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Home/Glossary/Context length

Memory

Context length

What it is

Context length is the maximum number of token positions a serving configuration admits for a sequence. The model-supported limit and the server-configured limit can differ.

Why it moves cost and latency

Longer sequences reserve more KV cache and can reduce the number of requests admitted together. Prompt and generation budgets must fit inside the same configured limit.

What it looks like in practice

Admission logic checks requested tokens against model, server, and available-memory limits. Operators set the limit from validated model behavior and realistic cache headroom.

Related terms

  • Concurrency->
  • Sliding-window attention->
  • Attention sinks->
  • RoPE scaling->
  • Admission control->
  • HBM->

Questions this definition answers

What does Context length mean in inference serving?

Context length is the maximum number of token positions a serving configuration admits for a sequence. The model-supported limit and the server-configured limit can differ. Admission logic checks requested tokens against model, server, and available-memory limits. Operators set the limit from validated model behavior and realistic cache headroom.

Why can Context length move cost or latency?

Longer sequences reserve more KV cache and can reduce the number of requests admitted together. Prompt and generation budgets must fit inside the same configured limit.

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