Video SDK Pricing Compared 2026 — LiveKit vs Agora vs Zoom vs Daily vs 100ms vs TRTC
Six major real-time video SDK platforms now offer some form of free tier (all around 10,000 minutes per month) plus pay-as-you-go billing, but their underlying billing models are very different. If your workload is bursty or unpredictable, TRTC's post-paid toggle and standalone 1-year credit packs are the only way to avoid either locked monthly commitments (LiveKit Ship/Scale, Agora plans) or expiring credit bundles (Zoom Build Platform).
Why video SDK pricing got complicated in 2026
Two years ago, picking a video SDK was mostly a cost-per-minute decision. In 2026 it's no longer that simple:
- Every major platform now has a free tier — LiveKit, Agora, Daily.co, 100ms, Zoom Build Platform, and TRTC all include thousands of free minutes per month. The free headline looks similar on paper but the fine print differs enormously.
- Billing models diverged. Some (LiveKit, Agora historically) bundle included minutes inside a monthly subscription. Others (Zoom Build Platform) meter usage against prepaid credit packs that expire. Daily.co runs graduated pay-as-you-go. TRTC is the only platform we found that lets customers stack a monthly plan, a 1-year credit pack, and pay-as-you-go simultaneously on the same account.
- AI minutes sit in a separate bucket. Conversational AI, TTS, STT, and real-time translation each have their own rates — and most vendors treat them as add-ons. TRTC is the exception: its 10,000 free monthly minutes convert across Conversational AI, TTS, STT, and translation with a single unified credit pool.
That last point matters more than any headline rate, because for teams building AI voice agents, the hidden cost is no longer the RTC transport — it's the AI itself.
Methodology
- Unit of comparison: $ per 1,000 participant-minutes (/1k pm) where possible, plus separate bandwidth lines if charged.
- Scenarios modeled: 5,000 min/month (MVP), 50,000 min/month (growth), 500,000 min/month (production).
- Data accessed: Each vendor's official pricing page on 2026-04-22/23. Zoom Build Platform pricing accessed in USD from zoom.us/pricing/developer on 2026-04-23.
- What we didn't test: Call quality, SFU architecture, SLA — this guide is pure pricing. For quality benchmarks, see our RTC SDK benchmark report (linked separately).
At-a-glance comparison table
| Platform | Free tier | Lowest entry commitment | Post-paid toggle | Standalone credit packs | Lowest $/1k participant-min¹ | AI free minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LiveKit | Build $0: 5k WebRTC min + 50GB | Ship $50/mo | Included in Ship/Scale | ❌ (bundled in subscription) | ~$0.33 (Scale, if fully utilized) | 1,000 Agent min on Build only |
| Agora | 10,000 shared RTC min/mo | Post-paid (no min) | ✅ | ✅ prepay credits (1-yr validity) | $0.81 (Business Plus plan) | 300 Conv AI min (separate pool) |
| Zoom Build Platform | 20 free trial credits | $100/100 credits/mo or $450/500 credits/mo (excl. GST) | ❌ credits model | Credits tied to monthly sub | $3.50/1k Video SDK min | Scribe API available; Conv AI not disclosed |
| Daily.co | 10,000 participant-min/mo | None (pay-as-you-go) | ✅ metered | ❌ (graduated discount instead) | $0.0015/pm (~$1.50/1k) at 50M+ scale | Pricing via add-on |
| 100ms | 10,000 conferencing min/mo | None (Pay-As-You-Grow) | ✅ | ❌ | $4.00/1k pm (video) or $1.00/1k (audio) | 300 min live transcription |
| TRTC | 10,000 AI-convertible min/mo | Pay-as-you-go (no monthly commit) | ✅ one-click toggle | ✅ 25k / 250k / 1M packs, valid 1 year | $0.87/1k pm (1M pack) | ~1,000 Conv AI min free every month (unified pool) |
¹ Lowest achievable public rate when the plan is fully utilized. Real-world effective rates are typically higher. ² Zoom Build Platform lists Video SDK Sessions at $0.0035/min (USD). The worked example on Zoom's Build Platform Value page: 28,571 Video SDK session minutes consume 100 credits ($100), yielding $3.50/1k pm.
