Scaling and Deployment Strategies

Redact Usage

Configure usage data redaction in your self-hosted Deepgram deployment to enhance privacy and comply with security requirements.

redact_usage boolean

Deepgram’s Redact Usage feature allows you to automatically redact sensitive customer data from usage records and logs in your self-hosted deployment. When enabled, arbitrary string values in redaction-eligible fields are replaced with [REDACTED] to enhance privacy and ensure compliance with security requirements.

Enable Feature

To enable Redact Usage, add the redact_usage configuration to your self-hosted API container’s api.toml file:

1# Enable usage redaction (default: true)
2redact_usage = true
3
4# Disable usage redaction (for debugging only)
5# redact_usage = false

Default behavior: If redact_usage is not present, it is treated as true (redaction ON).

Only set redact_usage=false in non-production environments and for the minimum time necessary for debugging.

How It Works

Client-Side Redaction

When redact_usage=true, your self-hosted API container automatically redacts sensitive values before they’re included in usage records and logs:

  • Query parameters such as keyterm or mappings in replace will appear as [REDACTED]
  • App/agent settings that include customer-provided lists (e.g., keyterms) will appear as [REDACTED]

Server-Side Fallback

Deepgram also provides a fallback redaction step at the server-side usage reporting endpoint to ensure any redaction-eligible values are redacted before ingestion into usage/billing systems, providing defense-in-depth protection.

This feature affects metadata/parameters recorded for observability and usage—not model behavior or audio content processing.

Troubleshooting

When redact_usage=true, certain parameters will show as [REDACTED], which can limit Deepgram’s ability to diagnose issues solely from your usage records.

If you need support:

  • Provide the request ID from the API response along with sanitized sample requests; or
  • Temporarily set redact_usage=false to capture a reproducible example, then revert to true after debugging

Best Practices

  • Keep redact_usage=true in production for enhanced privacy and compliance
  • For debugging, use redact_usage=false only as long as necessary, ideally in a staging environment
  • Upgrade to the latest self-hosted release (250731 or later) to get client-side redaction by default

Special Considerations

Privacy and Compliance

Redact Usage provides:

  • Stronger privacy by default: Reduces the chance that customer-supplied terms are stored in readable form
  • Defense-in-depth: Redaction at the source plus server-side fallback ensures consistency
  • Compliance readiness: Aligns with least-data-retained practices across environments

If you can’t upgrade immediately, server-side fallback redaction will still protect usage/billing ingestion.