---
title: Settings reference
description: Every setting in Else, grouped as the product groups them — what each one does, its default, and how far it reaches.
---

Settings holds twelve controls in three groups. Everything here belongs to **your account**,
not to a device or a chat: change it in one browser and it is changed everywhere you sign
in. Changes save the moment you make them, and take effect on the **next** run rather than
retroactively.

The per-run controls — what a single run may use, its spend limit, how much it may do
unattended — are not in Settings at all. They live in the **This run** panel above the
composer. See [Add-ons](/docs/add-ons) and [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits).

## You

*"Your account and how you sign in."*

| Setting | What it does | Default | Reach |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Email** | Shows the address you signed in with, and that it is verified. The **Change** button is deliberately inactive — your address is managed where you sign in, not here | your sign-in address | account |
| **Sign-in method** | Shows how you sign in. Also managed at your sign-in provider rather than here | — | account |
| **Sign out** | Ends your session on **this device** only. Other devices stay signed in | — | this device |

## How it works

*"Which engine runs your work, what it may spend, and when it tells you."*

| Setting | What it does | Default | Reach |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Engine** | Your standing engine choice: **Auto**, **Fast**, **Smart** or **Max**. A new chat takes a copy of this when it is created; existing chats keep whatever they already have. The engine menu in the composer writes the same value — one setting, two doors. (The grey line beneath the row always describes Auto, whichever option is selected; read the option, not the line) | Auto | new chats |
| **Set an engine per speed tier** | A collapsed group holding the three rows below. The note beside it reads *All on defaults*, or how many you have changed | All on defaults | — |
| **Fast engine** / **Smart engine** / **Max engine** | Points that tier at a specific model instead of its factory default. Each row shows **Default** or the model's name, with **Change** to pick one and **Reset to default** once you have | Default | every run, including Auto |
| **Reset all tier engines** | Appears only once at least one tier is changed. **Reset all** returns all three to their factory defaults | — | account |
| **Ask before spending more than** | The spend limit given to a task you hand off from the Tasks screen when you don't set one yourself. Offered as four presets: **$0.10**, **$0.50**, **$1.00**, **$5.00** | $0.50 | new handed-off tasks |
| **Email me when a task finishes** | Recorded on your account. **No email is sent today** — the preference is stored, not yet acted on. Check the Tasks screen for finished work | on | account |
| **Apps** | A link, not a setting. **Open** goes to the Apps screen | — | — |
| **Things you taught it** | A link, not a setting. **Open** goes to the Assistants screen | — | — |

Two notes before you touch this group.

**The tier rows reach further than they look.** Repointing *Max* changes every run that lands
on Max — including runs **Auto** sent there. [Changing what a tier runs](/docs/changing-tier-defaults)
is the page on whether you should.

**"Ask before spending more than" is a different number from the spend limit in the composer,
and it is the one that actually does something.** This preset is the limit given to a task you
hand off from the Tasks screen without naming one, and it is read. The composer's field is read
on work you hand off — but **on a single message in a chat, nothing on our side reads it**, and
it resets to $0.15 on every reload and in every new chat. What ends a runaway single message is
a fixed per-turn ceiling you cannot see or set. Both of those are covered honestly in
[Why it cost that much](/docs/why-it-cost-that-much) and [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits).

## Money and data

*"What you have spent, and what happens to what you put in."*

| Setting | What it does | Default | Reach |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Wallet** | A link, not a setting. **Open** goes to your balance and top-ups | — | — |
| **Help improve the product using my tasks** | Records your consent to have your tasks used to improve the product. It is **off** unless you turn it on | off | account |
| **Download my data** | **Export** downloads your assistants, tasks and settings as a JSON file, immediately. Nothing is emailed and there is no queue | — | account |

## Finding a setting, and what isn't here

The rail on the left has a search box matching both group names and individual setting names
— typing *spend* finds *Ask before spending more than* without your having to guess which
group holds it. When nothing matches it says so rather than showing an empty pane.

What Settings deliberately does not hold: **theme, language or notification preferences**
(they don't exist — don't go looking); **billing controls**, which live on the Wallet screen
behind the link above, with individual receipts on each run
([Reading a receipt](/docs/reading-a-receipt)); and **per-run controls** — spend limit, what a run
may use, how much it may do unattended — which are per-run by design so that narrowing one
job never quietly narrows the next.