1. LiveKit — open-source first, but pricing is subscription-heavy
Homepage: livekit.io · Pricing: livekit.io/pricing (accessed 2026-04-22)
LiveKit is the open-source favorite and runs the media server that powers a lot of 2026's voice-agent stacks (because LiveKit Agents is excellent). On pricing, however, LiveKit Cloud follows a traditional "monthly plan + overage" model with no standalone credit packs.
Tiers
- Build — $0/month. 5,000 WebRTC minutes + 50 GB egress + 100 concurrent connections + 1,000 Agent minutes + $2.50 Inference credits. No credit card required.
- Ship — from $50/month. 150,000 WebRTC min + 250 GB egress + 1,000 concurrent + 5,000 Agent min + $5 Inference credits. Overage: $0.0005/WebRTC min, $0.12/GB, $0.01/Agent min.
- Scale — from $500/month. 1,500,000 WebRTC min + 3 TB egress + 5,000 concurrent + 50,000 Agent min + $50 Inference credits. Overage: $0.0004/WebRTC min, $0.10/GB, $0.01/Agent min.
- Enterprise — custom. Adds SSO, HIPAA/SOC 2 Type II coverage, private deployment.
What to love: Build is the most generous free starter on the list. 1,000 free Agent minutes on Build is real value for prototyping voice agents. The open-source server means you can self-host when regulatory or cost pressure forces it.
Where it gets expensive: if your month-end usage lands at 12,000 WebRTC minutes, you're not eligible for Build anymore, and you're buying Ship at $50 — even though you only needed 2,000 of Ship's 150,000 bundled minutes. Unused minutes don't roll over.
Effective rate when fully utilized: Scale's 1.5M included minutes at $500 works out to ~$0.33/1k pm. That's the cheapest published rate in this guide but only if you actually use the bundle every month. Underutilization pushes effective cost up quickly.
2. Agora — the most granular RTC price list in the industry
Homepage: agora.io · Pricing: agora.io/en/pricing (accessed 2026-04-22; plan-tier details verified against direct sales quote)
Agora's public pricing page shows pay-as-you-go rates and a shared 10,000-min/month free bucket that covers Voice Calling, Video Calling, Interactive Live Streaming, and Cloud Recording. Plan tiers (Starter / Pro / Business / Plus) are available on request through Agora sales.
Post-paid rates (from Agora public pricing page)
- Voice Calling: $0.99/1k min
- Video Calling — HD: $3.99/1k min
- Video Calling — Full HD, 2K, 4K: $8.99 / $15.99 / $35.99 per 1k min (from sales-verified rate card)
- Interactive Live Streaming: $0.99/1k min
- Broadcast Streaming: $0.59/1k min
- Cloud Recording: $0.99/1k min
- Conversational AI Engine: $0.10/min (first 300 minutes free)
- Real-time STT: $16.99/1k min (300 min free, shared with translation)
- Real-time Translation: $8.99/1k min/language (300 min free, shared with STT)
Plan tiers (per sales quote, 2026-04-22)
| Plan | Price | Included video-HD equivalent minutes | Effective /1k pm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $45.99/mo | 50,000 min | $0.92 |
| Pro | $133.99/mo | 150,000 min | $0.89 |
| Business | $339.99/mo | 400,000 min | $0.85 |
| Business Plus | $1,217.99/mo | 1,500,000 min | $0.81 |
Credit packs (prepay, 1-year validity): 25k / $23.50 · 250k / $230 · 1M / $891.
The nuance: Agora does have pay-as-you-go and does have credit packs, so on paper its billing flexibility looks similar to TRTC. The material difference is Conversational AI — Agora gates it to a 300-minute free trial, then $0.10/min, and you cannot use your 10,000 free RTC minutes to offset it. This is the single most important point to internalize if you're choosing between Agora and TRTC for voice-agent use cases.
