Context Windows, Tokens & Limits
Context Window
The context window is the maximum amount of information an AI model can process at once.
What It Includes
system prompt conversation history tool outputs tool definitions
Why It’s Critical
context accumulates automatically it consumes token budget overflow reduces performance
Context Trade-offs
Smaller Context
more selective requires careful prompting
Larger Context
more flexibility but more complexity and noise
Token Behaviour
more context ≠always better more tokens = higher cost diminishing returns after a point