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Head to head · Voice agents · October 2026 research run

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs GPT-Live

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against GPT-Live's 66.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do voice agents.

Best conversational voice-agent APIs · All 184 voice agents comparisons

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCPElevenLabs · HTTP API BB71.3/100#138 of 1133 GPT-LiveOpenAI · HTTP API B66.8/100#296 of 1133

Which one, for what

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP BB

Best for Teams that want a managed pipeline with ElevenLabs voices, a choice of LLM, wide telephony integration and web and mobile SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 87
  • Security & auth, 76 against 66
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

$0.08 a minute excludes LLM tokens and carrier minutes

GPT-Live B

Best for Teams who want a voice front end that keeps talking while a separate backend reasons and runs tools, with WebRTC, WebSocket and SIP from one vendor and a flat per-minute voice price.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

openai.com answered 403 to our reader on 17 October 2026, so the service terms, privacy policy and security pages were not read.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runElevenLabs Agents API + MCPGPT-LiveEdge
Reliability16%206062GPT-Live +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29287ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27776ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +1
Security & auth14%17.57666ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +10
Payments & pricing10%12.53520ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88582ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87776ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 71.3/100B 66.8/100

Facts side by side

FactElevenLabs Agents API + MCPGPT-Live
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorElevenLabsOpenAI
Hosted endpointhttps://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convaihttps://api.openai.com/v1/live/sessions
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for voice agents$0.08 per minute of callnot published
x402nono
LicenceMIT (SDKs)Proprietary service. The service terms on openai.com were not read. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0, and the OpenAPI description and the OpenAI Live Console sample are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.elevenlabs/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-09-292026-10-16
Terms last updated2026-03-31couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-20couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waiveryescouldn't be read
Popularity114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wknone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)3.5/5 (4)

Verdicts

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP

API keys scoped to endpoint groups, with per-key credit limits and service accounts. $0.08 a minute excludes LLM tokens and carrier minutes.

GPT-Live

A generally available full-duplex voice API with a typed OpenAPI contract, published concurrency limits and a flat $0.05 a minute for the voice session. Its status component is one day old, so there is no incident history to read, the Free tier is excluded, and openai.com refused our reader, so the terms and privacy policy were not read.

Before you call either

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP

  1. Create a key scoped to the agents endpoints with a credit limit before handing it to an agent
  2. Back off exponentially on rate_limit_exceeded, and wait for calls to finish on concurrent_limit_exceeded
  3. Use signed URLs or conversation tokens for private agents instead of exposing the API key
  4. Set platform_settings.privacy.retention_days where you don't need 2 years of history
  5. Pick a low-latency LLM, the pipeline waits on it every turn

GPT-Live

  1. Create sessions on a server with the project API key. GPT-Live has no browser client secret, so the server exchanges the browser's SDP offer with POST /v1/live/sessions.
  2. Choose delegation.type at creation. Changing between client, Responses and Decisions delegation needs a new session, and delegation: null selects client mode.
  3. After session.started, listen for error with code responses_validation_failed. Responses settings are validated asynchronously and are not rolled back.
  4. Do not retry an outbound SIP POST /v1/live/sessions after a timeout. Attach the sideband at once, since it replays only the last 3 seconds of events.
  5. Keep the transport open until session.closed to read the final usage.seconds. A WebRTC session bills 15 seconds at creation, credited once it runs.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or GPT-Live?

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against GPT-Live's 66.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP and GPT-Live need an API key?

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. GPT-Live needs an API key.

Can an agent call ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP and GPT-Live without installing anything?

Yes. ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai and GPT-Live at https://api.openai.com/v1/live/sessions.

Other comparisons with ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or GPT-Live

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