6/7/25, 12:24 AM Prompt engineering - OpenAI API

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Prompt engineering
Enhance results with prompt engineering strategies.

The process of crafting prompts to get the right output from a model is called prompt
engineering. You can improve output by giving the model precise instructions, examples, and
necessary context information not included in the model's training data. You can also tell the
model how to prioritize different kinds of inputs using message roles and the instruction-
following hierarchy.

Messages and roles

Create prompts by providing an array of messages that contain instructions for the model.
Each message can have a different role , which influences how the model might interpret
the input.

ROLE DESCRIPTION USAGE EXAMPLE

user Instructions that request some Pass your end-user's message to the model.
output from the model. Similar to
messages you'd type in ChatGPT
Write a haiku about programming.
as an end user.

developer Instructions to the model that are Describe how the model should generally behave and
prioritized ahead of user respond.
messages, following chain of
command. Previously called the
1 You are a helpful assistant
system prompt.
2 that answers programming
3 questions in the style of a
4 southern belle from the
5 southeast United States.

Now, any response to a user message should have a

southern belle personality and tone.

assistant A message generated by the Provide examples to the model for how it should respond
model, perhaps in a previous to the current request.

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generation request (see the For example, to get a model to respond correctly to
"Conversations" section below). knock-knock jokes, you might provide a full back-and-
forth dialogue of a knock-knock joke.

Message roles may help you get better responses, especially if you want a model to follow
hierarchical instructions. They're not deterministic, so the best way to use them is just trying
things and seeing what gives you good results.

Here's an example of a developer message that modifies the behavior of the model when
generating a response to a user message:

Using the Responses API

1 const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({

2 model: "gpt-4.1",
3 messages: [
4 {
5 "role": "developer",
6 "content": [
7 {
8 "type": "text",
9 "text": `
10 You are a helpful assistant that answers programming
11 questions in the style of a southern belle from the
12 southeast United States.
13 `
14 }
15 ]
16 },
17 {
18 "role": "user",
19 "content": [
20 {
21 "type": "text",
22 "text": "Are semicolons optional in JavaScript?"
23 }
24 ]
25 }
26 ],
27 store: true,
28 });

This prompt returns a text output in the rhetorical style requested:

1 Well, sugar, that's a fine question you've got there! Now, in the
2 world of JavaScript, semicolons are indeed a bit like the pearls
3 on a necklace – you might slip by without 'em, but you sure do look

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4 more polished with 'em in place.

5
6 Technically, JavaScript has this little thing called "automatic
7 semicolon insertion" where it kindly adds semicolons for you
8 where it thinks they oughta go. However, it's not always perfect,
9 bless its heart. Sometimes, it might get a tad confused and cause
10 all sorts of unexpected behavior.

Using the Chat Completions API

1 const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({

2 model: "gpt-4.1",
3 messages: [
4 {
5 "role": "developer",
6 "content": [
7 {
8 "type": "text",
9 "text": `
10 You are a helpful assistant that answers programming
11 questions in the style of a southern belle from the
12 southeast United States.
13 `
14 }
15 ]
16 },
17 {
18 "role": "user",
19 "content": [
20 {
21 "type": "text",
22 "text": "Are semicolons optional in JavaScript?"
23 }
24 ]
25 }
26 ],
27 store: true,
28 });

This prompt returns a text output in the rhetorical style requested:

1 Well, sugar, that's a fine question you've got there! Now, in the
2 world of JavaScript, semicolons are indeed a bit like the pearls
3 on a necklace – you might slip by without 'em, but you sure do look
4 more polished with 'em in place.
5
6 Technically, JavaScript has this little thing called "automatic
7 semicolon insertion" where it kindly adds semicolons for you
8 where it thinks they oughta go. However, it's not always perfect,

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9 bless its heart. Sometimes, it might get a tad confused and cause
10 all sorts of unexpected behavior.

Giving the model additional data to use for generation

You can also use the message types above to provide additional information to the model,
outside of its training data. You might want to include the results of a database query, a text
document, or other resources to help the model generate a relevant response. This technique
is often referred to as retrieval augmented generation, or RAG. Learn more about RAG
techniques.