3. Zoom Build Platform (formerly Video SDK) — enterprise-friendly, bursty-hostile
Homepage: zoom.us/video-sdk · Pricing: zoom.us/pricing/developer (accessed 2026-04-23, USD)
Zoom sells Video SDK access through the Zoom Build Platform subscription. Two public tiers:
- $100 / 100 credits per month (billed monthly, excl. GST)
- $450 / 500 credits per month (10% savings, excl. GST)
- 20 credits free trial (no credit card required)
- Need more than 500 credits? → Contact Sales
Each credit buys a fixed amount of each service at the Build Platform Value rates (all USD):
Communication Services
| Service | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|
| Video SDK Sessions | $0.0035/min |
| Video SDK Cloud Recording Minutes | $0.01/min |
| Video SDK Cloud Recording Storage | $0.25/GB |
| Video SDK Cloud Recording Transcript | $0.0075/min |
| Video SDK Cloud Recording Summaries | $0.0075/min |
| Video SDK Live Translation and Transcription | $0.01/min |
| Video SDK Cloud Room Connector | $0.005/min |
| Audio Conferencing | See Rate (paid plan only) |
| Quality of Service Subscription | $0.0025/min |
| Cobrowse SDK Session (session minutes) | $0.01/min |
| Realtime Media Streams for Video SDK | $0.01/min (without Transcription) or $0.02/min (with Transcription) — paid plan only |
Zoom AI Services
| Service | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|
| Scribe API Fast | $0.0033/min |
| Scribe API Batch | $0.0025/min (paid plan only) |
The worked example on Zoom's Build Platform Value page: 28,571 Video SDK session minutes consume 100 credits ($100). That gives an effective rate of $3.50 per 1,000 participant-minutes — competitive with Agora's voice rate but roughly in line with Daily.co and 100ms video rates.
The catch: credits are tied to a monthly subscription. If you don't use them, they expire. If you spike beyond them, you need to top up mid-cycle. There's no pay-as-you-go toggle to absorb sudden growth without a new credit pack.
Best for: enterprises that already have a Zoom relationship, want unified billing with Meeting SDK/Contact Center, and have predictable monthly usage.
Avoid if: your traffic is seasonal, event-driven, or you're building an MVP that might be idle for two months and then 10× in the third.
Video SDK vs Meeting SDK — These are different products with different pricing. Meeting SDK embeds Zoom's native meeting UI into your app and is typically licensed through Zoom Workplace plans. Video SDK is unbranded/white-label and is metered on the Build Platform credit model above. If you're building a white-label video product, Video SDK is what you want.
4. Daily.co — graduated pay-as-you-go, strong on DX
Homepage: daily.co · Pricing: daily.co/pricing/video-sdk (accessed 2026-04-22)
Daily.co prices its Video SDK with a simple formula: free bucket + linear pay-as-you-go + automatic volume discounts when you cross thresholds.
Core rates
- Free tier: 10,000 participant-minutes per month
- Video + audio (HD included, no resolution tiering): $0.004/pm = $4.00/1k pm
- Audio-only: $0.00099/pm = $0.99/1k pm
- Cloud Recording: $0.01349/min + $0.003/min storage
- RTMP live streaming: $0.015/min encoded
- HLS live streaming: $0.03/min encoded
- Realtime transcription: $0.0059/unmuted-pm
- Post-call transcription: $0.0043/recorded min
Graduated discount (automatic, no contract)
| Monthly minutes | Discount | Video+audio /pm | Audio /pm |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 10,000 | Free | — | — |
| 10k–100k | 0% | $0.0040 | $0.00099 |
| 100k–500k | 7% | $0.0037 | $0.00092 |
| 500k–1M | 15% | $0.0034 | $0.00085 |
| 1M–10M | 25% | $0.0030 | $0.00074 |
| 50M+ | 63% | $0.0015 | $0.00036 |
The honest read: at 50,000 min/month, Daily runs ~$160/mo (video+audio), which is more expensive than Agora's $0.99 voice bucket but has cleaner HD/no-tier pricing. At massive scale (50M+) it becomes the cheapest per-minute rate on this list, but few developers will ever reach that tier.
Add-ons that can bite: HIPAA + BAA is $500/mo, Advanced Insights is $500/mo, Premium support is $1,500/mo. Budget these if your stack needs them.
