Agora
Realtime voice, video and interactive streaming infrastructure with global coverage.
why this verdict
Keep it for the workflow, not the AI
LiveKit covers the headline feature free, and the workflow around it is why you would still open this.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Realtime voice APIs from model providers collapsing the audio stack into one vendor. OpenAI, October 1, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers headline only editorial call
- The headline feature, but not the workflow, data or integrations around it.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 1 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: LiveKit.
- What the call is worth nothing to cancel
- No paid entry tier tracked, so there is no subscription to cancel.
- Threatened by
- OpenAI
- Since
- October 1, 2025
- List price
- free
- Per year
- —
The backstory
Agora's software-defined network delivers low-latency audio and video worldwide, which made it the backbone for social audio and live-streaming apps, particularly across Asia. The conversational AI wave rearranged its market: when a model provider offers speech in and speech out over one connection, the specialist transport layer risks becoming an implementation detail. Agora shipped its own conversational AI engine in response, but it is now competing with the model vendors it would rather integrate with.
Escape hatches
Open-source and the common choice for new voice agents
livekit.io open_in_newStrong developer experience and the Pipecat framework
daily.co open_in_newLive video infrastructure with prebuilt UI components
100ms.live open_in_new1 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.