---
title: Limits
description: Every limit you can actually run into — attachment sizes, how many questions it may ask, the ceilings on a single turn, and what has no limit at all.
---

The bounds you can hit in normal use, in one place — because they otherwise turn up one at
a time, in an error message, mid-job. Every number here is enforced. Read the **Scope**
column as carefully as the number beside it: it says whether a limit applies to a file, a
turn, a run, a handed-off task, an assistant or your whole account, and the
[Glossary](/docs/glossary) defines each of those words in one line if the difference between
them is not already obvious.

## Attachments

The two attachment paths have **different** limits, and the gap matters. See
[Giving it materials](/docs/giving-it-materials) for which one to use.

| What | Limit | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Files attached to a chat message | 5 files | per run |
| Size of each of those files | 5 MB | **per file** |
| Types accepted in a chat | Text, Markdown, CSV, JSON, source files, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images | per file |
| Files attached to a handed-off task | 5 files | per run |
| Text attached to a handed-off task | 100 KB | **total across all files** |
| Types accepted on a task | Plain text only — no PDF, Office file or image | per file |

Two behaviours worth knowing. Picking more than five files in a chat keeps the first five
and **says nothing** — check what is listed before you send. Attaching a PDF or an image
to a *task* is refused up front, and told why: those formats run in a live chat.

## Questions it may ask you mid-run

| What | Limit | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Rounds of questions it may put to you | 3 | per run |

Once those three rounds are spent, the ability to ask is withdrawn for the rest of that
run — it proceeds on what it has, or stops. A round can carry several questions at once,
so three rounds is more than three questions. It is also why a vague opening message
costs you: it spends a round getting to where a clearer one would have started. See
[When it checks with you](/docs/when-it-checks-with-you).

A **scheduled** run gets none of these — see [Recurring work](/docs/recurring-work).

## Money

| What | Limit | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Spend limit on a handed-off task | $0.50 default; $0 – $5.00 when you create it | per task |
| Raising a task's limit mid-run | No ceiling, but it must be higher than the current one | per task |
| Standing default in Settings | $0.10 / $0.50 / $1.00 / $5.00 | applies to new tasks |
| Minimum top-up | $1, whole dollars | per top-up |

These are budgets you choose, not prices — the same limit buys different amounts of work
on different engines. [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits) covers what the limit does not
do; [Model prices](/docs/model-prices) has the rates.

## Ceilings on a single turn

Separately from any limit you set, one turn of a conversation has fixed ceilings. When one
is reached the turn stops, names the ceiling it hit, and says *"You were only charged for
the work that actually ran. Ask me to continue and I'll pick up from what's already
done."*

| What | Limit | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Working time | 5 minutes | per turn |
| Cost | $0.50 | per turn |
| Size of the work in one turn | 500,000 tokens | per turn |
| Steps it may take | 20 | per turn |

Asking it to continue is the intended move; it resumes from what already exists rather
than starting over.

## Things you build

| What | Limit | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Things you taught it | 20 | per account |
| Total size of all of them | 4 MB | per account |
| Reference files in one of them | 8 files, 128 KB each | per Add-on |
| Its instructions | 32 KB | per Add-on |
| Assistant name | 60 characters | per assistant |
| Assistant instructions | 2,000 characters | per assistant |
| Files attached to an assistant | 5 files, 500 KB each | per assistant |
| Instruction for a recurring task | 2,000 characters | per schedule |

There is **no limit** on how many assistants you create, or how many apps you connect.
See [Assistants](/docs/assistants) and [Add-ons](/docs/add-ons).

## Documents it opens and writes

When a file is too big or too long, the run says so rather than truncating it quietly:
5 MB in or out for most conversions, and — inside that — **200 pages** of PDF,
**200 slides**, **50 sheets** or **50,000 rows** of spreadsheet, and **20,000
paragraphs** of a Word document.

## Elsewhere

A single dictation runs up to **150 seconds**, warning you ten seconds before it stops on
its own. The **Tasks** and **Chats** lists each show your most recent **100** entries.

## What has no limit

Worth stating, because their absence changes how you can use Else:

- **No cap on message length.** Write as much context as the job needs.
- **No cap on how many tasks you run**, at once or in total.
- **No rate limit.** You cannot be throttled for working quickly.
- **No expiry on your balance**, and none on a share link — it stays live until you revoke.
- **No automatic deletion of your history.**