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Head to head · Voice calls · October 2026 research run

LiveKit Telephony vs Plivo Voice API

LiveKit Telephony scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Plivo Voice API's 60.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do voice calls.

LiveKit TelephonyLiveKit Incorporated · HTTP API B67.5/100#234 of 841 Plivo Voice APIPlivo · HTTP API C60.4/100#466 of 841

Which one, for what

LiveKit Telephony B

Good for Teams that already run voice agents on LiveKit and want phone calls to arrive in the same rooms, bringing their own carrier for outbound and international calls.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 59
  • Security & auth, 61 against 45
  • Maintenance & community, 90 against 78
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 70

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

LiveKit Phone Numbers are US only and inbound only, and TransferSIPParticipant does not work on them yet

Plivo Voice API C

Good for Cost-sensitive voice agents built on Pipecat, LiveKit, Vapi or Retell, and for India traffic.

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

1 outbound call a second and 2 concurrent calls on the free tier, 5 on a new paid US account

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLiveKit TelephonyPlivo Voice APIEdge
Reliability16%206568Plivo Voice API +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28459LiveKit Telephony +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.26670Plivo Voice API +4
Security & auth14%17.56145LiveKit Telephony +16
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89078LiveKit Telephony +12
Transparency & trust7%8.87570LiveKit Telephony +5
Negative events≤1500
Total67.5 · B60.4 · C

Facts side by side

FactLiveKit TelephonyPlivo Voice API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorLiveKit IncorporatedPlivo
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.plivo.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary cloud service under LiveKit's Terms of Service. The SIP service (livekit/sip), the protocol definitions, the CLI and the server SDKs are Apache 2.0MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-082026-09-25
Terms last updatedno date given2026-04-29
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-05-27
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity480 stars, 2.9M npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk102 stars, 51k npm/wk, 69k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

LiveKit Telephony

Signed tokens separate the right to dial (sip.call) from the right to manage trunks (sip.admin), and per-minute prices are public with a free plan that needs no card. LiveKit's own phone numbers are US only and inbound only, so outbound calls need a third-party SIP trunk, and no 429 or retry guidance was found.

Plivo Voice API

US outbound at $0.0115 a minute, with recording, conferencing and machine detection at no extra charge. 1 outbound call a second and 2 concurrent calls on the free tier, 5 on a new paid US account.

Before you call either

LiveKit Telephony

  1. Ask the operator for a short-lived token with only the sip.call grant to dial or transfer. Trunk, dispatch rule and number changes need sip.admin
  2. Use a third-party outbound trunk for outbound calls. LiveKit Phone Numbers only receive calls
  3. Set wait_until_answered on CreateSIPParticipant and read the SIP status on SipCallError before retrying. Voicemail answers with 200 OK
  4. Send every request as a JSON POST to /twirp/livekit.SIP/<Method> or /twirp/livekit.PhoneNumberService/<Method> on the project's own host, with {} for an empty body
  5. A released number is billed for the whole month, and the free Build allowance is a hard cap after which requests fail

Plivo Voice API

  1. Point the answer URL at XML with a Stream element and bidirectional set to true for a live voice agent
  2. Check concurrency before dialling out in bulk. Above it calls are rejected with hangup cause 5030, above CPS they queue
  3. Don't rely on the status callback alone to learn a call ended. Poll the call if the webhook doesn't arrive
  4. Validate webhook signatures before acting on call events

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, LiveKit Telephony or Plivo Voice API?

LiveKit Telephony scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Plivo Voice API's 60.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

Do LiveKit Telephony and Plivo Voice API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call LiveKit Telephony and Plivo Voice API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for LiveKit Telephony. Plivo Voice API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.plivo.com/v1.

Are LiveKit Telephony and Plivo Voice API open source?

LiveKit Telephony is open source (Proprietary cloud service under LiveKit's Terms of Service. The SIP service (livekit/sip), the protocol definitions, the CLI and the server SDKs are Apache 2.0). No open-source release is listed for Plivo Voice API.

Other comparisons with LiveKit Telephony or Plivo Voice API

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