Thanks — I’m responding to your question about calculating call costs and whether there’s a ready API to get cost data.
Short answer
• There isn’t a dedicated API that returns call costs.
• You can calculate costs yourself using call duration (start/end timestamps) plus the per-minute rates for the relevant call type (US local, toll-free, SIP, etc.), and factoring in any included minutes on your plan.
How to implement this (practical steps)
1. Determine call type for each call
◦ Examples: US local inbound, US toll-free inbound, third‑party SIP (inbound/outbound). Different call types use different per‑minute rates.
1. Capture accurate duration
◦ Use call start and end timestamps (or agent session/connection minutes) to compute duration in minutes. Round/ceiling per your billing rules (e.g., charge by whole minutes or fractional minutes).
1. Apply pricing rules
◦ Multiply billable minutes by the appropriate per‑minute rate:
▪︎ US local inbound minutes: $0.01/min after included allotment
▪︎ US toll-free inbound minutes: $0.02/min
▪︎ Third‑party SIP minutes: $0.004/min (volume tiers apply)
◦ Subtract included minutes for the account/plan before applying overage rates (e.g., if plan includes N minutes).
1. Add any other fees if applicable
◦ If you have additional platform or session fees (agent session minutes shown separately), include those per your billing model.
1. Display to the end user
◦ Show a running estimate during the call (recompute each minute) or a final cost after call ends. Make clear whether shown numbers are estimates vs final billed amounts.
Example formula (simple)
• billable_minutes = max(0, ceil(duration_minutes) - included_minutes_remaining)
• cost = billable_minutes × per_minute_rate
Notes and limitations
• There is no built‑in LiveKit API that returns "call cost" or real‑time cost estimates; cost must be computed externally using usage metrics and pricing rates.
• Included minutes and plan-specific rules affect final cost — make sure you fetch the account’s included allotment and current used minutes from your account/billing data before computing overages.
• Volume tiers (for SIP minutes) may change the per‑minute rate once usage crosses thresholds — handle tiered pricing if that applies to your account.
If you want, I can help with next steps:
• Outline exact inputs you’ll need from your system (call events, billing plan, minutes used).
• Provide a snippet of code (language of your choice) that calculates running and final costs.
• Design UI wording and how to present “estimate” vs “final bill.”
Which of those would be most helpful right now?
Sources:
Pricing | LiveKit |
Pricing | LiveKit |
Agents telephony integration | LiveKit Documentation |
Outbound Calling Script | LiveKit Documentation |
Understanding and Estimating Pricing for Video Conference and Livestream Us..., with interactive elements