# Dust vs Guru

> Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do company knowledge search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.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

Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Guru: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #773 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.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:
- Reliability, 53 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 48
- Security & auth, 75 against 52
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 46
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 59

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use

### Guru (E)

Good for: Companies already running Guru that want agents to answer from verified cards with each user's permissions, and to draft card changes.

Watch for: No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Dust | Guru | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 48 | Dust +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 58 | Dust +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 48 | Dust +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 52 | Dust +23 |
| 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 | 46 | Dust +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 59 | Dust +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.8 · B** | **45.1 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Dust | Guru |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Permutation Labs | Guru Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://dust.tt/mcp` | `https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable 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 hosted service under Guru's terms of service. The Python SDK (guruhq/guru-py-sdk) is MIT, and the MCP server's public repository holds only a README and server.json |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.getguru/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | none |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-03-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-08-19 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.5k stars, 17k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (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.

**Guru.** Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry. No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales.

## 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

### Guru

1. Ask the person for a Guru account. There's no trial or keyless route, and OAuth needs a pre-approved client
2. Send `Authorization: Bearer email:token` to the MCP server when OAuth isn't available, and basic auth to https://api.getguru.com/api/v1/
3. Use a collection token for read-only work. User tokens write with the user's full rights
4. Follow the `Link` header to page REST search results. Each page holds at most 50 cards
5. Confirm with a person before archiving or moving cards. Guru documents no confirmation step

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Dust or Guru?

Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Dust and Guru need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Dust and Guru without installing anything?

Yes. Dust has a hosted endpoint at https://dust.tt/mcp and Guru at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp.

### Are Dust and Guru 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 Guru.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "dust", "b": "guru"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare dust guru`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.json

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