How to change ChatGPT's personality

If ChatGPT sounds too chatty, too stiff, or uses more emojis and bullet points than you'd like, you don't have to repeat "be more concise" in every chat. ChatGPT has two settings for this: Base style and tone and Characteristics. Here's what they do, based on OpenAI's own help pages.

Menu names and options can change, and some may not be in your account yet. Treat the steps below as signposts.

What a personality changes (and what it doesn't)

OpenAI describes a personality as the style and tone ChatGPT uses when it answers you. It doesn't change what ChatGPT can or can't do, or the safety rules it follows. It also doesn't control everything it writes for you: if you ask for an email draft, code, a social post or a résumé, ChatGPT matches the tone to your request and the context, not necessarily to the personality you picked.

Pick a base style and tone

On the web: select your profile icon, choose Personalization, then use the dropdown next to Base style and tone.
On iOS and Android: tap your profile icon to open Settings, go to Personalization, and choose Base style and tone.

OpenAI says the change applies across all your chats, including existing conversations. The options it lists:

Default: clear and neutral, the standard ChatGPT style.
Professional: polished and precise, with formal language and business conventions.
Friendly: warm and chatty; surfaces trade-offs and may ask a clarifying question.
Candid: direct and encouraging; honest feedback with clear next steps and less small talk.
Quirky: playful and imaginative, with humor and creative metaphors.
Efficient: concise and plain; the direct answer first, then short reasoning or steps.
Cynical: sarcastic and dry, but still gives practical answers.

Tired of re-checking these settings? The free one-page Mini Context Card gets your context into any AI in about 10 minutes. Get the free card

Fine-tune it with Characteristics

Characteristics sit in the same Personalization screen. Each one can be nudged toward more or less:

Warm: more sincere and kind, or more emotionally neutral.
Enthusiastic: more excitement and curiosity, or calmer and more objective.
Headers & Lists: more formatting such as headers, lists and tables, or more plain paragraphs.
Emojis: a bit more emoji, or fewer (OpenAI says "less" means none in informational answers).

OpenAI says the "less" settings keep answers just as long and complete; they change the tone, not how much you get. Characteristics apply to the current chat and new chats going forward.

Why your personality setting seems to be ignored

Personality works alongside your custom instructions and saved memories, and they can pull against each other. OpenAI says a saved memory that conflicts with a personality, such as a preference for serious, professional answers, may override or tone down that personality. Instructions you give in the middle of a chat can do the same. So if you picked Quirky and ChatGPT is still all business, check what ChatGPT remembers about you and what's in your Custom Instructions.

Personality vs custom instructions

Think of the two settings as doing different jobs. Base style and tone and Characteristics set how ChatGPT sounds. Custom Instructions are where you tell it who you are: your role, your projects, what you're working toward, and anything specific about how you want answers (like "use US units" or "assume I'm a beginner at spreadsheets"). A preset can't know any of that.

The details about you are worth keeping in a personal context file you own, so they're not locked inside one app's settings. It works in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok, and you can paste it into any new chat with this line:

Here is my personal context file. Read it and use it for everything in this chat. You don't need to summarize it back to me. Just reply "Got it" and wait for my first request.

[paste your context file here]

Sources: OpenAI Help Center, Customizing your ChatGPT personality and Characteristics in ChatGPT.

Related guides

More guides on how AI assistants remember you:

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