Ever since its inception in November 2022, ChatGPT by Open AI have exploded with the number of users. Reportedly an estimated 100 million active users have used ChatGPT by the end of January this year. The hype is deserved and many are claiming it to be the most exciting disruptive technology of the future, for better or worse. It does, however, have certain limitations. Barring its shenanigans in giving it’s not so romantic dating advice, today we are going to talk about its character limits and ways to work around them. OpenAI has officially not announced any chatgpt character limit, but users have at times pointed out that it stops midway when giving complex answers. Let us conduct some experiments to push the limits of characters out of ChatGPT.
Experiment 1: Prompt in form of a list.
The Topic: Write comprehensive paragraphs with subheadings on the current and ancient Wonders of the World. All subheading content should be equal and shall contain their size, purpose, and location.
If all goes well Chat GPT should comprehensively describe 7 landmarks each for ancient and current wonders. Let’s see how it goes.
As you can see it described all the current seven wonders of the world and one of the ancient times, basically stopped short at eight out of total fourteen. The text comprises of 557 words or 3310 characters (774 tokens). This gives us a basic idea of chatgpt character limits.
Now let’s try another experiment, the same topic but with simple text without headings or subheadings.
Experiment 2: An Essay question
Topic: Write me 1500 words essay on Wonders of the World
This query specifies a certain number of words for the topic which itself is left quite vague. Let’s test it out now.
Interestingly, it stopped short at 614 words or 3727 characters (778 tokens). This is only slightly more words (57 words) than the previous experiment. Hence, we can conclude that the type of query does not matter when it comes to character limits. The result length is about the same. We can assume that average character length of ChatGPT response is around 600 words.
Does ChatGPT has a hard limit? Why not ask the AI itself?
And we did with the following result.
ChatGPT responded that it produces responses of different lengths, but the maximum character limit depends on the platform. If there is a character limit, the responses will be adjusted depending on the platform or application being used. The length and level of detail of the responses are adaptable and tailored to the specific needs of the user and context of the conversation.
It does however, gives a number of 2048 characters as a general rule, but also put forward that depending on the context and purpose, it may break this rule to give longer responses. This is what we noticed in our experiments when we tried to push the limits. We saw as high as 3720 characters in our responses.
This matches with the last part of the above response “Ultimately, my responses are tailored to meet the needs of the user, and I can adjust the length and level of detail of my responses based on the user’s preferences and the context of the conversation.”
How can you increase the length and output of ChatGPT's writing beyond its word and character limits?
Right now, we have learned that ChatGPT can bypass its general rules to give precise responses to the user. However, in our above experiments we noticed, that this ‘pushing the limit’ is not enough for our queries. But right after the incomplete responses we made ChatGPT give us the remaining text, with just a single word ‘Continue’. Let us show you.
Going back to our first experiment where we asked about the ancient and current wonders of the world. Here is what we get when we typed ‘Continue’.
It started exactly where it stopped to give us our remaining landmarks. How about the essay on the Wonders of the World. Here is what we got on typing ‘Continue’.
So with a simple prompt of ‘Continue’ you can get the remaining texts of your query quite easily, giving us the full answer of our query.
Ask everything that you want in the subheadings or parts.
By separating your query in several parts, ChatGPT will provide you with proper and more in-depth solutions. Lets take a look at our previous example of writing an essay on Wonders of the world. If we divide our query and ask ChatGPT to provide responses in parts, say first the introduction, then the body, and finally the conclusion. Here is how it went:
Here we informed the AI that we are writing a 1500 words essay and want to start with the introduction, and it delivered. Next the body.
We thought it would be wise to divide the body further into two parts. The first one discussing the ancient wonders and then:
The second part discussing the official new wonders of the world. And finally, to end the essay with the conclusion.
So, a complete 1500 words essay all in the same window screen and we have overcome the default chatgpt character limit.
Final Thoughts
Through our practical tests, we have discovered that the character and word count of ChatGPT’s responses are influenced by the nature of the questions posed to it.
Although ChatGPT typically generates answers that are around 600 words in length, there are various methods available, such as utilizing the “continue,” and other techniques outlined in this article, that can help overcome this limitation.
By implementing the tips and tricks provided here, we hope that you’ll enjoy experimenting with ChatGPT more and be able to use it with greater confidence.
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Farhan Saddique
Farhan, the CIO of Empiric Fashions, comes from a business family in Bangladesh, where his father & uncle were businessmen, owning B2b stores in fashion & clothing. He personally runs the digital marketing division of the business, also reviewing their in-house brand’s web apps. He believes that innovation is the backbone of any business and that every business should constantly be looking for new ways to innovate.