Getting Started with Daily and Finding the Right Pricing Path

Updated

To start with Daily, first decide what you're building: human-to-human realtime calls, or a voice/multimodal AI agent. For human calls, use Daily's WebRTC infrastructure and SDKs. For AI agents, build with Pipecat (the open-source orchestration framework) and deploy on Pipecat Cloud. The site offers a free start ("Get started for free") and maintains separate pricing pages for Daily Video SDK and Pipecat Cloud, so check the page that matches your product before you commit.

Choose your build path first

Daily's platform is organized around three pieces, and your starting point depends on which one you need.

What you're building Product to use Where to start
Human-to-human realtime video/audio calls Daily Infrastructure (WebRTC-native SDKs) Sign up and read the docs from the Daily site
A realtime voice or multimodal AI agent Pipecat (open-source framework) + Pipecat Cloud (hosting) Start with Pipecat, then sign up for Pipecat Cloud to deploy
An AI agent that also needs call transport Pipecat-built agents on Daily transport Deploy via Pipecat Cloud on Daily's infrastructure

The distinction matters because pricing is split the same way. Daily lists a Daily Video pricing page and a separate PipeCat Cloud pricing page, plus a general pricing overview. If you only look at one, you may misjudge cost for the other.

Path A: Building human/human calls on Daily Infrastructure

Daily describes its infrastructure as WebRTC-native SDKs running on a global mesh network, in operation since 2016, and says the platform also supports building and hosting human/human calls.

Steps:

  1. Go to the Daily site and use the free start option ("Get started for free") to create an account.
  2. Open the Docs to find the SDK and integration guidance for realtime video integration.
  3. Review the Daily Video pricing page to understand what applies as you move beyond initial use.

What to expect: The site advertises 13ms median first-hop latency, 75+ global points of presence, and 99.99% service uptime. These are vendor-published figures, so treat them as claims to validate against your own network conditions rather than guarantees for your use case.

Common sticking point: Don't assume the free start covers production-scale usage. The site does not state free-tier limits in the material available here, so confirm plan details on the pricing page before you design around a free tier.

Path B: Deploying a Pipecat voice AI agent

Pipecat is described as a vendor-neutral, 100% open-source orchestration framework for realtime voice and multimodal AI agents. Pipecat Cloud is where you deploy agents built with Pipecat onto Daily's global infrastructure.

Steps:

  1. Start with Pipecat itself — it's open source, so you can begin building the agent logic before any hosting decision.
  2. When you're ready to deploy, sign up for Pipecat Cloud.
  3. Check the PipeCat Cloud pricing page for deployment costs.

Why the split matters: Because Pipecat is open source and vendor-neutral, you are not locked into Daily for orchestration. The paid relationship begins when you deploy on Pipecat Cloud. That gives you room to prototype first and price the hosting separately.

Example scenario: A team building a customer-support voice agent can develop and test the conversation pipeline in open-source Pipecat, then move to Pipecat Cloud only when they need production hosting and Daily's transport. Their cost decision happens at the deployment step, not the development step.

Where to find pricing

Daily exposes pricing through several entry points on its site:

  • Daily Video pricing: daily.co/pricing/video-sdk/
  • PipeCat Cloud pricing: daily.co/pricing/pipecat-cloud/
  • General pricing overview: daily.co/pricing

Use the product-specific pages for actual plan comparison; the overview is a starting point. The available material does not list specific prices, tiers, or payment methods, so read the pages directly for current figures rather than relying on secondhand summaries.

Security and compliance, briefly

If your project involves sensitive data, Daily states it offers true end-to-end encryption, signed HIPAA BAAs, operation under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and SOC-2 and GDPR alignment. These are relevant selection criteria for regulated industries — confirm the specifics you need (for example, whether a BAA applies to your plan) directly with Daily, since the site summary doesn't map features to tiers.

A practical decision checklist

  • Building calls between people? Start free on Daily, read the Docs, then review Daily Video pricing.
  • Building an AI voice agent? Start with open-source Pipecat, then price Pipecat Cloud for deployment.
  • Need both? Pipecat agents can run on Daily transport, so you may end up on both pricing pages.
  • Regulated data? Verify encryption, BAA, and compliance coverage for your specific plan before committing.

The fastest way to resolve remaining questions is to open the two product pricing pages side by side and match them to the path you chose above.