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Azure Realtime vs Gemini 3.8 Live

Azure Realtime is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and response time, and Gemini 3.8 Live on stalled calls and interruption.

Last updated Methodology by Dileep Chagam

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Success rate by suite

Higher is better
Appointments59 scenariosMedicare23 scenarios
  • Azure RealtimeMicrosoft
    91%
    67%
  • Gemini 3.8 LiveGoogle
    76%
    52%
Each model's share of calls that passed every check, on each suite.
Verdict

Which to pick

Pick Azure Realtime for reliability across repeated calls (29.3 points higher), calls that pass every check (15.0 points higher), getting the agent's replies right (4.5 points higher), saving the caller's data correctly (15.6 points higher) and fast replies (0.25s sooner). Pick Gemini 3.8 Live for fewer stalled calls (2.0 points lower) and handling interruptions (0.02 higher).

Every metric, side by side

Reliability

Scenarios that passed on all three runs.

Azure Realtime
70.7%3rd
Gemini 3.8 Live
41.5%11th

Azure Realtime, 29.3 points higher

Success rate

Calls that passed every check.

Azure Realtime
84.1%2nd
Gemini 3.8 Live
69.1%9th

Azure Realtime, 15.0 points higher

Agent responses

Calls where the agent's replies reached the expected outcome.

Azure Realtime
98.8%3rd
Gemini 3.8 Live
94.3%8th

Azure Realtime, 4.5 points higher

Data accuracy

Calls where everything the agent saved matched exactly.

Azure Realtime
86.1%3rd
Gemini 3.8 Live
70.5%9th

Azure Realtime, 15.6 points higher

Stalled calls

Calls where the agent went silent for 10 seconds or more.

Azure Realtime
4.1%7th
Gemini 3.8 Live
2.0%3rd

Gemini 3.8 Live, 2.0 points lower

Interruption

How well it handled being talked over, 0 to 5.

Azure Realtime
4.966th
Gemini 3.8 Live
4.983rd

Gemini 3.8 Live, 0.02 higher

Response time

Median time to start replying after the caller finishes.

Azure Realtime
1.66s3rd
Gemini 3.8 Live
1.91s4th

Azure Realtime, 0.25s sooner

Cost / min

One minute of call at the vendor's published rates.

Azure Realtime
$0.0804th
Gemini 3.8 Live
No verified rate

Not comparable

The small figure is the place among ranked models. The cascade is not ranked.

Azure Realtime answers first

Azure Realtime 1.66s, Gemini 3.8 Live 1.91s at the median.

Response time, median to p90

Lower is betterMedianTo p90
Medianp90
  • Azure RealtimeMicrosoft
    Azure Realtime: median 1.66s, p90 2.22s
    1.66s2.22s
  • Gemini 3.8 LiveGoogle
    Gemini 3.8 Live: median 1.91s, p90 2.23s
    1.91s2.23s
1.5s2.5s
Seconds from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply, per model.

What we saw on the calls

Azure Realtime

  • Handles a caller correcting themselves better than any other model.
All 4 notes on Azure Realtime
Model
azure-realtime
Setting
No reasoning setting
Voice
ava
Turn taking
Service turn detection
Audio
24 kHz
Cost
Each call's metered tokens at Voice Live's Pro rates, read from Azure's price list on 7 Oct 2026. Excludes caller transcription, which Azure bills separately as speech input.

Gemini 3.8 Live

  • Replies sooner, and more bookings reach the outcome.
All 3 notes on Gemini 3.8 Live
Model
gemini-3.8-live
Setting
No thinking level
Voice
Charon
Turn taking
Service turn detection
Audio
16 kHz
Cost
The export carries audio tokens but not text or cached input, so a per-call cost is not derived.

Frequently asked questions

Is Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live more reliable?

Azure Realtime is more reliable, by 29.3 points. Azure Realtime passed 58 of 82 scenarios on all three runs, and Gemini 3.8 Live passed 34. A scenario only counts when every run of it passed.

Which should I pick, Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live?

For a phone agent, Azure Realtime, since it gets more scenarios right on every run. Azure Realtime is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and response time, and Gemini 3.8 Live on stalled calls and interruption.

Which saves caller data more accurately, Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live?

Azure Realtime, by 15.6 points. Azure Realtime saved everything exactly right on 86.1% of the calls that save data, and Gemini 3.8 Live on 70.5%. On Appointments, 94.2% against 78.4%. On Medicare, 65.2% against 50.0%. A call counts only when nothing is missing, wrong, extra or saved twice.

Is Azure Realtime faster than Gemini 3.8 Live?

Yes. Azure Realtime starts replying 0.25s sooner at the median. Azure Realtime takes 1.66s at the median and 2.22s at p90; Gemini 3.8 Live takes 1.91s and 2.23s. Both are measured on the call audio, from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply.

Which handles interruptions better, Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live?

Gemini 3.8 Live, by 0.02 on a 0 to 5 scale. Azure Realtime scores 4.96 and Gemini 3.8 Live 4.98 for how well the agent handled being talked over.

Which goes silent on callers less often, Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live?

Gemini 3.8 Live, by 2.0 points. The agent went silent for 10 seconds or more on 4.1% of Azure Realtime calls and 2.0% of Gemini 3.8 Live calls.

Which is cheaper, Azure Realtime or Gemini 3.8 Live?

There is no verified per-minute rate for Gemini 3.8 Live, so cost cannot be compared yet.

Where does the Azure Realtime vs Gemini 3.8 Live data come from?

Cekura ran both as the whole agent in the same open-source Pipecat pipeline, with the same prompt, tools and connection. A simulated caller worked through all 82 scenarios on live calls, three times each, 2,952 calls across the benchmark. A call passes only when the agent said the right things and saved the right data.