ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) vs LiveKit Agents
ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) vs LiveKit Agents: side-by-side comparison of two voice agent platforms systems — architecture, taxonomy, license, pricing, MCP/A2A support, and direct edges.
ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) · LiveKit Agents
How they relate
- LiveKit Agents integrates with ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) — LiveKit Agents docs have a ElevenLabs Conversational AI model plugin page.
Cost & capability
| ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) | LiveKit Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Capability band | competent | competent |
| Capability composite | 62 | 60 |
| Cost tier | — | premium |
| Use cases | Latency Sensitive, Scoped Agentic | Latency Sensitive, Scoped Agentic |
Where they differ (14)
Rows where both sides have data and the values disagree — the shortlist of dimensions that actually distinguish these two systems.
| ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) | LiveKit Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Capability composite | 62 | 60 |
| Type | Voice-agent platform from a TTS-first vendor (ElevenLabs) | Voice-agent framework on LiveKit WebRTC platform |
| Created | 2024-11 (launch) | 2024 (Agents repo open-sourced) |
| GitHub | github.com/elevenlabs (SDKs only) | livekit/agents — ~13k stars, last commit 2026-08+ |
| Pricing | Per-minute usage (Conv AI tier); free + Pro + Enterprise | OSS free; LiveKit Cloud tiered ($50/mo+ + usage) |
| Funding | $180M Series C Jan-2025 (a16z + ICONIQ; $3.3B val) | $45M Series B Sep-2024 (Altimeter; $300M val) |
| Backend storage | Conversation state in ElevenLabs cloud | Caller-managed; LiveKit handles WebRTC session state |
| Deployment | Cloud-managed | Both (self-hosted + managed cloud) — OSS framework self-host + LiveKit Cloud |
| API surface | REST + WebSocket APIs + SDKs (Python, JS, Swift, Android) | Python + Node SDKs; WebRTC transport; tools / function-calling |
| Multi-tenancy | Multi-tenant cloud | Multi-tenant Cloud; per-room namespacing |
| MCP | yes — hosted ElevenLabs MCP server (recommended); local elevenlabs-mcp server deprecated/archived 2026-08-20 | yes — native MCP support (agents can use MCP server tools) |
| OpenTelemetry | searched not found | OpenTelemetry export in 2025 release |
| Optimised for | Natural-sounding multilingual voice agents leveraging ElevenLabs TTS | Real-time voice + video agents over WebRTC at scale |
| Anti-fit | TTS-led — strongest at voice naturalness, less specialised for high-volume telephony routing | WebRTC-centric; if you want telephony-first, Vapi/Retell often easier |
At a glance
| ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents) | LiveKit Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Section | Voice agent platforms | Voice agent platforms |
| Tier | T1 | T1 |
| Type | Voice-agent platform from a TTS-first vendor (ElevenLabs) | Voice-agent framework on LiveKit WebRTC platform |
| Created | 2024-11 (launch) | 2024 (Agents repo open-sourced) |
| Latest release | — | v1.7.1 (2026-08-27) — livekit-agents (Python) |
| License | — | Apache-2.0 (framework); turn-detector models under LiveKit Model License |
| GitHub | github.com/elevenlabs (SDKs only) | livekit/agents — ~13k stars, last commit 2026-08+ |
| Pricing | Per-minute usage (Conv AI tier); free + Pro + Enterprise | OSS free; LiveKit Cloud tiered ($50/mo+ + usage) |
| Funding | $180M Series C Jan-2025 (a16z + ICONIQ; $3.3B val) | $45M Series B Sep-2024 (Altimeter; $300M val) |
| Backend storage | Conversation state in ElevenLabs cloud | Caller-managed; LiveKit handles WebRTC session state |
| Deployment | Cloud-managed | Both (self-hosted + managed cloud) — OSS framework self-host + LiveKit Cloud |
| API surface | REST + WebSocket APIs + SDKs (Python, JS, Swift, Android) | Python + Node SDKs; WebRTC transport; tools / function-calling |
| Multi-tenancy | Multi-tenant cloud | Multi-tenant Cloud; per-room namespacing |
| MCP | yes — hosted ElevenLabs MCP server (recommended); local elevenlabs-mcp server deprecated/archived 2026-08-20 | yes — native MCP support (agents can use MCP server tools) |
| A2A | searched not found | searched not found |
| OpenTelemetry | searched not found | OpenTelemetry export in 2025 release |
| Optimised for | Natural-sounding multilingual voice agents leveraging ElevenLabs TTS | Real-time voice + video agents over WebRTC at scale |
| Anti-fit | TTS-led — strongest at voice naturalness, less specialised for high-volume telephony routing | WebRTC-centric; if you want telephony-first, Vapi/Retell often easier |
Pros & cons
ElevenLabs Conversational AI (now ElevenAgents)
Pros: Best-in-class TTS; $3.3B val parent; SOC 2 + HIPAA; multilingual 30+ languages.
Cons: Newer entrant in agent platform (Nov 2024 launch); strongest at TTS, less mature at full orchestration.
LiveKit Agents
Pros: Chosen by OpenAI for Realtime WebRTC backbone; OSS Apache 2.0; SOC 2 + HIPAA; scales to billions of minutes.
Cons: WebRTC-first (telephony via Twilio adapter); framework not turnkey SaaS for non-engineers.