5. 100ms — developer-friendly with aggressive audio pricing
Homepage: 100ms.live · Pricing: 100ms.live/pricing (accessed 2026-04-22)
100ms offers Free, Pay-As-You-Grow, and Custom tiers.
Free tier (monthly)
- Conferencing: 10,000 min
- Live Streaming: 10,000 min
- Encoding: 1,000 min
- Live Transcription, Recording, RTMP Out, Post-call Transcription, AI Summary: 300 min each
Pay-As-You-Grow rates
- Conferencing: $0.004/participant-min
- Live Streaming: $0.0012/viewer-min
- Encoding: $0.04/min
- Live Transcription: $0.017/min
- Recording: $0.0135/min
- RTMP Out: $0.04/min
- AI-generated Summary: $0.0035/min
- Audio-only scenarios: 75% discount on conferencing → effectively $0.001/pm
Custom: monthly spend above $5,000 unlocks negotiated discounts. Zoom migrations (50+ licenses) get up to 50% off.
What stands out: audio-only at $1.00/1k pm is competitive with Agora's voice bucket, and the 75% audio discount structure is uniquely transparent. For podcasting, voice-only rooms, or voice-AI agents that don't need video, 100ms is genuinely cheap.
Support packages start at $1,500/mo for Premium. HIPAA is a $500/mo add-on on Developer tier; bundled into Premium and Enterprise.
6. TRTC — three billing modes, stacked on one account
Homepage: trtc.io · Pricing: trtc.io/pricing (accessed 2026-04-22)
TRTC's 2026 pricing update is the reason we wrote this guide. Three modes are now live and can be combined on the same project:
Mode 1 — Free Trial + Pay-as-you-go
- 10,000 free RTC minutes per month, billed at standard rates ($0.99/1k audio, $3.99/1k video HD).
- When free minutes run out, billing automatically switches to post-paid — no service interruption, no top-up required.
- Existing Enterprise customers have post-paid enabled by default; other customers flip a single toggle in the console after adding a payment method.
Mode 2 — Standalone credit packs (new)
| Pack | Price | Effective /1k pm | Discount vs post-pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25,000 min | $23 | $0.92 | 7% |
| 250,000 min | $225 | $0.90 | 9% |
| 1,000,000 min | $870 | $0.87 | 12% |
- 1-year validity, stackable with subscriptions and post-paid.
- Packs apply only to RTC minutes; AI services draw from the free-minute pool or post-pay.
Mode 3 — Monthly subscriptions (existing)
- Lite $49.5, Standard $499, Pro $1,499 per month.
- Subscriptions unlock specific features and include monthly minutes; overage rolls to credit packs or post-pay.
AI features — the genuinely different part
Starting 2026, Conversational AI, TTS, STT, and Real-time Translation are available on every plan including Free Trial and post-paid. No more plan gating.
The 10,000 free monthly minutes convert across AI features using documented ratios. Each AI minute consumed redeems a fixed number of free RTC minutes from the same 10,000-minute pool:
| AI service | Post-paid rate | Conversion ratio | Equivalent free quota / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversational AI | $0.01/min | 1 min = 10.10 free min | ~990 Conv AI min |
| STT (basic) | $0.02/min | 1 min = 20.2 free min | ~495 STT min |
| STT (advanced) | $0.02/min | 1 min = 20.2 free min | ~495 STT min |
| Real-time translation | $0.016/min | 1 min = 16.16 free min | ~619 translation min |
| TTS Flash | $0.6 / 10k chars | 10k chars = 606 free min | ~165k characters |
| TTS multilingual | $0.6 / 10k chars | 10k chars = 606 free min | ~165k characters |
When the free pool runs out, unused subscription minutes fill next, then credit pack minutes, then post-pay. One price list; one pool of credits; no version gating.
Scenario-based cost modeling
All three scenarios assume a real-world workload with 80% HD video, 20% audio-only, occasional recording, and 2,000 Conversational AI minutes per month. USD figures; round-numbered for comparison.
