Reasoning effort

Reasoning models can think for milliseconds or for many seconds. Foundry exposes that choice as a four-level dial in Settings → Reasoning Effort.

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The four levels

The dial applies to every routed reply until you change it.

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What “instant” means

Instant turns reasoning off, even when the routed model is reasoning-capable. The reply behaves like a regular chat completion. The Reasoning block doesn’t render.

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Picking a level

Most people pick Medium and leave it there. Move to High for one-off hard problems, Low when you want speed, Instant when you don’t want any thinking. The footer of every reply tells you which level was used so you can audit cost and latency.

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Limits

• Reasoning Effort only affects reasoning-capable models. If the router picks a non-reasoning model for your prompt, the level is ignored.
• High runs can take 30+ seconds on the hardest prompts. Pair with browser notifications so you don’t sit and watch.

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