File ingestion allows Gemini to directly read, analyze, and reason over files you upload, turning static documents into sources of insight. When you upload a file (such as a PDF, DOCX, CSV, XLSX, or TXT), Gemini temporarily ingests the contents, storing them in the active memory for that conversation. You can then ask questions, request summaries, extract data, or perform analysis directly against the file.
This is especially powerful for working with:
- Long or complex documents
- Spreadsheets and structured data
- Reports, contracts, or policies
- Research papers or transcripts
How to use file ingestion
Press the “+” button in the “Enter a prompt for Gemini” box, and select “Upload files.” Then upload the file you want to attach.
Prompting Best Practices
- Use the DIRECT framework to guide you. Upload the file as an attachment, and specify what in the file you want Gemini to focus on in the “Information” section of your prompt.
- Ask Gemini to “Synthesize” a document.
- Upload a spreadsheet, for example a CSV, with a mix of qualitative and quantitative information, and ask Gemini to help you understand and visualize the data.
- Compare and contrast two documents.
- Analyze sentiment or tone in a document.
- Apply a framework or rubric from one document to the contents of another.
- Ask Gemini to “Transform” a document.
- Upload a complicated research paper and ask Gemini to provide a simple summary.
- Upload a powerpoint presentation and ask Gemini for feedback on the content.
- Summarize a document in simple terms.
- Rewrite a short document in a particular style.
- Turn a presentation into a document.
- Ask Gemini to “Extract” information from a document.
- Upload a PDF and have ChatGPT find any references to a certain topic.
- Pull out relevant quotes from a document.
- Search for any mention of a particular topic from a document or spreadsheet.
- Extract metadata (author, creation date, etc.) from a document.
- Count the number of rows in a spreadsheet that contain a certain attribute
- Extract specific sections of a document (e.g., all headings or all bullet-point lists).
Technical Details
File Types
All common file extensions for text files, spreadsheets, presentations, and documents are supported.
File Upload Size Restrictions
All files uploaded to a Gem or a Gemini conversation have a hard limit of 100MB. Each video can be up to 2 GB.