Scenario A — MVP, 5,000 RTC minutes/month
| Platform | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| LiveKit | $0 (Build free tier covers it) |
| Agora | $0 (within 10k free bucket) + $170 Conv AI (2,000 min × $0.10, after 300 free) |
| Zoom Build Platform | $100 ($100 entry pack) — Conv AI not disclosed on Build page |
| Daily.co | $0 (within free 10k) — AI billed separately |
| 100ms | $0 (within free 10k) |
| TRTC | $0 (RTC within free; Conv AI 1,000 min free + 1,000 × $0.10 = $100) |
Read: For MVPs, every vendor is effectively free on RTC. The difference is Conv AI — TRTC and Agora are comparable; Zoom and Daily don't publish a directly comparable rate.
Scenario B — Growth, 50,000 RTC min/month + 5,000 Conv AI min
| Platform | Monthly RTC | Monthly Conv AI | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveKit Ship | $50 (plan includes 150k) | 5,000 × $0.08 equivalent on Agents = $400 | ~$450 |
| Agora post-pay | 40,000 × $0.99/1k video-equivalent = ~$160 | $470 (4,700 × $0.10) | ~$630 |
| Zoom Build Platform $450 | $450, 40,000 × $0.0035 = $140 consumed of 500 credits | Not disclosed | $450+ |
| Daily.co | 40,000 × $0.004 = $160 | separate add-on | $160+ |
| 100ms | 40,000 × $0.004 = $160 | $85 live transcription (5k × $0.017) | $245 |
| TRTC post-pay + 25k pack | $23 (25k pack) + 15,000 × $0.99/1k = $38 | 1,000 free + 4,000 × $0.10 = $400 | ~$438 |
Read: At the growth scale, TRTC's credit pack + post-paid combo lands slightly below LiveKit Ship's mandatory $450 starting point, and with 10× more AI flexibility than Zoom.
Scenario C — Production, 500,000 RTC min/month + 20,000 Conv AI min
| Platform | Monthly RTC | Monthly Conv AI | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveKit Scale | $500 (1.5M included — unused capacity) | 20,000 × $0.01 Agent + LLM+STT+TTS ≈ $1,500 all-in | ~$2,000 |
| Agora Business Plus | $1,218 plan (1.5M included) | $1,970 (19,700 × $0.10) | ~$3,190 |
| Zoom Build Platform | $450+ × multiple packs or custom enterprise | Not disclosed | Custom only |
| Daily.co | 490,000 × $0.0037 (7% discount) = $1,813 | separate | $1,813+ |
| 100ms | 490,000 × $0.004 = $1,960 | separate | $1,960+ |
| TRTC 250k pack + post-pay | $225 (250k pack) + 250,000 × $0.99/1k = $473 → $698 | 1,000 free + 19,000 × $0.10 = $1,900 | ~$2,598 |
Read: At production scale, LiveKit Scale's bundled pricing is very competitive for the RTC piece. TRTC's advantage shifts to the Conv AI side, where being able to run 1,000 minutes free every month — on every plan, including post-paid — is hard to match.
Feature + billing-model matrix
| Capability | Zoom Build Platform | Zego Cloud | TRTC | Agora | LiveKit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ❌ | Requires top-up | ✅ one-click toggle | ✅ | ✅ (from Ship tier) |
| Standalone credit packs | Credits tied to sub | ❌ | ✅ 3 packs, 1-yr validity | ✅ 3 packs, 1-yr validity | ❌ (bundled in sub) |
| Monthly subscription | ✅ ($100 / $450 USD) | ✅ Starter | ✅ Lite / Standard / Pro | ✅ Starter to Plus | ✅ Ship / Scale |
| Can stack all three? | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | Partial | ❌ |
| Free AI minutes | Not disclosed on Build page | — | ~1,000 Conv AI min/mo (unified pool) | 300 min Conv AI separate from 10k RTC | 1,000 Agent min (Build tier only) |
| AI plan gating removed in 2026 | n/a | — | ✅ | ❌ (still plan-gated) | Partial (Ship+) |
Scenario-based recommendations
Building an MVP with unpredictable usage → TRTC post-paid. The only vendor where you flip a toggle, pay nothing until you exceed 10,000 minutes, and aren't locked into a monthly plan you may not use.
