> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: /docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Context length

> Adjust how much conversation history the AI model can remember and use when generating responses.

Context length controls how much conversation history your AI model can remember and use when generating responses. It is measured in tokens. A larger context length allows the model to consider more previous messages, while a smaller one limits how far back it can look.

## How to adjust context length

**1. Open Settings**

Open the sidebar and tap **Settings**.

**2. Find Context Length**

Locate **Context Length** under the chat options.

**3. Set a value**

Use the slider to quickly select popular preset values like 256, 512, 2048, 4096, and up to 200k tokens. For custom values, type a number directly in the text field below the slider. The minimum allowed is **256 tokens**.

**4. Enable override**

Enable the **Override** toggle to use your custom value instead of the provider's default.

## Where it applies

* **Local Server (LM Studio / Ollama):** sets the context window for local chat requests.
* **OpenRouter:** overrides the model's default context length. When enabled, it also activates automatic conversation compaction to stay within the limit.
* **Custom Endpoint:** applies your setting to OpenAI-compatible servers.

## Provider defaults

When **Override** is disabled, LMSA uses the context length your AI provider publishes. LM Studio shows a **Context Snapshot** card displaying your current provider, model, and its native context limits.

## When to adjust

* **Increase it** if you want longer conversations with better memory of earlier messages, especially for complex multi-turn topics.
* **Decrease it** to reduce processing time and latency, or if you run out of VRAM on a local model.
* **Use a smaller value** for lightweight models or slower hardware.
* **Use a larger value** for detailed analysis, coding tasks, or when you need the model to remember many prior turns.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Context length is separate from **Max Output Tokens**: the former controls input history, the latter controls response length.

> [!WARNING]
>
> * Larger context lengths use more memory and may be slower on weaker hardware.
> * Not all models support the full context limit you set. Your model may truncate or ignore your override if it exceeds the model's hard maximum.
> * Web Search and Image Generation use independent token limits separate from this setting.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.