Dust AI Workspace: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives

Dust is an AI agent platform built by former OpenAI and Stripe engineers. The core idea: connect large language models to your company's internal data so teams can build custom AI assistants without writing code.

You sign up, connect data sources like Notion, Slack, Google Drive, or GitHub, and then create agents that can search across those sources to answer questions or complete tasks. Dust supports models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Mistral, so you can pick the model that fits your use case.

The platform hit $1M in annual recurring revenue after raising $16M in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital in 2024. Their engagement numbers are strong: 70% of monthly active users are active weekly, which puts Dust in the same territory as tools like Slack for daily usage patterns.

Where Dust shines is the agent builder. Non-technical team members can create assistants for sales, support, marketing, and operations without touching code. Pre-built templates speed things up, and the platform handles the plumbing of connecting models to your internal knowledge.

Dust runs on a per-seat pricing model with two tiers.

Pro Plan: €29/user/month

• Access to GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, and Mistral models
• Custom agent creation with action execution
• Connections to GitHub, Google Drive, Notion, Slack
• Native integrations with Zendesk and Chrome Extension
• SOC 2 compliance and zero data retention option
• Unlimited messages (fair use limits apply)
• 1GB per user for data sources
• One private workspace
• 14-day free trial

Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing

• 100+ user minimum
• SSO via Okta, Entra ID, or Jumpcloud
• SCIM user provisioning
• Multiple workspaces
• Salesforce integration
• US/EU data hosting options
• Dedicated account management

The per-seat model adds up fast. A 20-person team pays €580/month before you factor in API usage for programmatic access. There is no free tier beyond the 14-day trial, which means solo developers and small teams experimenting with AI agents face an immediate paywall.

The 1GB per-user storage limit on Pro is also worth noting. If your agents work with large files, video assets, or datasets, you will hit that ceiling quickly.

Dust is designed as a knowledge layer, not a file workspace. That distinction matters when you are building agent workflows that need to create, store, and share files.

No persistent file storage. Dust connects to external data sources but does not provide its own storage layer. Your files still live in Google Drive, Notion, or wherever they started. If an agent generates a report or builds a deliverable, you need somewhere else to put it.

No MCP server. Dust agents use custom tools and API integrations, but the platform does not expose a Model Context Protocol server. For teams building with Claude, Cursor, or other MCP-compatible tools, this means Dust cannot serve as the shared context layer across your agent stack.

No ownership transfer. When an agent builds something in Dust, there is no built-in mechanism to package that work and hand it to a client or teammate as a self-contained workspace. The output stays inside Dust's agent framework.

Limited file handling. The 1GB per-user cap on Pro and the focus on text-based knowledge (Notion pages, Slack messages, documents) means Dust is not built for workflows involving video, large datasets, or binary files.

No free tier. At €29/user/month with only a 14-day trial, there is no way to run Dust indefinitely for side projects, open-source work, or early-stage prototyping without paying.

These are not flaws in Dust's design. They reflect a deliberate choice to be a knowledge-query platform rather than a full workspace. But if your agents need to store files, share deliverables, or plug into MCP toolchains, you will need to pair Dust with additional infrastructure.

Need persistent storage for your AI agents?

Fast.io gives agents and humans the same intelligent workspace. 50GB free storage, built-in RAG, and a full MCP server with 19 tools. No credit card, no trial expiration.

Sign Up Free

Fast.io is an intelligent workspace platform, not a knowledge-query tool. The difference: files you upload are automatically indexed and searchable by meaning, and agents interact with the same workspaces humans use through the Fast.io MCP server or REST API.

Built-in file storage with Intelligence Mode. Enable Intelligence on a workspace and every file gets indexed for semantic search. Ask questions and get answers with citations pointing to specific documents. No separate vector database, no external RAG pipeline. The workspace itself is the knowledge base.

MCP-native access. Fast.io exposes Streamable HTTP at /mcp and legacy SSE at /sse, giving any MCP-compatible agent direct access to 19 consolidated tools covering workspace management, file operations, AI queries, and workflow automation. Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and custom builds all work out of the box. See the MCP documentation for the full tool surface.

Ownership transfer. An agent creates an organization, builds out workspaces with files and shares, then transfers ownership to a human. The agent keeps admin access for ongoing maintenance. This is the workflow for agencies, consultants, and any team where AI builds deliverables that humans receive.

50GB free, no credit card. The free agent plan includes 50GB storage, 5,000 AI credits per month, 5 workspaces, and 50 shares. No trial period, no expiration. Solo developers and small teams can run production agent workflows without paying.

Works with any LLM. Because Fast.io is a workspace with an API and MCP server, it works with Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, LLaMA, or any local model. You are not locked into a specific model provider.

The tradeoff is clear: Dust gives you a polished agent builder with deep integrations into knowledge tools like Notion and Slack. Fast.io gives you the persistent storage layer where agents and humans collaborate on actual files, with built-in intelligence that makes those files queryable.

Here is how the two platforms compare across the dimensions that matter most for agent-driven teams.

AI Model Support

• Dust: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral built into the platform
• Fast.io: Model-agnostic. Works with any LLM through API and MCP. Agents bring their own model.

File Storage

• Dust: No native storage. 1GB/user for connected data sources on Pro.
• Fast.io: 50GB free. Chunked uploads, file versioning, granular permissions at org/workspace/folder/file level.

Knowledge Base and RAG

• Dust: Connects to external sources (Notion, Slack, Drive) and indexes them for agent queries.
• Fast.io: Intelligence Mode auto-indexes uploaded files. Built-in RAG with citations. No external vector DB needed.

MCP Support

• Dust: No MCP server. Uses custom tool integrations.
• Fast.io: Full MCP server with 19 consolidated tools. Streamable HTTP and SSE endpoints.

Agent Builder

• Dust: Visual, no-code agent creation with templates. Strong for non-technical users.
• Fast.io: No visual agent builder. Agents interact through API/MCP. Developer-oriented.

Integrations

• Dust: Notion, Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, Zendesk, Salesforce, Chrome Extension.
• Fast.io: URL Import from Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Dropbox. Webhooks for event-driven workflows. MCP for agent integration.

Pricing

• Dust: €29/user/month Pro. Custom Enterprise (100+ users). 14-day trial only.
• Fast.io: Free tier with 50GB, 5,000 credits, 5 workspaces. No credit card, no expiration.

Security and Compliance

• Dust: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA-enabling. SSO/SCIM on Enterprise.
• Fast.io: Encryption, audit trails, granular permissions. No compliance certifications.

Ownership Transfer

• Dust: Not available.
• Fast.io: Full ownership transfer from agent to human with retained admin access.

The short version: if you need a no-code agent builder with deep SaaS integrations and compliance certifications, Dust is the stronger choice. If you need persistent file storage with built-in intelligence and MCP access for developer-built agents, Fast.io fits better.

Dust and Fast.io are not the only options. Depending on your use case, these platforms solve related problems.

StackAI is a no-code AI orchestration platform for building multi-step LLM workflows. It focuses on visual workflow design rather than knowledge-connected assistants. Good for teams that need branching logic, batch processing, and publishing pipelines. Pricing starts at a free tier with limited runs.

Relevance AI builds what they call "AI employees" for specific business functions. The platform is more task-oriented than Dust, focusing on repeatable automation rather than open-ended knowledge queries. It works well for sales and support teams with defined workflows.

Botpress is an open-source conversational AI platform. If you need chatbot-style agents with deep customization and want to self-host, Botpress gives you more control than Dust's managed environment. The tradeoff is significantly more setup work.

Salesforce Agentforce is the enterprise option for teams already deep in the Salesforce ecosystem. It connects agents directly to CRM data, which is valuable if your agent workflows center on customer records and sales pipelines.

Self-hosted stacks using LangChain, LlamaIndex, or CrewAI give you full control but require engineering investment. You handle model selection, vector storage, tool orchestration, and deployment. For teams with strong engineering resources, this can be more cost-effective than any managed platform at scale.

Each of these solves a different slice of the "AI workspace" problem. The right choice depends on whether you prioritize no-code simplicity (Dust, StackAI), file-centric agent workflows (Fast.io), conversational interfaces (Botpress), CRM integration (Agentforce), or full customization (self-hosted).