Boxes vs. chat folders: which to use
Goal
Pick the right place for your chats: a chat folder, a Box, or a classroom assignment.
The short answer
Use a folder to sort your own chats. It's a label for your sidebar, not a shared space.
Use a Box when a group is working toward one goal over time and every chat should know the same background.
Use a classroom assignment when students are submitting work you'll review or grade.
Side by side
| Chat folder | Box | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Keeping your own chats tidy | A team, course or project working together |
| Who can read the chats | Decided chat by chat. Sharing a folder does not share the chats inside it. | Everyone in the Box can open every chat in it. |
| Shared instructions | No | Yes. Box Instructions apply to every chat. |
| Shared files | No. Each chat has its own files. | Yes. Box Knowledge is attached to every chat automatically. |
| Chats learn from each other | No | Yes. Each chat can draw on what's been said in the Box's other chats. |
| Memory Mode | Available | Not offered. The Box's other chats do that job. |
| Folders inside | Folders can hold other folders. | One level of folders for now. |
| Folder Stats | Yes | No |
Choose a folder when
The chats are just for you, or you share them one at a time.
You don't need every chat to follow the same instructions or use the same files.
You want Folder Stats to keep an eye on a set of chats.
See How to create and share a chat folder.
Choose a Box when
Several people need to see and work on the same chats without sharing each one.
You keep re-explaining the same project, audience or rules to the AI.
Everyone should work from the same files, like a syllabus, a rubric or an SOP.
See What is a Box? and How to create a Box.
Choose a classroom assignment when
Students are doing work you need to collect, review or grade. Boxes don't have grading, submissions or sandboxing. See How to create a class and an assignment and How group assignments work.
Before you move chats into a Box
Everyone in the Box will be able to read the chat, including everything already in it. Keep anything personal in a regular chat.
Only a chat's owner can move it. Open the chat's menu and choose Move to Box, one chat at a time. See How to organize a Box.
Once it's in the Box, the chat follows the Box's instructions and uses Box Knowledge instead of your starred Knowledge Bank files.
You don't have to move anything. Folders keep working as they always have.
Still stuck?
Reach out through our contact form and we'll get back to you.