# User Profile Picture

Upload a photo for your account so your teammates and AI employees see a real picture of you instead of initials. It shows up in chat, comments, and the collaborator list across every workspace you belong to. If you signed up with Google or Microsoft, your picture is pulled in automatically the first time you sign in, and you can replace it any time.

Your profile picture is a personal setting, not a workspace setting. It lives on your account, not on any single workspace, so the same photo follows you into every workspace you are a collaborator in. Open it from the profile icon in the top-right corner of the app, then Profile.

Uploading a picture works the same way everywhere it appears: pick a JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP file up to 5 MB, and Sistava stores the original plus a 128x128 thumbnail used for avatars in chat, comment threads, the collaborator list, and activity history. Changing your picture replaces both files immediately; the previous image is not kept.

The difference from most account settings is that this one can also be set for you. If you sign up or sign in with Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft, Sistava fetches your existing account photo the first time you connect and uses it as your starting picture, so a new collaborator does not land in a workspace with a blank initial. You can still upload your own picture afterward, and a manual upload always takes priority over anything pulled from OAuth.

Every change to your name or your picture is recorded in your account's change history, the same history panel that tracks your display name and notification preferences, so you and any workspace Owner or Admin reviewing activity can see when a picture was added or changed.

This is your face, not your employee's. Every AI employee you hire already has its own portrait, and changing yours never touches theirs. The two sit side by side in a chat thread on purpose: your picture marks the messages you wrote, and the employee's marks the ones it wrote, which is what makes a long thread readable months later when you are trying to remember who said what.

Size is worth a moment's thought, and then no more. Sistava keeps the file you uploaded and generates a small square thumbnail from it, and that thumbnail is what actually renders in chat, comment threads, and the collaborator list. Uploading an enormous photo therefore buys you nothing, and a clear, well-lit, roughly square headshot reads far better at that size than a full body shot that shrinks into an unidentifiable smudge.

There is one current picture and no photo library behind it. Uploading a new one replaces the stored original and the thumbnail together and removes the old files, so there is no gallery of past pictures to tidy up and no way to roll back to one you replaced. Keep a copy of anything you might want again.

## Where Your Picture Shows Up

Your profile picture appears anywhere the platform identifies you as a person: chat messages you send to an AI employee, comment threads and @mentions on tasks and files, the collaborator list under Settings > Organizations > Members, and pending-invite and role screens where Owners and Admins manage access.

Because the picture is tied to your account rather than to a workspace, switching workspaces never changes how you look to other people. The same photo follows you whether you are acting as an Owner in one workspace or a Collaborator in another.

## Automatic Pictures From Google And Microsoft

Signing in with Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft brings over the profile photo already attached to that account the first time you connect, so you are not left with a blank avatar before you get around to uploading one yourself.

This only happens once, on first connection, and only for accounts on an allowed Google image domain, so a stale or unrelated photo cannot slip in through a spoofed link. From that point on, the picture is yours to manage: upload a different one whenever you want, and the manual upload always overrides whatever was pulled in automatically.

## Your Picture, Not Your Employee's

Two kinds of face appear in a Sistava workspace and they are managed in completely different places. Each AI employee carries its own portrait, which comes with the employee. Yours lives on your account and is set from your Profile page. Changing one has no effect at all on the other.

That separation is what makes a chat thread readable. Your photo marks the messages you wrote and the employee's marks the ones it wrote, so scrolling back through a long conversation, or through the comments on a task several people touched, you can tell at a glance who said what without reading names.

## How It Works

**One picture, synced to your account and shown everywhere you show up**

The picture is stored once on your user account, not duplicated per workspace. Sistava keeps two versions: the original file you uploaded and a 128x128 thumbnail generated from it. The thumbnail is what actually renders in most places, chat avatars, comment threads, the collaborator list, so it stays sharp and loads fast regardless of how large the original file was.

Uploads are validated before they are accepted: only JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP files are allowed, and the file must be 5 MB or smaller. A file that fails either check is rejected with a clear error instead of being silently resized or dropped.

If you already had a picture and upload a new one, Sistava replaces both the stored original and the thumbnail and removes the old files. There is no separate photo library or history of past pictures, only the current one.

## Use Cases

### Make Yourself Recognizable In Chat

Upload a real photo so your messages to AI employees and your comments on shared tasks and files show a picture instead of a generic initial, making conversations easier to scan at a glance.

### Skip Setup After Google Or Microsoft Sign-In

Sign up with Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft and your existing account photo is pulled in automatically, so new collaborators show a real picture from their very first login without any extra step.

### Keep One Identity Across Every Workspace

Update your picture once from Profile and it follows you into every workspace you are a collaborator in, so you never have to re-upload it after switching workspaces or joining a new one.

### Help Owners Tell Collaborators Apart

A distinct photo per person makes the Settings > Organizations > Members list, role screens, and pending invitations easier for an Owner or Admin to scan when managing a workspace with several collaborators.

## Comparison

| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Everyone in the workspace shows as the same grey initial, so telling people apart means reading email addresses down a list. | Real faces make the members list, comment threads, and role screens scannable in one pass. |
| You upload your photo again for every workspace you join, and end up looking different in each one. | It is stored on your account, so one upload follows you into every workspace you belong to. |
| A new collaborator's first day is spent as a blank avatar because setting a picture is never the urgent thing. | Signing in with Google or Microsoft brings their existing photo across on the first connection, with no step to remember. |
| A large photo file is loaded at full size everywhere it appears, and small avatars are the last thing you want slowing a page down. | A small square thumbnail is generated at upload and is what actually renders in chat, comments, and lists. |

## FAQ

### Where do I change my profile picture?

Click the profile icon in the top-right corner of the app, choose Profile, and use the profile picture control there. It is an account-level setting, so it is the same page regardless of which workspace you currently have open.

### What file types and sizes are allowed?

JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP files up to 5 MB. Anything larger or in a different format is rejected with an error message and your existing picture stays in place until a valid file is uploaded.

### Does my profile picture change per workspace?

No. It is stored on your user account, not on any individual workspace, so the same picture shows up for you in every workspace you belong to. Switching workspaces changes your employees, billing, and settings, but never your picture.

### Why do I already have a picture if I never uploaded one?

If you signed up or signed in with Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft, Sistava used the photo already on that account the first time you connected. You can replace it with your own upload at any time, and a manual upload always takes priority going forward.

### Can teammates see who changed my picture and when?

Changes to your name and profile picture are recorded in your account's change history alongside your other profile fields, so the timing of an update is visible to anyone with access to review that history.

### Does changing my profile picture also change my AI employee's picture?

No. Your profile picture is yours alone. Each AI employee has its own portrait that comes with the employee, and the two are managed separately, so updating yours leaves every employee's face exactly as it was.

### Do I need to crop or resize my photo before I upload it?

No. Sistava generates a small square thumbnail from whatever you upload, and that thumbnail is what renders in chat, comments, and the members list. A clear head-and-shoulders shot reads best at that size, but you do not have to prepare the file yourself.

### Can I get my old profile picture back after I replace it?

No. Uploading a new picture replaces the stored file and its thumbnail and removes the previous ones. There is no gallery of past pictures, so keep your own copy of anything you might want to use again.

## Where User Profile Picture fits

User Profile Picture is part of How you run the account itself.

Sign in the way your company already does, decide who can do what, and keep the money side legible. Credits, plans, invoices, referrals, and the controls that decide who reaches which part of the workspace.

- [How you run the account itself](/en/features/account): Your workspace, your money, your people.

## Read the guide

- [Guide: User Profile Picture](/en/guide/account/organization)

## More in Account & Billing

- [Monthly Credits](/en/features/account/monthly_credits): Every paid plan comes with a pool of credits that refills automatically at the start of each billing period. Credits are the single unit that pays for everything your AI employees do: thinking, tool calls, media generation, voice, and meetings. There is nothing to top up manually each month; your allowance is just there again when the new period starts.
- [Lifetime Credits (Free)](/en/features/account/lifetime_credits_free): Pick the Free plan and your workspace gets 2,000 credits in one grant, no card required. Those credits never reset and never expire; you spend them at your own pace across chat, tools, and media generation until they run out. It is a one-time bucket, not a monthly allowance, so it is meant for trying the platform before you commit to a paid plan.
- [Buy Credits](/en/features/account/credit_packs): Add credits to your workspace balance any time, on any plan, without changing your subscription. Pick from three one-time packs, pay by card through Stripe, and the credits land in your balance as soon as the payment clears.
- [Upgrade & Downgrade](/en/features/account/plan_upgrade_downgrade): Move to a bigger plan the moment you need more credits or a higher employee cap, and the change takes effect immediately. Move to a smaller plan when you need less, and it takes effect at the end of your current billing period so you keep what you already paid for. Both happen from Settings, Subscription, no support ticket required.
- [Promo Codes](/en/features/account/promo_codes): Redeem a promotional code for a one-time, lifetime grant of bonus credits on top of your plan's monthly allowance. Enter a code at signup or any time afterward from Settings, Subscription, Get Free Credits. Each grant shows up in your Credit Grants history with its source, date, and amount, and one code can be redeemed once per workspace.
- [Referrals](/en/features/account/referral_program): Share your personal referral link or invite someone by email, and you both get 1,000 free credits the moment they sign up. Track every invite from a dedicated Earn Credits page, and keep earning until you hit the 10-referral cap.
- [Data Retention](/en/features/account/data_retention): Sistava deletes operational data on a fixed schedule instead of keeping it forever by default. A cleanup job runs every day and removes rows past their retention window: short-lived debug data within a week or two, working memory after 30 days of inactivity, and usage and activity history after two years. Chat messages, documents your employees write, and persistent notes are kept indefinitely unless you delete them yourself. There is no setting to change these windows; they apply the same way to every workspace.
- [Google Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_google): Sign in to Sistava with your Google account instead of creating a separate password. Choose Sign up with Google on the signup page and your workspace is ready after one approval, with your name and photo carried over automatically from Google. Because Google has already confirmed your email address, there is no verification email to chase before your AI employees can start working.
- [Microsoft Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_microsoft): Sign up or sign in with your Microsoft account instead of creating a password. Sistava reads your Microsoft account's name, email, and profile photo to set up your account, and your Profile page shows Microsoft as your connected sign-in method. Because Microsoft has already confirmed the address belongs to you, the account counts as verified from the start and your employees can begin working straight away. Google sign-in and an ordinary email and password are the other two ways in.
- [Workspace Roles](/en/features/account/tenant_roles): Every workspace you create has an Owner, Admin, and Collaborator role, each with a fixed set of permissions over billing, the collaborator roster, and resource access. Owners can grant a non-owner collaborator extra access, or take some away, without changing their overall role. A Roles page shows your own effective access and the full permission matrix so nobody has to guess what they can do.
- [Two-Factor Authentication](/en/features/account/two_factor_auth): Add a second sign-in step to your Sistava account using any TOTP authenticator app, like Google Authenticator or Authy. Once enabled, a code from your app is required in addition to your password, so a leaked or guessed password alone is not enough to get in. Turning it on immediately signs out every other active session, so a session created before you enabled it cannot be used to bypass it.
- [Feedback Board](/en/features/account/feedback_board): Submit bug reports, feature requests, improvements, and questions from inside the app, then vote on what other users have asked for. Every item lands on one Community Board visible to the whole platform, sorted by vote count, so the most-wanted ideas surface for the team automatically.

## Explore

- [Every feature](/en/features)
- [Hire an AI employee](/en/market)
- [Pricing](/en/pricing)