LiveKit
Open-source framework for building real-time voice, video, and physical AI agents.
LiveKit is the go-to open-source platform for production voice AI agents, with unmatched flexibility and scalability. Turn Detector v1.0 and the new C++ SDK dramatically reduce latency. For developers needing full control, it outshines managed services like Vapi.
- Developers building production-grade voice AI assistants
- Creating real-time video agents for interactive applications
- Robotics control systems requiring low-latency streaming
- Enterprise telephony solutions needing custom conversational AI
- No-code or low-code projects requiring zero programming
- Simple static video streaming without AI logic
- Small-scale internal tools that don't need global scaling
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Skip LiveKit if you need a no-code voice agent builder or lack Python or Node.js development skills — it requires coding to set up and deploy.
Going past your plan's included agent session minutes incurs per-minute overage charges ($0.01/min for Build/Ship).
LiveKit's free Build tier is ideal for solo developers prototyping voice agents, but production teams should budget $50/mo (Ship) or $500/mo (Scale). Compared to managed services like Vapi or Bland AI, LiveKit saves on per-call fees if you have high volume, but inference costs can add up. Enterprise pricing is custom.
In short
LiveKit — Open-source framework for building real-time voice, video, and physical AI agents. Best for Developers building production-grade voice AI assistants, Creating real-time video agents for interactive applications, Robotics control systems requiring low-latency streaming. Free to start; paid plans from $50/mo.
What's new in LiveKit
Checked 15 days agoAcross the latest 5 updates: 5 feature updates.
Solving end-of-turn detection: LiveKit Turn Detector v1.0
Release of Turn Detector v1.0 for accurate end-of-turn detection in voice agents.
Teleoperate and collect robot data with LiveKit Portal
LiveKit Portal enables teleoperation and data collection for robotics.
Introducing the C++ SDK
New C++ SDK for LiveKit agents and media streaming.
Embed a voice agent on any website
New feature to embed voice agents directly into websites.
Detect voicemail and IVR with outbound phone agents
Outbound phone agents now detect voicemail and IVR menus.
Viability Score
How likely is LiveKit to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Open-source framework for voice/video/robotics agents
- Inference gateway for TTS, LLM, STT models
- Turn Detector v1.0 for accurate end-of-turn detection
- Noise cancellation
- C++ SDK for low-latency agents
- Embed voice agents on any website
- Outbound phone agent voicemail/IVR detection
- Custom voice support
- Multi-language SDKs (Python, Node.js, C++)
- Phone numbers and SIP telephony integration
- Full-stack observability per session
- Agent Console for real-time debugging
- LiveKit Portal for robotic teleoperation and data collection
- Global edge network for low-latency streaming
About LiveKit
LiveKit is an open-source framework and cloud platform for building, deploying, and scaling real-time AI agents — voice, video, and robotics. It powers billions of calls annually, including OpenAI's ChatGPT Advanced Voice. The platform provides an inference gateway for TTS, LLM, and STT models, global edge deployment, telephony integration, and full-stack observability per session. Key features include Turn Detector v1.0 for accurate end-of-turn detection, noise cancellation, a new C++ SDK for low-latency agents, and the ability to embed voice agents on any website. LiveKit integrates with major AI providers (Deepgram, OpenAI, Cartesia, ElevenLabs) and telephony services (Twilio). It offers plans from free ($0/mo) to Enterprise (custom). Its open-source nature gives developers full control over models, code, and infrastructure, differentiating it from proprietary alternatives like Vapi or Bland AI.
Behind the Verdict
If you're building a production-grade voice AI assistant and need total control over models and infrastructure, LiveKit is the obvious choice. Its open-source framework, combined with a managed cloud tier, offers flexibility no proprietary platform can match. The new Turn Detector v1.0 and C++ SDK directly tackle two of the biggest pain points in voice agents: latency and end-of-turn detection. When to pass? If you can't write code or want a drag-and-drop builder, LiveKit isn't for you. Compared to Vapi, LiveKit gives you full ownership of your agent pipeline — you choose your models, your code, your deployment. In practice, expect a steeper learning curve than managed services, but far better performance at scale. The per-minute pricing (starting at ~$0.0735/min for a typical pipeline) is competitive, but watch your inference credits — heavy model usage can add up.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas LiveKit actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You want to build a simple voice agent that can answer phone calls and respond to customer queries.
Outcome: In under 10 minutes, using the Python quickstart, you deploy a voice agent on LiveKit Cloud that handles inbound calls with GPT-5.5 and Cartesia TTS.
You need to scale an outbound appointment reminder bot that detects voicemail and integrates with your CRM.
