What is the best free alternative to XiaoZhi AI?
LiveKit Agents is the closest free alternative to XiaoZhi AI: same Real-Time Voice Agents sub-category, and it is free. Apache-2.0 open-source framework, fully self-hostable on your own servers
Best free XiaoZhi AI alternatives
Looking for a free alternative to XiaoZhi AI? Here are 9 real-time voice agents worth trying — 5 with a free tier. XiaoZhi AI itself is free.
| Tool | XiaoZhi AI (you searched) | LiveKit Agents | Pipecat | Bolna |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | free | free | free | free |
| Best for | Open-source ESP32 voice chatbot with wake word, Opus streaming and a display | Apache-2.0 open-source framework, fully self-hostable on your own servers | BSD-2-Clause open-source Python framework for real-time voice/multimodal agents | Open-source framework for phone voice agents, from an India-based team |
| Visit | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ |
XiaoZhi AI alternatives — straight answers
Are there free XiaoZhi AI alternatives?
Yes — 5 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: LiveKit Agents, Pipecat, Bolna, Kyutai Unmute, TEN Framework. None of them are paid-only.
Is XiaoZhi AI free?
XiaoZhi AI is free. There is no paid plan attached to it in the catalog.
How were these XiaoZhi AI alternatives chosen?
They are the other tools in Real-Time Voice Agents, then the rest of AI Agents & Automation, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.
All XiaoZhi AI alternatives
Browse Real-Time Voice Agents →LiveKit Agents
Real-Time Voice Agents
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Apache-2.0 open-source framework, fully self-hostable on your own servers.
- Apache-2.0 open-source framework, fully self-hostable on your own servers
- Native WebRTC client support across web/mobile/telephony out of the box
- Native Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for tool-using voice agents
Pipecat
Real-Time Voice Agents
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — BSD-2-Clause open-source Python framework for real-time voice/multimodal agents.
- BSD-2-Clause open-source Python framework for real-time voice/multimodal agents
- Supports distributed multi-agent systems with handoffs over a shared bus
- Maintained by Daily with an active plugin ecosystem for STT/LLM/TTS providers
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Open-source framework for phone voice agents, from an India-based team.
- Open-source framework for phone voice agents, from an India-based team
- Connects to telephony, STT, LLM and TTS providers of your choice
- Supports Indian languages
- Self-host free; hosted platform is pay-as-you-go
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Wraps any text LLM with Kyutai's streaming speech-to-text and text-to-speech for voice conversation.
- Wraps any text LLM with Kyutai's streaming speech-to-text and text-to-speech for voice conversation
- Open-source code and weights that can be self-hosted
- Low-latency interruptible conversation
- Free demo available online
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Open-source framework for real-time conversational voice and multimodal agents.
- Open-source framework for real-time conversational voice and multimodal agents
- Modular graph of extensions in Python, Go, C++ and Node
- Ships a playground and a VAD and turn-detection model
- Free to self-host under an open license
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Orchestrates STT/LLM/TTS providers of choice into one low-latency voice-agent pipeline.
- Orchestrates STT/LLM/TTS providers of choice into one low-latency voice-agent pipeline
- Usage-based per-minute pricing with free trial minutes included
- SOC 2/HIPAA/PCI compliance add-ons for regulated call-center deployments
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Free starting credit with no contract required.
- Free starting credit with no contract required
- Supports swapping GPT, Claude or Gemini as the reasoning layer per agent
- Batch calling campaigns plus live AI-to-human call transfer built in
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — All-in-one per-minute pricing bundles LLM+STT+TTS with no separate token pass-through charges.
- All-in-one per-minute pricing bundles LLM+STT+TTS with no separate token pass-through charges
- Free start with call credits plus an inbound number included
- Tiered platform fees (Build/Scale) unlock lower per-minute rates for high volume
✦ WhyA XiaoZhi AI alternative — Speech-native processing skips the STT-to-text bottleneck, preserving tone/cadence/pitch.
- Speech-native processing skips the STT-to-text bottleneck, preserving tone/cadence/pitch
- Free tier: 5¢/min including TTS for up to 5 concurrent calls
- Open-weight models (fixie-ai) published on Hugging Face for research use