User Guide

How to use ChatGPT

Learn all the basics in this ChatGPT user guide.
ChatGpt

What is ChatGPT? 

ChatGPT is a chatbot app built by OpenAI that can process text, image, and audio inputs (depending on the AI model you use). In practice, this means it can do things like:

Hold a voice or text-based conversation with you, answering questions about almost any topic.

  • Generate text for any occasion—poetry, blog posts, emails, etc.

  • Brainstorm ideas.

  • Generate images (and tweak them based on your requests).

  • Search the internet for current information.

  • Analyze images.

  • Create charts and graphs based on your inputs.

  • Analyze data.

  • Translate natural language or design mockups to code.

And practically anything else you'd imagine a multimodal chatbot trained on the entirety of the internet might be able to do.
1

Create your OpenAI account

To get started with ChatGPT, you first need to create an OpenAI account. Follow these

Go to chat.openai.com and click Sign up.

  1. You can sign up using your email address or by logging in with your Google or Microsoft account.

  2. If you choose to use an email address, you’ll be asked to complete a phone verification to confirm you’re not (ironically) a bot.

Already have an OpenAI account? Simply click Log in and start chatting!
2

Choose Your AI Model

By default, ChatGPT is powered by GPT-4o mini, but if you're on a paid tier, you can choose a different model. Here's how to select the model:

  1. In your conversation window, click the model dropdown.

  2. Select the model that best fits your needs:

  • Auto: Optimizes for both speed and intelligence.

  • GPT-4o: Best for general tasks.

  • o1-preview: Excels at processing prompts that require logical reasoning and generating code.

  • o1-mini: A version of o1 that's optimized for speed.

Choose the model that aligns with your task, whether it’s casual conversation, problem-solving, or coding!
3

Ask ChatGPT a Question

You can prompt ChatGPT in several ways:

Text Query: Type your question or prompt in the message bar on the home page, then press Enter or click the Send message icon.

  1. Voice Query: To ask your question using voice, click the headphones icon next to the message field and speak your question.

  2. Image Upload: Click the paperclip icon in the message bar to upload an image you want to share, and then enter any accompanying prompt. You can also drag and drop an image directly from your computer into the message bar.

Whether you're typing, talking, or sharing images, ChatGPT is ready to assist you with any query!
4

Interact with ChatGPT's responses

In a matter of seconds, ChatGPT will spit out a reply, and you can read or listen to the response. Apart from that, you have a number of other options. 

EDIT

NEW

COPY

REFRESH

DESLIKE

SHARE
1

Edit Your Original Prompt

Need to refine your prompt? Here's how:

Hover over the original prompt you've entered.

  1. Click the Edit message icon that appears (it looks like a pencil).

  2. Make your changes to the prompt.

  3. Once you're done, click Send to submit the edited prompt.

This feature is useful when you need to adjust your query to get a more accurate or detailed response from ChatGPT.
2

Enter (or Say) a New Prompt

One of ChatGPT's key features is its ability to "remember" the conversation you're having with it. This makes it feel like a real back-and-forth dialogue. You can ask ChatGPT to modify its response or continue the conversation without repeating yourself or starting from scratch.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Type or say a new prompt related to the ongoing conversation.

  2. ChatGPT will refer back to the previous discussion and use that context to inform its response.

For example, after asking about an actress, I can continue with: "What other awards has she won this year?" ChatGPT will understand that I'm still referring to the same person from earlier in the conversation.

This conversational memory makes it easy to build on previous queries and get more detailed or refined answers.
3

Copy the Response

If you like ChatGPT's answer and want to share it elsewhere, you can easily copy it. Here's how:

  1. Click the Copy icon beneath the response you want to copy.

  2. Once you do this, the icon will turn into a checkmark, indicating that the text has been successfully copied.

This button saves you from having to manually highlight the text and use a keyboard shortcut to copy it, making the process faster and more convenient.
4

Refresh and Get a New Response

If the response isn’t quite what you’re looking for, and you want to use the same prompt, you can easily ask ChatGPT to generate a new one:

Click the Regenerate icon below the most recent response.

Keep in mind that you can only refresh and regenerate a response to ChatGPT's most recent output. This is useful when you want a different answer without changing your original prompt.
5

Dislike the Response

Since ChatGPT can’t interpret your reactions, like headshaking, it relies on humans to provide feedback. If the response was unhelpful or inaccurate, you can indicate this by clicking the Bad response icon to dislike it. This feedback helps ChatGPT learn and improve its responses over time.

However, this valuable feature is available only with a ChatGPT Plus subscription.
6

Share Your Conversation

Instead of taking screenshots of your conversation with ChatGPT, you can easily share the entire chat. Here’s how:

Click the Share chat icon (which looks like an upward-facing arrow).

  1. This will generate a unique URL for the specific conversation.

  2. Copy the URL and share it with friends, colleagues, or anyone else.

Note: If you’re using an Enterprise account, only members of your workspace will be able to access the conversation.