Outcome: Using LiveKit's telephony integration and Turn Detector v1.0, you build and deploy an agent that leaves accurate voicemail messages and logs structured data to your database.
You need low-latency video streaming and voice commands to control a physical robot.
Outcome: With LiveKit Portal and the C++ SDK, you stream 4K video from the robot and issue voice commands via WebRTC with sub-200ms latency.
Use Cases
- Build a voice agent that answers phone calls and automates customer service with live interruption handling.
- Create a real-time video analysis agent that processes frames from a camera and provides spoken feedback.
- Deploy a telephony-based appointment booking bot with IVR replacement using the handoff pattern.
- Integrate a multimodal AI assistant into a website that sees the user's screen and responds with voice.
- Develop a physical robot that uses LiveKit to stream video and accept voice commands via WebRTC.
- Run a concurrent pipeline agent that collects structured data from customers during a phone conversation.
- Teleoperate robots and collect data using LiveKit Portal for physical AI training.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-07-14
Limitations
- Free tier (Build) has limited inference credits and only 1 free phone number; for production use, Ship ($50/mo) or Scale ($500/mo) is required.
- Telephony minutes are billed per minute on top of plan costs.
- Advanced features like HIPAA, SSO, and security reports are locked to Scale/Enterprise.
- Inference costs for LLM, STT, TTS add up (estimated $0.0735/min for a phone call).
as of 2026-07-02
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published LiveKit tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Build
$0/mo
Ideal for
Solo developer prototyping a voice or video agent with no upfront cost
What this tier adds
Free entry point with agent deployment, observability, inference credits, global edge network, 1 free phone number, session metrics, and community support.
Ship
Starting at $50/mo
Ideal for
Small team launching a production voice agent with custom voices
What this tier adds
Adds team collaboration, custom voices, instant rollback to a previous agent deployment, and email support for $50/mo.
Scale
Starting at $500/mo
Ideal for
Growing company needing HIPAA compliance and region pinning
What this tier adds
Adds role-based access, metrics export APIs, region pinning, security reports/HIPAA, and inference discounts for $500/mo.
Enterprise
Custom
Ideal for
Large organization with custom volume pricing and dedicated support
What this tier adds
Custom pricing with volume discounts, SSO, dedicated Slack channel, and support SLA.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where LiveKit's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
LiveKit's free Build tier is ideal for solo developers prototyping voice agents, but production teams should budget $50/mo (Ship) or $500/mo (Scale). Compared to managed services like Vapi or Bland AI, LiveKit saves on per-call fees if you have high volume, but inference costs can add up. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of LiveKit — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For a solo developer: deploy a basic voice agent in under 10 minutes using the Python quickstart. With telephony integration, expect 30 minutes to configure SIP and test calls. Robotics setup may take a few hours for hardware and SDK integration.
Switching to or from LiveKit
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Twilio Flex: use LiveKit's telephony API to replace Twilio Flex's IVR with AI agents, and port phone numbers via SIP.
- →From Vapi: migrate by refactoring your agent logic into LiveKit's Python/Node SDKs and connecting to your preferred LLM/STT/TTS models.
- →From Bland AI: export call logs and rewrite your conversational flows in LiveKit's AgentSession API for full control.
- →From Google Dialogflow: switch from Dialogflow's CX to LiveKit's real-time agent pipeline for lower latency and global edge.
- ↗To Twilio: extract your agent code and deploy it as a Twilio Studio or Twilio Serverless function using Twilio's APIs.
- ↗To Vapi: port your agent logic to Vapi's proprietary framework, but note you will lose open-source flexibility and multi-model support.
- ↗To Amazon Connect: reimplement your voice agent within Amazon Connect's flow designer and use Lambda functions for AI integration.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
- Resourcelivekit.io
The Handoff Pattern for Voice Agents That Replaces IVR Menus
Build voice agents that replace IVR menus with an LLM triage agent that routes calls to specialist AI agents or humans with full context and seamless transfers.
- Resourcelivekit.io
The ReAct Pattern for Voice Agents and How AI Agents Think, Act, and Respond
Learn the ReAct pattern for voice agents. See how Think, Act, Observe loops power tool calling so your agent can use APIs, databases, and workflows to solve real requests.
Official links
Tools that pair well with LiveKit
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside LiveKit, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Alternatives to LiveKit
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Ultra-realistic AI voice generation, voice cloning, and conversational agents.
Voiceitt
Voice AI that understands non-standard speech — for disabilities, aging, and accents
Wispr Flow
Voice dictation AI that polishes messy speech into clean text across every app
Frequently Asked Questions
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