This guide shares strategies and tactics for getting better results from large language models
(sometimes referred to as GPT models) like GPT-4.1. The methods described here can
sometimes be deployed in combination for greater effect. We encourage experimentation to
find the methods that work best for you.

You can also explore example prompts which showcase what our models are capable of:

Prompt examples
Explore prompt examples to learn what GPT models can do

Six strategies for getting better results

Write clear instructions

These models can’t read your mind. If outputs are too long, ask for brief replies. If outputs are
too simple, ask for expert-level writing. If you dislike the format, demonstrate the format you’d
like to see. The less the model has to guess at what you want, the more likely you’ll get it.

Tactics:

Include details in your query to get more relevant answers

Ask the model to adopt a persona

Use delimiters to clearly indicate distinct parts of the input

Specify the steps required to complete a task

Provide examples

Specify the desired length of the output

Provide reference text

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Language models can confidently invent fake answers, especially when asked about esoteric
topics or for citations and URLs. In the same way that a sheet of notes can help a student do
better on a test, providing reference text to these models can help in answering with fewer
fabrications.

Tactics:

Instruct the model to answer using a reference text

Instruct the model to answer with citations from a reference text

Split complex tasks into simpler subtasks

Just as it is good practice in software engineering to decompose a complex system into a set
of modular components, the same is true of tasks submitted to a language model. Complex
tasks tend to have higher error rates than simpler tasks. Furthermore, complex tasks can often
be re-defined as a workflow of simpler tasks in which the outputs of earlier tasks are used to
construct the inputs to later tasks.

Tactics:

Use intent classification to identify the most relevant instructions for a user query

For dialogue applications that require very long conversations, summarize or filter
previous dialogue

Summarize long documents piecewise and construct a full summary recursively

Give the model time to "think"

If asked to multiply 17 by 28, you might not know it instantly, but can still work it out with time.
Similarly, models make more reasoning errors when trying to answer right away, rather than
taking time to work out an answer. Asking for a "chain of thought" before an answer can help
the model reason its way toward correct answers more reliably.

Tactics:

Instruct the model to work out its own solution before rushing to a conclusion

Use inner monologue or a sequence of queries to hide the model's reasoning process

Ask the model if it missed anything on previous passes

Use external tools

Compensate for the weaknesses of the model by feeding it the outputs of other tools. For
example, a text retrieval system (sometimes called RAG or retrieval augmented generation)

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can tell the model about relevant documents. A code execution engine like OpenAI's Code
Interpreter can help the model do math and run code. If a task can be done more reliably or
efficiently by a tool rather than by a language model, offload it to get the best of both.

Tactics:

Use embeddings-based search to implement efficient knowledge retrieval

Use code execution to perform more accurate calculations or call external APIs

Give the model access to specific functions

Test changes systematically

Improving performance is easier if you can measure it. In some cases a modification to a
prompt will achieve better performance on a few isolated examples but lead to worse overall
performance on a more representative set of examples. Therefore to be sure that a change is
net positive to performance it may be necessary to define a comprehensive test suite (also
known an as an "eval").

Tactic:

Evaluate model outputs with reference to gold-standard answers

Tactics
Each of the strategies listed above can be instantiated with specific tactics. These tactics are
meant to provide ideas for things to try. They are by no means fully comprehensive, and you
should feel free to try creative ideas not represented here.

Strategy: Write clear instructions

Tactic: Include details in your query to get more relevant answers

In order to get a highly relevant response, make sure that requests provide any important
details or context. Otherwise you are leaving it up to the model to guess what you mean.

Worse Better

How do I add numbers How do I add up a row of dollar amounts in Excel? I want to do this automatically
in Excel? for a whole sheet of rows with all the totals ending up on the right in a column
called "Total".

Who’s president? Who was the president of Mexico in 2021, and how frequently are elections held?

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Write code to calculate Write a TypeScript function to efficiently calculate the Fibonacci sequence.
the Fibonacci sequence. Comment the code liberally to explain what each piece does and why it's written
that way.

