> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cortex.foundation/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Frequently asked questions

> Short answers about accounts, plans, quotas, privacy, languages and what is not built yet, each pointing at the page that owns it.

These are the questions people ask in their first week with Cortex, answered in a sentence or two.
Every answer links to the page that covers the subject properly, so treat this as a switchboard
rather than a reference.

Where the honest answer is "not yet", it says so. Cortex is in beta, several controls are drawn
before they are wired, and this page would be useless if it papered over that.

## Accounts and access

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Do I need an account to use Cortex?">
    Not for Cortex Chat. A guest can ask questions straight away, within a message allowance shown
    above the composer. Cortex Code, Cortex Bot, Cortex Design, the desktop apps and the Cortex CLI
    all need a signed-in account. See [Accounts and sign-in](/getting-started/accounts).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What happens to my guest chats when I sign in?">
    Signing in does not navigate away, and the conversation on screen is kept. Guest conversations
    otherwise live in the browser session only, so sign in before you close the tab if you want to
    keep them. See [Accounts and sign-in](/getting-started/accounts).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I sign in?">
    In the dialog on `cortex.foundation`, choose **Continue with Google**, **Continue with Apple**,
    **Continue with email** for a code sent to your address, or **Single sign-on (SSO)** if your
    organisation uses one. See [Accounts and sign-in](/getting-started/accounts).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does Cortex Code or Cortex Bot show a dialog instead of opening?">
    Two different gates. **This space is reserved** means you are a guest and these are member
    surfaces, so sign in or continue in Chat. **In closed beta** means you are signed in but not
    yet invited, and only **Continue in Chat** is offered. See
    [Which product do I need?](/getting-started/choose-a-product).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I have to set up two-factor authentication?">
    Only if you want to export or delete your data: both actions require an enrolled authenticator
    app and a recent confirmation. Cortex uses an authenticator app, with no SMS option and no
    security-key option. See [Two-factor authentication](/getting-started/two-factor).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Plans, quotas and billing

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What do the plans cost?">
    Free is $0 a month, Go is $8 a month, Plus is \$20 a month, and Pro is quoted rather than priced
    on the page. A guest has its own allowance while signed out. See
    [Plans and quotas](/getting-started/plans).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What actually counts against my quota?">
    Two windows are enforced: messages today and messages this month. Every turn charges both, and
    whichever runs out first is the one that stops you. Tools, reasoning, web search and code runs
    are not metered on any plan. See [Limits and quotas](/reference/limits).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How many messages do I get?">
    A guest gets 100 a day and 500 a month, Free gets 500 a day and 3,000 a month, Go gets 1,000 a
    day and 8,000 a month, and Plus and Pro have no message ceiling. See
    [Plans and quotas](/getting-started/plans).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does unused allowance roll over?">
    No. Each window starts from zero when it rolls over, and a guest allowance does not carry into
    the Free plan when you sign in. See [Plans and quotas](/getting-started/plans).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What do I see when I run out?">
    A **Plan limit reached** notice saying you have used everything this plan allows in the current
    window, with a **Resets in** line and, sometimes, the offer of a model that is still available
    under the limit. It fails closed rather than quietly degrading the answer. See
    [quota\_exceeded](/problems/quota_exceeded).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I change plan or pay in the product?">
    Not on this deployment. The plan cards are there and comparable, but the action carries a
    **HOLD** badge instead of a payment form, and **Billing history** always reads that there are no
    invoices yet. See [Plans and quotas](/getting-started/plans).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Privacy and your data

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Are my conversations used to train models?">
    No. The **Improve the model** control is off, and it is not available yet in any case, so
    nothing is sampled for training without it. See
    [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I get a copy of everything?">
    Yes, from **Settings** and then **Data & privacy**, under **Your data**. **Export my data**
    downloads a JSON file with your account details, conversation metadata, memories and Library
    file metadata. It does not contain message bodies or the file bytes themselves, and it needs an
    authenticator confirmation. See [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I delete my account for good?">
    Yes. **Delete all data** schedules a real erasure of your account, conversations, memories,
    files, bots and canvases after a 30-day grace period. Signing in again before that runs cancels
    the request; afterwards nothing can be restored. See
    [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What does Cortex remember between chats?">
    Standing preferences and facts you share, kept as memory so answers get more personal. You can
    search, edit and delete individual memories, set how long they are kept, or turn memory off
    entirely. Temporary chats never read or write memory. See [Memory](/chat/memory).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does Cortex honour a Global Privacy Control signal?">
    Yes. If your browser sends one, optional analytics stay off, the banner confirms the signal was
    honoured instead of asking again, and the signal wins over an "allow" sent from the page. See
    [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Using the product

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Which models can I use?">
    Three are public: **Cortex 1 Mini**, **Cortex Teutonic-1**, and **Cortex-Image-1** for images in
    Chat. All three are marked preview, and all three are available from the Free plan upwards.
    No model is behind a paid plan today, and Cortex does not quietly answer with a different model
    from the one you chose, because no fallback is configured. See [Models](/reference/models).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I use Cortex in my language?">
    The interface comes in eight languages, chosen under **Settings** and then **General**. English
    is unprefixed and every other language is a URL prefix. Model prompts stay in English and the
    product names are never translated. See [Interface language](/getting-started/language).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where are the settings?">
    Settings is an overlay, not a page: it opens over Chat, Code or Bot and closing it returns you
    to exactly where you were. Seven tabs sit in two groups, and the search field at the top of the
    rail searches rows across every tab. See [Settings](/getting-started/settings).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What are the keyboard shortcuts?">
    Press `⌘ /`, or `Ctrl /`, for the in-product sheet. The published set is short on purpose. See
    [Keyboard shortcuts](/getting-started/keyboard-shortcuts).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I know whether Cortex is down?">
    Check [System status](/reference/status). If everything fails at once rather than one action,
    look there before filing anything.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I report a bug?">
    From inside the product: the **Report a bug** control beside **Settings**, or the row in
    **Settings** and then **General**. It needs an account. See
    [Report a bug](/getting-started/report-a-bug).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Not available yet

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can I invite my team or share a workspace?">
    Not yet. Cortex is per account today: there are no invitations and no shared workspace, and the
    role and directory rows in Settings describe an organisation you cannot create yet.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I get an API key and call Cortex from my own code?">
    Not yet. The **API keys** section is reserved rather than live, and create, rotate and revoke
    stay disabled. See [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I use a passkey, or keep recovery codes?">
    Not on this deployment. Both controls are drawn and both say so when you choose them, so an
    authenticator app is the only second factor today. See
    [Two-factor authentication](/getting-started/two-factor).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I stop Cortex keeping my chat history?">
    Not yet. **Save chat history** is on and cannot be changed, and it is marked as coming soon. You
    can still delete individual chats, or everything, at any time. See
    [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is Cortex certified against SOC 2, GDPR or HIPAA?">
    No, and Cortex does not claim to be. The **Compliance** section lists each framework's real
    status, and product copy never claims a certification until an attestation exists. See
    [Security and privacy](/reference/security-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why is my account activity list empty?">
    The events are recorded, but on some deployments the list cannot be read back yet, and it says
    so rather than showing you an empty table as though nothing happened. See
    [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart) for a first answer in a few minutes.
* [Which product do I need?](/getting-started/choose-a-product) for picking a surface.
* [Plans and quotas](/getting-started/plans) for the ladder and the windows.
* [Troubleshooting](/getting-started/troubleshooting) for what a message means.
* [Glossary](/getting-started/glossary) for the words this site uses.