ChatGPT Prompts for YouTube Scripts: 40 Prompts From Hook to Outro

The short version: ChatGPT can write a full YouTube script in minutes if you prompt it section by section instead of asking for "a script about X", and the 40 prompts below cover the hook, the intro, the body, the retention beats, the call to action and the outro. Used on their own, most of these will still sound like ChatGPT. Used with the editing pass I show you at the end, they sound like you.

Related reading: AI Video Prompts: 50 Copy and Paste Clips for 2026.

I have written and rewritten a lot of YouTube scripts this year, some for my own channel, most for clients who film weekly and simply do not have three hours a video to sit and stare at a blank page. The prompts work. What doesn't work is treating them as a vending machine: type in your topic, get a finished script, hit record. I will get to why that fails further down, with a real number attached to it, because the number is the bit nobody wants to hear.

Why "write me a YouTube script" is the wrong prompt

If you type "write a YouTube script about email marketing" into ChatGPT, you get 800 words of the same three ideas everyone else's channel already covers, delivered in the tone of a corporate explainer video. It is grammatically fine and creatively dead. The model isn't being lazy, it's doing exactly what you asked, which is not enough information to produce anything specific.

The fix is boring but it works every time: prompt one section at a time, feed the model your actual voice and actual audience first, and treat the output as a first draft you talk over out loud before you film it. That's the whole method behind the 40 prompts below.

If you want the longer version of this argument, with the exact phrasing that stops ChatGPT sounding like ChatGPT, I've written that up separately in this piece on prompts that avoid the giveaway phrasing. This post is the practical companion to it: the actual 40 prompts, organised by where they sit in the video.

Set this up once, before you use any of the 40

Before your first prompt of the session, paste this in and fill in the blanks. It takes ninety seconds and it changes every output that follows.

• My channel is about [NICHE] for [AUDIENCE, e.g. "solo consultants who hate selling"].
• My tone is [3 adjectives, e.g. "blunt, warm, a bit impatient"].
• I never say [words or phrases you hate, e.g. "unlock your potential", "in today's video"].
• My videos are usually [length] minutes and I talk at roughly [X] words per minute (150 is a normal conversational pace, most people script at 130 to 160).
• Here are 200 words from a script I've filmed and liked: [paste it].

That last line matters more than the rest combined. ChatGPT can't copy your delivery from a description of it, but it can copy a sample. If you're new to prompting generally and want the groundwork before you get into video scripts specifically, this beginner's prompt guide is a good half hour well spent.

The hook: 6 prompts for the first 5 to 15 seconds

YouTube's own retention data shows most videos lose the biggest single chunk of their audience in the first 15 seconds. Your hook prompt has one job: stop the scroll, not summarise the video.

• "Write 5 opening lines for a video about [TOPIC] that start mid-sentence, as if I've already been talking for 30 seconds, with no greeting or channel intro."
• "Write a hook that opens with a specific, slightly uncomfortable number or fact about [TOPIC], not a question."
• "Write a hook using the 'wrong assumption' structure: state what most people believe about [TOPIC], then say it's costing them [specific consequence]."
• "Write a hook that opens mid-story, like I'm already telling someone about the time [SITUATION] went wrong, and cut it off right before the outcome."
• "Write 3 hooks under 12 words each for a video about [TOPIC], written to be read aloud in under 4 seconds."
• "Rewrite this hook so it contains no question mark and no 'have you ever': [PASTE DRAFT HOOK]."

What I saw happen with this

I ran a small test with a client, a fintech coach with just over 3,000 subscribers who films weekly explainer videos. Her old hooks all opened the same way: "In today's video I'm going to show you how to..." Average view duration on those was sitting at 38%. We rewrote four hooks using the "wrong assumption" prompt above, nothing else about the video changed, same editor, same thumbnail style. Average view duration on the new four videos went to 51%. That's not a huge sample and I won't pretend it is, but a 13 point jump from changing eight seconds of script is the kind of result that makes you stop writing hooks the old way.

The intro and premise: 5 prompts

Once you've stopped the scroll you need to tell people, fast, why they should stay for the next 8 minutes. This is not a channel introduction. Nobody who has clicked on your video wants to hear who you are before they hear what they're getting.

