When your inbox is overflowing or you’re a busy small business owner strapped for time (and have more valuable ways of spending your time than sorting through tons of emails), you need a more efficient system for answering all of the email communication you’re getting. No matter the industry you work in, too many emails and not enough time to respond is a common complaint. But with ChatGPT, you can answer emails more quickly and efficiently, saving your time for the tasks that really move the needle.

Using the right ChatGPT prompt to reply to an email can be a total game-changer when it comes to using your time more productively. Here, we’re talking through why you might want to use AI to help you reply to email more efficiently, how to write a solid prompt, when you should avoid using time-saving tools like ChatGPT, and more.

Why Use ChatGPT to Reply to Emails?

Writing and replying to endless emails can take up a ton of time over the course of your day. When you’re working through run-of-the-mill replies, careful follow-ups, and the occasional message you’re not exactly sure how to respond to, it can be easy to find yourself stuck and struggling with how to proceed. But ChatGPT can help.

Feeding the right prompt into ChatGPT is a great way to help you:

Draft professional replies to emails
Move efficiently through admin tasks to keep your focus and mental energy fresh for more important tasks
Keep your tone consistent
Get you started on replies when you’re unsure how to respond

Although ChatGPT can’t replace your own critical thinking skills, it can give you a jumpstart and make crafting all kinds of emails and responses easier and less time-consuming.

The Best ChatGPT Prompt to Reply to an Email

When you’re using ChatGPT, the prompt you enter to tell the tool what to do really matters. To get the best response possible, make sure you’re using a prompt that clearly tells ChatGPT what you need and how you want it to sound. Give the tool some context so that it can create something that you can build off of.

For example:

Email response templates:
“Reply to this email in a [tone: professional, friendly, apologetic, etc.] tone. Here’s the message I received:
[Paste email here].
I want to say [brief idea of your response or goal].”

If there are any specific needs that you want the tool to take into consideration when crafting your response, make sure to give it that direction. If you have brand voice guidelines or anything similar, pop that into ChatGPT so that you set it up for the best success possible. The goal is to give ChatGPT everything it needs to get you to a good first draft, which you can then edit and refine to get to your finished product.

Example 1: Following Up with Clients or Potential Customers

Prompt:

“Reply in a professional and friendly tone.
Email I received:
‘Hi, just checking in on the proposal you mentioned. Any updates?’
I want to let them know I’ve made progress and will send the proposal by Friday.”

Example 2: Declining an Offer Politely

Prompt:

“Reply in a polite and appreciative tone.
Email I received:
‘We’d love to schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss next steps.’
I want to thank them for their time but let them know we’re moving in a different direction.”

Example 3: Handling a Delayed Response

Prompt:

“Reply in a professional and apologetic tone.
Email I received:
‘Just wanted to follow up on my previous message.’
I want to apologize for the delay and let them know I’ll respond in detail tomorrow.”

These prompts will yield enough that you’ll be able to get to a response you feel good about.

How to Craft A Better ChatGPT Email Response Prompt

If you’re going to start using ChatGPT or other similar AI tools that can help you with email writing, you need a good prompt. Here are a few of our best tips for crafting a better ChatGPT prompt to reply to an email:

Talk about the tone of voice: You want to get the best possible response out of ChatGPT. In order to get something that’s usable (or something that sets you on the right track), you’ll need to give the AI tool more information than just what you want it to draft. Make sure to give guidance on the tone you’d like the response to have. Explaining that you want something “friendly,” “assertive,” “professional,” “neutral,” “informative,” “educational,” or “informal,” can all help guide the style of the response you’ll get.
Explain all of the relevant information you need to include in your message: If there’s anything that you know you for sure need to include in your response, add the main points into your prompt. Make sure you give it specific instructions. ChatGPT is great at predicting what you might want in your message, but it can’t read your mind.
Keep your initial prompt short and concise: You don’t want to put way too much information in the initial prompt, you can always add additional information in follow-up prompts that will help you refine your messaging.

How to Avoid Missteps When Using ChatGPT for an Email Template

ChatGPT can save you tons of time (and stress and frustration over what to write), but it’s super important to remember that it’s still just a tool to help you do your work—it’s not a substitute for your own thinking. ChatGPT can get things wrong, so you’re going to want to know how to avoid a misstep:

Review any copy before hit “send” on your email

When you’re using ChatGPT or another generative AI tool to help you draft an email response (or anything, really), make sure you’re reviewing the output before using it for anything. Never copy and paste without double-checking the content. Make sure any names, dates, and numbers are correct, make sure the tone is right, and make sure the message hits every key point it needs to address. Once you’re happy with it, you can go ahead and hit “send.”

