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LiveKit vs Vapi

A side-by-side comparison of LiveKit and Vapi, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.

Compared from listings verified as of

LiveKit

Infra

Open-source framework and cloud for realtime voice, video, and physical AI agents.

View LiveKit

Vapi

Voice

Voice agent infrastructure. Build a phone-agent in a weekend.

View Vapi

At a glance

Feature comparison of LiveKit and Vapi
AttributeLiveKitVapi
Category (differs)InfraVoice
PricingFREEMIUMFREEMIUM
License (differs)Open coreProprietary
Deployment (differs)HybridCloud
Platforms (differs)Web, API, CLIAPI, Web
Model support (differs)Model-agnosticMulti-model
Vendor (differs)LiveKit, Inc.Vapi

The honest brief

LiveKit

The open-source realtime layer most voice-agent stacks run on — sub-second STT-LLM-TTS with turn detection, interruptions, and telephony, BYO models.

  • Powers ChatGPT Advanced Voice in production
  • Self-hostable, with telephony built in
  • BYO STT/LLM/TTS — no model lock-in
  • Reliable turn detection and interruptions
  • Managed cloud option alongside the OSS
  • Developer infrastructure, not a no-code product
  • You assemble and pay for STT/LLM/TTS separately
  • Realtime media ops add operational complexity

Vapi

Solves the hard parts of phone agents — telephony, low-latency turn-taking and barge-in — while leaving STT/LLM/TTS fully pluggable.

  • Telephony and interrupts handled
  • Pluggable STT + LLM + TTS stack
  • Fast to a working phone agent
  • Generous developer free tier
  • Per-minute costs stack across layers
  • Latency depends on chosen models
  • Complex configuration surface
  • Cloud-only orchestration
LiveKit detailsVapi details