# GPT-Live vs Pipecat PhoneLLM

> GPT-Live scores 66.8 (B) to Pipecat PhoneLLM's 58.7 (C) for voice tools. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

GPT-Live scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Pipecat PhoneLLM's 58.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pipecat PhoneLLM leads on payments & pricing. Both do voice tools.

- GPT-Live: grade B, 66.8/100, rank #296 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gpt-live.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gpt-live.json
- Pipecat PhoneLLM: grade C, 58.7/100, rank #629 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pipecat-phonellm.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pipecat-phonellm.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

### GPT-Live (B)

Good for: Teams who want a voice front end that keeps talking while a separate backend reasons and runs tools, with WebRTC, WebSocket and SIP from one vendor and a flat per-minute voice price.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 62 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 72
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 61
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 58
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 56

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5

Watch for: openai.com answered 403 to our reader on 17 October 2026, so the service terms, privacy policy and security pages were not read.

### Pipecat PhoneLLM (C)

Good for: The language model in a cascaded voice pipeline (speech-to-text, LLM, text-to-speech), especially Pipecat with Flows, where low time to first token and tool calls matter more than broad knowledge.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Labelled Alpha 2 by Daily, with no deprecation policy, support period or changelog of its own


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GPT-Live | Pipecat PhoneLLM | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 62 | 53 | GPT-Live +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 72 | GPT-Live +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 61 | GPT-Live +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 66 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Pipecat PhoneLLM +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 58 | GPT-Live +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 56 | GPT-Live +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **58.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GPT-Live | Pipecat PhoneLLM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Daily |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.openai.com/v1/live/sessions` | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/daily-co/phonellm-mini-alpha-2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service. The service terms on openai.com were not read. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0, and the OpenAPI description and the OpenAI Live Console sample are MIT | BSD-2-Clause for PhoneLLM Mini, with the NVIDIA Nemotron Open Model License kept for its base model. OpenMDW-1.1 for PhoneLLM Max, the licence of its base model. Workers AI, the hosted route graded, is a service under Cloudflare's terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read |  |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**GPT-Live.** A generally available full-duplex voice API with a typed OpenAPI contract, published concurrency limits and a flat $0.05 a minute for the voice session. Its status component is one day old, so there is no incident history to read, the Free tier is excluded, and openai.com refused our reader, so the terms and privacy policy were not read.

**Pipecat PhoneLLM.** PhoneLLM Mini is callable per token on Workers AI at $0.06 input and $0.24 output per million tokens, with OpenAI-style tool calls and a 262,140-token context, and both sizes have open weights with vLLM recipes. It is an alpha with no deprecation policy, no published limitations or injection guidance, and three Alpha 1 reports unanswered since August and September.

## Before you call either

### GPT-Live

1. Create sessions on a server with the project API key. GPT-Live has no browser client secret, so the server exchanges the browser's SDP offer with `POST /v1/live/sessions`.
2. Choose `delegation.type` at creation. Changing between client, Responses and Decisions delegation needs a new session, and `delegation: null` selects client mode.
3. After `session.started`, listen for `error` with code `responses_validation_failed`. Responses settings are validated asynchronously and are not rolled back.
4. Do not retry an outbound SIP `POST /v1/live/sessions` after a timeout. Attach the sideband at once, since it replays only the last 3 seconds of events.
5. Keep the transport open until `session.closed` to read the final `usage.seconds`. A WebRTC session bills 15 seconds at creation, credited once it runs.

### Pipecat PhoneLLM

1. Send `temperature: 0` on every call. The repositories' generation_config.json samples by default, and Max's sets temperature 1.0
2. For Max, serve with `--reasoning-parser nemotron_v3` and send `chat_template_kwargs` with `enable_thinking: true` on every request, or the reply lands in `reasoning`
3. For Mini, serve without a reasoning parser and keep `enable_thinking` false, as Cloudflare and the card say, or tool calls can be filed under `reasoning`
4. Confirm bookings, payments and transfers in your own handler before acting on a tool call, since caller speech reaches the model directly
5. Pin the model ID including `alpha-2`. Daily states no notice period, and a later alpha may replace it

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GPT-Live or Pipecat PhoneLLM?

GPT-Live scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Pipecat PhoneLLM's 58.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pipecat PhoneLLM leads on payments & pricing.

### Do GPT-Live and Pipecat PhoneLLM need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call GPT-Live and Pipecat PhoneLLM without installing anything?

Yes. GPT-Live has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/live/sessions and Pipecat PhoneLLM at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/daily-co/phonellm-mini-alpha-2.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with GPT-Live or Pipecat PhoneLLM

- [AssemblyAI Voice Agent API vs GPT-Live](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-gpt-live.md)
- [Bland AI API + MCP vs GPT-Live](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bland-ai-vs-gpt-live.md)
- [Bolna API + MCP vs GPT-Live](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bolna-vs-gpt-live.md)
- [Deepgram Voice Agent API vs GPT-Live](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-voice-agent-vs-gpt-live.md)
- [ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs GPT-Live](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-gpt-live.md)
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- [GPT-Live vs Synthflow API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-synthflow.md)
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- [AssemblyAI Voice Agent API vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-voice-agent-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Bland AI API + MCP vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bland-ai-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Bolna API + MCP vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bolna-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [CueLight vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cuelight-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Deepgram Voice Agent API vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-voice-agent-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [ElevenLabs Agents API + MCP vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-agents-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hume-evi-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [LiveKit Agents vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/livekit-agents-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Retell AI API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-retell-ai.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Synthflow API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-synthflow.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Vapi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-vapi.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Vocily AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-vocily.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Vogent API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-vogent.md)
- [Pipecat vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [GPT-Live vs Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-hume-evi.md)
- [GPT-Live vs LiveKit Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-livekit-agents.md)
- [GPT-Live vs OpenAI Realtime API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-openai-realtime.md)
- [GPT-Live vs Pipecat](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-pipecat.md)
- [GPT-Live vs Retell AI API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-retell-ai.md)
- [GPT-Live vs Ultravox Realtime API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-ultravox.md)
- [GPT-Live vs Vapi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt-live-vs-vapi.md)
- [Gemini Live API vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-live-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [OpenAI Realtime API vs Pipecat PhoneLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-realtime-vs-pipecat-phonellm.md)
- [Pipecat PhoneLLM vs Ultravox Realtime API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipecat-phonellm-vs-ultravox.md)

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