Features, pricing, and fit
Compare LiveKit Agents and Retell AI on voice capabilities, pricing, and fit.
Compare LiveKit Agents and Retell AI for AI phone agents, Voice AI platforms, then match channels, workflows, and deployment models to your call flow.
Realtime agent framework and Cloud platform supporting STT-LLM-TTS pipelines, native realtime models, half-cascade paths, WebRTC, and telephony.
Engineering teams that want to choose pipeline architecture and pair agent infrastructure with their own application logic.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Voice AI platforms.
Hosted voice and chat agent platform built around either node-based conversation flows or single prompts, with telephony, tools, knowledge base, and analytics.
Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Voice AI platforms · Voice evaluation and observability.
Both profiles checked 2026-09-04.
Use the table below to compare each provider’s documented scope.
Before you decide
LiveKit Agents: Tiered monthly Cloud plans with included session/calling allowances and inference credits; Enterprise adds custom volume pricing. Retell AI: Pay-as-you-go per-minute component pricing with optional add-ons; Enterprise uses custom volume pricing and terms. Ask both vendors to quote the same expected workload, required channels, and implementation scope. Include required subscriptions and usage charges before comparing the total; the listed starting prices alone may cover different work.
The recorded knowledge and data sources for LiveKit Agents include Not publicly documented. For Retell AI, they include Not publicly documented. Ask each provider to demonstrate access for the exact systems you use, with permissions, freshness, and failure behavior. A source missing from this directory is not proof that a provider cannot support it.
Use the same representative calls, approved instructions, and escalation rules in both pilots. How does it handle interruption and uncertainty? Which actions can it complete, and which require approval? What context reaches a human during transfer? Record conversation quality, completed tasks, human handoffs, and total cost in the buyer worksheet. Check these specific cautions before launch: LiveKit Agents: Calculator values are examples, not universal quotes. Team owns logic, data policy, reliability, and contact-center operations. Retell AI: Component rates may not equal complete cost. Confirm concurrency, premium model/voice, transfer, storage, QA, and carrier charges.
Record your requirements and pilot results in the buyer worksheet →
Swipe or scroll the table to see every column.
| Criterion | LiveKit Agents | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Provider type | Realtime voice agent framework and infrastructure | Voice agent platform |
| Best fit | Engineering teams that want to choose pipeline architecture and pair agent infrastructure with their own application logic. | Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control. |
| Key capabilities | open-source framework; WebRTC; SIP; provider plugins; deployment tooling | inbound and outbound agents; flow builder; testing; analytics; functions; SIP |
| Team sizes | startup; mid-market; enterprise; developer | startup; mid-market; enterprise; developer |
| Call surfaces | WebRTC; SIP; phone / PSTN; mobile; web | phone / PSTN; API / SDK |
| Voice stack | Configurable pipeline with native realtime model support | Configurable STT-LLM-TTS pipeline with custom LLM option |
| Telephony | SIP trunking; carrier integration | managed numbers; SIP trunking; bring-your-own telephony |
| Call controls | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Languages | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Integrations | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Knowledge and data | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Pricing model | Tiered monthly Cloud plans with included session/calling allowances and inference credits; Enterprise adds custom volume pricing. | Pay-as-you-go per-minute component pricing with optional add-ons; Enterprise uses custom volume pricing and terms. |
| Pricing signal | Calculator examples include roughly $0.01 session, $0.01 telephony, $0.0014 LLM, $0.0058 STT, $0.03 TTS, and $0.01 observability; inputs vary. | Vendor range $0.07-$0.31/min; infrastructure $0.055, typical TTS $0.015, telephony $0.015, KB $0.005, guardrails $0.005, PII removal $0.01, and QA $0.10 after 100 minutes. |
| Free plan or trial | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| What stands out | LiveKit documents three pipeline modes—STT-LLM-TTS, speech-to-speech realtime, and half-cascade—alongside Cloud deployment, observability, inference credits, and telephony. | Retell documents two agent shapes—node-based flows and single prompts—and pairs them with built-in telephony, knowledge, tools, analytics, and MCP/API access. |
| Considerations | Calculator values are examples, not universal quotes. Team owns logic, data policy, reliability, and contact-center operations. | Component rates may not equal complete cost. Confirm concurrency, premium model/voice, transfer, storage, QA, and carrier charges. |
Engineering teams that want to choose pipeline architecture and pair agent infrastructure with their own application logic.
LiveKit documents three pipeline modes—STT-LLM-TTS, speech-to-speech realtime, and half-cascade—alongside Cloud deployment, observability, inference credits, and telephony.
Teams comparing a managed agent builder with both visual flow design and API/SDK control.
Retell documents two agent shapes—node-based flows and single prompts—and pairs them with built-in telephony, knowledge, tools, analytics, and MCP/API access.
Verify current pricing, limits, security, and required integrations directly with each provider before purchasing.
Test recognition, speech quality, interruptions, language switching, tool use, and human transfer with your own calls in the required language. Availability can vary by model, plan, and phone route.
DocsBot documents multilingual voice workflows and Japanese support. Verify the exact voice, phone path, and transfer behavior in your pilot. Review DocsBot language information ↗
Other providers’ language claims reflect cited vendor material; confirm Japanese and other required languages directly with each provider.
Listing does not imply endorsement or a performance guarantee. This directory is published by DocsBot. Editorial policy
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