LiveKit vs Telnyx: voice AI pricing compared
Updated 2026-11-10 · listed A to Z, not ranked
LiveKit Cloud runs real-time voice and video AI agents (WebRTC, telephony and model inference). Plans set the features; usage is billed per minute.
Telnyx is a telecom carrier with APIs for messaging, voice, numbers and AI inference. Its published prices split each service into separate invoice lines: Telnyx’s own rate, plus pass-through fees such as carrier fees or the SIP trunk a call rides on.
Listed A to Z, from livekit.com and telnyx.com. Every figure below is quoted from those pages.
- Main price table
- Build, Ship, Scale, Enterprise
- Free option
- Build: $0/mo, no credit card required
- Published prices
- Build $0/mo, Ship from $50/mo, Scale from $500/mo; agent sessions $0.0100/min plus inference per model.
- Main price table
- Send outbound, Receive inbound
- Free option
- None in the published plan table
- Published prices
- SMS from $0.004 per part plus carrier fees, voice API $0.002 per minute plus SIP trunking, volume tiers, and its x402 route.
How we checked: Prices quoted from each official pricing page: LiveKit checked Nov 10, 2026, Telnyx checked Nov 10, 2026. Taxes, usage overages and promotions can change what you pay; confirm with each provider before you buy.
How they compare
- Main price table. LiveKit lists 4 entries (Build, Ship, Scale, Enterprise); Telnyx lists 2 (Send outbound, Receive inbound).
- Free option. LiveKit: Build: $0/mo, no credit card required. Telnyx: none in the published plan table.
- How prices are quoted. LiveKit: “Plans”. Telnyx: “SMS and MMS (US, pay as you go)”.
LiveKit plans and prices
| Plan | Price | For |
|---|---|---|
| Build | $0/mo, no credit card required | Starting a project: agent deployment, observability and simulations |
| Ship | Starting at $50/mo | Shipping to real users: team collaboration, custom voices, instant rollback |
| Scale | Starting at $500/mo | Scaling: role-based access, metrics export APIs, region pinning, private links, HIPAA |
| Enterprise | Custom | Volume pricing, shared Slack channel, SSO, support SLA |
LiveKit says its plans include monthly allotments for agent session minutes, inbound calling minutes (for US local phone numbers) and inference credits.
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Agent session | $0.0100/min |
| Telephony, LiveKit US local number | $0.0100/min |
| Observability (enabled) | $0.0100/min |
| LLM example: Gemma 4 31B | $0.0014/min |
| STT example: AssemblyAI Universal-3.6 Pro Streaming | $0.0075/min |
| STT example: Deepgram Nova-3 (Monolingual) | $0.0048/min |
| TTS example: Fish Audio S2.1 Pro | $0.0090/min |
The page lists many more LLM, STT and TTS models, each with its own per-minute price; the calculator's default phone-call example totals $0.0479/min.
From livekit.com, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: LiveKit pricing.
Telnyx plans and prices
| Direction | SMS | MMS |
|---|---|---|
| Send outbound | $0.004 per message part + carrier fee | $0.015 per message part + carrier fee |
| Receive inbound | $0.004 per message part + carrier fee | $0.005 per message part + carrier fee |
Charged per message part. Carrier pass-through fees are listed by carrier on the same page (for example $0.0035 to $0.0045 per SMS part for most large US carriers). Above 100M messages a month, outbound rates step down automatically, for example SMS to $0.0020 per part for the next 150M.
| Line | Price |
|---|---|
| Outbound calls | $0.002 per minute + the SIP trunking fee for outbound calls |
| Inbound on a local or toll-free number | $0.002 per minute + the SIP trunking fee for inbound calls |
| Call recording | $0.002 per minute |
| Conference calls | $0.002 per participant, per minute |
| Call transfer | $0.10 per invocation |
| Standard / premium answering machine detection | $0.002 / $0.0065 per call |
| Telnyx speech-to-text | $0.015 per minute |
Telnyx’s own worked example on the page uses $0.005 per minute for outbound and $0.0032 per minute for inbound SIP trunking. Phone numbers are priced separately (from $1.00 per number per month on its numbers page).
From telnyx.com, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Telnyx pricing.
FAQ
How much does LiveKit cost?
Build $0/mo, Ship from $50/mo, Scale from $500/mo; agent sessions $0.0100/min plus inference per model. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
How much does Telnyx cost?
SMS from $0.004 per part plus carrier fees, voice API $0.002 per minute plus SIP trunking, volume tiers, and its x402 route. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
Do LiveKit and Telnyx have a free option?
LiveKit: Build: $0/mo, no credit card required. Telnyx: none in the published plan table.
Which is better, LiveKit or Telnyx?
We do not pick a winner. The two price and package their products differently; the tables above quote each official pricing page so you can match a plan to your own usage.
Where do these prices come from?
Each vendor's own pricing page: livekit.com (checked Nov 10, 2026) and telnyx.com (checked Nov 10, 2026). Prices change; confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-10)
- livekit.com
- livekit.com/pricing
- telnyx.com
- telnyx.com/pricing/messaging
- telnyx.com/pricing/call-control
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