LiveKit vs Parloa — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
LiveKit starts at $50/mo. Parloa uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- LiveKit (Hybrid) — LiveKit is hybrid: a fixed subscription from $50/mo plus metered usage on top. Your real bill moves with volume, not seat count.
- Parloa (Per Usage) — Parloa bills purely on usage — Enterprise. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Open-source real-time audio/video infrastructure. LiveKit powers WebRTC for voice, video, and AI agent applications. Cloud pricing: Free tier (100 max concurrent participants, 10K minutes/mo), Build $50/mo (500 participants, 150K minutes), Ship $500/mo (3K participants, 1.5M minutes), Enterprise custom. Self-hosted is fully free (Apache 2.0). LiveKit Agents framework powers voice AI at OpenAI (ChatGPT Advanced Voice), Character.ai, and many voice startups.
German enterprise AI voice agent platform with outcome-based pricing — you pay per successfully resolved conversation, not per minute. If a call escalates to a human, you don't pay the full amount. Practical entry ~$300,000+/year plus implementation. No self-serve, no free trial, sales-led only. Recently valued at $3B (2026 fundraise). Capchase partnership for financing multi-year deals.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | LiveKit monthly | LiveKit annual | Parloa monthly | Parloa annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Self-hosted / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Entry paid | Ship / — | $50 | $50 | — | — |
| Pro / power | Scale / — | $500 | $500 | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise / — | Custom | Custom | — | — |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
LiveKit is worth it if… developers building real-time voice or video features into their products — voice AI agents, video conferencing, live streams. 0).
Parloa is worth it if… enterprise contact centers handling 2M+ calls/year that want outcome-based pricing tied to conversation resolution rather than minutes consumed. If you handle 30K orders/month you're too small for their target; if you're at Fortune 500 CX scale, this is the right conversation.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — LiveKit is hybrid, Parloa is per usage.
Choose LiveKit over Parloa if…
Choose LiveKit if…
- You're fine with a base subscription plus metered usage on top (from $50/mo).
- You match the profile LiveKit is built for: developers building real-time voice or video features into their products — voice AI agents, video conferencing, live streams.
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose Parloa if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile Parloa is built for: enterprise contact centers handling 2M+ calls/year that want outcome-based pricing tied to conversation resolution rather than minutes consumed.
- You're building for contact centers.
At a glance
| LiveKit | Parloa | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | — |
| Entry price | $50/mo | Custom pricing |
| Enterprise available | Yes | — |
| Pricing model | Hybrid | Per Usage |
| Verification | Checked September 28, 2026 | Pricing under review |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 28, 2026. Verification cadence varies by tool; check each tool page.