Upload a file to work with

Have a contract, a spreadsheet, a report, or a set of notes you want to ask questions about? Attach it to your conversation and Chat will read it, ground its answers in it, and cite it back to you. This page shows you how to attach a file to a single message, what file types and sizes work, and how to turn a useful attachment into reusable Knowledge your team can rely on.

Before you start

• You’re in a conversation (a new chat, a folder, a channel, or a direct message).
• Your file is one of the supported types and under the 100 MB size limit.
• The file contains information you’re comfortable sharing with the assistant — see What’s safe to include.

Two ways to bring a file in

There are two paths, and the difference matters:

	Attach to a message	Add to Knowledge
Best for	A quick, one-off question about a single document	Documents you’ll reference again and again
Scope	Just this turn (and the rest of this conversation)	A reusable collection you and your team can cite
Where it lives	The conversation	A Knowledge collection (Personal, Folder, or Tenant)
How you start	The + menu or drag-and-drop in the composer	Knowledge → Add Source, or promote an attachment

Start with an attachment when you just want an answer now. Move to Knowledge when the document is something you’ll keep coming back to. You can always promote an attachment into Knowledge later — you don’t have to decide up front.

Attach a file to a message

1. Open the conversation you want to work in.
2. In the composer (the message box at the bottom), select the + menu and choose Attach file — or simply drag a file onto the composer, or paste an image straight from your clipboard.
3. Pick your file. A chip appears showing the file name and its progress: uploading → scanning → ready.
4. Wait for the chip to read ready. Chat scans every upload for safety before it’s available — this usually takes a few seconds.
5. Type your question and Send. The assistant reads the attached file as part of answering and cites it where relevant.

You can attach more than one file to the same message — each gets its own chip. Drag-and-drop and clipboard paste work the same way as the + menu.

Tip — be specific. Instead of “summarize this,” try “pull out the payment terms and the renewal date from this contract.” The more pointed your question, the more precise the answer and its citations.

A worked example

Say you’ve been sent a vendor agreement and you want the key dates.

1. Open a new chat.
2. Drag vendor-agreement.pdf onto the composer and wait for the chip to read ready.
3. Ask: “What’s the contract term, the notice period for cancellation, and the auto-renewal date? Quote the exact clauses.”
4. The assistant answers with the dates and shows numbered citations that link back to the relevant passages — select a citation to see the source snippet.
5. Follow up naturally: “Is there an early-termination fee?” The file stays available for the rest of the conversation, so you don’t need to re-attach it.

Supported file types

You can attach the following:

Category	File types
Documents	PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, CSV, TXT
Data & markup	JSON, XML, YAML / YML, Markdown (MD), HTML
Images	JPG / JPEG, PNG
Code & text	Common source files (e.g. .js, .ts, .py, .java, .go, .sql, .log)

Size limit: 100 MB per file. If a file is too large, you’ll see a message telling you the file’s size and the limit — try compressing it or splitting it into smaller parts.

Office documents (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) are converted to text behind the scenes so the assistant can read and search them. Spreadsheets and tables work best when the data is laid out in clear rows and columns with headers.

Turn an attachment into Knowledge

If an attachment turns out to be something you’ll use repeatedly, you can promote it into a Knowledge collection without re-uploading:

1. On a ready attachment chip, select the promote to Knowledge icon.
2. Choose whether to add it to an existing collection or create a new one.
3. Choose the scope — Personal (just you), Folder (a project team), or Tenant (everyone in your organization).
4. Confirm. The document is indexed and becomes a citable source the assistant can draw on across conversations.

For more on how Chat surfaces sources, knowledge, and other materials, see The surfaces.

What’s safe to include

Chat is built to be governed and private, but you’re still in control of what you share. A few guidelines:

• Personal and one-off attachments stay private to you and the people in that conversation. A Personal Knowledge collection is private to you alone — even organization admins don’t get access to it.
• Promoting a document widens who can see it. Folder scope shares it with that project’s members; Tenant scope shares it with everyone in your organization. Promotion is one-way, so choose the scope deliberately.
• Uploads are scanned for safety before they’re usable, and your assistant’s guardrails review content as it’s used — but scanning isn’t a substitute for your own judgment about sensitive material.
• When in doubt, start narrow. Attach to a single conversation or keep it in a Personal collection first; widen the scope later only if you need to.

If your organization has its own policy on what may be uploaded to AI tools, follow it — your admin can tell you what’s expected.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means	What to do
Chip stuck on uploading	The file is still transferring	Check your network connection; large files take longer
Chip shows scanning, then timed out	The safety scan didn’t finish in time	The file is usually still sendable; if results look off, remove it and try again
Error: not a supported file type	The format isn’t on the supported list	Convert it to a supported type (e.g. export to PDF)
Error: exceeds the 100 MB limit	The file is too big	Compress it, or split it into smaller files
Server rejected the file before upload	The type or size wasn’t accepted	Confirm the file is supported and under 100 MB, then retry
The answer doesn’t seem to use the file	The file may still be processing, or the question was too broad	Wait for ready, then ask a more specific question and point to the document

Related

• Analyze data and spreadsheets — go deeper with CSV and Excel files
• Summarize a document — get fast, grounded summaries of what you upload
• What not to share — guidance on sensitive material
• Your privacy — how your conversations and files are protected