# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-vapi
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- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-vapi.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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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
- Updated: 2026-10-05

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 + MCP: grade BB, 71.5/100, rank #83 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-agents.json
- Vapi API + MCP: grade B, 63.7/100, rank #198 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vapi.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | Vapi API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 70 | Vapi API + MCP +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 89 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 64 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 76 | 58 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 35 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 88 | Vapi API + MCP +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 76 | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **71.5 · BB** | **63.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP | Vapi API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Vapi |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/convai` | `https://api.vapi.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | MIT (MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 20 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.elevenlabs/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-21 |
| Popularity | 114 stars, 1.2M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 57 stars, 177k npm/wk, 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (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

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