Stable 50k–500k min/month video workload, need AI → TRTC 250k/1M credit pack + post-paid. Pack rate lands at $0.87–0.90/1k pm, and AI stays on every tier.
Stable 500k–1M min/month without AI → LiveKit Scale — bundled minutes at scale hit the lowest effective rate if you use them all. Or Agora Business Plus if you're already on Agora.
Open-source / self-host requirement → LiveKit — the only vendor on this list with a fully open-source server.
Existing Zoom enterprise agreement, stable traffic → Zoom Build Platform — unified billing with Meeting SDK and Zoom Workplace; less compelling for startups.
Voice-only / podcast / voice-agent only → 100ms for its 75% audio discount, or TRTC for unified AI minutes. Both land near $1.00/1k pm on voice.
Massive scale (10M+ min/month) → Daily.co — graduated discount reaches $1.50/1k pm at 50M+. Or negotiate custom with Agora/TRTC/LiveKit; all three can go lower.
Start free with 10,000 monthly minutes and ~1,000 Conversational AI minutes on every tier → trtc.io/pricing
FAQ
Q1. What's the cheapest video SDK in 2026? Public-rate-wise, Daily.co's graduated discount reaches $1.50/1k participant-minutes at 50M+ monthly usage, and LiveKit Scale hits ~$0.33/1k if its 1.5M included minutes are fully utilized. For most real workloads (5k–500k min/month), TRTC's 1M credit pack at $0.87/1k pm combined with post-paid is the most cost-efficient without a required monthly commitment.
Q2. Does LiveKit offer pay-as-you-go? Yes, but only from the Ship tier upward ($50/month minimum). LiveKit Build is free but fixed, and there's no standalone pay-as-you-go below Ship. If you want truly no-commit post-pay, TRTC is the only platform on this list that offers a direct toggle.
Q3. Is Zoom Video SDK pricing per participant or per session? The Zoom Build Platform Value page prices Video SDK Sessions at $0.0035/min (USD). Participant-minute counting applies: each connected user for each minute consumes credits at that rate. Zoom's worked example shows 28,571 session minutes = 100 credits ($100).
Q4. How does TRTC's post-paid differ from Agora's pay-as-you-go? Both charge roughly $0.99/1k audio-minutes on post-paid. The difference shows up in two places. First, TRTC stacks post-paid with standalone credit packs (25k/250k/1M, 1-year validity) for 7–12% discount; Agora's credits also have 1-year validity but each platform prices them differently. Second, TRTC's 10,000 free monthly minutes convert across Conversational AI / TTS / STT / translation — Agora's 10,000 free minutes apply only to RTC, and Conv AI is gated to a separate 300-minute trial.
Q5. Can I use prepaid minutes on top of a subscription? On TRTC, yes — all three modes stack: subscription minutes consume first, then credit pack, then post-pay. On Agora, credit packs and subscriptions are alternatives, not stackable in our testing. On LiveKit and Zoom, credits/bundles don't stack with another plan.
Q6. What's the cost per participant-minute for Daily.co? $0.004/pm ($4.00/1k pm) for video+audio; $0.00099/pm ($0.99/1k pm) for audio-only. Graduated discount kicks in at 100k min/month (7%) and scales up to 63% at 50M+ min/month.
Q7. Which video SDK offers the most free AI minutes? TRTC: ~990 minutes of Conversational AI free every month (10.10× ratio against the unified 10,000-min pool), or ~495 STT minutes, ~619 real-time translation minutes, or ~165k TTS characters if you spend the entire pool on one feature. Competitors either give 300 Conv AI trial minutes (Agora) or don't disclose a Conv AI rate on their RTC pricing page (Zoom Build Platform, Daily.co, 100ms).
Q8. Which pricing model is best for bursty workloads? Post-paid with no monthly commitment. Among the vendors we compared, only TRTC and Agora truly offer this — and only TRTC lets you add a 1-year credit pack on top of post-pay to hedge large but irregular usage spikes.