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Head to head · Voice agent · October 2026 research run

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs Vapi API + MCP

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP has a score of 71.5 (BB) against Vapi API + MCP's 63.7 (B). Both do voice agent. The largest gap is security & auth, 18 points.

ElevenLabs Agents API + MCPElevenLabs · HTTP API BB71.5/100#83 of 452 Vapi API + MCPVapi · HTTP API B63.7/100#198 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP for

  • agent ergonomics (+13)
  • security & auth (+18)

Pick Vapi API + MCP for

  • reliability (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runElevenLabs Agents API + MCPVapi API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206070Vapi API + MCP +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29289ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.27764ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +13
Security & auth14%17.57658ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +18
Payments & pricing10%12.53535even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88588Vapi API + MCP +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87976ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +3
Negative events≤150-4
Total71.5 · BB63.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactElevenLabs Agents API + MCPVapi API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorElevenLabsVapi
Hosted endpointhttps://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convaihttps://api.vapi.ai
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceMIT (SDKs)MIT (MCP server)
Tools exposednone20
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.elevenlabs/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-09-292026-09-21
Popularity114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk57 stars, 177k npm/wk, 42k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)2.5/5 (2)

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.

Vapi API + MCP

Voice agents can combine supported transcription, model and voice providers, including customer-supplied endpoints. Per-minute cost depends on the selected providers.

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

Vapi API + MCP

  1. Read subscriptionLimits.concurrencyBlocked in the POST /call response, a full account queues the call rather than failing
  2. Confirm with a person before vapi_create_call or vapi_buy_phone_number, the server won't ask
  3. Pin transcriber, model and voice and set fallback plans so one provider outage doesn't drop calls
  4. Read the call log's cost breakdown to see what each provider charged
  5. Check @vapi-ai/server-sdk isn't pinned to 0.11.1, 0.11.2, 1.2.1 or 1.2.2

Other comparisons with ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP or Vapi API + MCP

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