The question: What does the model actually see?
What is not in the window does not exist
The model has no memory and no archive. With every request, everything it is going to need is put back in front of it: the standing instructions, the attached documents, the history of the exchange, your question. That stack is the context, and it fits in a fixed volume: the context window.
The distinction this infographic makes visible: capacity belongs to the model, the content is assembled by the harness. Nothing that overflows is forgotten, in the literal sense: it never existed for the model at all.
6,900 / 32,000 tokens
| In the window | Tokens |
|---|---|
| The system prompt | 800 |
| A short conversation | 4,000 |
| Your question | 100 |
| Room for the answer | 2,000 |
| Total asked for | 6,900 |
What the model seesIt all fits: 22 % of the window is taken, and room for the answer is set aside.
Three traps
- Filling it “just in case” is an anti-reflex. Everything you add is re-read with every request, so paid for with every request, and it dilutes what matters.
- The answer takes up the same window. A context filled to the brim leaves no room to answer in.
- A bigger window is no substitute for sorting. A whole knowledge base will never fit: that is exactly the job of RAG, which goes and fetches the right passages instead of handing over everything.
Thicknesses are proportional to the weight in tokens, with a minimum height so that the lightest items stay visible.
Glossary terms
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