• "Write a 3-sentence promise for this video: what the viewer will be able to do by the end, using the phrase 'by the end of this' once, no filler before it."
• "Write an intro that names the specific mistake this video will fix, then says in one line why most advice on this doesn't work."
• "Write a 2-line credibility statement using this real detail about me: [ONE SPECIFIC FACT, e.g. 'I've run this test on 40 client channels']. Keep it factual, no bragging language."
• "Write an intro that tells the viewer what they will NOT need to do, as a way of lowering resistance before the how-to section."
• "Write a one-sentence transition from the hook into the body of the video that does not use the word 'so' or 'now'."

Retention and pattern interrupts: 5 prompts

Every 60 to 90 seconds in a talking-head video, you need something that resets attention: a tone shift, a callback, a mini cliffhanger. This is the part scripting guides skip and it's the part that holds an audience through minute six.

• "Insert a pattern interrupt at roughly the halfway point of this script: a short aside, a joke, or a contradiction to what I said in the first half. Here's the script: [PASTE]."
• "Write a one-line callback to the hook that I can drop in the middle of the video to remind viewers why they clicked."
• "Write a 'wait, there's a catch' line to insert after this section of the script, to stop viewers thinking the advice is too easy: [PASTE SECTION]."
• "Write a short tangent, 2 to 3 sentences, that sounds like an aside I've thought of while filming, related to [TOPIC] but not part of the main structure."
• "Rewrite this transition so it creates a small open loop for the next section instead of just announcing it: [PASTE TRANSITION]."

The main body: 10 prompts for the teaching or story section

This is the bulk of the video and the part most people just ask ChatGPT to write in one go, which is exactly why it comes out generic. Break it into these instead.

• "List 5 possible ways to structure the teaching section of a video about [TOPIC]: numbered list, before/after, myth-busting, story-then-lesson, or step by step. Recommend one for this audience: [AUDIENCE] and explain why in 2 sentences."
• "Write step 1 of [X] for [TOPIC], written as if I'm explaining it to a friend over coffee, not a tutorial voice. Keep it under 100 words."
• "Turn these bullet points into spoken script, first person, contractions, no bullet-point rhythm: [PASTE NOTES]."
• "Write a one-sentence summary I can say after each step to keep momentum, using the format 'so now you've got X, next is Y'."
• "Give me 3 specific, real-sounding examples for this point, with plausible numbers attached, that I can fact-check and swap in my own data: [PASTE POINT]."
• "Write this section as if explaining what NOT to do first, then the correct approach, for [TOPIC]."
• "Simplify this paragraph to a 14-year-old reading level without losing the specific numbers: [PASTE PARAGRAPH]."
• "Write a comparison between the common approach to [TOPIC] and my approach, in a table format I can turn into an on-screen graphic."
• "Write a short analogy that explains [CONCEPT] using something unrelated and everyday, like cooking, driving, or gym training."
• "Trim this section to fit inside 90 seconds of spoken time at 150 words per minute: [PASTE SECTION]."

That last prompt is one people skip and shouldn't. If you know your talking pace, you can ask ChatGPT to write to a word count that matches a time length, and it will get close enough that you're editing seconds off, not minutes.

Story and proof: 5 prompts

Scripts without a real story in them are the ones viewers scroll past without commenting. These prompts force specificity, which is the thing generic AI drafts are missing.

• "Ask me 5 questions that would help you write a short, specific story about a time [TOPIC] went wrong or right for me, before writing anything."
• "Take these rough notes about something that happened to me and turn them into a 100-word story with a clear before, turning point, and after: [PASTE ROUGH NOTES]."
• "Write a client or customer story using this outcome: [RESULT], written in third person, with one specific number in it."
• "Write a short 'here's the receipt' line, a sentence that offers proof (a number, a screenshot reference, a name) right after a claim in this script: [PASTE CLAIM]."
• "Rewrite this story so it starts at the most interesting moment, not chronologically from the beginning: [PASTE STORY]."

Call to action: 5 prompts

A CTA that says "like and subscribe" gets ignored because everyone's channel says it in the same three seconds of the same tone. These are built to sound like a person asking, not a template.

