LiveKit vs Vapi: 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.
Vapi is a platform for building voice AI agents. A call’s cost is Vapi’s own hosting fee plus the providers you pick for transcription, the language model and the voice, which Vapi passes through at cost, plus telephony if you use an outside carrier.
Listed A to Z, from livekit.com and vapi.ai. 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
- Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)
- Free option
- Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free
- Published prices
- $0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons.
How we checked: Prices quoted from each official pricing page: LiveKit checked Nov 10, 2026, Vapi 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); Vapi lists 5 (Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)).
- Free option. LiveKit: Build: $0/mo, no credit card required. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
- How prices are quoted. LiveKit: “Plans”. Vapi: “What a minute is made of”.
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.
Vapi plans and prices
| Line | Price on vapi.ai/pricing |
|---|---|
| Vapi hosting | $0.05 per minute (prepaid) |
| Transcriber, model, voice | Passed through at the provider’s cost, no markup |
| Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC | Free |
| Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier) | $0.008 / $0.014 per minute |
| Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier) | $0.00814 / $0.0055 per minute |
New accounts get $5 in free credits. Vapi’s calculator shows ranges for one example setup: Deepgram transcriber $0.0095–$0.0099, OpenAI model $0.0077–$0.0452 and ElevenLabs voice $0.0146–$0.0238 per minute; its 1,000-minute example totals $82–$129 a month (Nov 3, 2026).
| Package | Price | Concurrent calls | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage only | Pay per minute | 4 | 2 organizations, 1 Vapi phone number, 14 days data retention |
| Core | $29 / month | 10 | 5 Vapi numbers, 30 days retention, ZDR, 2 business day email SLA |
| Pro | 10% of the Vapi hosting fee, $999 / month minimum | 30 | 10 numbers, 180 days retention, Slack support, 99% uptime SLA |
| Premier | Contact sales | Custom | 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO, dedicated SIP available |
Add-ons seen Nov 1, 2026: extra concurrent lines $10 per line per month, extra organizations $20 each per month, HIPAA $2,000 per month.
From vapi.ai, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Vapi 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 Vapi cost?
$0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
Do LiveKit and Vapi have a free option?
LiveKit: Build: $0/mo, no credit card required. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
Which is better, LiveKit or Vapi?
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 vapi.ai (checked Nov 10, 2026). Prices change; confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-10)
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