---
title: "Quote a passage"
description: "Select a passage in an AI response and ask about just that part — the highlighted text travels along as a quote in your next message."
canonical_url: "https://meingpt.com/en/docs/platform/chats/textstelle-zitieren"
language: en
---

# Quote a passage

When a response is long, "Ask about this" lets you refer to a single passage instead of retyping or paraphrasing it. You highlight the passage, ask your question, and the model knows which part you mean.

## How it works

Use your mouse or a finger to select a passage inside an AI response. The **Ask about this** button appears right at the selection.

The selected passage is added as a quote at the top of the message box. While a passage is selected, the same action also appears as a quote icon in the action row below the response — that icon is the one you can reach by keyboard.

Type your follow-up below the quote and send it. The passage is prepended to your message as a quote, so the model knows what it refers to.

Remove the quote with the **×** next to it (**Remove quote**). It disappears automatically once you send, and when you leave the chat. Changed your mind about asking? `Esc` hides the button again.

## What can be quoted

- **AI responses only.** The button does not appear in your own messages.
- **Within a single response only.** If your selection spans two responses, no button appears. Select them one after another instead.
- **No model internals.** Thinking-time labels, reasoning steps and tool calls cannot be quoted. If your selection crosses such a block, only that block drops out of the quote — the rest is kept.
- **Very long selections are shortened.** A quote is meant to hold around 2,000 characters. To refer to a whole response you need no quote at all — the model already knows the chat history.

The quote is part of your message and therefore counts towards what the request consumes. For a short passage that barely matters; for a very long quote it does — see [Credits](/en/docs/platform/credits).

## When a quote is worth it

- A single statement in a long response needs a source or an explanation.
- One paragraph should be rewritten, but the rest of the response should not.
- A number or a term looks wrong and you want to follow up on it specifically.

If you want to rewrite the **whole** response instead — shorter, more detailed, more formal — the [Quick Actions](/en/docs/platform/chats/quick-actions) below the response are the faster route.