Twilio Video alternatives in 2026
Twilio Video is not shutting down. Twilio cancelled its end of life plan in October 2024. If you still want to compare, this is what seven video APIs charge, from their own pricing pages.
Short answer first. Twilio Video is still a live product, so you do not have to move. Twilio announced an end of life, then reversed it. If you are looking at alternatives anyway, the real reasons are usually price, a feature Twilio does not sell, or where your calls run. The table below puts the list prices side by side, all read from the vendors' own pages on 31 October 2026.
What Twilio says about Twilio Video today#
This is the part that confused many teams, so here is the order of events from Twilio's own pages.
- March 2024. Twilio announced that it would end of life Twilio Video on 5 December 2026.
- 21 October 2024. Twilio published the changelog entry Twilio Video Will Remain a Standalone Product. It says "we've reversed our earlier decision to retire Twilio Video in 2026", and "Current Twilio Video customers can continue to use Video as they always have; there's no action or change needed."
- Today. The Twilio Video FAQ says the product is "fully supported and under active development", and that it still accepts new customers. The Twilio Video page sells it with no end of life notice. All of this was checked on 31 October 2026.
So the 5 December 2026 date no longer applies. If a vendor email or an older blog post told you to leave by then, it is out of date. We can only report what Twilio says today. Whether a company changes its mind again is not something a pricing page can tell you, and some teams simply prefer not to depend on a product that was once on a shutdown list. That is a fair reason to compare, and a fair reason to stay.
What Twilio Video costs#
From Twilio's Video pricing page, checked 31 October 2026:
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Video calling in a Group Room | $0.004 per participant minute |
| Participant recordings | $0.004 per participant minute |
| Real-time transcription | $0.027 per room minute (flat, any number of people) |
| Compositions (one MP4 from the recordings) | $0.01 per composed minute |
| Media storage | $0.00167 per GB per day, first 10 GB free |
Twilio lists up to 50 participants and unlimited TURN relay with the calling price, and says volume and committed use discounts go through sales. Dial in and dial out over phone is billed at Programmable Voice rates on top. We did not find a monthly free allowance on the page, only a free trial credit.
The price table#
All prices are US dollars, list prices, from each vendor's own page, checked 31 October 2026. "Per participant minute" means one person in a call for one minute. A 10 person, one hour call is 600 participant minutes.
| Vendor | Call price (video) | Free or included | Recording | Captions or transcript |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twilio Video | $0.004 | Trial credit only | $0.004 per participant minute | $0.027 per room minute |
| Daily | $0.004 (down to $0.0015 at 50M+ minutes) | 10,000 minutes a month | $0.01349 per recorded minute, plus $0.003 per minute storage | $0.0059 per unmuted participant minute live |
| LiveKit Cloud | $0.0005 over the plan (Ship), $0.0004 (Scale) | Build 5,000, Ship 150,000, Scale 1.5M minutes | Transcode $0.02 per minute (Ship), track egress $0.001 per minute | Not on the pricing page |
| Vonage Video | $0.00410 (see note) | Not confirmed | $0.01295 per archive minute (see note) | Not confirmed |
| Agora | $0.00399 for HD, $0.00899 Full HD | 10,000 minutes a month | Cloud, HD video $0.00599 per minute | Not on the pricing page |
| Whereby Embedded | $0.0042 above the plan | Build $10.99 a month with 2,000 minutes; free plan 2,000 minutes | $0.01 per minute | From $0.0065 per unmuted participant minute |
| Stream | Audio $0.0003; video rate not shown on the page | $100 of usage free each month | HD $0.006 per minute | $0.008 per call minute |
| RespireSoft Meet API | $0.00025 | 20,000 minutes a month | $0.0009 per minute | $0.004 per caption minute |
Sources: Twilio, Daily, LiveKit, Agora, Whereby, Stream, RespireSoft Meet API pricing.
Notes on the gaps, because a table hides them.
- Vonage. Vonage's pricing page at vonage.com/communications-apis/video/pricing refused our request (HTTP 403), so we could not read it directly. The $0.00410 per participant minute and $0.01295 per archive minute come from a search result describing that page, and Vonage's older help articles list different recording figures. Treat them as unconfirmed and read the page yourself. Vonage also still runs an older subscribed stream minutes model for older accounts, and charges more per minute when more than 25 people publish at once.
- Stream. The page shows a base rate only for audio ($0.30 per 1,000 participant minutes). Video tabs list add-ons, and the page's FAQ says quality is billed at the highest level a user publishes or receives. We could not confirm a video call rate.
