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DEPRECATED - See the public documentation

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The Dust platform allows people to interact with agents directly through the web, Slack, or browser extension. Dust also provides an API that lets scripts, workflows, and other automated systems invoke agents programmatically.

Because these two types of usage are fundamentally different, they're consumed and billed separately.

What is programmatic usage?

Programmatic usage includes messages sent to Dust that are sent through a custom Dust key or that are not manually typed and sent by a person. Here are examples (non-exhaustive list):

Programmatic (billed separately):

• Messages sent through the Dust API using a custom API key
• Automated workflows in Slack, Zapier, n8n, etc. (not tied to a human action)
• Batch operations in Google Sheets or Excel (where one can send many messages at once)

Not programmatic (covered by your plan):

• Messages typed in the web app or browser extension
• Messages typed in Slack (or Microsoft Teams, or equivalent) by team members

The key distinction: if a message wasn’t directly typed and sent manually, it's programmatic.

Although there are a few exceptions (see Are absolutely all automated messages counted as programmatic? Conversely, are all messages typed by humans counted as non-programmatic? ), it describes most use cases.

How is programmatic usage billed?

Programmatic usage is billed by decreasing a worskpace’s credits, based on the AI models’ token consumption. Our rates are summarized here: API Pricing

A credit is a coupon of fixed USD amount that will be progressively consumed according to those rates when the workspace calls Dust programmatically.

What are the different types of credits?