Head to head · Voice agent · October 2026 research run
Ultravox Realtime API vs Vocily AI
Ultravox Realtime API scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Vocily AI's 54 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Vocily AI leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do voice agent.
Which one, for what
Good for Cost-sensitive voice agents that bring their own telephony and want a speech-native model.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 52 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 50
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Vocily AI loses 5 points for them
Watch for
No MCP server
Good for Indian-language phone agents where a backend builds agents, places outbound calls and reads results over REST, with prepaid rupee billing.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 84
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 69
- Maintenance & community, 61 against 43
Watch for
No status page, incident history or SLA was found
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Ultravox Realtime API | Vocily AI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 52 | 40 | Ultravox Realtime API +12 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 84 | 90 | Vocily AI +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 69 | 84 | Vocily AI +15 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 46 | 46 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 43 | 61 | Vocily AI +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 73 | 50 | Ultravox Realtime API +23 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| Total | 58.5 · C | 54 · C |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Ultravox Realtime API | Vocily AI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ultravox (Fixie.ai) | Vocily AI Private Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.ultravox.ai/api | https://api.vocily.ai |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (model code) | Proprietary service under Vocily's terms of service. No open-source code or published package was found |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-18 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | |
| Customer content may train models | yes | |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |
| Popularity | 4.6k stars, 17k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |
Verdicts
Ultravox Realtime API
Flat $0.05 a minute including model and built-in voices. No MCP server.
Vocily AI
The REST API is documented in detail for a product a few months old, with an OpenAPI 3.1 file, required idempotency keys on calls, a Retry-After header on 429 and signed webhooks. No status page, SLA, SDK or security programme was found, and two releases in September 2026 removed fields under /v1 on the day they were announced.
Before you call either
Ultravox Realtime API
- Honour
Retry-Afteron 429 and 503 when creating calls - Pin the model string (
ultravox-v0.7orultravox-v0.6) rather than relying on the default - Hand clients the
joinUrl, never the API key - Delete calls through the API when you need data removed, there's no retention setting
- Use call stages for multi-step flows instead of one long prompt
Vocily AI
- Send a fresh UUID in
Idempotency-Keyon everyPOST /v1/calls. The API refuses the request without it - Pass a
from_numberthe workspace holds. The shared Test Number returns 403 from the API - Publish a version and make it live before placing a call, or the call returns 409
agent_not_published - Branch on
detail.code, falling back to the top-levelcode. A 429 body is flat, so readRetry-After - Read
currencyon every call and chat record. Costs are in rupees or dollars depending on the organisation
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Ultravox Realtime API or Vocily AI?
Ultravox Realtime API scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Vocily AI's 54 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Vocily AI leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.
Do Ultravox Realtime API and Vocily AI need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Ultravox Realtime API and Vocily AI without installing anything?
Yes. Ultravox Realtime API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ultravox.ai/api and Vocily AI at https://api.vocily.ai.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/ultravox-vs-vocily.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/ultravox.json·/api/v1/tools/vocily.json - From a terminal
anchor compare ultravox vocily(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "ultravox", "b": "vocily"}at/mcp, no key