- Limits to know before you upload a long document
- Prompts for quick summaries
- Prompts for long documents and reports
- Prompts for emails, threads and meetings
- Prompts for learning and reading
- Prompts to check a summary
- Prompts for comparing documents
- How to get better summaries from ChatGPT
- My advice on ChatGPT prompts for summarizing
- Frequently asked questions
The best ChatGPT prompts for summarizing say who the summary is for, how long it should be, what to focus on and the format, such as five bullets or a table. Ask it to use only the text you give it and to quote key lines, because OpenAI says ChatGPT can produce incorrect output, including fabricated quotes.
Summarising is the job I hand to ChatGPT most often, and it's the one I'd tell anyone to start with: long reports, meeting transcripts, contracts I need the gist of before I read every word, threads I've been copied into. It's fast and usually good. But a summary is only as useful as its brief, and a vague 'summarise this' gets you a bland paragraph that skips the one detail you needed. The prompts below fix that by naming the reader, the length and the focus.
Limits to know before you upload a long document
From OpenAI's help pages on file uploads and accuracy:
| What OpenAI says | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Text and document files are capped at 2 million tokens per file; documents can be up to 512 MB | Most reports fit, but split very long books or archives |
| Free users can upload 3 files a day; others up to 80 files every 3 hours | On the Free plan, paste text instead of uploading when you can |
| ChatGPT can produce incorrect or misleading output, including fabricated quotes | Ask for quotes with locations and check anything important |
| Audio transcripts may contain errors and speaker labels may be unreliable | Check names and numbers in summaries of recordings |
The detail most people skip: a summary can be accurate in tone and still invent a specific number or quote. If a number, date or commitment matters, ask ChatGPT to quote the exact sentence it came from.
Prompts for quick summaries
Paste or upload the text after the prompt.
Copy this prompt
Summarise this in five bullet points for someone with two minutes to read it. Use only the text provided: [paste].
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Give me a one-sentence summary, then a one-paragraph summary, then the five most important details.
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Summarise this article for a [audience, for example busy manager], focusing on what they need to decide or do.
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What's the single most important point in this document, and why? Quote the sentence that supports your answer.
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Summarise this in plain English for someone with no background in [subject], avoiding jargon.
Prompts for long documents and reports
Structure keeps long summaries useful.
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Summarise this report section by section, with a heading and three bullets for each section.
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Create an executive summary of this document: purpose, key findings, recommendations and risks, in under a page.
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List every action, deadline and owner mentioned in this document in a table, quoting the sentence each came from.
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What does this document say about [specific topic]? Quote the relevant passages and say where they appear.
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Summarise the main arguments for and against [position] in this document, without adding your own opinion.
Prompts for emails, threads and meetings
For the inbox and the calendar.
Copy this prompt
Summarise this email thread: what's being asked, what's been agreed, and what's still open. [paste thread]
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Summarise this meeting transcript into decisions, action items with owners, and open questions.
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Turn this long email into three bullet points I can reply to quickly: [paste].
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Summarise the feedback in these comments into themes, with a count for each and two example quotes.
Prompts for learning and reading
Summaries that help you remember, not just skim.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
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Summarise this chapter, then ask me three questions to check I understood it.
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Create a one-page study summary of this text with key terms, main ideas and one example for each.
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Summarise this book chapter as a list of the author's main claims and the evidence given for each.
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Give me the key takeaways from this article and one way I could apply each.
Prompts to check a summary
Use these on any summary before you rely on it.
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Compare your summary with the original text and list anything important you left out.
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Did you include any detail in that summary that isn't in the original? Check each point and tell me.
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For each bullet in your summary, quote the sentence from the original that supports it.
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Rewrite the summary for a different reader: [new audience]. Keep the facts identical.
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Which parts of the original were hardest to summarise, and what might I lose by relying on the summary alone?
Prompts for comparing documents
When you've got two versions and need the differences, fast.
Copy this prompt
Summarise the differences between these two versions of the document. List what's been added, removed and changed: [paste both].
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Compare these two articles on [topic]. Summarise where they agree, where they don't, and which one gives better evidence.
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I've pasted three supplier proposals. Summarise each in the same format so I can compare them side by side.
How to get better summaries from ChatGPT
- Name the reader and what they need to do with the summary.
- Set a length or format: five bullets, one paragraph, a table.
- Tell it to use only the text provided, and to quote the source sentence for key facts.
- Ask it to check its own summary against the original for missing or added details.
- Keep confidential documents out unless your plan and settings allow it.
For recurring summaries, such as weekly reports, keeping the instructions in a ChatGPT project saves retyping them. My explainer on where ChatGPT gets its information shows why it sometimes adds things, and my look at AI email summaries covers how inbox summaries change the way people read your emails.
My advice on ChatGPT prompts for summarizing
Always tell ChatGPT who the summary is for and what it should focus on, and keep it tied to the text with a 'use only what I've given you' instruction. For anything that matters, ask for the source sentences behind the key points and spot-check them. A good summary saves you an hour. A summary with one invented number can do real damage, so make checking part of the routine. It's two minutes well spent, and you'll soon learn which kinds of documents it handles well.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get ChatGPT to summarize a document?
Upload or paste it, then say who the summary is for, how long it should be, what to focus on and the format you want, and to use only the text provided.
How long a document can ChatGPT summarize?
OpenAI says text and document files are capped at 2 million tokens per file, and documents can be up to 512 MB.
Can ChatGPT summaries be wrong?
Yes. OpenAI says ChatGPT can produce incorrect or misleading output, including fabricated quotes, so check key facts against the original.
Can ChatGPT summarize a meeting recording?
It can summarise an uploaded recording or transcript, but OpenAI says transcripts may contain errors and speaker identification may be unreliable.
How many files can I upload to ChatGPT?
OpenAI says Free users can upload 3 files a day, and other users can upload up to 80 files every 3 hours.
