Plain English
Context window
How much text an AI can consider at once: its working memory for this conversation.
How much text an AI can consider at once: its working memory for this conversation. It’s measured in tokens and covers your messages, its replies and any files you add.
Why it matters
If a document is longer than the window, the AI can’t see all of it at once, so summaries of long files can quietly miss things. Bigger windows usually cost more.
At work
You paste a 60-page supplier contract and ask about clause 14. If the window is too small, the answer comes from the parts the AI can see, not the whole contract.
Think of it like a desk: only what fits on it can be worked on right now.
Related terms
Where it appears