Guides · Last checked 15 October 2026
Why Does ChatGPT Give Generic Answers? (And How to Fix It for Good)
Short answer: ChatGPT gives generic answers because it's guessing. It doesn't know who you are, who the answer is for or what "good" looks like to you, so it writes for the average person. Give it that context once, in custom instructions, a project or a skill, and the answers stop being bland.
Why are ChatGPT's answers so bland?
Because a short question gets an average answer. OpenAI's own advice is to make prompts "clear, specific, and provide enough context" (OpenAI). Most of us don't. Google found that the prompts that worked best averaged around 21 words, while people's first attempts were usually under nine (Google).
Compare these:
| You type | What ChatGPT has to guess |
|---|---|
| "Write an email chasing an invoice" | Who you are, who it's to, how late, your tone, UK or US, how long |
| "Write a polite but firm email to a client who's 30 days late paying £450. I'm a freelance designer, we get on well, keep it under 100 words, UK spelling" | Nothing |
Doesn't ChatGPT remember me?
Partly. With Memory on, ChatGPT can use past chats and saved details, but OpenAI says plainly that it "does not retain every detail from every conversation" and decides for itself what's relevant (OpenAI). So you can't rely on it to remember your tone, your rules or your business.
What are the main reasons for generic answers?
- No context about you. It doesn't know your job, your audience or your situation.
- No standard to aim at. It doesn't know what a good answer looks like to you, such as length, tone or format.
- No rules. Nobody told it "never use jargon" or "always give me three options".
- Starting from scratch every time. Even when you explain yourself once, the next chat starts fresh.
How do I fix it for good?
You have three options, from quickest to most powerful:
| Fix | Where | Best for | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom instructions | Settings > Personalization | A few lines about you that apply to every chat | 1,500 characters on Free and Go, 5,000 on paid plans (OpenAI) |
| A project | "New project" in the sidebar | One area of your life or work, with its own instructions and files | Free plan: 5 files per project (OpenAI) |
| A skill | Your AI's skills settings, or pasted into the two above | A specific job done your way, every time, in any AI | Works across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and more |
Project instructions apply only inside that project and override your global custom instructions (OpenAI), so you can have one for work and one for home.
What should my instructions say?
The four things Google recommends in every prompt are a good checklist: persona, task, context and format (Google). For instructions that last, write:
- About me: role, situation, who I usually write for.
- How I like answers: length, tone, bullets or prose, UK spelling.
- Always / never: "Always ask one clarifying question if I'm vague." "Never use the word 'delve'."
- Examples: one short piece of writing you liked.
Is this worth the effort?
Probably, if you use AI at work. In OpenAI's own study of how people use ChatGPT, writing made up about 40% of work-related messages (NBER working paper). That's a lot of generic drafts to fix by hand.
What's the easiest way to do it?
MakeASkill asks you a few quick, personal questions and writes the instructions for you. Paste them in once and every answer fits you. It's free and works with whichever AI you use. Stop getting generic answers