Gemini Live
- Strength
- Second-highest repetition score at 4.78/5 across 174 scored calls.
- What can be improved
- One rerun had no latency evidence and scored 0/5 for both task outcome and tool accuracy.
Speech-to-speech setup
- reasoning: high
- hybrid VAD
All platform comparisons
Gemini Live · ranked 8 of 8Retell · ranked 1 of 8
Gemini Live vs Retell
Retell is ahead of Gemini Live on repeatable reliability, task completion, infrastructure reliability, tool call accuracy, interruption handling and response time.
Last updated Methodology by Luis Ojeda
Verdict
Which to pick
Retell is the better pick over Gemini Live on every measure that separates them: reliability across repeated runs (45.12 points higher), completing the caller's task (6.08 points higher), calls that connect and stay up (26.01 points higher), accurate tool calls (0.44 higher), handling interruptions (0.03 higher) and fast replies (0.84s faster).
Head to head
Every metric, side by side
Bars share one scale across all 8 platforms. The place next to each figure is its rank in the field.
Repeatable reliability
Share of the 82 scenarios that passed on all three runs.
- Gemini Live
- 30.49%8th
- Retell
- 75.61%1st
Retell, 45.12 points higher
Task completion
Calls where the expected outcome was fully reached.
- Gemini Live
- 87.80%8th
- Retell
- 93.88%5th
Retell, 6.08 points higher
Infrastructure-clean calls
Calls with no connection, audio or platform failure.
- Gemini Live
- 72.36%8th
- Retell
- 98.37%4th
Retell, 26.01 points higher
Tool call accuracy
Mean score for calling the right tool with the right arguments.
- Gemini Live
- 4.40/57th
- Retell
- 4.84/51st
Retell, 0.44 higher
Voice tone and clarity
Mean score for how clear and natural the agent sounds.
- Gemini Live
- Not scored
- Retell
- 4.36/52nd
Not comparable
Interruption handling
Mean score for yielding and recovering when the caller cuts in.
- Gemini Live
- 4.97/53rd
- Retell
- 5.00/51st
Retell, 0.03 higher
Mean response time
Mean time for the agent to start replying after the caller stops.
- Gemini Live
- 3.05s7th
- Retell
- 2.21s5th
Retell, 0.84s faster
246 calls per platform: 82 scenarios, 3 runs each.
On the calls
What each platform ran, and what we saw
Retell
- Strength
- Leads repeatable reliability at 75.61% pass³.
- What can be improved
- The transcript captured a phone number correctly, but a different number was sent to the tool.
STT, LLM and TTS
- accurate (Retell-managed STT)
- gpt-5.5
- eleven_flash_v2
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini Live or Retell more reliable?
Retell is more reliable, by 45.12 points. Gemini Live passed 30.49% of the 82 scenarios on all 3 runs and Retell passed 75.61%. A scenario only counts when every run of it passed.
Which responds faster, Gemini Live or Retell?
Retell starts replying sooner, 0.84s faster. Mean response time is 3.05s for Gemini Live and 2.21s for Retell.
Which completes more calls, Gemini Live or Retell?
Gemini Live reached the expected outcome on 87.80% of calls and Retell on 93.88%. Retell is ahead on task completion.
How were Gemini Live and Retell tested?
Both ran the same Appointment and Medicare agents through the same 82 caller scenarios, 3 times each, with the same evaluators and mock tools. Only the platform and its speech and model components changed.