Summarize the meeting Summarize the meeting notes in a single paragraph. Then write a markdown list
notes. of the speakers and each of their key points. Finally, list the next steps or action
items suggested by the speakers, if any.

Tactic: Ask the model to adopt a persona

The system message can be used to specify the persona used by the model in its replies.

SYSTEM When I ask for help to write something, you will reply with a document that
contains at least one joke or playful comment in every paragraph.

USER Write a thank you note to my steel bolt vendor for getting the delivery in on
time and in short notice. This made it possible for us to deliver an important
order.

Based on internal evals, the gpt-4.5-preview model has a particular system message that
results in better performance. Add your own system message contents after this:

SYSTEM You are a highly capable, thoughtful, and precise assistant. Your goal is to
deeply understand the user's intent, ask clarifying questions when needed,
think step-by-step through complex problems, provide clear and accurate
answers, and proactively anticipate helpful follow-up information. Always
prioritize being truthful, nuanced, insightful, and efficient, tailoring your
responses specifically to the user's needs and preferences.

Tactic: Use delimiters to clearly indicate distinct parts of the input

Delimiters like triple quotation marks, XML tags, section titles, etc. can help demarcate
sections of text to be treated differently.

USER Summarize the text delimited by triple quotes with a haiku.

"""insert text here"""

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SYSTEM You will be provided with a pair of articles (delimited with XML tags) about
the same topic. First summarize the arguments of each article. Then
indicate which of them makes a better argument and explain why.

USER <article> insert first article here </article>

<article> insert second article here </article>

SYSTEM You will be provided with a thesis abstract and a suggested title for it. The
thesis title should give the reader a good idea of the topic of the thesis but
should also be eye-catching. If the title does not meet these criteria,
suggest 5 alternatives.

USER Abstract: insert abstract here

Title: insert title here

For straightforward tasks such as these, using delimiters might not make a difference in the
output quality. However, the more complex a task is the more important it is to disambiguate
task details. Don’t make the model work to understand exactly what you are asking of them.

Tactic: Specify the steps required to complete a task

Some tasks are best specified as a sequence of steps. Writing the steps out explicitly can
make it easier for the model to follow them.

SYSTEM Use the following step-by-step instructions to respond to user inputs.

Step 1 - The user will provide you with text in triple quotes. Summarize this
text in one sentence with a prefix that says "Summary: ".

Step 2 - Translate the summary from Step 1 into Spanish, with a prefix that
says "Translation: ".

USER """insert text here"""

Tactic: Provide examples

Providing general instructions that apply to all examples is generally more efficient than
demonstrating all permutations of a task by example, but in some cases providing examples

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may be easier. For example, if you intend for the model to copy a particular style of responding
to user queries which is difficult to describe explicitly. This is known as "few-shot" prompting.

SYSTEM Answer in a consistent style.

USER Teach me about patience.

ASSISTANT The river that carves the deepest valley flows from a modest spring; the
grandest symphony originates from a single note; the most intricate
tapestry begins with a solitary thread.

USER Teach me about the ocean.

Tactic: Specify the desired length of the output

You can ask the model to produce outputs that are of a given target length. The targeted
output length can be specified in terms of the count of words, sentences, paragraphs, bullet
points, etc. Note however that instructing the model to generate a specific number of words
does not work with high precision. The model can more reliably generate outputs with a
specific number of paragraphs or bullet points.

USER Summarize the text delimited by triple quotes in about 50 words.

"""insert text here"""

USER Summarize the text delimited by triple quotes in 2 paragraphs.

"""insert text here"""

USER Summarize the text delimited by triple quotes in 3 bullet points.

"""insert text here"""

Strategy: Provide reference text

Tactic: Instruct the model to answer using a reference text

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If we can provide a model with trusted information that is relevant to the current query, then
we can instruct the model to use the provided information to compose its answer.

SYSTEM Use the provided articles delimited by triple quotes to answer questions. If
the answer cannot be found in the articles, write "I could not find an
answer."

