The context window is the maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) that a language model can process at once, including both input and output.
What is the context window?
The context window represents the maximum amount of information a language model can "see" and process in a single interaction. It's measured in tokens (roughly 4 characters per token in English). Anything beyond this limit is simply invisible to the model.
Current context window sizes
- GPT-4o: 128,000 tokens (~96,000 words)
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 200,000 tokens (~150,000 words)
- Gemini 1.5 Pro: 1,000,000 tokens (~750,000 words)
Performance impact
- Long conversations: Earlier messages "fall off" the window over time
- Document analysis: Large documents may not fit entirely
- Cost: The more the context window is filled, the higher the cost per request
Context window and AILabsAudit
When using AILabsAudit via MCP with an AI assistant, the context window size determines how much audit data can be analyzed simultaneously. Models with large windows (Claude, Gemini) allow analyzing entire client portfolios in a single conversation.