Auto vs Council

Auto

Auto picks the right AI for each message from GPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok. Everyday questions go to a fast model; harder ones go to a top model while you have premium credits left. If one AI company isn't answering, Auto switches to another.

Use Auto for most things.

Council

Council works on one question as a team:

• GPT shapes the practical plan.
• Claude looks at the risks and the reasoning.
• Gemini checks facts and numbers.
• Grok adds the real-world pulse.

Claude then weaves their work into one answer, credits who added what, and marks anything worth checking, such as a number only one AI gave.

Use Council for big decisions and questions where you want every side covered. It uses more premium credit and has a weekly allowance of its own. See Usage limits and resets.

Thinking before answering

There is no switch for it: AIOAIA decides. When a question is hard and needs several steps of reasoning (a calculation, weighing options, a tricky tax or legal point), Claude or Gemini thinks it through before answering. This happens in Auto when Auto picks Claude or Gemini, and when you pick one of their stronger models yourself. While it works you see the juggling balls, a timer and what it is doing. Above the answer, tap Juggled for ... to see the steps and a summary of how it reasoned.

Thinking is billed by the AI companies like writing, so a deeper answer costs more: it comes from your premium credits and shows on the receipt. When your premium credits are used up, the answer is made without thinking. GPT and Grok answer without it for now. Council already has four AIs check the answer, so it doesn't add thinking.

Searching the web

This is automatic too. When a question needs current information, such as news, today's prices or recent events, Claude searches the web before answering, and the pages it used are listed under the answer. In Auto, AIOAIA moves such a question to Claude; if you picked GPT, Gemini or Grok, they answer from what they already know. Each search costs about one cent from your credits (an answer runs at most three) and shows as its own line on the receipt. Council doesn't search yet. To ask for a search yourself, start the message with /search.

Shortcuts in the chat box

Type / at the start of the box to see them:

• /image and a description makes an image.
• /council and a question answers that one question with Council.
• /search and a question searches the web for the answer (Claude does the searching).
• /new starts a new chat, /private a private chat, and /help opens these pages.

A shortcut only changes how that one message is sent. The same limits and credits apply as when you use the buttons.

Sending while an answer is written

You don't have to wait: type your next message and press Enter. It waits above the box and sends as soon as the answer finishes, one at a time. Tap × to remove one. If you press Stop, or an answer ends with an error or a limit, waiting messages are paused, not deleted: tap Send next to carry on, or Clear all. Files can't wait: attach them once the answer has finished.

Tap-to-reply

When your question could mean more than one thing, or there are clear next steps, an answer may end with a few short replies as buttons. Tapping one sends it as your reply, like typing it.

Long chats

An answer always sees the most recent messages word for word. When a chat gets long, older messages are folded into a short summary so later answers still remember them. A light, low-cost model writes the summary, about every fourth message in a long chat; it shows on that answer's receipt as Summarizing earlier messages, usually well under a tenth of a cent. If the summary can't be made, the answer goes ahead with the recent messages only.