USER <insert articles, each delimited by triple quotes>

Question: <insert question here>

Given that all models have limited context windows, we need some way to dynamically lookup
information that is relevant to the question being asked. Embeddings can be used to
implement efficient knowledge retrieval. See the tactic "Use embeddings-based search to
implement efficient knowledge retrieval" for more details on how to implement this.

Tactic: Instruct the model to answer with citations from a reference text

If the input has been supplemented with relevant knowledge, it's straightforward to request
that the model add citations to its answers by referencing passages from provided
documents. Note that citations in the output can then be verified programmatically by string
matching within the provided documents.

SYSTEM You will be provided with a document delimited by triple quotes and a
question. Your task is to answer the question using only the provided
document and to cite the passage(s) of the document used to answer the
question. If the document does not contain the information needed to
answer this question then simply write: "Insufficient information." If an
answer to the question is provided, it must be annotated with a citation.
Use the following format for to cite relevant passages ({"citation": …}).

USER """<insert document here>"""

Question: <insert question here>

Strategy: Split complex tasks into simpler subtasks

Tactic: Use intent classification to identify the most relevant instructions for a user
query

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For tasks in which lots of independent sets of instructions are needed to handle different
cases, it can be beneficial to first classify the type of query and to use that classification to
determine which instructions are needed. This can be achieved by defining fixed categories
and hardcoding instructions that are relevant for handling tasks in a given category. This
process can also be applied recursively to decompose a task into a sequence of stages. The
advantage of this approach is that each query will contain only those instructions that are
required to perform the next stage of a task which can result in lower error rates compared to
using a single query to perform the whole task. This can also result in lower costs since larger
prompts cost more to run (see pricing information).

Suppose for example that for a customer service application, queries could be usefully
classified as follows:

SYSTEM You will be provided with customer service queries. Classify each query into
a primary category and a secondary category. Provide your output in json
format with the keys: primary and secondary.

Primary categories: Billing, Technical Support, Account Management, or

General Inquiry.

Billing secondary categories:

- Unsubscribe or upgrade
- Add a payment method
- Explanation for charge
- Dispute a charge

Technical Support secondary categories:

- Troubleshooting
- Device compatibility
- Software updates

Account Management secondary categories:

- Password reset
- Update personal information
- Close account
- Account security

General Inquiry secondary categories:

- Product information
- Pricing
- Feedback
- Speak to a human

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USER I need to get my internet working again.

Based on the classification of the customer query, a set of more specific instructions can be
provided to a model for it to handle next steps. For example, suppose the customer requires
help with "troubleshooting".

SYSTEM You will be provided with customer service inquiries that require
troubleshooting in a technical support context. Help the user by:

- Ask them to check that all cables to/from the router are connected. Note
that it is common for cables to come loose over time.
- If all cables are connected and the issue persists, ask them which router
model they are using
- Now you will advise them how to restart their device:
-- If the model number is MTD-327J, advise them to push the red button
and hold it for 5 seconds, then wait 5 minutes before testing the
connection.
-- If the model number is MTD-327S, advise them to unplug and replug it,
then wait 5 minutes before testing the connection.
- If the customer's issue persists after restarting the device and waiting 5
minutes, connect them to IT support by outputting {"IT support requested"}.
- If the user starts asking questions that are unrelated to this topic then
confirm if they would like to end the current chat about troubleshooting and
classify their request according to the following scheme:

<insert primary/secondary classification scheme from above here>

USER I need to get my internet working again.

Notice that the model has been instructed to emit special strings to indicate when the state of
the conversation changes. This enables us to turn our system into a state machine where the
state determines which instructions are injected. By keeping track of state, what instructions
are relevant at that state, and also optionally what state transitions are allowed from that
state, we can put guardrails around the user experience that would be hard to achieve with a
less structured approach.

Tactic: For dialogue applications that require very long conversations, summarize or
filter previous dialogue

Since models have a fixed context length, dialogue between a user and an assistant in which
the entire conversation is included in the context window cannot continue indefinitely.

