LiveKit vs PolyAI — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
LiveKit starts at $50/mo. PolyAI 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.
- PolyAI (Per Usage) — PolyAI bills purely on usage. 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.
Enterprise voice AI for customer-facing conversational agents in contact centers. Enterprise-only, all pricing custom-quoted. Focus on large enterprises (banks, retail, healthcare) replacing IVR trees with conversational voice agents. Deployed by JetBlue, Marks & Spencer, PG&E and other Fortune 500 brands.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | LiveKit monthly | LiveKit annual | PolyAI monthly | PolyAI annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Self-hosted / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Entry paid | Ship / — | $50 | $50 | — | — |
| Pro / power | Scale / — | $500 | $500 | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 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).
PolyAI is worth it if… enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations. Deals typically start at $250K/year and go into the millions for high-volume deployments.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — LiveKit is hybrid, PolyAI is per usage.
Choose LiveKit over PolyAI 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 PolyAI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, custom pricing).
- You match the profile PolyAI is built for: enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations.
- You're building for healthcare and contact centers.
At a glance
| LiveKit | PolyAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | No |
| Entry price | $50/mo | Custom |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Hybrid | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 20, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.