OpenAI Realtime API vs PolyAI
as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-21
PolyAI edges out OpenAI Realtime API in current AI answers, with an overall score of 17 versus 8, and mentions in 18 of 60 answers compared to 9 of 60. PolyAI shows up most for enterprise contact centre and inbound customer support questions, named in all 3 of 3 answers for each, while OpenAI Realtime API's strongest showing is 2 of 3 answers on lowest-latency questions. Head to head, PolyAI is named more often on 10 questions, OpenAI Realtime API on 5, with 5 tied. Neither is ever mentioned for call analytics, small business phone agents, or open-source frameworks.
Head to head
| metric | OpenAI Realtime API | PolyAI |
|---|---|---|
| score | 8 | 17 |
| questions won | 8 | 10 |
By assistant
OpenAI Realtime API
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 3 | 5% of answers | #7.0 |
| Claude | 22 | 40% of answers | #6.5 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 0 | 0% of answers |
PolyAI
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 19 | 25% of answers | #3.0 |
| Claude | 22 | 45% of answers | #8.0 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 13 | 20% of answers | #4.3 |
Where they differ
Only OpenAI Realtime API gets named for
- Which AI voice agent has the lowest latency?
- What's the best AI voice agent for languages other than English?
- Which voice AI platform sounds the most natural?
- Which voice AI platform is best for developers?
- What's the best AI voice agent for booking appointments?
Only PolyAI gets named for
- What's the best enterprise voice AI platform for contact centres?
- What's the best AI voice agent for a restaurant or clinic taking bookings?
- What's the best AI voice agent that can transfer to a human?
- What's the best AI receptionist for answering calls?
- What's the best voice AI that connects to my CRM?
- What's the best no-code tool to build a voice AI agent?
- What's the best voice AI platform with its own phone numbers and telephony?
More comparisons
- OpenAI Realtime API vs Parloa
- OpenAI Realtime API vs Slang.ai
- Cognigy vs OpenAI Realtime API
- Goodcall vs OpenAI Realtime API
- OpenAI Realtime API vs Thoughtly
- LiveKit Agents vs PolyAI
Not sold on either?
Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI voice agents leaderboard