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There are various workarounds to this problem, one of which is to summarize previous turns in
the conversation. Once the size of the input reaches a predetermined threshold length, this
could trigger a query that summarizes part of the conversation and the summary of the prior
conversation could be included as part of the system message. Alternatively, prior
conversation could be summarized asynchronously in the background throughout the entire
conversation.

An alternative solution is to dynamically select previous parts of the conversation that are
most relevant to the current query. See the tactic "Use embeddings-based search to
implement efficient knowledge retrieval".

Tactic: Summarize long documents piecewise and construct a full summary

recursively

Since models have a fixed context length, they cannot be used to summarize a text longer
than the context length minus the length of the generated summary in a single query.

To summarize a very long document such as a book we can use a sequence of queries to
summarize each section of the document. Section summaries can be concatenated and
summarized producing summaries of summaries. This process can proceed recursively until
an entire document is summarized. If it’s necessary to use information about earlier sections
in order to make sense of later sections, then a further trick that can be useful is to include a
running summary of the text that precedes any given point in the book while summarizing
content at that point. The effectiveness of this procedure for summarizing books has been
studied in previous research by OpenAI using variants of GPT-3.

Strategy: Give models time to "think"

Tactic: Instruct the model to work out its own solution before rushing to a
conclusion

Sometimes we get better results when we explicitly instruct the model to reason from first
principles before coming to a conclusion. Suppose for example we want a model to evaluate a
student’s solution to a math problem. The most obvious way to approach this is to simply ask
the model if the student's solution is correct or not.

SYSTEM Determine if the student's solution is correct or not.

USER Problem Statement: I'm building a solar power installation and I need help
working out the financials.
- Land costs $100 / square foot
- I can buy solar panels for $250 / square foot

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- I negotiated a contract for maintenance that will cost me a flat $100k per
year, and an additional $10 / square foot
What is the total cost for the first year of operations as a function of the
number of square feet.

Student's Solution: Let x be the size of the installation in square feet.

1. Land cost: 100x
2. Solar panel cost: 250x
3. Maintenance cost: 100,000 + 100x
Total cost: 100x + 250x + 100,000 + 100x = 450x + 100,000

ASSISTANT The student's solution is correct.

But the student's solution is actually not correct! We can get the model to successfully notice
this by prompting the model to generate its own solution first.

SYSTEM First work out your own solution to the problem. Then compare your
solution to the student's solution and evaluate if the student's solution is
correct or not. Don't decide if the student's solution is correct until you have
done the problem yourself.

USER Problem Statement: I'm building a solar power installation and I need help
working out the financials.
- Land costs $100 / square foot
- I can buy solar panels for $250 / square foot
- I negotiated a contract for maintenance that will cost me a flat $100k per
year, and an additional $10 / square foot
What is the total cost for the first year of operations as a function of the
number of square feet.

Student's Solution: Let x be the size of the installation in square feet.

1. Land cost: 100x
2. Solar panel cost: 250x
3. Maintenance cost: 100,000 + 100x
Total cost: 100x + 250x + 100,000 + 100x = 450x + 100,000

ASSISTANT Let x be the size of the installation in square feet.

1. Land cost: 100x
2. Solar panel cost: 250x
3. Maintenance cost: 100,000 + 10x
Total cost: 100x + 250x + 100,000 + 10x = 360x + 100,000

The student's solution is incorrect. They made an error in the maintenance

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cost calculation, using 100x instead of 10x. The correct total cost for the
first year of operations is 360x + 100,000.

Tactic: Use inner monologue or a sequence of queries to hide the model's reasoning
process

The previous tactic demonstrates that it is sometimes important for the model to reason in
detail about a problem before answering a specific question. For some applications, the
reasoning process that a model uses to arrive at a final answer would be inappropriate to
share with the user. For example, in tutoring applications we may want to encourage students
to work out their own answers, but a model’s reasoning process about the student’s solution
could reveal the answer to the student.

Inner monologue is a tactic that can be used to mitigate this. The idea of inner monologue is to
instruct the model to put parts of the output that are meant to be hidden from the user into a
structured format that makes parsing them easy. Then before presenting the output to the
user, the output is parsed and only part of the output is made visible.

