# ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs Pipecat (slim)

> 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.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-17
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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: BB 71.3, rank #138 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-agents.min.md
- Pipecat: B 68.9, rank #215 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pipecat.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 Agent ergonomics, 77 against 72; Security & auth, 76 against 57. Also 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.
- Pipecat, 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 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.

| Category | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | Pipecat |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 72 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 92 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 77 | 72 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 76 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 77 | 81 |

| Fact (where they differ) | 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 |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | BSD-2-Clause for the framework. Pipecat Cloud is a hosted service under Daily's terms of service |
| 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) |