What you need to know
- Microsoft has quietly increased the number of characters possible to enter in the input box on Bing Chat.
- Previously you were limited to a maximum of 2,000, the limit is now double at 4,000.
- It's the latest improvement to Bing Chat following features such as Chat History starting to roll out.
The upgrades to Bing Chat continue to roll along steadily and the latest concerns just how much of your wisdom you can input in any one go.
For what feels like the longest time the 2,000-character limit has felt constricting to the power users out there, but the news is good. As revealed by Microsoft's Mikhail Parakhin, the guru for all things Bing Chat, that limit has been doubled.
It's one small step for Bing Chat... pic.twitter.com/JpP3BUrW5JMay 20, 2023
While it may feel like a small change, never forget the added burden doubling the input limit adds to the backend. While 4,000 still might not be enough for the most demanding users (we've already seen a competitor capable of processing 100,000 tokens as an alternative) for most average users this will be plenty. It's a fine balance between offering more and maintaining performance. Just look at how slow and frustrating GPT-4 on ChatGPT is as an example of what you don't want to happen.
What isn't changing is the number of responses you can get in any one thread. That's still limited to 20, and in response to a follow-up question, Parakhin indicated that Microsoft's telemetry doesn't indicate it's currently too limiting.
I don't really think that's the case - at least we don't see it in our telemetry: https://t.co/cAYqQj8NHJMay 20, 2023
It doesn't seem to be on any kind of staggered rollout, but there is always a possibility. If you don't see the new 4,000 limit yet, just hang tight.
I've taken it out for a test drive to process a few short stories and summarize them into bullet points to see how well it works. In each case I was well over the 2,000-character old limit and within the new 4,000-character limit and it's impressive. There doesn't seem to be much, if any added delay in processing the extra information, which is important.
After all, more isn't better if it's also slower.