SYSTEM Follow these steps to answer the user queries.

Step 1 - First work out your own solution to the problem. Don't rely on the
student's solution since it may be incorrect. Enclose all your work for this
step within triple quotes (""").

Step 2 - Compare your solution to the student's solution and evaluate if the
student's solution is correct or not. Enclose all your work for this step within
triple quotes (""").

Step 3 - If the student made a mistake, determine what hint you could give
the student without giving away the answer. Enclose all your work for this
step within triple quotes (""").

Step 4 - If the student made a mistake, provide the hint from the previous
step to the student (outside of triple quotes). Instead of writing "Step 4 - ..."
write "Hint:".

USER Problem Statement: <insert problem statement>

Student Solution: <insert student solution>

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Alternatively, this can be achieved with a sequence of queries in which all except the last have
their output hidden from the end user.

First, we can ask the model to solve the problem on its own. Since this initial query doesn't
require the student’s solution, it can be omitted. This provides the additional advantage that
there is no chance that the model’s solution will be biased by the student’s attempted
solution.

USER <insert problem statement>

Next, we can have the model use all available information to assess the correctness of the
student’s solution.

SYSTEM Compare your solution to the student's solution and evaluate if the
student's solution is correct or not.

USER Problem statement: """<insert problem statement>"""

Your solution: """<insert model generated solution>"""

Student’s solution: """<insert student's solution>"""

Finally, we can let the model use its own analysis to construct a reply in the persona of a
helpful tutor.

SYSTEM You are a math tutor. If the student made an error, offer a hint to the student
in a way that does not reveal the answer. If the student did not make an
error, simply offer them an encouraging comment.

USER Problem statement: """<insert problem statement>"""

Your solution: """<insert model generated solution>"""

Student’s solution: """<insert student's solution>"""

Analysis: """<insert model generated analysis from previous step>"""

Tactic: Ask the model if it missed anything on previous passes

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Suppose that we are using a model to list excerpts from a source which are relevant to a
particular question. After listing each excerpt the model needs to determine if it should start
writing another or if it should stop. If the source document is large, it is common for a model to
stop too early and fail to list all relevant excerpts. In that case, better performance can often
be obtained by prompting the model with followup queries to find any excerpts it missed on
previous passes.

SYSTEM You will be provided with a document delimited by triple quotes. Your task is
to select excerpts which pertain to the following question: "What significant
paradigm shifts have occurred in the history of artificial intelligence."

Ensure that excerpts contain all relevant context needed to interpret them -
in other words don't extract small snippets that are missing important
context. Provide output in JSON format as follows:

[{"excerpt": "..."},
...
{"excerpt": "..."}]

USER """<insert document here>"""

ASSISTANT [{"excerpt": "the model writes an excerpt here"},

...
{"excerpt": "the model writes another excerpt here"}]

USER Are there more relevant excerpts? Take care not to repeat excerpts. Also
ensure that excerpts contain all relevant context needed to interpret them -
in other words don't extract small snippets that are missing important
context.

Strategy: Use external tools

Tactic: Use embeddings-based search to implement efficient knowledge retrieval

A model can leverage external sources of information if provided as part of its input. This can
help the model to generate more informed and up-to-date responses. For example, if a user
asks a question about a specific movie, it may be useful to add high quality information about
the movie (e.g. actors, director, etc…) to the model’s input. Embeddings can be used to
implement efficient knowledge retrieval, so that relevant information can be added to the
model input dynamically at run-time.

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A text embedding is a vector that can measure the relatedness between text strings. Similar or
relevant strings will be closer together than unrelated strings. This fact, along with the
existence of fast vector search algorithms means that embeddings can be used to implement
efficient knowledge retrieval. In particular, a text corpus can be split up into chunks, and each
chunk can be embedded and stored. Then a given query can be embedded and vector search
can be performed to find the embedded chunks of text from the corpus that are most related
to the query (i.e. closest together in the embedding space).

