There are people who can’t live without ChatGPT, and others who just can’t get the AI chatbot to work like they want. The difference usually comes down to prompting — and patience.
If you fall into the latter camp and want to improve your prompting skills, try these eight tips. They’ll work not only on OpenAI’s chatbot, but also on Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Perplexity and Anthropic’s Claude. Prompting tips for image-generating AI tools follow similar guidelines, but there are also some additional considerations to keep in mind. CNET also has tricks on how to utilize video generators like Sora and Veo.
And while you’re working on your prompting skills, here are nine of the best things to use ChatGPT for — and what you definitely shouldn’t use it for.
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1. Be specific and give it examples
This is a general rule for all chatbots: Be specific and provide as much context as possible up front. Think of the «five Ws»: who, what, where, when and why.
For example, if you want ChatGPT to help you plan a holiday lunch menu, you’d say something like:
«Help me plan a holiday lunch menu for a group of eight friends. One person is gluten free. We want to serve appetizers, a main meat dish, sides and dessert.»
In this example, you could even drop in a few recipe links of dishes that interest you, or details on what kinds of foods you’ve made previously, for added context. Whenever possible, give examples to ChatGPT.
Think of prompts in two parts:
- Background.
- Task and rules: What you want it to achieve and how you want it presented.
2. Assign it a role
ChatGPT is great in that it can assume the role of a specific person or profession. Tell ChatGPT who it’s supposed to be.
For example, «Act like a personal finance expert. I need you to review my budget to provide advice on where I can save money. Turn my expenses into a graph format so I can visually see the months where I spent more.»
You could get even more granular and ask it to be personal finance influencer Dave Ramsey, so it talks to you as it thinks Ramsey would. Or ask it to be a famous stylist to give you very specific fashion advice.
Tell it to ask clarifying questions before it generates an answer.
3. Ask it to play devil’s advocate
You might’ve noticed that ChatGPT almost always agrees with you. It’s a textbook people pleaser. Prompt it to play devil’s advocate and challenge you when possible.
Here’s a good way to do this: «When we’re chatting, don’t just validate my views or agree with everything I say. I want constructive criticism that points out my blind spots, adds new perspectives and challenges my thinking or biases. Call out patterns, ask provocative questions and provide sharp insights.»
You can also ask it open-ended questions rather than asking to confirm something you believe to be true.
4. One question at a time
This one’s a simple tactic. Instead of giving ChatGPT a chunk of information with multiple questions, provide it with context and background, and then ask one question at a time.
Just like you wouldn’t ask three questions at once to a friend, do the same thing with ChatGPT. Think of it like a conversation. Use voice prompts if it feels more natural.
5. Use trigger words
This is an underrated hack to get better answers from ChatGPT: Use trigger words to increase its reasoning impact. Here are a few examples:
- «Think deeply.»
- «Be extremely thorough.»
- «Double-check your work.»
- «This is critical to get right.»
- «Show me your reasoning step-by-step.»
- «Give me the pros and cons.»
6. Ask where it got its answers from
AI makes stuff up all the time, and convincingly. If it presents a data point or is making an argument, request evidence. Ask where it got its answers from, how it came to that conclusion and to provide specific links. This will help you better judge what it generates.
7. Use a web browser
One pet peeve I’ve had with ChatGPT is that it references all past conversations. This is handy in a lot of cases but in instances when I want an answer that isn’t influenced by past chats, I log out and use chatgpt.com. You can also use it in an incognito tab so it doesn’t know anything about you.
For example, I’ve asked it for advice before about what my second career could be, but it always goes back to women’s health, given my interest and personal experience in fertility and IVF. It can’t think outside the box (or browser) when it’s referring to past chats.
8. Try out Prompt Optimizer
If you still need help, you can play around with OpenAI’s own Prompt Optimizer. Give it a draft prompt and it’ll rewrite it based on best practices for ChatGPT. It’ll ensure the prompt is clear, well formatted and without contradictions. This step can save time in getting that first prompt right.
I tested it out for my Christmas menu prompt:
The original:
The revised:
Prompting best practices evolve, so always experiment
To summarize:
- Think of it like a natural conversation. Talk to it like a person.
- Prep your prompt, just like writers «prep the page.» Structure your prompt first.
- Give ChatGPT a role or person to think/respond like.
- One question at a time, and encourage it to challenge you.
- Don’t expect to get it right in one prompt; it’s an iterative process.
- If it keeps bringing up old conversations/information, log out and use the open browser.
- Specify the length of response you’re after. If you only want 100 words, tell it that.
- Always ask it to share reference links. Be your own fact checker.
- Make sure it understands you before it completes the task. Encourage it to ask you follow-up questions. This step will save you time.
- Maintain a balanced perspective of AI. Use it, but also be skeptical of it.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)