How To Write ChatGPT Prompts Calculator
A prompt is a specification rather than a question. The model cannot ask what you meant, so anything left out of it is something it will decide for you.
Your prompt
You are a senior copy editor. Task: rewrite this product description Context: a listing for a handmade ceramic mug Tone: friendly and approachable Output format: a bulleted list Constraints: - Use short sentences - Give two examples Work through this step by step, then give the final answer on its own line at the end.
- Characters
- 323
- Words
- 55
- Rough tokens
- about 81
- Quality checklist
- 7 of 7
- ✓A role is named
- ✓A task is stated
- ✓Some context is given
- ✓A tone is chosen
- ✓An output format is chosen
- ✓At least one constraint
- ✓Length lands between 80 and 2,000 characters
The token estimate is characters divided by four, which is close enough for planning and exact enough to be useless for billing. Longer is not better: every extra sentence of instruction is another thing the model has to hold on to while it works.
The formula this calculator uses
prompt = role + task + context + tone + format + constraints + a final-answer instruction
- role
- Who the model should be, in one phrase
- task
- What it should do, as a verb and an object
- context
- The situation the task happens in
- L
- Length of the assembled prompt in characters
How to check the result by hand
- 1
Name the role
One phrase, and the more specific the better. A role is a frame rather than a decoration: it tells the model which register and which standards its output will be measured against.
- 2
State the task as a verb and an object
One sentence with something to do to something. If the task needs two sentences, it is probably two tasks and should be split or numbered.
- 3
Add the situation
What the task is about, who the result is for, and anything the model cannot see. This is the section that most often turns a generic answer into a usable one.
- 4
Choose the tone and the output format
Two dropdowns and two lines of text. They cost almost nothing and they change the result more than any amount of extra instruction elsewhere.
- 5
Add constraints and the closing instruction
Tick the guards that prevent the failures you have actually seen, then keep the closing instruction that asks for the work first and the final answer on its own line.
For worked examples, common mistakes and the limits of this formula, read the full How To Write ChatGPT Prompts page.