# Is Phonic-1 SOTA?

Pending benchmarks. Announced Oct 29, 2026; no independent results yet.

As of Nov 3, 2026, Phonic-1 is pending benchmarks on isitsota: announced Oct 29, 2026, with no independent results on the boards we track yet.

Phonic's speech-to-speech model for phone and voice agents: it hears the caller's audio directly and answers in speech, without a separate transcription and text-to-speech step. Phonic says it can call tools while the caller is still talking and works in 50+ languages. Available now through Phonic's API at $0.07 per minute ($0.065 on the Pro plan), and through LiveKit Agents. No open weights.

Canonical: https://isitsota.com/m/phonic-1
Last updated: 2026-10-29
Tracking since: 2026-10-29

## Announced facts

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Lab | Phonic |
| Announced | Oct 29, 2026 |
| API | Live (`phonic-1`) |
| Open weights | Closed |
| Type | End-to-end speech-to-speech model for voice agents (audio in, audio out), with tool calls |
| Price | $0.07 per minute (Starter); $0.065 per minute on Pro with a $200 monthly minimum; no per-token or LLM pass-through charges |
| Access | Phonic API (WebSocket, model ID phonic-1), TypeScript and Python SDKs, CLI and a no-code agent builder; a Phonic plugin for LiveKit Agents |
| Languages | 50+, with switching mid-conversation in the same voice (per Phonic) |
| Earlier Phonic models | phonic-0.5 and merritt, still selectable in Phonic's API |
| Artificial Analysis (Oct 29) | Phonic 1 (High): Speech to Speech Index 87.1; Tau Voice 79.9%; Big Bench Audio 98.9%; time to first audio 0.61 s; $4.20 per hour of input audio |
| Deployment | Phonic Cloud, single-tenant, VPC peering or self-hosted (enterprise); SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA BAA available |

Tags marked unsure are not stated on the lab's own pages.

## What would let us call it

Verdicts use only independent boards we already track. Two consecutive snapshots are required before any crown.

- [x] Publicly announced with a source
- [x] Usable by the public (API or weights)
- [ ] Listed on an independent board we track
- [ ] Enough results for a rank in a category
- [ ] Holds across two snapshots (crowns only)

## What the lab claims

Self-reported. Shown for context; not used in any verdict.

- Lab claim: the only speech-to-speech model that can call tools and act while the caller is still speaking.
- Lab claim: responds in about 600 ms from speech in to speech out.
- Lab claim: 83.2 on Sierra's multilingual full-duplex τ³-Voice, vs 79.9 for GPT-Live-1 and 68.5 for Gemini 3.8 Live.

## Sources

- LAB: [Phonic blog: Introducing Phonic-1 and our $27.5M Series A](https://phonic.ai/blog/phonic-1) (2026-10-29)
- LAB: [Moin Nadeem (Phonic) announcement on X](https://x.com/moinnadeem/status/2115830871014183088) (2026-10-29)
- LAB: [Phonic post on X](https://x.com/phonic_co/status/2115838823183827310) (2026-10-29)
- LAB: [Phonic pricing](https://phonic.ai/pricing)
- LAB: [Phonic docs: introduction](https://docs.phonic.co/docs/get-started/overview)
- PRESS: [Artificial Analysis results for Phonic 1 (High) on X](https://x.com/ArtificialAnlys/status/2115836126925901915) (2026-10-29)

Tracking continues until an independent board lists it.

## Related

- Lab: [Phonic](https://isitsota.com/labs/phonic.md)
- All pending releases: https://isitsota.com/releases.md
- JSON: https://api.isitsota.com/v1/models/phonic-1