- Agora. Agora bills by resolution. The $3.99 per 1,000 minutes is HD, and Full HD is $8.99. Its summary page says "starts at $0.59 per 1,000 minutes", which is a lower starting point than the detail page shows for any option we looked at, so use the detail page.
- LiveKit. Prices depend on the plan: Build is free, Ship starts at $50 a month, Scale at $500 a month. Overage per minute is not listed for Build. Bandwidth is billed too, 250 GB included on Ship, then $0.12 per GB.
- Whereby. The free plan has a 30 minute limit per meeting. Whereby says some add-on rates are not clear for each plan, so confirm them with sales.
- Daily also lists audio only calls at $0.00099 per participant minute, and add-ons such as HIPAA at $500 a month.
What the same call costs#
Take a 10 person, one hour call of video only (600 participant minutes), at list price, ignoring free allowances and plan fees.
| Vendor | Cost |
|---|---|
| Twilio Video | $2.40 |
| Daily | $2.40 |
| Agora (HD) | $2.39 |
| Whereby (above plan) | $2.52 |
| LiveKit (Ship overage, before $50 plan fee and bandwidth) | $0.30 |
| RespireSoft Meet API | $0.15 |
That is arithmetic on list prices, not a quality comparison. Cheap minutes do not help if the feature you need is missing, and a plan fee changes the picture for small projects. Run your own numbers.
How the others differ, fairly#
Daily is the closest like for like. It matches Twilio's call price, adds a free 10,000 minutes and live transcription, and has a clear volume discount curve. Its HIPAA option is a paid add-on at $500 a month.
LiveKit is the one to look at if you want to run the media server yourself. The page says the media server is open source and can run on your own infrastructure, and on premise deployments go through sales. It also sells region pinning on the Scale plan. The cloud price is low per minute but comes with plan fees and bandwidth charges.
Vonage Video (the old OpenTok) has a long history and suits teams already on Vonage for voice and messaging. Read the pricing model carefully, because older accounts may still be on subscribed minutes.
Agora is strong for large scale and apps that need many resolutions, and prices climb with resolution.
Whereby Embedded has a monthly plan and a small free tier, which suits a small embedded project. Per minute it is similar to Twilio once you pass the included minutes.
Stream gives $100 of usage free every month, and lists its add-ons per 1,000 minutes.
Where RespireSoft Meet API fits#
RespireSoft Meet API is our own product, so weigh this section accordingly. It is a young product and billing is not switched on yet, so the prices above are a public price list that may change, and you are not charged today. Competitors beat us on age, scale, track record and certifications.
What it does today, from our docs:
- Create a room and a short lived meeting token on your server, and show the call in your page with an iframe or the 2 kB embed SDK.
- Server SDKs for Node, Python, PHP and Go. They are not on npm, PyPI, Packagist or the Go proxy yet, and every REST call also works with plain HTTPS.
- Live captions at $0.004 per caption minute and live spoken translation at $0.012 per listener minute, for up to 5 languages in a room. See the captions and translation guide. We did not see spoken translation on the other vendors' pricing pages, though some may offer it through partners or other products.
- Recording at $0.0009 per minute, up to 240 minutes, stored 30 days by default.
- Calls run on servers in the EU, with a TURN relay for strict networks.
Lines it does not cover: we do not offer self hosting, phone dial in, or a HIPAA add-on. Rooms hold up to 200 people. If you need one of those, pick a vendor above. You can try the call quality yourself in the free online meeting and the live interpreter with no sign up, and see pricing for the full list.
How to decide#
- Do you need to leave at all? Twilio's status is stable today. A price difference matters only at your volume.
- Count your real minutes. Multiply participant minutes by the rate, then add recording and captions, which are often the larger lines.
- Check the extras. Transcripts, translation, phone dial in and compliance are priced separately everywhere.
- Look at where media runs and whether you may need to self host.
- Prototype with two vendors. Free tiers exist at Daily, LiveKit, Agora, Whereby and Stream.
For a wider list with the same price facts, see the best video call API for developers. If you are comparing meeting apps and not APIs, see Zoom alternatives.
Questions people ask#
Is Twilio Video being shut down? Not according to Twilio. It reversed the plan on 21 October 2024 and calls the product fully supported and under active development.
Is Twilio Video the most expensive? Not by a wide margin. Daily and Agora HD list nearly the same per minute rate, and Whereby is a little higher above its included minutes. Some alternatives list lower minutes but add plan or bandwidth fees.
Can I move without rewriting my app? No vendor here shares an SDK with Twilio. Plan to change the client code and the token step on your server.