Bing Chat doubles its chat limit, making it more efficient for users

When Microsoft first gave select users exclusive access to Bing’s AI chatbot, some of the chatbot’s shortcomings became evident. Microsoft found that long chat sessions confused the model, and as a result shortened the chat limit with the promise of a longer chat limit in the near future. 

That day is today. 

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing office, announced via Twitter that Bing Chat’s new limit will be 10 chats per session, 120 total chats per day, doubling its previous limit.

When Microsoft first cut the chatbot’s limit, it was limited to five chat turns per session and 50 per day. Shortly after, it was expanded to the most recent limit, six chat turns per session and 60 total chats per day. 

Also: I tried Bing’s AI chatbot, and it solved my biggest problems with ChatGPT

As ZDNET noted previously, the reduced chat limit made it very difficult to have a conversation with the chatbot. By cutting the conversation short, the chatbot was rendered useless for most technical prompts (such as drafting code or text in a specific format), which is what ChatGPT’s claim to fame has been. 

The expanded chat limit will be a step forward in solving that issue. Normal Bing searches will continue to not count against your chat totals, giving you more bandwidth to hold a meaningful, productive conversation with the chatbot. 

Microsoft previously noted that long, convoluted chat sessions were not something they were necessarily testing for internally, so the public’s use and feedback has actually been useful in learning more about the chatbot. 

Also: The new Bing waitlist is long. Here’s how to get earlier access

“In fact, the very reason we are testing the new Bing in the open with a limited set of preview testers is precisely to find these atypical use cases from which we can learn and improve the product,” said Microsoft. 

Mehdi also shared on Twitter that in only 30 days, Bing Chat’s user engagement has been pretty significant. Within one month of being released, a total of 45M chats have taken place on the platform, with one-third of preview users being brand new to Bing. 

Despite celebrating Bing’s wins, including 100 million daily active users, Mehdi acknowledges that compared to other search engines, they remain a ‘remain a small, low, single digit share player’ but he adds, ‘it feels good to be at the dance”.