Introducing LiveKit Phone Numbers: Zero to Ringing in 60 Seconds
Today we’re launching LiveKit Phone Numbers, our first-party telephony service that lets you connect voice agents directly to the phone network in minutes, with no third-party SIP trunk required.
Purchase US local or toll-free numbers straight from the LiveKit Cloud dashboard or CLI, attach a dispatch rule to your agent, and go live. It’s that simple.
Why this matters
Most deployments today route through a SIP trunk provider of your choice. That works well, and we’ll continue to support that model and our partners.
But every network hop adds latency, jitter, and one more variable when debugging call quality or drops.
Connecting directly to upstream carriers removes those extra hops, reduces points of failure, and optimizes routing—especially when you deploy agents in LiveKit Cloud, where everything runs in the same data center for the lowest possible latency.
The result is more reliable calls, crisper audio, and better speech-to-text accuracy. Plus, no more signing up with extra vendors, managing separate billing, or spending hours configuring trunks just to test an agent.
How it works
Customers can now purchase phone numbers with HD voice quality directly from LiveKit, without going through a third‑party provider.
- Pick a phone number. Search available US local or toll-free numbers by area code in the dashboard (Telephony → Phone numbers → Buy a number), then buy with one click.
- Attach a dispatch rule. Create a new or select an existing dispatch rule to route inbound calls made to the phone number to your voice agent.
- Go live. Call the phone number and your agent will answer. Manage phone numbers, update dispatch rules, and review call sessions in one place.
Prefer the CLI? Use our new commands to search and buy numbers, then associate a dispatch rule programmatically.
All of our plans include one free US local phone number and a monthly allotment of free inbound calling minutes. Beyond that, we offer pay-as-you-go pricing for additional usage and a monthly fee for each phone number.
What you can build
Many industries still rely heavily on phone calls, from healthcare and insurance to real estate and professional services. With first‑party telephony, you can set up a phone agent on LiveKit in minutes.
- Front‑desk and FAQ agents that answer and route calls 24/7
- Order status, reservations, and appointment management flows
- After‑hours coverage that escalates to a human when needed
- Campaign or program hotlines with simple, reliable routing
LiveKit Phone Numbers is part of our broader telephony offering, alongside support for third‑party SIP providers like Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo, and Wavix.
Looking ahead
We’re committed to ensuring first-class support for phone agent use cases on LiveKit. Our upcoming roadmap includes support for outbound calling, international numbers and country-level search, bulk operations, and the ability to port numbers to LiveKit.
If you have feedback or questions, drop them in the #telephony channel in our community Slack.