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Context length is the maximum number of tokens that the model has access to in memory.
The default context length in Ollama is 4096 tokens.
Tasks which require large context like web search, agents, and coding tools should be set to at least 32000 tokens.

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Setting context length

Setting a larger context length will increase the amount of memory required to run a model. Ensure you have enough VRAM available to increase the context length. Cloud models are set to their maximum context length by default.

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App

Change the slider in the Ollama app under settings to your desired context length. Context length in Ollama app

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CLI

If editing the context length for Ollama is not possible, the context length can also be updated when serving Ollama. 
OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=32000 ollama serve

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Check allocated context length and model offloading

For best performance, use the maximum context length for a model, and avoid offloading the model to CPU. Verify the split under PROCESSOR using ollama ps. 
ollama ps

NAME             ID              SIZE      PROCESSOR    CONTEXT    UNTIL
gemma3:latest    a2af6cc3eb7f    6.6 GB    100% GPU     65536      2 minutes from now