28 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level

ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other tools like them are making artificial intelligence available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These chatbots can compose sonnets, write code, get philosophical, and automate tasks.

However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you, there are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This “prompt engineering” is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

Sometimes all it takes is the addition of a few more words or an extra line of instruction and you can get ChatGPT responses that are a level above what everyone else is seeing—and we've included several examples below.

While there's lots you can do with the free version of ChatGPT, a few of these prompts require a paid ChatGPT Plus subscription. Where that's the case, we've noted it in the tip.

Get ChatGPT to Critique Your Ideas Like Your Kid Would

We know that AI chatbots can be obsequious and sycophantic at times, but a little prompt engineering can stop that: Tell ChatGPT to act like a curious, inquisitive 10-year-old who wants to help and has a lot of questions, then get the AI to offer feedback on whatever you're discussing.

Whether you're trying to plan a vacation or a side hustle with AI, this childlike interrogation will quickly help you spot weak points and potential problems, rather than simply saying everything you suggest sounds great. It'll often throw up questions you wouldn't have otherwise thought of.

Use Your Phone Camera for Prompting Help

If you're using the ChatGPT app on a phone, you can utilize the device camera and include snapped photos as part of your prompt. Some examples might be “How tall is this landmark,” “What type of insect is this,” or “What does this sign say in English?” Just tap the + (plus) button on the prompt box, then Camera to send photos with your prompt.

Ask for the 80-20

ChatGPT can be a useful learning resource for just about any topic—as long as it has devoured enough training data on it—but it can tend to return an overwhelming amount of information on occasion. One way to make it more efficient is to use the “80-20 rule” in your prompt.

Known as the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule posits that 20 percent of the work results in 80 percent of the outcome. In ChatGPT world, that means you can learn 80 percent of a topic from 20 percent of the key information about it.

The next time you need to brush up on something through AI, try asking ChatGPT for “the 80-20 on …” whatever it happens to be. It should get you up to speed quickly on historical periods, bands, scientific concepts, movies, and more.

Get ChatGPT to Improve on Your Doodles

As well as generating AI images from scratch, ChatGPT will happily remix existing pictures too. Tap or click the + (plus) button on the prompt box, then pick Add photos & files (desktop) or Files (mobile) to select one or more existing images. You can then use the prompt itself to explain what you want next.

You could get your scribbled doodles turned into photorealistic images, for example, but that's just one idea. You can turn a family portrait into a claymation style, or upload photos of your pet dog and a tropical background and get them combined. ChatGPT will tackle just about any image challenge you can think of, and you can edit the resulting picture with follow-up prompts too (like “Make the scene sunnier”).

What Would Person X or Y Do?

One way of getting outside a prompting rut is to get ChatGPT to respond in a way that matches someone famous, or takes on a well-established perspective. So you could ask “What would Steve Jobs do here?” or “What would Churchill's perspective be on this?” as part of your prompt.

With the caveat that AI doesn't really know what Jobs or Churchill might do or think, and is instead making some educated guesses based on what it knows about these very famous people (about whom much has been written), it can help change your perspective on a topic or suggest a way forward when you’re stuck.

Use the Lazy Prompt

Another way to get more pertinent information out of ChatGPT more quickly is to affix the line “I'm a very lazy person” to the end of your prompt. It sounds like you're sharing a little too much information with the AI, but the difference it can make to the responses is significant: Answers become shorter and more to the point, while instructions are simpler.

You can adapt this in various ways too, so you might want to tell ChatGPT you're very busy or very fastidious instead. They’ll all affect the way the chatbot responds, and give you answers better tailored to what you're looking for.

Tell ChatGPT More About You

If you tell ChatGPT more about who you are, your prompt responses will be more relevant and personalized. You can do this on mobile by tapping the menu button (top left), then your avatar (top right), then Personalization. On the desktop, click your avatar (bottom left), then Personalization.

You can specify your nickname and job here, as well as anything else you think is relevant: your taste in movies, how old you are, how much experience you have with DIY projects around the home, or whatever else is relevant. ChatGPT will bear all of this in mind whenever you start new conversations.

Get ChatGPT to Produce Perfect Personalized Playlists

If you're finding the algorithms on your streaming service of choice aren't serving up mixes that you're happy with, you can give the task to ChatGPT. Try something like “Give me a 2-hour chill-out playlist for a rainy Sunday night featuring classics from the 1970s.” You can see how each of those variables can be changed to match what you need.

ChatGPT now actually includes plug-ins for platforms like Apple Music and Spotify, so you can connect your accounts and get the playlists ported right across. Head to the ChatGPT Apps page on the web to find and add these plug-ins.

Get ChatGPT to Forget Everything That’s Come Before

While it can be helpful for ChatGPT to remember previous conversations and personalize its answers to match what it knows about you, this isn't something you're always going to want. Maybe you want to start from scratch on a topic, or you need recommendations that aren't influenced by prior chats.

You can simply tell ChatGPT to forget everything that's come before, or you can use the incognito mode, which is called temporary chat (the conversation will be forgotten after it's finished). On desktop or mobile, select the dotted speech bubble in the top right corner when you start a new chat.

Ask for Clarifying Questions First

This is handy if you're uncertain about how to frame your prompt, or if you're not sure whether or not it includes enough information: At the end, add something like “Ask me any questions you need clarity on before providing an answer.”

While this means it will take longer to get to the responses, it should ensure that ChatGPT knows exactly what you're after—and ultimately you'll save time by not having to explain yourself further in follow-up prompts later on.

Get ChatGPT to Test Your Knowledge

As well as providing information, ChatGPT can test your knowledge—and if you're learning about something for the first time, it can be a powerful way of making sure you're taking in as much as you need to know.

Simply ask ChatGPT to "test me on this subject" and it will do so. You can set parameters such as the number and the difficulty of the questions, and you can base the quiz on an existing conversation with the AI or on information on the web.

Get Your Answers in Tabular Form

ChatGPT can give you responses in the form of a table if you ask. This is particularly helpful for getting information or creative ideas. For example, you could tabulate meal ideas and ingredients, or game ideas and equipment, or the days of the week and how they're said in a fe