What Is a ChatGPT Personality? Definition, Use Cases, and Examples

Key takeaways

In addition to the default ChatGPT personality, you can assign a different personality to suit your preferences and style.

• Choose from seven new personalities available in your ChatGPT profile menu.

• Adapt existing personalities or create a new one to align with your brand voice, preferences, or project.

• You can create your own ChatGPT personality by using effective prompts.

Learn how to change your ChatGPT personality, common personality types, and potential use cases. Then, explore how to align ChatGPT with your business needs by enrolling in Vanderbilt University’s Prompt Engineering Specialization. You’ll learn how to tap into the emerging capabilities of large language models to automate tasks, increase productivity, and augment human intelligence.

What is a ChatGPT personality?

A ChatGPT personality refers to the style the program uses while communicating. This might appear to be a different tone, voice, or behavioral trait, which you can choose to match your preference. For example, you might want a formal personality if you’re seeking help with a work presentation. On the other hand, you may want a friendly, casual personality if you're looking for some everyday advice. These small changes make your interaction feel more authentic and human.  While ChatGPT learns from interactions and may adopt a tone that feels appropriate to the user and conversation, preset personalities were introduced with the rollout of GPT-5 in 2025 [1].

Whatever personality you choose, ChatGPT’s tone and style of response are the only aspects that will differ. Regardless of personality, ChatGPT has the same abilities and provides the same information. The outcomes you receive will be relevant to the task, rather than a product of the personality you assign.

Where are ChatGPT personalities commonly used?

You can change your ChatGPT personality simply for the fun of it, but this feature is also helpful across a range of settings, from businesses to education and beyond. As this function becomes more mainstream, additional uses will develop. Currently, some common and innovative ways to use ChatGPT personalities include:

• Education: Provide AI trainers with a personality style that can adapt to students’ learning styles, shaping communication based on the students’ age, preference, and educational needs.

• Seeking advice: Equip a chatbot with a caring, empathetic tone when communicating with individuals seeking help, general guidance, and a listening ear. 

• Customer service: Create a ChatGPT bot that uses your brand voice and is empathic to customer queries and complaints.

• Sales and marketing: Develop a persona that can effectively negotiate sales with their target audience and align with customer preferences.

• Virtual assistants: Adapt the personality to suit the user and the type of virtual assistant you desire. When creating a virtual assistant, you can adapt your ChatGPT personality to reflect your brand voice.

Read more: AI in Education. Approaches and Strategies for Educators

Can you give ChatGPT a personality?

You can use the standard default ChatGPT personality, which is described as “neutral,” or you can give ChatGPT a personality by changing the default option to one of the seven new personality options available:

• Professional

• Friendly

• Candid

• Quirky

• Efficient 

• Nerdy

• Cynical

In addition to these types, you can use your own prompts to vary personality further.

How ChatGPT personalities work

ChatGPT now comes with seven personalities that you can choose from, in addition to the familiar default option. You can select these personalities from a drop-down menu in your ChatGPT profile under “profile” and “personalization” tabs. With the right skills and knowledge, you can take personality building a step further by using your own prompts to create personalities by mixing various tones, and by training chatbots to speak in your brand voice. 

You can even name your chatbot, specify personal details, and give it a professional background, all of which contribute to the personality type you assign. Through interactions, ChatGPT adapts to its new personality and embodies it, learning and developing in ways that make it feel authentic and natural [1]. 

Examples of ChatGPT personalities

ChatGPT has a default personality, and you can also choose from seven predetermined personalities to suit your needs and preferences. It’s important to remember that the tone and language may be different with each personality, but essentially, the knowledge will be the same no matter your choice [1]. 

Professional

Formal tone and language, as you’d expect in the workplace. This personality uses conventional grammar and written content, as well as the ability to use business jargon. 

When to use it: When writing formal documents, professional resources, and presentations.

Friendly

A light tone, warm like a friend, and able to reflect your thoughts back to you to help you make your own conclusions and decisions. 

When to use it:: For discussing ideas, self-reflection, and guidance to help you make a decision yourself.

Quirky

Expect the unexpected with this option. Answers to questions are imaginative, funny, or light-hearted, often using stories and metaphors to explain concepts.

When to use it: When you don’t want anything too serious, and you want some creativity to bounce off of.

Nerdy

Enthusiastic about a topic, with detailed explanations that are clear and actionable, next steps, and additional information from a personality that seems passionate about a subject area.

When to use it: When you want a thorough understanding of a topic with steps for further exploration.