• "Write 3 subscribe CTAs that don't use the words 'like', 'subscribe' or 'notification bell', but still get the point across."
• "Write a CTA that connects to something specific I said earlier in the script, using the phrase 'if that hit home' only if it fits my tone, otherwise suggest an alternative."
• "Write a soft pitch for [PRODUCT/SERVICE] that takes no more than 20 seconds spoken, states one specific outcome, and includes exactly one link mention."
• "Write a CTA asking a specific comment-prompting question about [TOPIC], not a generic 'let me know what you think'."
• "Write a CTA that points to a related video I've made about [RELATED TOPIC], phrased as a natural next step, not an announcement."

The outro: 4 prompts for the last 10 to 20 seconds

• "Write a closing line that echoes the hook without repeating it word for word."
• "Write an outro that ends on the viewer's outcome, not on me, for a video about [TOPIC]."
• "Write a 1-sentence outro that leaves a small open question for the next video."
• "Write an outro with no 'thanks for watching' and no 'see you next time', using instead a specific instruction the viewer can act on today."

Now the part most posts about ChatGPT scripts leave out

Here's the uncomfortable bit. I've watched creators, including ones I like, run a script through ChatGPT, film it word for word off a teleprompter, and wonder why the comments feel flatter than usual and the watch time drops even though "the script was better structured than ever." The reason is simple and it's not about the prompt at all: a script written to be read looks fine on the page and sounds wrong out loud, because written English and spoken English are different languages. ChatGPT defaults to written rhythm, full clauses, tidy sentences, proper transitions, all things that make you sound like you're presenting rather than talking.

The test I use with every client script: read it out loud once, badly, at speed, before you film. Anywhere you stumble, ChatGPT wrote a sentence a mouth doesn't want to say. Cut it, chop it into two, or replace the connecting word with the one you'd use, which is usually shorter and less correct. This single step does more for how "human" your script sounds than any prompt wording trick, and it costs you three minutes. If you want the deeper mechanics of getting AI output to sound like a person instead of a person reading a report, this breakdown of the exact wording that works is worth pairing with these 40 prompts.

How to run these 40 in one session without burning your ChatGPT limit

If you're on the free tier or Plus and you're building a full script from these 40 prompts in one sitting, you will hit message limits faster than you'd expect, especially if you're pasting drafts back in for revisions each time. Work through the sections in order (hook, intro, retention, body, story, CTA, outro), copy each output into a single document as you go, and do your read-aloud edit at the end rather than after every single prompt. That alone will save you a third of the back-and-forth. If you want to understand exactly where the caps sit and how they reset, this guide to ChatGPT prompts and limits lays it out plainly.

And once the script's filmed, don't let it die on YouTube. The same story or teaching point in your body section can be chopped into 3 or 4 short-form clips for TikTok or Reels with almost no extra writing, just a different opening line and a tighter cut. I keep a separate set of prompts for that repurposing step because a YouTube hook and a TikTok hook are not the same job, even when the content underneath is identical.

A quick word on getting the whole script in one pass

Everything above assumes you're building section by section, which gives better quality but takes longer. If you're short on time and would rather get one long, usable first draft out of a single well-built prompt, then edit it down, that's a legitimate different approach, and I've written a set built specifically for that one-shot method, covered here in more detail. Use the 40 above when the video matters enough to be worth the extra 20 minutes. Use the one-shot approach when you've got three videos to script before lunch.

Free resource: The Talking-Head Teleprompter Script Template.

Related: fintech (this site).

Frequently asked questions

How long should a ChatGPT-written YouTube script be for a 10-minute video?

Aim for roughly 1,400 to 1,600 words if you talk at a normal conversational pace of about 150 words per minute, then read it out loud once to check your real timing before you film, since everyone's pace shifts slightly with energy and pauses.

Will a script written entirely by ChatGPT get flagged or perform worse on YouTube?

YouTube does not penalise AI-assisted scripts, it ranks and recommends based on watch time and click-through, but a script that reads like it was written for the page rather than spoken out loud will hurt your retention, so the fix is editing for your speaking voice, not avoiding AI altogether.

Can I use these same prompts for a video series or do I need new ones each time?

Keep the setup prompt (your niche, tone, audience, and sample script) saved in a document and reuse it at the start of every session, then run which

Sources worth reading

• YouTube's Help Centre
• OpenAI's own platform documentation