# ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs OpenAI Realtime API (slim)

> ElevenLabs Agents scores 71.3 (BB) to OpenAI Realtime's 63.3 (B) for voice agents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-openai-realtime.md (~2,750 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-openai-realtime.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-openai-realtime
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenAI Realtime API's 63.3 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Realtime API leads on reliability. Both do voice agents.

- ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP: BB 71.3, rank #130 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-agents.min.md
- OpenAI Realtime API: B 63.3, rank #400 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-realtime.min.md
- ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP, 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 84; Security & auth, 76 against 61; Payments & pricing, 35 against 20; Maintenance & community, 85 against 52; Transparency & trust, 77 against 71. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.
- 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 60.

| Category | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | OpenAI Realtime API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 67 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 92 | 84 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 77 | 76 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 76 | 61 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 52 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 77 | 71 |

| Fact (where they differ) | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | OpenAI Realtime API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai` | `https://api.openai.com/v1/realtime` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for voice agents | $0.08 per minute of call | not published |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Proprietary service. The service terms on openai.com were not read. The Agents SDK for TypeScript and the OpenAPI description are MIT |
| MCP registry | `io.elevenlabs/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-07-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |