Glossary
Memory
Memory — Any mechanism that carries information from earlier in a relationship into a later reply, beyond what is currently visible in the conversation.
In more detail
Memory in companion products covers two mechanisms that behave differently. Short-term memory is just the context window: recent conversation the model can still see. Long-term memory is extracted information written to durable storage and reinserted when relevant.
The second kind is what most people mean and is considerably harder. It requires deciding what is worth keeping, storing it in a form that can be retrieved later, resolving contradictions when facts change, and fitting the result back into a limited context budget.
Failures are predictable. Details mentioned once in passing get missed. Superseded facts persist alongside their replacements. Emotional context is recalled as a label rather than as a reason. None of this is announced to the user, which is why it reads as the character simply forgetting.
Because memory costs money on every message, it is commonly capped or reserved for paid tiers.