Your first chat
This page takes you from a signed-out browser to your first answer.
Create an account
Section titled “Create an account”Go to app.cochat.ai. You can sign up with one of the providers shown at the top of the page (Google, Microsoft, GitHub) or with a name, email address and password.
If you arrived through an invite link, only Google sign-in is offered.
Already have an account? Use Sign in at the bottom of the form. If you’ve forgotten your password, Forgot password? sits under the password field.
Tell CoChat what you’re here for
Section titled “Tell CoChat what you’re here for”The first time you sign in, CoChat asks “What brings you to CoChat?” and offers five answers:
| Pick this | If you’re… |
|---|---|
| Research & Education | studying, doing research, or teaching |
| Business | working on strategy, marketing, content, or running a business |
| Creative | writing stories, songs, scripts, or generating image and video ideas |
| Code & Technical | building something — coding, debugging, architecture, or data work |
| Personal | after advice, recipes, home projects, or something else personal |
Your choice shapes the suggestions you see. You can also choose Skip and Explore. To change your answer later, click the progress bar at the bottom of the sidebar.
Your first few chats
Section titled “Your first few chats”While you’re getting started, the bottom of the sidebar shows a progress bar counting your chats (for example 3 / 8 chats). When you reach the target, a “You’re on a roll!” message appears with a few suggestions: finish onboarding, invite friends, or import chats from another tool. The bar disappears once you’re past it.
The home page
Section titled “The home page”Every new chat starts on the home page. You’ll see a greeting, the message box, and a few suggested prompts. Click a suggestion to send it, or type your own.
Temporary Chat, top right, starts a conversation that isn’t saved to your history.
Choose a model
Section titled “Choose a model”The model name at the right of the message box opens the model picker. Inside:
- Search — start typing anywhere in the picker to filter the list.
- Categories — chips such as recent, My Assistants, popular, free, top and all. Recent holds the models you’ve pinned plus the ones from your latest chats.
- Info — hover a model for its description and, where relevant, its pricing per million tokens.
- ⋯ on a row — Set as default (so new chats start with it) or Keep in Sidebar.
Some models are marked with a lock. They’re available on paid plans — hover the lock to see why it’s locked for you.
Compare models
Section titled “Compare models”Tick the checkboxes next to up to three models and click Compare models. Each one answers your message side by side.
Send a message
Section titled “Send a message”Type in the box (“How can I help you today?”) and press Enter or click the arrow. Shift+Enter adds a new line without sending.
The reply streams in directly below your message. If the assistant builds something bigger than a text reply — a document, a board, a chart — it appears as a card in the reply and opens in a panel on the right. That’s an artifact. You can reopen the panel any time from the cube icon in the chat header.
The sidebar
Section titled “The sidebar”From top to bottom:
- Home, Search chats (⌘K) and New Chat
- Assistants — the custom assistants you’ve created
- Integrations and Skills — connected services and the abilities the assistant can use
- Artifacts — everything the assistant has built for you
- Library — your research papers
- Pinned, Projects, Group Chats and My Chats — your conversations
Drag the sidebar’s edge to resize it, or collapse it to a narrow rail with ⌘⇧S. On the rail, hover the CoChat logo to open it again.