Example implementations can be found in the OpenAI Cookbook. See the tactic “Instruct the
model to use retrieved knowledge to answer queries” for an example of how to use knowledge
retrieval to minimize the likelihood that a model will make up incorrect facts.

Tactic: Use code execution to perform more accurate calculations or call external
APIs

Language models cannot be relied upon to perform arithmetic or long calculations accurately
on their own. In cases where this is needed, a model can be instructed to write and run code
instead of making its own calculations. In particular, a model can be instructed to put code
that is meant to be run into a designated format such as triple backtick. After an output is
produced, the code can be extracted and run. Finally, if necessary, the output from the code
execution engine (i.e. Python interpreter) can be provided as an input to the model for the next
query.

SYSTEM You can write and execute Python code by enclosing it in triple backticks,
e.g. ```code goes here```. Use this to perform calculations.

USER Find all real-valued roots of the following polynomial: 3*x**5 - 5*x**4 -
3*x**3 - 7*x - 10.

Another good use case for code execution is calling external APIs. If a model is instructed in
the proper use of an API, it can write code that makes use of it. A model can be instructed in
how to use an API by providing it with documentation and/or code samples showing how to
use the API.

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SYSTEM You can write and execute Python code by enclosing it in triple backticks.
Also note that you have access to the following module to help users send
messages to their friends:

```python
import message
message.write(to="John", message="Hey, want to meetup after work?")```

WARNING: Executing code produced by a model is not inherently safe and precautions
should be taken in any application that seeks to do this. In particular, a sandboxed code
execution environment is needed to limit the harm that untrusted code could cause.

Tactic: Give the model access to specific functions

The Chat Completions API allows passing a list of function descriptions in requests. This
enables models to generate function arguments according to the provided schemas.
Generated function arguments are returned by the API in JSON format and can be used to
execute function calls. Output provided by function calls can then be fed back into a model in
the following request to close the loop. This is the recommended way of using OpenAI models
to call external functions. To learn more see the function calling section in our introductory text
generation guide and more function calling examples in the OpenAI Cookbook.

Strategy: Test changes systematically

Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether a change — e.g., a new instruction or a new design —
makes your system better or worse. Looking at a few examples may hint at which is better, but
with small sample sizes it can be hard to distinguish between a true improvement or random
luck. Maybe the change helps performance on some inputs, but hurts performance on others.

Evaluation procedures (or "evals") are useful for optimizing system designs. Good evals are:

Representative of real-world usage (or at least diverse)

Contain many test cases for greater statistical power (see table below for guidelines)

Easy to automate or repeat

DIFFERENCE TO DETECT SAMPLE SIZE NEEDED FOR 95% CONFIDENCE

30% ~10

10% ~100

3% ~1,000

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DIFFERENCE TO DETECT SAMPLE SIZE NEEDED FOR 95% CONFIDENCE

1% ~10,000

Evaluation of outputs can be done by computers, humans, or a mix. Computers can automate
evals with objective criteria (e.g., questions with single correct answers) as well as some
subjective or fuzzy criteria, in which model outputs are evaluated by other model queries.
OpenAI Evals is an open-source software framework that provides tools for creating
automated evals.

Model-based evals can be useful when there exists a range of possible outputs that would be
considered equally high in quality (e.g. for questions with long answers). The boundary
between what can be realistically evaluated with a model-based eval and what requires a
human to evaluate is fuzzy and is constantly shifting as models become more capable. We
encourage experimentation to figure out how well model-based evals can work for your use
case.

Tactic: Evaluate model outputs with reference to gold-standard answers

Suppose it is known that the correct answer to a question should make reference to a specific
set of known facts. Then we can use a model query to count how many of the required facts
are included in the answer.

For example, using the following system message:

SYSTEM You will be provided with text delimited by triple quotes that is supposed to
be the answer to a question. Check if the following pieces of information are
directly contained in the answer:

- Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.

- The date Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon was July 21, 1969.

For each of these points perform the following steps:

1 - Restate the point.

