# ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs LiveKit Agents

> LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) to ElevenLabs Agents's 71.3 (BB) for voice agents. LiveKit Agents is cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.08 per minute of call. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP's 71.3 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do voice agents. LiveKit Agents is cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.08 per minute of call.

- ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP: grade BB, 71.3/100, rank #138 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-agents.json
- LiveKit Agents: grade BB, 72.5/100, rank #104 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/livekit-agents.json
- Best conversational voice-agent APIs: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/voice-agents/index.md
- All 184 voice agents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/voice-agents/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP (BB)

Good 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 81
- Security & auth, 76 against 62

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for: $0.08 a minute excludes LLM tokens and carrier minutes

### LiveKit Agents (BB)

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
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 77

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.08 per minute of call
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: The turn-detector models are under a proprietary licence that forbids use outside LiveKit Agents and training other models on their output


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | LiveKit Agents | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 67 | LiveKit Agents +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 81 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 80 | LiveKit Agents +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 76 | 62 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 60 | LiveKit Agents +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 85 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 82 | LiveKit Agents +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **71.3 · BB** | **72.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | LiveKit Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | LiveKit Incorporated |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Price for voice agents | $0.08 per minute of call | $0.01 per minute of call |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | 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 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.elevenlabs/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 15k stars, 820k npm/wk, 1.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (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.

**LiveKit Agents.** An Apache-2.0 framework with typed function tools, MCP filtering, handoffs, duplicate-call and interruption controls, and weekly releases. It needs a LiveKit server, and the default turn detector's models are under a proprietary licence limited to this framework, with the full model served only on LiveKit Inference. No approval primitive or prompt-injection guidance was found.

## 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

### LiveKit Agents

1. Set `LIVEKIT_URL`, `LIVEKIT_API_KEY` and `LIVEKIT_API_SECRET` before starting. Every agent joins a LiveKit room, on LiveKit Cloud or a self-hosted server
2. Pass `inference.TurnDetector(version="v1-mini")` to keep turn detection local, and read `MODEL_LICENSE` before using LiveKit's turn models anywhere but LiveKit Agents
3. Pass `record=False`, or a dict per category, to `session.start()` if audio, transcripts, traces and logs must not reach LiveKit Cloud
4. Call `context.disallow_interruptions()` first in tools that write, and set `on_duplicate="reject"` or `"confirm"`. Duplicates are matched by tool name only, not arguments
5. Wrap MCP servers in `mcp.MCPToolset` with `allowed_tools` (Python only). The `mcp_servers` parameter is deprecated

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or LiveKit Agents?

LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP's 71.3 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

### Which is cheaper for voice agents, ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or LiveKit Agents?

LiveKit Agents, at $0.01 per minute of call against $0.08 per minute of call for ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Can an agent call ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP and LiveKit Agents without installing anything?

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai. No hosted endpoint is listed for LiveKit Agents.

### Are ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP and LiveKit Agents open source?

No open-source release is listed for ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP. LiveKit Agents is open source (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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-livekit-agents.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-livekit-agents.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-agents", "b": "livekit-agents"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare elevenlabs-agents livekit-agents`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-agents.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/livekit-agents.json

## Other comparisons with ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or LiveKit Agents

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