> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.octen.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Multimodal Chat

<p style={{ fontSize: "0.8rem", opacity: 0.6 }}>For AI agents: <a href="https://docs.octen.ai/capabilities/multimodal-chat.md">docs.octen.ai/capabilities/multimodal-chat.md</a></p>

Some questions are best answered with more than words: what something looks like, how a step is performed, how two designs differ. A text-only chat can only describe what it should show.

Octen Multimodal Chat answers with the web itself: it runs multimodal search first, then replies with text, images, and videos interleaved in one response, grounded in what the search found.

<Note>
  In invite-only beta. Email [support@octen.ai](mailto:support@octen.ai) to request access.
</Note>

## Why Multimodal Chat

* **Answers that show.** Replies carry the images and videos that answer the question, not just a description of them.
* **Real, current media.** Every image and video comes from live multimodal search, so replies stay grounded in real, up-to-date sources.
* **Rich chat experiences.** Build assistants whose replies read like illustrated articles: text interleaved with the media that supports it.

## How It Works

1. Send a question or a conversation.
2. Octen runs multimodal search across the web and retrieves relevant text, images, and videos.
3. The reply comes back as interleaved text, images, and videos, grounded in the retrieved results.

## Scenarios

### Visual Q\&A

Questions whose answers are visual: what a landmark looks like, how a knot is tied, how two products differ. The reply shows the answer instead of describing it.

### Rich chat experiences

Assistants and consumer apps whose replies read like illustrated articles, with explanations and supporting images and videos woven together.

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Request Access" icon="envelope" href="mailto:support@octen.ai">
    Email [support@octen.ai](mailto:support@octen.ai) to join the invite-only beta.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Try in Console" icon="play" href="https://octen.ai/platform/multimodal-chat">
    Run Multimodal Chat live in the Octen console.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>