRTC, SIP, PSTN | WebRTC, WebSocket, SIP, PSTN | PSTN, SIP, WebSocket |
| Audio in | Opus over WebRTC; SIP/PSTN calls bridged in | Daily WebRTC (Opus), WebSocket serializers for Twilio/Telnyx/Plivo/Vonage (8 kHz mu-law or PCM) | mu-law 8 kHz or L16 8/16 kHz over WebSocket |
| Audio out | Opus over WebRTC; telephony codecs on SIP legs | Same as input | playAudio events with base64 audio, 8000 or 16000 Hz |
| Languages | Depends on the chosen STT/TTS/LLM; LiveKit Inference restricts to EU-hosted models for EU agents. | Depends on chosen providers. | Your models. |
| Latency (vendor claim) | No single vendor number verified; depends on models and region. | No vendor number verified. | Not applicable (transport). |
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| High-severity warnings |
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| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II (Security, Availability, Confidentiality) and GDPR per LiveKit security page; HIPAA/BAA not verified. | Not verified in this research for Pipecat Cloud (ask Daily for SOC 2/HIPAA terms). | Not verified in this research. |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | No |
| Last checked | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-10 |
| Key numbers and features | |||
| Platform $/min | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0 |
| All-in price | No | No | No |
| Entry plan $/mo | $50 | $0 | $0 |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | - |
| Free credit $ | $2.5 | - | - |
| Phone numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Own LLM | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Own keys | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No-code | - | - | - |
| Recording | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Noise cancel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Smart turns | Yes | Yes | - |
| Latency ms | - | - | - |
| Languages | - | - | - |
| Max session min | - | - | - |
| Concurrency | 20 | - | - |
| WebRTC | Yes | Yes | - |
| WebSocket | - | Yes | Yes |
| Phone / SIP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | - | - | - |
| SOC 2 | Yes | - | - |
| EU data | Yes | - | - |
| Self-host | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes | No |
| High warnings | 0 | 0 | 0 |