ChatGPT Getting Started Guide

• Beginners and curious users who want to explore AI without any technical barrier — conversational interface anyone can grasp in minutes, free plan with no commitment.

• Individuals and creatives looking for an everyday assistant: drafting a tricky email, planning a trip, learning something new, generating an image, brainstorming ideas.

• Professionals and knowledge workers who want to draft, analyze documents, and synthesize information fast, with native real-time web access.

• Developers looking for a coding copilot via Codex, OpenAI's coding agent built directly into ChatGPT.

• Researchers, lawyers, finance professionals, and journalists who need to explore complex topics in depth with Deep Research.

Deep Research

Enable Deep Research mode (Plus and above): ChatGPT browses the web autonomously, cross-references multiple sources, and delivers a structured, cited report. You can edit the research plan before launching and steer direction mid-run. Perfect for competitive benchmarks, industry monitoring, or market analysis.

Image generation and analysis

ChatGPT natively generates images (DALL-E) on paid plans. Describe what you want in plain language: logos, illustrations, UI mockups, marketing visuals. You can also submit an image for analysis or text extraction.

Coding assistance with Codex

Codex is OpenAI's AI coding agent built into ChatGPT. It reads your project, suggests fixes, writes tests, and refactors code. Available from the Plus plan for daily use, with expanded quotas on Pro tiers.

Writing and content creation

ChatGPT excels at long-form, coherent writing: emails, articles, summaries, scripts, and persuasive copy. GPT-5 shows notable improvements in complex frontend generation and can create websites or apps from a single prompt.

Data analysis and automation

Upload a CSV, PDF, or Excel file: ChatGPT analyzes it, answers your questions in plain language, and generates Python or SQL code to automate the processing.

Agent Mode

Available on the Plus plan, Agent Mode chains tasks autonomously by combining web browsing, code execution, and interactions with connected apps.

• Create a free account at chatgpt.com — sign up in under a minute with email or a Google account.

• Start your first conversation by typing a question, pasting text, or dropping a file (PDF, image, CSV) directly into the input area.

• Use Projects to centralize your work: add reference files, permanent instructions, and find your full conversation history every session.

• Upgrade to Plus ($20/month) if you use ChatGPT daily — the first tier without ads, with access to GPT-5.4 Thinking, Deep Research, Sora, Codex, and Agent Mode.

• Explore Codex if you're a developer: accessible directly from the ChatGPT interface, it works on your codebase end-to-end.

Summarize a long document:

Summarize this document in 5 key points, noting the section reference for each: [paste your text]

Run deep research:

Do a Deep Research on [topic]. I want: market overview, key players, 2025-2026 trends, recent sources.

Debug code:

Here's a function returning an error. Explain the problem and provide a corrected version with comments: [your code]

Generate an image:

Create a minimalist flat design illustration for a B2B SaaS landing page on the theme of productivity. Color palette: dark navy and off-white.

Analyze data:

Here's a sales CSV file. Identify the 3 most profitable products, monthly trends, and generate the Python code to reproduce this analysis.

• Message limits reset on rolling windows, not per calendar day — which can catch you off guard during an intensive session.

• Hallucinations persist across all models. GPT-5 is more reliable than GPT-4, but still produces confident-sounding false information — always verify critical claims.

• ChatGPT subscription and API access are separate billing streams — a Plus plan gives no API credits if you're building applications.

• The Go plan at $8 excludes all advanced features (Deep Research, Codex, Agent Mode, Sora) — hard to justify over Plus at $20.

• Free and Go plans display ads in the US as of February 2026.

• ChatGPT does not natively generate video in the conversation — Sora remains a separate product accessible on select plans.

Available plans (April 2026)

Choosing the right model

• Instant — quick questions, short rewrites, everyday tasks. Responds nearly instantly.

• Thinking (GPT-5.4) — planning, comparisons, long-form writing, structured research. Slower, but catches errors that Instant misses.

• Pro (GPT-5.4 Pro) — reserved for Pro plans. For the most demanding tasks: multi-step reasoning, complex scientific analysis.

Practical rule: always start with Instant. If the response feels shallow, rerun in Thinking mode. Keep Pro for what truly warrants it.