Voice Agent Latency Playbook Reveals Key Tradeoffs

Response latency in voice agents comes from five stages: end-of-turn detection, speech-to-text, LLM inference, text-to-speech, and network transport. Fixed silence timeouts add unnecessary delay. Smart endpointing using tonality and rhythm can shave 300-500ms. Streaming stages in parallel and co-locating services reduce perceived latency. Input accuracy is a latency feature, as errors trigger costly correction loops.