Features, pricing, and fit
Compare PolyAI Voice Assistants and Realtime API on voice capabilities, pricing, and fit.
Compare PolyAI and OpenAI Realtime for AI phone agents, then match channels, workflows, and deployment models to your call flow.
Enterprise voice-and-chat platform with Agent Studio, a Git-oriented Python ADK, REST APIs, knowledge/flows, and analytics.
Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Contact-center AI.
Model-level realtime API for text and audio input/output over WebRTC, WebSocket, or SIP, with function calling.
Product and engineering teams building a spoken application around a realtime model instead of a packaged contact-center product.
Explore its buying criteria: AI phone agents · Voice AI platforms.
Both profiles checked 2026-09-04.
Use the table below to compare each provider’s documented scope.
Before you decide
PolyAI: Not publicly documented OpenAI Realtime: Token-based API pricing for text, audio, and image modalities; audio input/output rates are published per million tokens. 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 PolyAI include Not publicly documented. For OpenAI Realtime, 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: PolyAI: Confirm current architecture, availability, call controls, data handling, language coverage, and complete cost in a scoped pilot. OpenAI Realtime: Not a turnkey contact center. Implement telephony operations, identity, tools, monitoring, evaluation, retention, and escalation.
Record your requirements and pilot results in the buyer worksheet →
Swipe or scroll the table to see every column.
| Criterion | PolyAI Voice Assistants | Realtime API |
|---|---|---|
| Provider type | Enterprise contact-center voice AI | Native realtime multimodal model API |
| Best fit | Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces. | Product and engineering teams building a spoken application around a realtime model instead of a packaged contact-center product. |
| Key capabilities | realtime voice conversations; tool or workflow integration; call controls | audio-to-audio conversation; WebRTC; WebSocket; SIP; tools |
| Team sizes | enterprise; contact centers | startup; mid-market; enterprise; developer |
| Call surfaces | phone / PSTN; API / SDK | WebRTC; WebSocket; SIP; API / SDK |
| Voice stack | Cascaded ASR-LLM-TTS architecture | Native audio input/output with tool calling |
| Telephony | Not publicly documented | SIP connection; carrier integration remains buyer responsibility |
| 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 | Not publicly documented | Token-based API pricing for text, audio, and image modalities; audio input/output rates are published per million tokens. |
| Pricing signal | Not publicly documented. | GPT-Realtime audio $32 per million input audio tokens and $64 per million output audio tokens. |
| Free plan or trial | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| What stands out | PolyAI exposes three build surfaces—Agent Studio, ADK, and APIs—over shared flows, knowledge, tools, and deployments; its voice path documents configurable ASR and TTS providers around the agent service. | GPT-Realtime accepts and returns audio directly, while the Agents SDK supplies transport helpers plus tools, guardrails, handoffs, and session history. |
| Considerations | Confirm current architecture, availability, call controls, data handling, language coverage, and complete cost in a scoped pilot. | Not a turnkey contact center. Implement telephony operations, identity, tools, monitoring, evaluation, retention, and escalation. |
Enterprise service teams that need managed voice agents plus visual, code-first, or programmatic build surfaces.
PolyAI exposes three build surfaces—Agent Studio, ADK, and APIs—over shared flows, knowledge, tools, and deployments; its voice path documents configurable ASR and TTS providers around the agent service.
Product and engineering teams building a spoken application around a realtime model instead of a packaged contact-center product.
GPT-Realtime accepts and returns audio directly, while the Agents SDK supplies transport helpers plus tools, guardrails, handoffs, and session history.
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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