Files

Upload a file once, then reference it by id in any chat request. The model reads the file content as context.

Supported files

Files expire 30 days after upload. A single upload body caps at 100 MB, so the 5-minute video limit binds long before any byte count does.

We reject .env, .pem, .p12, .pfx, .cer and .crt with a 422 so credentials do not land in a prompt by accident.

An .pages or .key file saved without a QuickLook preview comes back empty. Export it to PDF and upload that.

PDFs

Talos handles a PDF two ways and picks per file:

• Born-digital PDF, meaning anything with a text layer: an ERP invoice, a Word export, a generated report. Talos extracts the text, up to 200,000 characters, which is roughly 70 to 100 dense pages. Anything past that mark is cut.
• Scan or photo PDF with no text layer: Talos renders the pages to images and sends them to the vision model, which reads them the way it reads a photograph.

Send the same request either way. Talos checks for a text layer and takes the cheaper path when one exists.

Up to 20 pages per document. Talos picks the cheaper of PNG and JPEG for each rendered page, so a grainy flatbed scan costs about as much as a clean one; measured on 20-page A4 scans, both deliver all 20 pages. A size backstop stops the rendering early if the pages together would grow past roughly 32 MB, which realistic documents do not reach.

Very small type on a dense scan can still defeat the vision model. It answers that it found nothing rather than inventing a value.

The choice is per document, not per page. A PDF that mixes typed pages with a scanned annex takes the text path, and the scanned pages never reach the vision model. Split such a file if the scanned part matters.

Upload a file

POST /v1/files takes a multipart form with a single file field. The response is a FileOut object.

curl https://api.ablatic.ai/v1/files \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ABLATIC_API_KEY" \
  -F [email protected]

A FileOut object has these fields:

{
  "id": "file-...",
  "object": "file",
  "filename": "report.pdf",
  "purpose": "...",
  "mime_type": "application/pdf",
  "size": 184320,
  "status": "...",
  "content_kind": "...",
  "token_estimate": 4096,
  "created_at": 1744588800,
  "expires_at": 1747180800
}

Use id as the file_id when you reference the file in a message.

Reference a file in a message

Add a content block of type file to a user message. The file_id is the id from the upload response.

curl https://api.ablatic.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ABLATIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "talos",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Summarize this report." },
          { "type": "file", "file": { "file_id": "file-..." } }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }'

Send a file without uploading

Put the file straight into the message and skip /v1/files. Talos processes it the same way and stores nothing.

curl https://api.ablatic.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ABLATIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "talos",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Summarize this report." },
          {
            "type": "file",
            "file": {
              "filename": "report.pdf",
              "file_data": "data:application/pdf;base64,JVBERi0..."
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }'

The request body caps at 50 MB, and base64 adds about a third, so roughly 37 MB of PDF fits. Upload anything larger and reference it by id.

On /v1/responses the same file goes in as input_file with file_data. On /v1/messages use Anthropic's document block, described in Anthropic Compatibility.

Manage files

GET    /v1/files              list your files
GET    /v1/files/{file_id}    fetch one FileOut object
DELETE /v1/files/{file_id}    delete a file

All four endpoints use key auth.

Limits

• 30 uploads per hour per user.
• 100 files per user.
• Files expire 30 days after upload.
• Per-file limits are in the table above. An upload body caps at 100 MB; an inline file rides the 50 MB request-body cap instead.

Next

• Vision
• Text generation