What is a context window in AI?

A context window is the amount of information an AI model can consider at one time when generating a response. This can include the user’s prompt, conversation history, instructions, uploaded files, and other information provided to the model.

Because a context window is limited, AI systems need to manage which information is available to the model, especially during longer or more complex tasks. This is an important part of context engineering, which focuses on providing an AI model with the right information at the right time.

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