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Trend · AI voice agents

Eleven Realtime: a complete voice agent in one model

Eleven Realtime is a family of ElevenLabs speech-to-speech models, launched October 20, 2026, where each model is a complete voice agent: speech recognition, turn-taking, reasoning and voice in one model ID. v1 Mini is for low-cost conversations and v1 Max for support and multi-step tasks. Both speak 90+ languages.

Last checked · Announced · By Mishal Brands Editorial

Checked Nov 10, 2026. Everything below is what the company reports in its own announcement, linked at the bottom: ElevenLabs, “Introducing Eleven Realtime: a simpler way to build natural voice agents” (Oct 20, 2026 (updated Oct 29, 2026)). We have not tested it ourselves, and figures are the company’s own unless we say otherwise.

What it does and why it matters

A voice agent used to mean choosing and tuning separate parts: speech recognition, voice activity detection, turn-taking, an LLM and text to speech. Eleven Realtime packages that cascade, tuned end to end, as one speech-to-speech model (ElevenLabs, Oct 20, 2026).

Because every step still produces text, you can see what the agent heard and what it decided to say, which ElevenLabs says is what lets ElevenAgents apply guardrails and PII redaction.

Who it is for

  • Small businesses that want an AI receptionist, booking or lead-qualification line.
  • Support teams building agents that follow a process and call tools (ElevenLabs recommends v1 Max here).
  • Developers already on OpenAI’s Realtime API who want to try another model with minimal code changes.

Standout features

  • Two models. v1 Mini for natural, low-cost conversations such as assistants, tutors and characters; v1 Max for customer support, lead qualification and multi-step workflows.
  • Reasoning by voice. On Big Bench Audio, as evaluated by Artificial Analysis, v1 Max answered 98.8% of 1,000 spoken reasoning questions correctly and v1 Mini 75.9%.
  • Fast replies. ElevenLabs reports v1 Max starts speaking in 0.57 seconds on average and v1 Mini in 0.62 seconds.
  • Natural turn-taking. On Full-Duplex-Bench (pauses, interruptions, backchannels) v1 Mini scored 95.8% and v1 Max 94.1%.
  • Tool use. v1 Max completed 87.1% of tool-use tasks and v1 Mini 60.3%.
  • Any of 17,000+ voices in the ElevenLabs library, and phone, web, WhatsApp and contact-center channels through ElevenAgents.

How to start

  1. In ElevenAgents, create an agent or open an existing one.
  2. Pick a Realtime model from the model dropdown: start with v1 Mini, move to v1 Max if the agent must call tools or follow steps.
  3. Add your knowledge base and guardrails, then run the built-in tests before you connect a phone number.
  4. Developers on OpenAI’s Realtime API can point their existing code at ElevenLabs’ WebSocket endpoint and change the model name.

Alternatives

The catches

  • The Realtime API connects over WebSocket only, so a WebRTC integration has to move to WebSocket first.
  • The Realtime API runs separately from ElevenAgents; for channels, a knowledge base or testing, ElevenLabs says to build on ElevenAgents from the start.

Frequently asked questions

What is Eleven Realtime?

A class of ElevenLabs speech-to-speech models where each model is a complete voice agent. There are two: Realtime v1 Mini and Realtime v1 Max.

Should I use v1 Mini or v1 Max?

ElevenLabs says Mini will be enough for most use cases such as assistants and tutors, and recommends Max for customer support, lead qualification and anything with heavy tool calling.

Does Eleven Realtime work with OpenAI’s Realtime API code?

Yes. ElevenLabs says its Realtime API follows the OpenAI Realtime specs over WebSocket, so OpenAI’s SDK works by changing the endpoint and model name.

Pricing and free plan for ElevenLabs

The Eleven Realtime announcement does not publish per-minute prices. Agents run on your ElevenLabs plan; check the official pricing page for agent minutes before you connect a phone line.

Plan facts from our library, worded as each vendor reports them:

Related on Mishal Brands

Sources (checked Nov 10, 2026)

Browse by category: All 18 Audio and voice tools · All 153 Business and productivity tools. Every tool page lists the vendor’s own price and the date we checked it.