# Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) vs LiveKit Agents

> LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) to Hume EVI's 56.7 (C) for voice agents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)'s 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) leads on schema & documentation. Both do voice agents.

- Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface): grade C, 56.7/100, rank #693 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hume-evi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hume-evi.json
- LiveKit Agents: grade BB, 72.5/100, rank #104 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/livekit-agents.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

### Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) (C)

Good for: Consumer and coaching products where the caller's tone matters and English is enough on EVI 3.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 81

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Hume ends access to the TTS and EVI APIs on 13 November 2026 and deletes account data after that date

### LiveKit Agents (BB)

Good for: Teams writing their own voice agents in Python or Node.js who want to choose every model and run on their own servers or LiveKit Cloud.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 66
- Security & auth, 62 against 27
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 37
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5

Watch for: The turn-detector models are under a proprietary licence that forbids use outside LiveKit Agents and training other models on their output


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) | LiveKit Agents | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 67 | LiveKit Agents +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 81 | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 80 | LiveKit Agents +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 27 | 62 | LiveKit Agents +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 37 | 60 | LiveKit Agents +23 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 85 | LiveKit Agents +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 82 | LiveKit Agents +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.7 · C** | **72.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) | LiveKit Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Hume AI | LiveKit Incorporated |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.hume.ai/v0/evi` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Price for voice agents | not published | $0.005 per minute of audio |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Apache-2.0 for the framework and plugins. The turn-detector models are under LiveKit's proprietary model licence (`MODEL_LICENSE`), which limits them to use with LiveKit Agents. LiveKit Cloud and LiveKit Inference are closed services under LiveKit's terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-18 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-05 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-02-25 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 180 stars, 79k npm/wk, 24k PyPI/wk | 15k stars, 820k npm/wk, 1.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface).** Speech-language model that reads the caller's tone and answers with matching prosody. One account-wide key, sent in the WebSocket and Twilio webhook URLs. Hume ends API access on 13 November 2026.

**LiveKit Agents.** An Apache-2.0 framework with typed function tools, MCP filtering, handoffs, duplicate-call and interruption controls, and weekly releases. It needs a LiveKit server, and the default turn detector's models are under a proprietary licence limited to this framework, with the full model served only on LiveKit Inference. No approval primitive or prompt-injection guidance was found.

## Before you call either

### Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)

1. Create a config with a voice first, EVI 3 has no default
2. Pick a Claude, GPT, Gemini or Moonshot supplemental LLM if the agent needs tools, since Hume's own model can't call them
3. Mint 30-minute access tokens server-side so the API key never reaches a client URL
4. Turn on 'Do not retain data' and 'Do not use for training' at app.hume.ai before sensitive calls
5. Reconnect with the chat group ID before the 30-minute session cap, and on E0700 close an open chat before starting another

### LiveKit Agents

1. Set `LIVEKIT_URL`, `LIVEKIT_API_KEY` and `LIVEKIT_API_SECRET` before starting. Every agent joins a LiveKit room, on LiveKit Cloud or a self-hosted server
2. Pass `inference.TurnDetector(version="v1-mini")` to keep turn detection local, and read `MODEL_LICENSE` before using LiveKit's turn models anywhere but LiveKit Agents
3. Pass `record=False`, or a dict per category, to `session.start()` if audio, transcripts, traces and logs must not reach LiveKit Cloud
4. Call `context.disallow_interruptions()` first in tools that write, and set `on_duplicate="reject"` or `"confirm"`. Duplicates are matched by tool name only, not arguments
5. Wrap MCP servers in `mcp.MCPToolset` with `allowed_tools` (Python only). The `mcp_servers` parameter is deprecated

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) or LiveKit Agents?

LiveKit Agents scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface)'s 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) leads on schema & documentation.

### Can an agent call Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) and LiveKit Agents without installing anything?

Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hume.ai/v0/evi. No hosted endpoint is listed for LiveKit Agents.

### Are Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) and LiveKit Agents open source?

No open-source release is listed for Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface). LiveKit Agents is open source (Apache-2.0 for the framework and plugins. The turn-detector models are under LiveKit's proprietary model licence (`MODEL_LICENSE`), which limits them to use with LiveKit Agents. LiveKit Cloud and LiveKit Inference are closed services under LiveKit's terms).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) or LiveKit Agents

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

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