# Dust vs Glean > Glean scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Dust's 62.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Dust leads on payments & pricing. Both do company knowledge search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.md (~2,000 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-09 Glean scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Dust's 62.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Dust leads on payments & pricing. Both do company knowledge search. - Dust: grade B, 62.8/100, rank #378 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json - Glean: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #159 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/glean.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/glean.json ## Which one, for what ### Dust (B) Good for: A team that already works in Dust and wants an outside agent to search its spaces, read documents and call its agents with a user's own access. Ahead on: - Payments & pricing, 20 against 0 Also in its favour: - A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install - Open source Watch for: Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use ### Glean (B) Good for: Agents working inside a company that already runs Glean and need answers from its documents, chats, tickets, code and people with each user's permissions applied. Ahead on: - Reliability, 60 against 53 - Schema & documentation, 93 against 75 - Agent ergonomics, 80 against 67 - Security & auth, 87 against 75 - Transparency & trust, 80 against 68 Watch for: No public price, trial or self-serve signup. Access starts with a demo request ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Dust | Glean | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 60 | Glean +7 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 93 | Glean +18 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 80 | Glean +13 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 87 | Glean +12 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 0 | Dust +20 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 85 | Dust +1 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 80 | Glean +12 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **62.8 · B** | **69.8 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Dust | Glean | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API | | Vendor | Permutation Labs | Glean Technologies, Inc. | | Hosted endpoint | `https://dust.tt/mcp` | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Paid | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli` | Proprietary service under Glean's terms of service. The OpenAPI specs repository, the API clients and the Glean CLI on GitHub are MIT | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-02 | | Terms last updated | no document linked | | | Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-04-01 | | Customer content may train models | | | | Terms restrict automated access | | | | Terms restrict benchmarking | | | | Terms or service can change without notice | | | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | | | | Popularity | 1.5k stars, 17k npm/wk | 58k npm/wk, 26k PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) | ## Verdicts **Dust.** The whole platform is MIT on GitHub, with a public OpenAPI document of 68 operations, llms.txt and a remote MCP server that acts with the signed-in user's access. API calls that run agents draw only on a paid workspace credit pool, and the terms of service could not be read. **Glean.** Three public OpenAPI specs (Client, Indexing, Platform) regenerated almost daily, plus llms.txt and Markdown docs. No public price, trial or self-serve signup. Access starts with a demo request. ## Before you call either ### Dust 1. Use `https://eu.dust.tt` for a workspace in the EU region and `https://dust.tt` otherwise, for both the API and the MCP server 2. Connect an MCP client by OAuth and send the `resource` parameter in authorisation and token requests. API keys do not work on the MCP server 3. Expect HTTP 429 with type `rate_limit_error` when the credit pool, the programmatic monthly cap or the key's spend cap is exhausted. Retrying will not help 4. Call `GET /api/v1/w/{wId}/search` with `limit` (1 to 100, default 25) and `cursor`, or a data source view's search with `top_k` 5. Keep document upserts under 120 a minute per workspace ### Glean 1. Get the backend host from the Glean admin. APIs answer at https://-be.glean.com and MCP at that host under /mcp/ 2. Ask for a user-scoped token with only the scopes the task needs. A global token can impersonate whoever `X-Glean-ActAs` names 3. Keep chat under 0.5 calls a second and search under 5, and back off on 429 4. Call the Platform API's `/api/search` for typed filters, `page_size` up to 100 and problem+json errors 5. Send `X-Glean-Exclude-Deprecated-After` in tests to catch fields due for removal ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Dust or Glean? Glean scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Dust's 62.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Dust leads on payments & pricing. ### Do Dust and Glean need an API key? Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ### Can an agent call Dust and Glean without installing anything? Dust has a hosted endpoint at https://dust.tt/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Glean. ### Are Dust and Glean open source? Dust is open source (MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli`). No open-source release is listed for Glean. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "dust", "b": "glean"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare dust glean` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/glean.json ## Other comparisons with Dust or Glean - [Alation vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.md) - [Alation vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.md) - [Atlan vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-dust.md) - [Atlan vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-glean.md) - [Cohere North vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-dust.md) - [Cohere North vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-glean.md) - [Dust vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.md) - [Dust vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-onyx.md) - [Dust vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-overclock.md) - [Glean vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-guru.md) - [Glean vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-onyx.md) - [Glean vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-overclock.md)