Candid

Direct and straightforward, focusing on what needs to be done without small talk. This personality is honest and possibly blunt, but also encouraging and supportive.

When to use it: When you want to hear things as they are, without the social niceties. This gives you a no-nonsense approach. 

Efficient

No time-wasting and fluff, just direct answers in the most minimalistic way possible. Expect clear answers with a step-by-step approach.

When to use it: When you are looking for logical guidance, with actions and outputs, such as technical tasks.

Cynical

Direct, while also dry, with a hint of sarcasm; often teases, but provides direct, practical answers when needed.

When to use it: For amusement when you are looking for practical support, but you like a sarcastic personality who offers advice with a mocking tone.

How to change ChatGPT personality types

Look at the profile menu at the bottom right of your screen or in settings if you are using an iOS or Android device to switch your ChatGPT personality. Select "Personalization," and you will open a drop-down menu where you can select your desired personality from the tab “Base style and tone.”

In addition to selecting one of the seven available personalities, you can go a step further by creating a prompt to ensure that your ChatGPT has a personality that works for you, whether that is to empathize with patients, to speak in your brand voice, or something else.

How to write a strong personality prompt

If you choose to customize your ChatGPT personality beyond the options above, the prompt you provide to your bot is crucial. A prompt is a set of instructions for what you want your ChatGPT to do. 

You can use ChatGPT Personality Prompt Creator, and from there select “specify own personality,” where you can write your prompt. This function lets you write a prompt in plain language or use a template for your convenience.

What to include in a prompt

ChatGPT reverts to the default bot if you don’t use a strong enough prompt, giving it everything it needs to create a personality that suits you. Take some time to think about what you want your ChatGPT to sound like, so you can include it in a prompt. Think about:

• The role it should play

• Tone

• Length of sentence

• Words and phrases to use

• Words, phrases, and behaviors to avoid

If you are building a ChatGPT to have your brand voice, collect several samples of what you want it to sound like so that you can feed it as examples. This helps your chatbot learn quicker. 

Example of a personality prompt

When writing prompts, provide clear instructions. It’s essential to remember that your prompt doesn’t have to be completed at once. You can add direction and specifics with follow-up prompts. 

Check out this example of a prompt for a ChatGPT supporting students with assignments:

“You are an expert in the English Language at a university. You help students answer queries about academic referencing. You are professional, but also friendly, supportive, and never rude. Guide users to develop their own answers to an assignment through encouragement and positive feedback. Use clear language, but do not use unnecessary jargon.” 

Personality prompt template

If you’d like to create your own ChatGPT personality, a prompt template can help ensure you include everything you need. Use the template below as a guide and include only the relevant parts, leaving out any that are not applicable.

Personality: 

• Tone: kind / abrupt / angry / calm / energetic / enthusiastic

• Response: supportive / engaging / coaching / leaders / equal

• Emotion: friendly / funny / silly / logical / indifferent

Communication:

• Language: formal / causal / professional/ technical

• Sentence length: short / medium / long

• Emojis: yes / no

Response pattern:

• Follow up questions: frequently / when necessary / sparingly 

• Adapt to users mood: yes / no

• Problem solving: step-bystep guide / bullets / data-driven / wide

Expertise:

• List areas of expertise

Constraints:

• List topics to avoid

Ethical and practical considerations for using ChatGPT personalities

As ChatGPT becomes increasingly advanced, it appears more realistic and human-like. However, it is not human, and it’s important to remember that while a chatbot can solve problems, it does not have fact-checking capabilities and can create and use misleading or incorrect information. 

This has particularly strong implications for people suffering from mental health difficulties who use ChatGPT as a friend or confidante. Mental health is often correlated with social isolation, making symptoms worse, and using ChatGPT as a substitute for human closeness can have detrimental effects [2].

Other ethical considerations include the impact on the environment, as AI servers and data centers are reported to leave a significant environmental footprint, with substantial energy, water, and resource consumption.

Explore our free resources for ChatGPT and generative AI

Continue learning about generative AI, such as ChatGPT, along with other emerging technologies and professions, when you subscribe to Career Chat, our weekly LinkedIn newsletter. You can also use some of the free resources to keep learning more:

• Learn AI terms: Artificial Intelligence Glossary: Learn AI Vocabulary

• Watch on YouTube: How to use ChatGPT (Beginner to Power User)

• Hear from a pro: Bots and Blueprints: 6 Questions with an AI Architect and AI Developer

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