What are Custom Instructions?
Custom Instructions are a feature in ChatGPT that allows you to save specific information and guidelines that the AI will remember and apply across all of your future conversations.
Custom Instructions act as a permanent memory or briefing document for your AI assistant. Instead of repeating key details about your business, your role, your brand voice, or your formatting preferences at the start of every new chat, you can store this information once. The feature is typically split into two parts: information about you (the user) and instructions on how the AI should respond.
By setting these guidelines, you provide the AI with standing orders. This ensures that every response it generates is automatically tailored to your specific context and requirements. It’s the primary method for personalizing a general-purpose AI tool, making it consistently more relevant and useful for your specific needs without extra effort in each prompt.
A Simple Analogy
Think of it like this: every time you talk to a new employee, you have to explain who you are, what your business does, and how you like things done. It’s exhausting, eh? Custom Instructions are like giving that employee a detailed orientation manual on their first day. You write it once, and from that day forward, they know the backstory. They know who your customers are, they know to use Canadian spelling, and they know you prefer bullet points over long paragraphs. You never have to repeat those core details again.
Why It Matters for Your Business
For a small business owner, time is your most valuable asset. Custom Instructions are one of the most powerful time-saving features in AI. By pre-loading your business context, you eliminate the repetitive task of “getting the AI up to speed” in every single chat.
This means the AI’s first draft is always closer to the final product. Marketing copy is automatically infused with your brand voice. Emails are drafted in the format you prefer. Summaries are tailored to the key metrics you care about. It transforms ChatGPT from a generic tool into a personalized assistant that already understands the fundamentals of your business, allowing you to get higher-quality, more relevant answers in a fraction of the time.
Example: Setting Up Custom Instructions
A small business owner of a local bakery in Nanaimo, BC, might set up their Custom Instructions like this:
Field 1: What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
"I am the owner of 'Nanaimo Bites', a bakery specializing in gourmet Nanaimo bars. Our target audience is tourists and local families. We are located in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Our brand is fun, friendly, and emphasizes local ingredients. I need help with marketing, social media content, and customer service emails."Field 2: How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
"Always respond in the 'Canadian AI Guy - Knowledgeable Buddy' brand voice: helpful, witty, and practical. Use Canadian English spelling (e.g., 'flavour', 'centre'). When generating lists, use bullet points. For social media posts, always include relevant local hashtags like #Nanaimo and #VancouverIsland. Keep the tone upbeat and positive. Avoid overly complex jargon."Key Takeaways
- A Permanent Memory: Custom Instructions save your key information so the AI remembers it for all future chats.
- Set It and Forget It: You input your details once to personalize all future AI responses.
- Massive Time-Saver: Eliminates the need to repeat your business context, brand voice, and formatting rules in every prompt.
- Improves Relevance: Automatically tailors every AI-generated response to your specific needs.
- The First Step to Personalization: It’s the easiest way to make a general AI tool feel like your own dedicated assistant.
Go Deeper
- Understand the “Rules”: Custom Instructions are a user-friendly way of setting a persistent System Prompt.
- Build a Better Prompt: Use Custom Instructions to permanently handle the “Context” and “Rules” sections of the TCREI Framework.
- Create a Specialist: When you need an even more specialized assistant, you can build a custom GPT.