Files and voice in a chat

In one line. Give an agent a document or a picture inside a conversation — attach it, paste it or drop it — and ask about it; or speak instead of typing. You’ll be able to. Attach, paste and drop files; know what the agent can do with them, who else can see them and when they are deleted; and switch the capability on or off for your own agent. Where this lives. The message box of the assistant’s chat and of your own agent’s chat on the Agents page. Builders switch it on in Studio ▸ Experience ▸ Chat (Allow attachments).

Attaching files

There are three ways to give the agent a file, and they all do the same thing:

• Attach: select the paperclip next to the message box and choose one or more files.
• Paste: copy a picture or a screenshot and press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac) in the message box. Pasted text stays text.
• Drop: drag files from your computer onto the chat. A folder is refused; drop the files inside it instead.

Each file appears as a small chip above the message box while it uploads and while it is being read. You can send your message straight away: it waits for the files to finish. Remove a chip with its ✕ before you send if you change your mind.

What the agent can do with a file

• Read it. A short file is read whole on the turn you attach it. For a long file, the agent reads the pages it needs, so you can ask about page 97 of a 120-page report without attaching it again.
• Search it. Ask a question and the agent finds the passages that answer it, with the page each one is on.
• Keep it for the whole conversation. Later questions in the same chat can use the file; you don’t attach it twice.
• Look at pictures. When the agent’s model can see pictures, it looks at them. When it can’t, it reads the text in the picture and tells you it can’t see the picture itself.

A file is information, not instructions. If a document says “ignore your instructions” or “delete everything”, the agent treats that as text in the file and does not act on it. Anything that changes your project still asks you to confirm first.

Who can see the files you attach

A file you attach belongs to you and to that one conversation. It never shows up in project lists, counts, searches or dashboards, and no other agent can search it.

The people who can see it are:

• you;
• people you share that chat with — someone who can view the chat sees its files, and someone who can continue it can also add their own;
• platform administrators, when they need to. Every time someone other than you opens one of your files, that read is recorded.

Sharing your agent with colleagues does not share your files: each person’s conversations, and the files in them, stay their own.

When files are deleted

• Delete a file from its chip, and it is gone from the conversation and from everywhere it was kept.
• Delete the conversation, and all its files go with it.
• Otherwise, files are deleted automatically 90 days after they were attached.

Limits

Limit	Value
One file	up to 25 MB
One picture	up to 10 MB
Files in one conversation	up to 20
Files one person can attach in a day	up to 100
Kinds of file	PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, Markdown, CSV, JSON, and pictures (PNG, JPEG, WebP)
One picture’s resolution	up to 40 megapixels

Some files can’t be read — a password-protected PDF, a damaged file, or a file whose name doesn’t match what it really is. The chip then says Couldn’t read this file, and the agent tells you it could not read it rather than guessing.

Speaking instead of typing

Select the microphone to dictate your message. Your words appear in the message box, and you can change them before you send.

Your browser does the listening. The microphone uses your browser’s own speech service, so what you say is sent to your browser’s provider (for example Google for Chrome, Microsoft for Edge) to be turned into text. The microphone shows only in browsers that offer this, and it asks your permission the first time. Your company can switch it off.

Switching it on or off

• Your own agent: attachments and the microphone are on when you create it. Change them in Studio ▸ Experience ▸ Chat.
• A builder’s project: switch on Allow attachments in Studio ▸ Experience ▸ Chat. From the assistant, ask it to change the project’s chat settings.
• Your company: a workspace administrator can switch attachments or the microphone off for everyone in the workspace, in Workspace settings › Users › Policies › Chats — not in Studio. When a company has switched one off, the chat says which company did; a person who belongs to two companies gets the stricter of the two.

Behaviours to know

• “Still reading…” means the file arrived and is being read. Ask again in a moment; the agent says so too, instead of answering without it.
• A file is kept with the conversation it was attached in. Starting a new chat starts without files.
• An agent or tool from outside the chat (an external assistant connected over MCP, a scheduled run) can’t read a conversation’s files; it isn’t part of one.