# AssemblyAI Voice Agent API vs LiveKit Agents (slim)

> LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) to AssemblyAI Voice Agent's 64.4 (B) for voice agents. LiveKit Agents is cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.075 per minute of call. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-livekit-agents.md (~3,350 tokens) · this version ~830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-livekit-agents.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-livekit-agents
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-18
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against AssemblyAI Voice Agent API's 64.4 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do voice agents. LiveKit Agents is cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.075 per minute of call.

- AssemblyAI Voice Agent API: B 64.4, rank #387 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-voice-agent.min.md
- LiveKit Agents: BB 72.5, rank #104 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-agents.min.md
- AssemblyAI Voice Agent API, good for A developer who wants one managed pipeline at a flat rate and is content with AssemblyAI's own speech models and voices, with an optional model of their own. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5.
- LiveKit Agents, good for Teams writing their own voice agents in Python or Node.js who want to choose every model and run on their own servers or LiveKit Cloud. Ahead on Reliability, 67 against 60; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 72; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Maintenance & community, 85 against 64; Transparency & trust, 82 against 66. Also Cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.075 per minute of call; Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Open source.

| Category | AssemblyAI Voice Agent API | LiveKit Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 67 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 83 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 72 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 62 | 62 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 64 | 85 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 66 | 82 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AssemblyAI Voice Agent API | LiveKit Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | AssemblyAI, Inc. | LiveKit Incorporated |
| Hosted endpoint | `wss://agents.assemblyai.com/v1/ws` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Price for voice agents | $0.075 per minute of call | $0.01 per minute of call |
| Licence | Proprietary service under AssemblyAI's Terms of Service. The two starter repositories on GitHub carry no licence file | Apache-2.0 for the framework and plugins. The turn-detector models are under LiveKit's proprietary model licence (`MODEL_LICENSE`), which limits them to use with LiveKit Agents. LiveKit Cloud and LiveKit Inference are closed services under LiveKit's terms |
| Last release | 2026-08-26 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-01 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-26 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | none | 15k stars, 820k npm/wk, 1.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |