# Bolna API + MCP vs OpenAI Realtime API (slim)

> OpenAI Realtime scores 63.3 (B) to Bolna's 52.6 (D) for voice agents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bolna-vs-openai-realtime.md (~2,650 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bolna-vs-openai-realtime.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bolna-vs-openai-realtime
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

OpenAI Realtime API scores 63.3 (B) on agent readiness against Bolna API + MCP's 52.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Bolna API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do voice agents.

- Bolna API + MCP: D 52.6, rank #729 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bolna.min.md
- OpenAI Realtime API: B 63.3, rank #400 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-realtime.min.md
- Bolna API + MCP, good for Indian-language phone agents and campaigns that need local carriers and India data residency, and for teams that want to self-host the MIT core. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Maintenance & community, 76 against 52. Also Open source.
- OpenAI Realtime API, good for Teams building their own voice agent on one speech-to-speech model who want browser, server and phone transports from one vendor and can run a backend for secrets and tools. Ahead on Reliability, 67 against 50; Schema & documentation, 84 against 63; Agent ergonomics, 76 against 52; Security & auth, 61 against 44; Transparency & trust, 71 against 66.

| Category | Bolna API + MCP | OpenAI Realtime API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 67 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 63 | 84 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 52 | 76 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 44 | 61 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 76 | 52 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 66 | 71 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Bolna API + MCP | OpenAI Realtime API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Bolna | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.bolna.ai` | `https://api.openai.com/v1/realtime` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service. The service terms on openai.com were not read. The Agents SDK for TypeScript and the OpenAPI description are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 84 | none |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-07-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-13 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-03-28 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 779 stars, 579 npm/wk, 2.6k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |