Ask Sage vs Dust (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Ask Sage if

• Fits if you buy for a government agency or defense contractor
• Works for teams that want to compare several models in one controlled workspace

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price, as none is published and cost follows token volume
• Skip it if you are an individual, since it is aimed at defense, federal and commercial enterprise buyers
• Too light on detail: no integrations or free tier are listed on the pages read

Pick Dust if

• Fits if your company wants agents that answer from its own docs and chats
• Works for organizations that need their data kept in the US or the EU

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you're staying free, as the Free seat is 500 credits once and never refills
• Not for you if you need more than 3 data sources, 5 MCP servers or 5 spaces without an Enterprise deal
• Skip it if you need audit logs, SCIM or custom data retention, which sit on the custom-priced Enterprise plan
• Pricey if heavy users need Max, at $120 a seat a month billed yearly or $150 monthly
• Watch out: credits don't roll over, prices exclude VAT, and there's no phone or desktop app

Ask Sage

• No prices are published; the How to Buy page lists card payment, cloud marketplaces and government contract vehicles.
• Usage is sold as tokens that teams can distribute among members, so cost depends on volume.
• The vendor positions it for defense, federal civilian, defense industrial base and commercial enterprise buyers.

Dust

• The Free seat is a one-time allowance of 500 credits, not a monthly quota; once it is used, free users are prompted to request an upgrade.
• The self-serve Business plan covers teams of up to 100 and is limited to 3 data source connectors, 5 remote MCP servers and 5 spaces.
• SCIM provisioning, audit logs, custom data retention and single-tenant deployment require Enterprise.
• Monthly credits reset each billing period without rolling over, and listed prices exclude VAT.

Ask Sage

Many models, one workspace

The site says it supports 150+ models, including Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and open-source models, bought with a single token balance.

Agent Builder

A visual canvas where nodes are connected to build agents that automate tasks, analyze data and produce reports, with a real-time execution preview.

Workbook

A shared workspace where teams add sources, memos and chat history so colleagues work from the same documents.

Code Canvas and Model Compare

Code Canvas edits code side by side with the model, and Model Compare runs one query across models to show quality and speed.

Security and hosting options

The vendor says it is authorized for FedRAMP High and DoW IL5/IL6 and can be deployed as SaaS, on-premise or air-gapped.

Dust

Agents with company context

Agents draw on connected company data from sources such as Slack, Notion, Google Drive, GitHub, Salesforce and Zendesk to answer questions and take action.

Model choice per agent

All plans include 20+ models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and DeepSeek. The model is chosen per agent, and none is locked to a higher plan.

Schedules and triggers

Multi-agent workflows can run on a schedule or in response to events. Dust also lists Zapier, Make, n8n and Power Automate as supported automation platforms.

Spaces and permissions

Spaces segment data by team, and a two-layer permission model separates what agents can access from who can use them. The Business plan includes 5 spaces.

Frames

Frames turn agent output into interactive dashboards, reports and memos that a team can explore and work on together.

Slack and Chrome extension

Agents can be mentioned in any Slack channel or messaged directly, and a Chrome extension opens them in a sidebar on any web page.

Ask Sage

Pricing could not be confirmed. See asksage.ai.

Dust

• Free$0

  A Business-plan seat with 500 credits for its lifetime and no monthly refill, meant for occasional users or people trying Dust.

• Pro$24

  per seat / month, billed yearly; $30 billed monthly

  8,000 credits per seat each month on the Business plan, which covers teams of up to 100, with SSO available on request from 5 seats.

• Max$120

  per seat / month, billed yearly; $150 billed monthly

  40,000 credits per seat each month, for people who regularly run complex automations, deep research or tool-heavy workflows.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Unlimited connectors and MCP servers, workspace-pooled credits, SCIM, audit logs, custom data retention, single-tenant deployment and an SLA.

Ask Sage

No public discounts listed.

Dust

• Annual discount

  Save 20% with yearly billing

  Dust's pricing page shows a 20% saving on yearly billing: Pro is $24 per seat a month instead of $30, and Max is $120 instead of $150.