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

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/livekit-telephony-vs-plivo-voice
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/livekit-telephony-vs-plivo-voice.md (~2,450 tokens)
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/livekit-telephony-vs-plivo-voice.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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: 2026-10-09

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 Telephony: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #234 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-telephony.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/livekit-telephony.json
- Plivo Voice API: grade C, 60.4/100, rank #466 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plivo-voice.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plivo-voice.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | LiveKit Telephony | Plivo Voice API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 68 | Plivo Voice API +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 59 | LiveKit Telephony +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 70 | Plivo Voice API +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 45 | LiveKit Telephony +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 78 | LiveKit Telephony +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 70 | LiveKit Telephony +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.5 · B** | **60.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LiveKit Telephony | Plivo Voice API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LiveKit Incorporated | Plivo |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.plivo.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-25 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-04-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-05-27 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 480 stars, 2.9M npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk | 102 stars, 51k npm/wk, 69k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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