What Is a Context Window? A Visual Guide
A visual guide to the context window: how much text an AI model can see at once, shown with a real ChatGPT meeting summary lesson.
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The guide in text
Context window: The amount of text an AI model can take into account at one time, measured in tokens. Anything outside it, the model simply cannot see.
New chat, empty window
Click New chat and the meeting is gone. Attach the transcript file to bring it back into the new conversation.
Work with the window
- Keep related follow-ups in the same chat. Start a new chat for an unrelated task.
- In a long conversation, restate key rules before an important request.
- If it ignores part of a long document, ask about that section directly.
The full definition: What is a context window? in the AI glossary, with an example from a free lesson, common confusions and tips.
Businesses and people in the examples are made up. The steps, screens and wording come from the free lesson and the Stepthrough glossary and prompt library.
Do it yourself, free
Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT. Paste a long meeting transcript into ChatGPT and get the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a follow-up email ready to send. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, it checks your work as you go, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on. Free, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Start the free lessonRelated terms
Plain-English definitions, each with an example from a free lesson.
Related prompts
- Action items table prompt: Paste a meeting transcript or rough notes and get a table of every task, owner and due date, with "Not stated" wherever nobody…
- Meeting agenda prompt: Turn a list of topics into a timed meeting agenda where every item has an owner, a question to settle and minutes that add up to…
- Project status update prompt: Write an honest project status update: On track, At risk or Off track with the reason, what's done, what's next, blockers and…
- Shift schedule announcement prompt: Announce a new or changed shift schedule clearly: what changes, for whom, from when, a schedule table, what stays the same, and…
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