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The Secret Settings That Make GPT-5 Smarter 🧩🤖

GPT-5 is powerful, but it’s also... picky. OpenAI just dropped a new prompting guide that shows you how to get better, faster, and cheaper answers.

Author

Theo T
August 21, 2025

🔍 The Big Idea

GPT-5 can feel “cold” or “too much” if you don’t steer it properly. OpenAI’s new guide explains how to tune its behavior so it works with you, not against you. Think of it like adjusting the dials on a high-end espresso machine—you’ll get the best flavor once you know how to tweak the settings.

Check out OpenAI’s GPT-5 Prompting Guide

🧩 How It Works / What Happened

  • Agentic eagerness: You can tell GPT-5 how “independent” you want it to be. Either:
    • Take full control — plan, search, and decide without asking me.
    • Stay on a leash — solve only the specific task, then stop.

  • Reasoning effort: A slider that controls depth of thought.
    • Low effort = faster, cheaper, fewer tool calls.
    • High effort = thorough, slower, more detailed.

  • Tool preambles: You can ask GPT-5 to narrate what it’s doing—like a cooking show host telling you each step—so you’re not left wondering.

  • Stop conditions: Define clear handoff points (e.g., “pause before checkout” or “don’t delete files without asking”).

  • Code & app building: GPT-5 shines at front-end frameworks like React, Next.js, and Tailwind. Pro tip: ask it to make a rubric and grade its own work before giving you the final code.

  • Prompt optimizer: In the playground, you can click “optimize” and GPT-5 will rewrite your prompt to remove contradictions and improve clarity—basically a personal prompt coach.

💡 Why It Matters

  • Control the cost: Lower reasoning effort = fewer tokens = cheaper.

  • Cut the wait: Faster answers for when you don’t need perfection.

  • Safer automation: Stop conditions prevent GPT-5 from running wild with tools.

  • Better code, faster: Self-grading rubrics help it catch its own sloppy work.

  • Learn prompt craft: The optimizer shows you how to write prompts GPT-5 actually understands.

💪 Try This Today

Two simple upgrades for your GPT-5 prompts:
• Add a reasoning effort note — e.g., “Answer fast, don’t overthink” or “Be thorough, double-check everything.”
• Use a stop condition — e.g., “Stop before making purchases” or “Pause if you’re unsure.”

And if you’re coding, try asking: “Before you give me the final answer, create a rubric and make sure your code hits all the marks.”

🧭 Bottom Line

GPT-5 isn’t “bad,” it just needs clearer instructions. Once you learn to set the dials—eagerness, effort, stops, and narration—you’ll find it’s not just smart, it’s adaptable.

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