DPI statistics and traffic flow tools reference

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) gives you visibility into what applications and services are consuming bandwidth on your network. These tools let your AI assistant answer questions like “which applications are using the most bandwidth today?”, “what is this specific client doing?”, and “what DPI application categories does UniFi recognize?” — without you needing to log into the console.

DPI statistics

`get_dpi_statistics`

Returns a full DPI breakdown for a site: every identified application and category, sorted by total bytes transferred, for the selected time window.

string

required

The site identifier.

string

The time window to aggregate statistics over. Accepted values: 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 7d, 30d. Defaults to 24h.

Example response

{
  "site_id": "default",
  "time_range": "24h",
  "applications": [
    {
      "application": "Netflix",
      "category": "Streaming",
      "tx_bytes": 5120000000,
      "rx_bytes": 10240000000,
      "total_bytes": 15360000000
    },
    {
      "application": "YouTube",
      "category": "Streaming",
      "tx_bytes": 2560000000,
      "rx_bytes": 7680000000,
      "total_bytes": 10240000000
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    {
      "category": "Streaming",
      "tx_bytes": 7680000000,
      "rx_bytes": 17920000000,
      "total_bytes": 25600000000,
      "application_count": 2
    }
  ],
  "total_applications": 18,
  "total_categories": 6
}

`list_top_applications`

Returns the top N applications by total bytes transferred. This is a convenience wrapper around get_dpi_statistics that trims the result for you.

string

required

The site identifier.

integer

Number of top applications to return. Defaults to 10.

string

Time window. Accepted values: 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 7d, 30d. Defaults to 24h.

Example response

[
  {
    "application": "Netflix",
    "category": "Streaming",
    "tx_bytes": 5120000000,
    "rx_bytes": 10240000000,
    "total_bytes": 15360000000
  },
  {
    "application": "Zoom",
    "category": "Video Conferencing",
    "tx_bytes": 1024000000,
    "rx_bytes": 2048000000,
    "total_bytes": 3072000000
  }
]

`get_client_dpi`

Returns a per-application traffic breakdown for a single client identified by MAC address. Results include each application’s upload bytes, download bytes, and percentage share of that client’s total traffic.

string

required

The site identifier.

string

required

The client’s MAC address (e.g., "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff").

string

Time window. Accepted values: 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 7d, 30d. Defaults to 24h.

integer

Maximum number of applications to return.

integer

Number of applications to skip (for pagination).

Example response

{
  "site_id": "default",
  "client_mac": "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff",
  "time_range": "24h",
  "total_tx_bytes": 512000000,
  "total_rx_bytes": 10240000000,
  "total_bytes": 10752000000,
  "applications": [
    {
      "application": "Netflix",
      "category": "Streaming",
      "tx_bytes": 51200000,
      "rx_bytes": 9216000000,
      "total_bytes": 9267200000,
      "percentage": 86.2
    }
  ],
  "total_applications": 5
}

DPI reference data

These tools return static reference data from UniFi about available DPI categories and applications. They are useful for understanding what application IDs and category names to use when building filters or ACL rules.

`list_dpi_categories`

Returns all DPI categories recognized by UniFi (e.g., Streaming, Social Media, Gaming, Video Conferencing). No parameters required beyond the server-level settings.

`list_dpi_applications`

Returns all DPI application definitions that UniFi can identify. Each application includes its category and an application ID you can reference in traffic rules.

integer

Maximum number of results to return.

integer

Number of results to skip (for pagination).

string

A filter expression to narrow the list (e.g., filter by category name).

Countries reference

`list_countries`

Returns the list of countries available for use in UniFi configuration and localization settings. No parameters required.

Example: finding top bandwidth users

This workflow identifies which applications and clients are consuming the most bandwidth over the past 7 days, then drills into the heaviest-using client.

# Step 1: Get the top 5 applications site-wide over the past week
top_apps = list_top_applications(
    site_id="default",
    limit=5,
    time_range="7d"
)

for app in top_apps:
    gb = app["total_bytes"] / 1_000_000_000
    print(f"{app['application']} ({app['category']}): {gb:.1f} GB")

# Step 2: Get the full DPI breakdown to inspect categories
stats = get_dpi_statistics(site_id="default", time_range="7d")
print(f"\nTop category: {stats['categories'][0]['category']}")

# Step 3: Drill into a specific high-traffic client
client_stats = get_client_dpi(
    site_id="default",
    client_mac="aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff",
    time_range="7d"
)

total_gb = client_stats["total_bytes"] / 1_000_000_000
print(f"\nClient total: {total_gb:.1f} GB")

for app in client_stats["applications"][:3]:
    print(f"  {app['application']}: {app['percentage']:.1f}%")

Combine list_top_applications with get_client_dpi to answer the question “who is responsible for all this streaming traffic?” — first find the dominant category, then identify which clients are driving it.

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Operations

DPI statistics and traffic flow tools reference

DPI statistics

`get_dpi_statistics`

`list_top_applications`

`get_client_dpi`

DPI reference data

`list_dpi_categories`

`list_dpi_applications`

Countries reference

`list_countries`

Example: finding top bandwidth users

​DPI statistics

​get_dpi_statistics

​list_top_applications

​get_client_dpi

​DPI reference data

​list_dpi_categories

​list_dpi_applications

​Countries reference

​list_countries

​Example: finding top bandwidth users

DPI statistics

`get_dpi_statistics`

`list_top_applications`

`get_client_dpi`

DPI reference data

`list_dpi_categories`

`list_dpi_applications`

Countries reference

`list_countries`

Example: finding top bandwidth users