Uploading Documents
Upload files to My Documents, your personal document library. Once a file is there, you can open it, download it, and ask the AI about it in chat.
My Documents is always personal. Everything you upload here belongs to you alone — there is no access level to choose and no step where you decide who else can see it. If you need to share files with your team or department, use the Knowledge Base instead.
Where to Upload
- Open the sidebar.
- Under Workspace, click My Documents.
The page opens with the heading My Documents and the subtitle "Your personal documents for AI conversations". The Upload button sits in the top-right of the page header.
Two Ways to Upload
There is a single Upload button, and there is drag and drop. Both do the same thing.
| Method | How | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Upload button | Click Upload in the page header, then pick your file(s) in your computer's file picker | Choosing files from a specific folder |
| Drag and drop | Drag files from your computer straight onto the My Documents page | Files already visible on your desktop or in a folder window |
When you drag files over the page, a full-page overlay appears reading "Drop files to upload". Release the files anywhere on the page to start.
:::info There is no separate "Bulk Upload" button You do not switch modes to upload several files. The single Upload button handles both cases: pick one file and it uploads on its own, pick several and Arketic automatically uploads them together as a batch. Drag and drop works exactly the same way. :::
Uploading One File
- Click Upload (or drag the file onto the page).
- Select the file and confirm in your file picker.
- The Upload button itself turns into a progress bar and shows the percentage — for example
42%— while the file is going up.
While the upload runs, the button shows a spinner and cannot be clicked again. When it finishes, a message confirms the file was uploaded successfully, and the file appears in your document grid.
Uploading Several Files at Once
- Click Upload (or drag the files onto the page).
- In the file picker, select more than one file — hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) while clicking, or drag a selection box around them.
- Confirm. Arketic detects that you picked more than one file and starts a batch automatically.
A progress window appears and stays on screen until the batch is done.
The batch progress window
| Stage | What you see |
|---|---|
| While uploading | Title "Uploading...", a spinner, the text "Uploading N files..." and a running count such as "3/8 processed" |
| Stopping early | A Cancel Upload button below the spinner |
| When finished | Title "Upload Complete" with a result icon: green check if every file succeeded, red X if all failed, amber if some succeeded and some did not |
| Result line | "N files uploaded successfully", "Failed to upload N files", or "N uploaded, N failed" |
| Closing | A Close button dismisses the window |
A short notification also appears in the corner summarising the result, such as "5 file(s) uploaded successfully" or "Upload complete: 4 succeeded, 1 failed".
The progress window stays open until the batch finishes; you can watch the running count and close it when it is done.
Cancelling a batch
Click Cancel Upload while the batch is still running to stop it. Files that already finished stay in your library; the remaining ones are not uploaded.
When Some Files Fail
If part of a batch does not go through, the finished window shows a Failed files: list. Each line gives the file name and a short reason.
| Reason shown | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Already uploaded | You have already uploaded a file with exactly this content | Nothing — the existing copy is already in your library |
| Storage limit reached | Your plan's document allowance is full | Delete documents you no longer need, or ask your administrator about upgrading |
| Unsupported file type | This kind of file cannot be added to My Documents | Check Supported Formats and convert the file if needed |
| File too large | The file is over the size limit | Compress it, or split it into smaller files |
The files that did succeed are already in your library — you only need to retry the failed ones.
Upload Limits
| Limit | Detail |
|---|---|
| File size | Up to 50 MB per file |
| Files per batch | Up to 20 files in one go. If you select more, you'll see "Maximum 20 files allowed" |
| Empty files | A file with no content is rejected — choose a file that actually has something in it |
| Duplicates | Uploading a file whose content is already in your library is rejected with "This file has already been uploaded." This check only looks at your documents |
| Plan allowance | When your plan's document allowance is full, uploads stop with "Document limit reached for your plan. Please upgrade to upload more documents." |
| How often | There is an hourly limit on how many uploads you can start. If you hit it, wait a while and try again |
The duplicate check compares file contents, not file names. Renaming a file you already uploaded will not let you upload it a second time.
What Happens After Upload
Arketic reads the text out of your file automatically, so that you and the AI can find and use it later.
- Small files are ready within seconds.
- Larger files finish processing in the background — you can carry on working while that happens.
- Images have their text read automatically too, so words inside a photo or a scan become searchable. Occasionally this step is skipped if the service that reads image text is briefly unavailable; the file itself still uploads fine.
Once a document is in your library, you can open a preview, download it, or delete it. See Managing Documents.
Tips
- Upload before you chat. If you want the AI to work from a document, put it in My Documents first, then ask about it in a conversation.
- Use descriptive file names.
Q3-Marketing-Budget-2025.pdfis far easier to find later thanreport-final-v2.pdf. Search in My Documents matches file names. - Group your batches. Uploading related files together makes the progress window easier to read and any failures easier to spot.
- Check the format first. A quick look at Supported Formats saves you an "Unsupported file type" message.
- For a one-off question, you can attach a file directly to a chat instead of uploading it here — see Attachments.
Related Pages
- Supported Formats — what you can upload
- Managing Documents — search, preview, download, delete
- Knowledge Base — sharing documents with your team or department
- Attachments — sending a file straight into a conversation