# Deepgram Voice Agent API vs Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)

> Deepgram Voice Agent API has a score of 68.4 (B) against Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)'s 57.3 (C). Both do voice agent. The largest gap is security & auth, 44 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Deepgram Voice Agent API has a score of 68.4 (B) against Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)'s 57.3 (C). Both do voice agent. The largest gap is security & auth, 44 points.

- Deepgram Voice Agent API: grade B, 68.4/100, rank #126 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepgram-voice-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepgram-voice-agent.json
- Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface): grade C, 57.3/100, rank #296 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hume-evi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hume-evi.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Deepgram Voice Agent API for security & auth (+44), maintenance & community (+20), transparency & trust (+13).

Pick Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Deepgram Voice Agent API | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 55 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 90 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 66 | Deepgram Voice Agent API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 27 | Deepgram Voice Agent API +44 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 37 | Deepgram Voice Agent API +3 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 65 | Deepgram Voice Agent API +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 67 | Deepgram Voice Agent API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.4 · B** | **57.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Deepgram Voice Agent API | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Deepgram | Hume AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://agent.deepgram.com/v1/agent` | `https://api.hume.ai/v0/evi` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio, SSE (legacy) | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-08-18 |
| Popularity | 468 stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 805k PyPI/wk | 180 stars, 79k npm/wk, 24k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Deepgram Voice Agent API.** $0.075 a minute all in on Standard, $0.050 with your own LLM and TTS, $200 of credit with no card. No phone numbers or SIP, so you bridge Twilio or another carrier yourself.

**Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface).** Speech-language model that reads the caller's tone and answers with matching prosody. One account-wide key, sent in the WebSocket and Twilio webhook URLs.

## Before you call either

### Deepgram Voice Agent API

1. Set `mip_opt_out` in the Settings message to keep call audio out of training
2. Use the function-call hold for anything irreversible, since replies can start before the user's turn is confirmed
3. Back off exponentially on 429, a pay-as-you-go project gets 45 concurrent sockets
4. Pin the LLM version, an unpinned Gemini route failed for 1.5 hours on 21 July 2026
5. Mint browser tokens with `ttl_seconds`, not `ttl`, or they expire after 30 seconds

### Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)

1. Create a config with a voice first, EVI 3 has no default
2. Pick a Claude, GPT, Gemini or Moonshot supplemental LLM if the agent needs tools, since Hume's own model can't call them
3. Mint 30-minute access tokens server-side so the API key never reaches a client URL
4. Turn on 'Do not retain data' and 'Do not use for training' at app.hume.ai before sensitive calls
5. Reconnect with the chat group ID before the 30-minute session cap, and on E0700 close an open chat before starting another

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