Model Settings

Every model carries its own controls, and Big-AGI shows exactly the ones that model accepts - more than 40 parameters in total. Per-model control is one of the best parts of the application, it is available in Open, and, according to our users, it is head and shoulders above the market: big-agi.com/controls.

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + Shift + O	Current Model Options - the options of the model in use
Ctrl + Shift + M	the Models dialog - change the options of any model

Model settings live in the model options dialog, in the right-hand panel of the chat, and in a persona's model configuration. They layer: the persona overrides the model's global parameters, and the request overrides both.

Native search

Native search is the preferred route to the web: the model finds pages and reads their content at the AI service. The major services run it natively.

Anthropic adds dynamic filtering: fewer tokens spent, more precise results. Forcing search on or off per message is the search control in the composer.

The controls

Control	Range	Notes
Temperature	0.0 - 2.0	unset: behaves as 0.5
Effort	low · medium · high · xhigh · max	unset: high
Thinking Level	minimal · low · medium · high	unset: the model picks per prompt
Reasoning Effort	none · minimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max
Thinking	none · low · high · max
Verbosity	Detailed · Good · Brief	the full editor spells Good as Balanced
Maximum Tokens	256 to the model's own maximum, step 256	unset: behaves as 8192
Disable Streaming	on / off	unset: streaming stays on
vendor extras	cache breakpoints · code sandboxes · document skills · dynamic filtering · fast mode at a price multiplier · image generation options · a longer context window · thinking budgets

Those four names are one concept under four vendor labels; a model may offer only part of its range. Untouched, Effort already sits at high and Thinking Level lets the model pick per prompt, so on routine work the useful move is down.

Setting	What it changes
Temperature	How far the model strays from its most likely wording.
Effort / Thinking Level / Reasoning Effort / Thinking	How much the model works before it answers. Raising it costs latency and thinking tokens.
Verbosity	Length and thoroughness of the reply, not its quality.
Maximum Tokens	The limit on one reply.
Disable Streaming	Waits for the whole reply instead of showing it as it arrives.

The Temperature slider names itself as you drag:

Temperature	The slider reads
< 0.33	More strict
0.33 - 0.67	Creativity
> 0.67	Larger freedom
> 1	Extra hot ♨️ - past the top of the normal range

Which setting to change

Symptom	Setting
The answer stops mid-sentence	Maximum Tokens
Repetitive, or three retries produce the same text	Temperature up
Invented specifics, or anything you will diff	Temperature down
Three paragraphs where you wanted one line	Verbosity Brief
You want the working on the record	Verbosity Detailed
Shallow on a problem with steps	the effort control up - or a reasoning model, above
Slow and costly on routine work	the effort control down
Streamed replies arrive mangled	Disable Streaming
It keeps searching the web	the search control in the composer

Which level wins

Level	What it holds
per-conversation override	composer, this thread only - the one you have is the search control
persona configuration	replaces your model settings outright, in that persona's chats
your model options	what you set, on that model
the model's factory value	shipped with the model entry
built-in fallback	8192 maximum tokens, temperature 0.5

Top of that list beats everything below it. While an override is on, the panel shows the values it forces and locks the controls it touches.

Settings belong to the model you set them on: switch models and you get that model's own order, not a translation. Ctrl + L makes that switch mid-thread - the history continues, and the label above the chat changes to the model you picked. A persona that locked a model overrides the dropdown (what a persona is).

Why a control is missing or greyed out

Four mechanisms, four fixes.

What you see	Why	What to do
The control is not there at all	That model never declared it. Every extended setting is opt-in per model.	Nothing to fix - use a model that offers it.
The dropdown has fewer options than you remember	The model supports only part of its vendor's range.	Pick from what is offered.
Temperature is disabled and reads Unsupported	The model rejects temperature outright.	On OpenAI reasoning models, setting Reasoning Effort to none re-enables it.
Temperature greys out the moment you enable extended thinking	Extended thinking disables temperature at the vendor, so both surfaces disable it - including through an aggregator.	Turn thinking off to get temperature back.

A control you have never touched reads Default - the model's own factory value is in force. The label changing is how you confirm your value took.

Related

• What a persona is
• Context windows, upload caps, and timeouts
• Stalled or truncated answers