Compare Lab
LiveKit vs PolyAI
LiveKit is positioned as realtime agent infrastructure for teams that own the application and model stack. PolyAI is positioned as enterprise dialog-agent platform with a builder, developer tooling and system integrations. Start b
LiveKit is positioned as realtime agent infrastructure for teams that own the application and model stack. PolyAI is positioned as enterprise dialog-agent platform with a builder, developer tooling and system integrations. Start by deciding who owns the missing layers, then inspect the documented differences below.
Developer Frameworks and Enterprise Platforms are different product categories. An underlying engine or framework is not a complete substitute for a deployed agent workflow.
15 jointly documented catalog fields. This measures evidence coverage, not equivalent quality or an overall winner.
Test opening hours, booking conflicts and an unanswered transfer.
Start where the records differ.
Values and evidence states are compared together. Shared facts follow the differences; Unknown never means No.
| Decision point | LiveKit | PolyAI |
|---|---|---|
| Billing modelDifferent records | component-stack | per-minute |
| Billing unitDifferent records | Plan/month + agent minutes + telephony minutes + inference tokens/characters/audio + observability entries | Voice agent minute |
| Bring your modelDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| Warm transferDifferent records | Yes | Unknown |
| HIPAA pathDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your telephonyShared state | Yes | Yes |
Your requirements & next steps
Your requirements
Ready-made / AI receptionist · Strict evidence mode
No personal requirements yet. Add criteria in Advanced Filter to prioritize this comparison.
Plan plus session, telephony, inference, observability and other usage; example calculator minute total is not fixed price.
Sales-led per-minute contract rate, not a public numerical rate.
Agent session component only; not complete call cost.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
No universal conversion of model inference to minute rate.
Published unit; precise fee and minimum quote unresolved.
Usage overages and model inference additional.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
Separate allowance buckets; no implied complete free call quantity.
No included minute allowance published in reviewed page.
Build allowances are hard caps; paid usage beyond allowances is incremental, not a complete price/minute.
Sales-led per-minute service and build credits are documented; no public complete rate/commitment, recurring free entitlement or provider cost inclusions established.
Usage mix and selected providers required.
Sales-led per-minute service and build credits are documented; no public complete rate/commitment, recurring free entitlement or provider cost inclusions established.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
The calculator example $0.0479/min is assumption-specific; no maximum complete bill from minutes alone.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
The calculator example $0.0479/min is assumption-specific; no maximum complete bill from minutes alone.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
Anyone with this link can view the encoded decision criteria.
Vendor documentation establishes a claim. Public model benchmarks are separate context, not measurements of these platforms.
Open saved comparison ↗What to verify together.
LiveKit
Agent-session pricing excludes a complete inference and telephony stack.
Paid Cloud agent sessions $0.01/min beyond allowance · V3.3 evidence review · Cloud Ship starting subscription; session overage, inference, transport and artifacts extra
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. The calculator example $0.0479/min is assumption-specific; no maximum complete bill from minutes alone. · Inference, phone number/transport, recording and observability, outbound carrier, bandwidth and optional private links
Plan plus session, telephony, inference, observability and other usage; example calculator minute total is not fixed price.
PolyAI
The public pricing page gives a billing basis, not a numeric quote.
Custom quote / current rate unresolved · V3.3 evidence review · Contract-defined minute billing; no public numeric quote
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling. · Provider, carrier and custom contract terms require separate verification
Sales-led per-minute contract rate, not a public numerical rate.
The evidence overlap.
Both records have documented values for Product type, Technical setup, Pricing model, Call recording, Bring your TTS, ElevenLabs TTS, Cartesia TTS, OpenAI models, Anthropic models, MCP tools, Function / tool calling, Transcripts and additional fields shown in Compare. Matching availability does not measure behavior under your call conditions.
Run the same booking, tool failure and unsuccessful human-transfer cases. Record both outcomes and billable units before signing a deployment agreement.
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