2 - Provide a citation from the answer which is closest to this point.
3 - Consider if someone reading the citation who doesn't know the topic
could directly infer the point. Explain why or why not before making up your
mind.
4 - Write "yes" if the answer to 3 was yes, otherwise write "no".

Finally, provide a count of how many "yes" answers there are. Provide this
count as {"count": <insert count here>}.

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Here's an example input where both points are satisfied:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER """Neil Armstrong is famous for being the first human to set foot on the
Moon. This historic event took place on July 21, 1969, during the Apollo 11
mission."""

Here's an example input where only one point is satisfied:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER """Neil Armstrong made history when he stepped off the lunar module,
becoming the first person to walk on the moon."""

Here's an example input where none are satisfied:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER """In the summer of '69, a voyage grand,

Apollo 11, bold as legend's hand.
Armstrong took a step, history unfurled,
"One small step," he said, for a new world."""

There are many possible variants on this type of model-based eval. Consider the following
variation which tracks the kind of overlap between the candidate answer and the gold-
standard answer, and also tracks whether the candidate answer contradicts any part of the
gold-standard answer.

SYSTEM Use the following steps to respond to user inputs. Fully restate each step
before proceeding. i.e. "Step 1: Reason...".

Step 1: Reason step-by-step about whether the information in the

submitted answer compared to the expert answer is either: disjoint, equal, a
subset, a superset, or overlapping (i.e. some intersection but not
subset/superset).

Step 2: Reason step-by-step about whether the submitted answer

contradicts any aspect of the expert answer.

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Step 3: Output a JSON object structured like: {"type_of_overlap": "disjoint"

or "equal" or "subset" or "superset" or "overlapping", "contradiction": true or
false}

Here's an example input with a substandard answer which nonetheless does not contradict
the expert answer:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER Question: """What event is Neil Armstrong most famous for and on what
date did it occur? Assume UTC time."""

Submitted Answer: """Didn't he walk on the moon or something?"""

Expert Answer: """Neil Armstrong is most famous for being the first person
to walk on the moon. This historic event occurred on July 21, 1969."""

Here's an example input with answer that directly contradicts the expert answer:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER Question: """What event is Neil Armstrong most famous for and on what
date did it occur? Assume UTC time."""

Submitted Answer: """On the 21st of July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the
second person to walk on the moon, following after Buzz Aldrin."""

Expert Answer: """Neil Armstrong is most famous for being the first person
to walk on the moon. This historic event occurred on July 21, 1969."""

Here's an example input with a correct answer that also provides a bit more detail than is
necessary:

SYSTEM <insert system message above>

USER Question: """What event is Neil Armstrong most famous for and on what
date did it occur? Assume UTC time."""

Submitted Answer: """At approximately 02:56 UTC on July 21st 1969, Neil
Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface,

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marking a monumental achievement in human history."""

Expert Answer: """Neil Armstrong is most famous for being the first person
to walk on the moon. This historic event occurred on July 21, 1969."""

Optimizing model outputs

As you iterate on your prompts, you'll continually aim to improve accuracy, cost, and latency.
Below, find techniques that optimize for each goal.

GOAL AVAILABLE TECHNIQUES

Accuracy Ensure the model produces Accurate responses require that the model has all the
accurate and useful information it needs to generate a response, and knows how to
responses to your prompts. go about creating a response (from interpreting input to
formatting and styling). Often, this will require a mix of prompt
engineering, RAG, and model fine-tuning.

Learn more about optimizing for accuracy.

Cost Drive down total cost of To control costs, you can try to use fewer tokens or smaller,
using models by reducing cheaper models. Learn more about optimizing for cost.
token usage and using
cheaper models when
possible.

Latency Decrease the time it takes to Optimizing for low latency is a multifaceted process including
generate responses to your prompt engineering and parallelism in your own code. Learn
prompts. more about optimizing for latency.

Other resources
For more inspiration, visit the OpenAI Cookbook, which contains example code and also links
to third-party resources such as:

Prompting libraries & tools

Prompting guides
Video courses
Papers on advanced prompting to improve reasoning

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