# ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs Pipecat

> ElevenLabs Agents scores 71.3 (BB) to Pipecat's 68.9 (B) for voice agents. Pipecat is cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.08 per minute of call. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-pipecat
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-pipecat.md (~3,050 tokens)
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- 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

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Pipecat's 68.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pipecat leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do voice agents. Pipecat 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
- Pipecat: grade B, 68.9/100, rank #215 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pipecat.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pipecat.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:
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 72
- Security & auth, 76 against 57

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where Pipecat loses 4 points for them

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

### Pipecat (B)

Good for: Python teams that want to own a voice agent's pipeline, pick each speech and model provider, and host it themselves or on Pipecat Cloud.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 72 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for voice agents, $0.01 against $0.08 per minute of call
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: No tool-approval or confirmation step, and no prompt-injection guidance, for tools that act on a caller's speech


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | Pipecat | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 72 | Pipecat +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 90 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 72 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 76 | 57 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 60 | Pipecat +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 87 | Pipecat +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 81 | Pipecat +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **71.3 · BB** | **68.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | Pipecat |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Daily |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| 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) | BSD-2-Clause for the framework. Pipecat Cloud is a hosted service under Daily's terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.elevenlabs/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 |  |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 16k stars, 98k npm/wk, 302k 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.

**Pipecat.** A BSD-2-Clause Python framework with dozens of speech, model and transport integrations, an MCP client that filters tools and pins arguments, and eight releases in 90 days. It has no tool-approval step, and 1.12.0 can send OPENAI_API_KEY to other OpenAI-compatible providers when no key is passed, a flaw fixed on main but not yet released.

## 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

### Pipecat

1. Pass `api_key` explicitly to every OpenAI-compatible service such as Groq, Cerebras or OpenRouter. On 1.12.0 a missing key sends `OPENAI_API_KEY` to that provider
2. Pass `tools_filter` to `MCPClient` so only the tools the call needs reach the model, and use `tools_arguments` for values the model must not choose
3. Gate tools that book, pay or send in your own handler. Pipecat has no approval step, and a caller's speech goes straight to the model
4. Keep the development runner on localhost. Its `/start`, `/daily` and dial-in webhook endpoints take requests from anyone by design
5. Pin a minor version and read the breaking-change flags in CHANGELOG.md before upgrading, since minor releases remove and rename APIs

## Questions

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

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Pipecat's 68.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pipecat leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

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

Pipecat, 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 Pipecat without installing anything?

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

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

No open-source release is listed for ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP. Pipecat is open source (BSD-2-Clause for the framework. Pipecat Cloud is a hosted service under Daily's terms of service).


## For agents

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

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

- [AssemblyAI Voice Agent API vs ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-elevenlabs-agents.md)
- [AssemblyAI Voice Agent API vs Pipecat](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-pipecat.md)
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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp