All comparisons
PhonicCascade baseline

Phonic v1 vs Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and interruption, and Phonic v1 on stalled calls and response time.

Last updated Methodology by Dileep Chagam

Compare

Success rate by suite

Higher is better
Appointments59 scenariosMedicare23 scenarios
  • Phonic v1Phonic
    97%
    26%
  • Cascade, GPT-4.1Not ranked
    97%
    83%
Each model's share of calls that passed every check, on each suite.
Verdict

Which to pick

Pick Phonic v1 for fewer stalled calls (0.8 points lower) and fast replies (0.57s sooner). Pick Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash for reliability across repeated calls (14.6 points higher), calls that pass every check (15.9 points higher), getting the agent's replies right (1.2 points higher), saving the caller's data correctly (16.7 points higher) and handling interruptions (0.07 higher).

Every metric, side by side

Reliability

Scenarios that passed on all three runs.

Phonic v1
68.3%4th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
82.9%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 14.6 points higher

Success rate

Calls that passed every check.

Phonic v1
77.2%4th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
93.1%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 15.9 points higher

Agent responses

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

Phonic v1
98.0%4th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
99.2%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 1.2 points higher

Data accuracy

Calls where everything the agent saved matched exactly.

Phonic v1
77.4%7th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
94.1%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 16.7 points higher

Stalled calls

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

Phonic v1
0.0%1st
Cascade, GPT-4.1
0.8%

Phonic v1, 0.8 points lower

Interruption

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

Phonic v1
4.8911th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
4.96

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 0.07 higher

Response time

Median time to start replying after the caller finishes.

Phonic v1
1.60s1st
Cascade, GPT-4.1
2.17s

Phonic v1, 0.57s sooner

Cost / min

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

Phonic v1
$0.1408th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
No verified rate

Not comparable

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

Phonic v1 answers first

Phonic v1 1.60s, Cascade, GPT-4.1 2.17s at the median.

Response time, median to p90

Lower is betterMedianTo p90
Medianp90
  • Phonic v1Phonic
    Phonic v1: median 1.60s, p90 1.88s
    1.60s1.88s
  • Cascade, GPT-4.1Not ranked
    Cascade, GPT-4.1: median 2.17s, p90 2.51s
    2.17s2.51s
2.0s3.0s
Seconds from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply, per model.

What we saw on the calls

Phonic v1

  • Quickest to reply, and never left a caller waiting.
All 4 notes on Phonic v1
Model
phonic_v1
Setting
Intelligence high
Voice
sabrina
Turn taking
Service turn detection
Audio
16 kHz
Cost
The vendor's Starter plan rate per conversation minute, applied to each call's length; the Pro plan is $0.12.

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash

  • Most scenarios pass every run, and none fails every run.
All 4 notes on Cascade, GPT-4.1
Model
flux-general-en → gpt-4.1 → eleven_flash_v2_5
Setting
No reasoning setting
Voice
ElevenLabs 21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM
Turn taking
Speech-to-text turn detection
Audio
16 kHz
Cost
Not published: no verified combined rate for the three services.

Frequently asked questions

Is Phonic v1 or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash more reliable?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is more reliable, by 14.6 points. Phonic v1 passed 56 of 82 scenarios on all three runs, and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash passed 68. A scenario only counts when every run of it passed.

Is Phonic v1 better than a cascaded STT, LLM and TTS pipeline?

On reliability, no: the Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash cascade passes more scenarios on every run. Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and interruption, and Phonic v1 on stalled calls and response time. Both ran as the same agent, with the same prompt and tools.

Which saves caller data more accurately, Phonic v1 or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, by 16.7 points. Phonic v1 saved everything exactly right on 77.4% of the calls that save data, and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash on 94.1%. On Appointments, 98.2% against 98.8%. On Medicare, 25.0% against 81.8%. A call counts only when nothing is missing, wrong, extra or saved twice.

Is Phonic v1 faster than Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Yes. Phonic v1 starts replying 0.57s sooner at the median. Phonic v1 takes 1.60s at the median and 1.88s at p90; Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash takes 2.17s and 2.51s. Both are measured on the call audio, from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply.

Which handles interruptions better, Phonic v1 or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, by 0.07 on a 0 to 5 scale. Phonic v1 scores 4.89 and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash 4.96 for how well the agent handled being talked over.

Which goes silent on callers less often, Phonic v1 or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Phonic v1, by 0.8 points. The agent went silent for 10 seconds or more on 0.0% of Phonic v1 calls and 0.8% of Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash calls.

Which is cheaper, Phonic v1 or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

There is no verified per-minute rate for Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, so cost cannot be compared yet.

Where does the Phonic v1 vs Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash 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. The cascade runs the same agent for reference and is never ranked.