# Your first chat with MAIA

Open **‘MAIA Chat’** in the sidebar. Here you talk to MAIA about your stored documents or use MAIA's general AI knowledge.



## Chatting with MAIA's general knowledge (no documents needed)

As with other AI assistants, you can ask MAIA questions that don't need internal company data.

1. Click **‘+ New Chat’**.

   ![](/images/docs/9bb82dbf0fc715be75a4.jpeg)

2. Type your question or task into the **‘Send a message…’** field. Instead of typing, you can also [dictate](/en/docs/maias-features/using-voice-input-in-maia/) using the microphone icon.

   ![](/images/docs/3f294730aa09ccc4a819.jpeg)

3. Click the arrow on the right of the input to send your request.

4. MAIA now creates an answer based on your task.

   ![](/images/docs/2bb459d552b6048769ac.jpeg)



## Chatting with internal knowledge and your own documents

For MAIA to include your documents, they need to be in the file manager (see [Upload and share documents](/en/docs/first-steps-with-maia/upload-and-share-documents/)) or connected through an integration such as SharePoint, Confluence or Outlook. You can also [upload individual files straight into the chat](/en/docs/maias-features/upload-and-create-files-in-chat/).

1. In the input, click **‘Select Files’**.

   ![](/images/docs/faaaa29329f0f34a38a2.jpeg)

2. In the **‘Select elements’** dialog, choose the source on the left: **‘Your collections’**, **‘Shared with you’** or an integration. Open a folder and tick the files you want. Ticking a collection selects all files in it.

   ![](/images/docs/76a143fb20469446df5d.jpeg)![](/images/docs/aa93c1cff143cccde623.jpeg)

3. Click **‘Select’**. The files are now attached to the chat.

4. Ask your question or describe your task and send the message.

   ![](/images/docs/15655a66161668532791.jpeg)

5. MAIA creates the answer based on the selected documents and shows which passages it comes from.

   ![](/images/docs/1aaa7476acd7eae0629e.jpeg)

**Tip:** You can select and deselect files in the chat at any time, depending on which information MAIA should use.



## The ‘+’ menu

The **‘+’** in the input gives you:

* **‘Upload Files’**: upload files straight into the chat, see [Uploading and creating files in chat](/en/docs/maias-features/upload-and-create-files-in-chat/)
* **‘Prompt Library’**: use saved prompts, see [Prompt Library](/en/docs/maias-features/maia-prompt-library-quickstart/)
* **‘Select All’**: select all files of a source at once
* A switch for **‘Web Search’** ([Web search](/en/docs/maias-features/web-search/))
* A switch for **‘Insight Hub’**, depending on your workspace ([Insight Hub](/en/docs/first-steps-with-maia/share-your-knowledge-with-your-team-insight-hub/))

When web search is on, a globe icon appears on the right below the input.



## Answer settings

The answer settings are shown on the right below the input, for example **‘Auto · Standard · Verify off’**. Click them to set how thoroughly MAIA answers (‘Effort per answer’), whether it checks its statements against your sources (‘Verify answers’) and which AI model it uses. The default is **‘Auto’**: MAIA picks a suitable model for each request. See [Answer settings](/en/docs/maias-features/answer-settings/) and [Model selection](/en/docs/maias-features/model-selection-reference/).



## More chat features

* **Searching chats:** Use the magnifier next to **‘+ New Chat’** to search the titles and content of your chats. Enter at least three characters or a date.
* **Working in the background:** While MAIA creates an answer, you can open another chat or start a new one. The answer keeps running.
* **Quick answer:** You can cut a running research short, see [How MAIA researches](/en/docs/maias-features/how-maia-researches/).
* **Incognito chat:** The hat icon at the top right starts a chat that feeds neither the Insight Hub nor your Personal Memory. You can only change this before you send your first message.
* **Personal settings:** Set how MAIA should answer you under [Personalization](/en/docs/maias-features/personalization-custom-instructions-and-personal-memory/).