Using the Chat

Deutsch: Den Chat nutzen

In the chat, you talk to the AI model of your choice. This page explains the chat page, sending messages, working with the answers, and the options of the chat.

The chat page

• The title shows where the chat belongs: "Chat in Workspace" with the name of the workspace, or "Disappearing Chat" for a chat outside the workspaces.
• The provider selection below the title decides which model answers. You can switch it between messages.
• The input field shows the provider in use in its label. Below it, a counter shows how many tokens the chat uses.
• The toolbar below the input field holds the buttons for new chats, templates, attachments, formatting, profiles, tools, and data sources.

At the right end of the toolbar, AI Studio reminds you: "LLMs can make mistakes. Check important information."

Writing and sending

Type your message and press Enter, or click the send arrow at the end of the input field. Press Shift+Enter for a new line. You can change this in the "Chat Options" under "Shortcut to send input":

• "Enter is sending the input": the default.
• "Modifier key + enter is sending the input": Enter alone starts a new line; Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or Cmd with Enter sends.
• "No key is sending the input": only the send arrow sends.

The buttons "Bold", "Italic", "Heading", "Bulleted List", and "Code" format the selected text in Markdown.

To attach files, click the paperclip or drop the files anywhere on the chat page. See Attachments.

While the AI answers

The answer appears while the model writes it. Meanwhile, you can't change the input, the provider, the profile, the tools, or the data sources; your choices apply again from the next message.

• "Stop generation" ends the answer early. The part already written stays.
• You can open another chat or another page in the meantime. The answer keeps being written, and the "Chat" icon in the navigation bar changes its color while it does.

When the model uses tools, a box shows "Using tool:" and the name of the tool.

The token counter

The counter below the input field shows how many tokens the chat uses, for example, "approx. 12,000 of 128,000 tokens", including your current message and the share of tools. It turns orange when the chat uses 80 percent of what the model can handle, and red when it uses all of it or carries more images than the model accepts. Long chats then become slow, expensive, or fail; start a new chat, or remove messages you no longer need.

"approx." means that AI Studio estimates the number. It counts with a tokenizer of its own, which differs from that of the model by a few percent on prose and by more on code. Once the provider reports how many tokens the chat used, usually with the first answer, the number is exact and "approx." goes away. It comes back when you delete a message or switch to another model, and it stays with providers that report nothing. The share of the message you are writing ("plus approx. … for your message") and, while tools work, their share ("of which approx. … from tools") are always estimates. When the preview feature for data sources is on, a tokenizer file for the model in the expert settings of the provider makes the number exact from the start.

Working with messages

Each message has a header with "You" or "AI" and the time. Its buttons depend on the message:

Button	Where	What it does
Copy, "Copies the content to the clipboard"	every message	Copies the message as Markdown, with its sources.
"Edit"	your last message	Puts your message and its attachments back into the input field. If the AI has already answered, AI Studio asks first and removes the answer.
"Regenerate"	the last answer	Asks the current provider again. Useful after switching to another model.
"Roll back to this response"	earlier answers	Removes everything after this answer, including attachments.
"Removes this block"	every message	Removes the message after asking you.
"Export AI response"	answers	Saves the answer as a document, or a single table or code block; see Pandoc and File Formats.
"Send to ..."	your messages and the answers	Sends the text to an assistant, or into a "New Chat", where it waits in the input field.

Code blocks in a message have their own save button, for example, "Save as Python (.py)".

Tools and sources in answers

When the AI used tools, a wrench button next to the time shows them, for example, "Show 2 tool calls". Click it to see each call with its arguments and its result, and whether it was "Executed", "Failed", or "Blocked".

When an answer relies on sources, such as web pages or your data sources, they're listed below the answer with numbers like [1]. "Number of sources" in the header jumps to the list. See Tools in the Chat for setting up the tools.

New chats and copies

Button	What it does
"Start temporary chat"	Starts a new chat outside the workspaces.
"Start new chat in workspace '…'"	Starts a new chat in the workspace of the open chat.
"Delete this chat & start a new one."	Deletes the open chat after asking you, and starts a new one.
"Move the chat to a workspace, or to another if it is already in one."	Moves the chat into a workspace you choose.
"Copy this chat & continue in the copy."	Copies the chat under a new name and opens the copy.
"Save chat"	Saves the chat, if you chose to store chats manually.

A new chat takes its name from the first ten words of your first message. You rename it in the workspace list; see Workspaces and Chat Search.

Chat Options

The gear icon next to the title, "Show the chat options", opens the "Chat Options". Changes apply at once. Besides the send shortcut and the preselection of provider, profile, and chat template, you find:

• "Show the latest message after loading?": whether an opened chat shows its newest or its oldest message.
• "Read changed attachments again?": whether AI Studio sends the new content of an attached file that changed since you sent it. By default, the AI keeps receiving the content the file had when you first sent it.
• "Provider selection when creating new chats": whether a new chat starts with the provider you used last or with your preselected one.
• "Provider selection when loading a chat and sending assistant results to chat": whether an opened chat continues with its own provider, the one you used last, or your preselected one.
• "Default tools for chat": the tools every new chat starts with.

When something goes wrong

Errors appear as a notice at the edge of the window. The answer that failed is removed, and your message stays, so you can resend it with "Edit". Common causes:

• "The API key might be invalid": check the key in the settings of the provider.
• "The provider is overloaded" or "too many requests were sent": wait a moment and try again.
• "The data of the chat, including all file attachments, is probably too large": start a new chat, or attach fewer or smaller files.
• "The selected model is no longer available": choose another model in the settings of the provider.

When the input field reads "Select a provider first", choose a provider. When the provider selection says that no provider is configured or none meets the requirements, add a suitable provider in the settings; see Providers and Models.

Where to go next

• Workspaces and Chat Search: keep, find, and organize your chats.
• Attachments: give the AI files, images, and recordings.