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Is there a difference between "Make API calls using the as-user header" and "Generate user access tokens" options?

  • May 22, 2025
  • 1 reply
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Is there a difference between "Make API calls using the as-user header" and "Generate user access tokens" options?

I can understand that the first one uses service account admin token for all users and just impersonates user using "asUser" header and the second one creates separate tokens for every user.
But is there any other difference? Performance? Throttling? Which one should we use?

    1 reply

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    Hi, 

    There shouldn't be a performance gain from either to my knowledge. This is an interesting question. The general idea is that if you generate user access tokens - you make calls as that actual user...not impersonating them as you would be with as-user.

    Thanks, 

    Alex, Box Developer Advocate

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