Don’t use ChatGPT for anything sensitive, confidential, or legal

If you need to respond to something sensitive, legal in nature, or confidential, it’s not a good idea to rely on outside tech tools. Instead, make sure you write the email yourself and/or run it past a professional expert who will be able to give you guidance. You can use ChatGPT to help with initial drafting, but make sure that anything you’re planning to actually send out has been carefully vetted and reviewed by any qualified professionals as needed.

Take time to personalize the copy whenever possible

ChatGPT doesn’t always sound the most natural. That’s one of the reasons that it’s important to review any copy before you send your email. Add some additional sentences or edit it to make it sound and feel more like you. That’s especially important when you’re emailing with anyone you already have an established relationship with, like colleagues, clients, or return customers.

Try not to use overly generic language

If you use lots of generic language in your emails (or leave it in when ChatGPT adds it into responses), all of your emails will end up sounding the same. Either ask ChatGPT to make your reply sound more natural, add specific details to switch things up (and personalize or customize your message), or edit out those phrases for less of a robotic feel.

Keep confidential info, confidential—don’t add any confidential information to ChatGPT prompts

Make sure to keep any sensitive internal information, passwords, client data, or anything else that needs to stay confidential out of any ChatGPT prompts. If you need to include any of the information in the email, add it into the reply after you’ve used ChatGPT to draft it.

When Not to Use ChatGPT for Email Replies

ChatGPT can be a great resource for drafting emails and all kinds of other written content, but there are still times when it’s just a better idea to write the email yourself or work with someone else to write it. Here are a few times when it’s best to skip the AI and rely on your own writing skills:

1. High-Stakes Conversations

If the email that you need to respond to involves anything legal, financial, conflict or disciplinary-based, anything about a performance review, or anything about a job offer, you shouldn’t use ChatGPT or other AI tools in order to write a response. These kinds of conversations are trickier to navigate and require nuance and human judgement to get right. If you really want to use AI, consider using it for a very initial starting point, but make sure you carefully review and edit the response before you send anything to ensure you only send something you feel comfortable sending.

2. Anything Personal or Emotional

ChatGPT and AI-produced email responses might sound polished and professional, but when you’re dealing with a personal or emotional conversation, it’s more important to be imperfectly human than overly polished. Do your best to authentically respond to any of these emails without the assistance of ChatGPT.

3. Complicated Internal Decisions

If you’re sending an email that’s meant to explain things like strategic decisions, internal policy decisions, or KPIs, you’re better off writing the email yourself rather than working with an AI tool like ChatGPT. These kinds of responses need added context, brand foundations, company culture, and more. They can’t be solely left to ChatGPT.

4. Anything Dealing with an Interpersonal Relationship

If you work in a relationship-focused role and regularly send emails designed to build, manage, or repair relationships, you’ll want to make sure you’re using your own voice and words to write those email responses. AI tools can be helpful with brainstorming general content, but make sure you write the finished version on your own so that it sounds authentically you.

5. If You Don’t Understand the Initial Email

If you’re not sure what the initial email is asking or explaining, you’re better off replying and asking for clarification about what you don’t understand before working your way through a solid reply. ChatGPT might not be able to accurately parse the email’s meaning either, and then you could end up with more of a mess than before.

While ChatGPT and other AI tools are great when it comes to brainstorming and making your work more efficient, it’s super important that your judgement is still the final check. Some email replies just aren’t appropriate situations for relying solely on AI, so make sure you look closely at ChatGPT's response.

How to Use ChatGPT Prompts for Follow-Up Emails

After you send or respond to an email, you might need to follow up. Follow-ups can be tricky because it’s sometimes hard to know how to follow up without coming across as awkward, pushy, or rude. ChatGPT can help you craft your follow-up emails so that you feel more confident when it’s time to hit send.

Here’s how:

General Follow-Up Prompt Example

Prompt:

Write a [tone: polite, friendly, professional] follow-up email.
Situation: [Briefly explain what you're following up on—e.g., a proposal, a job interview, a meeting request].
Time since last email: [e.g., 3 days, 1 week].
Goal: [e.g., Get a response, schedule a meeting, check on progress].

Here are a few examples for common types of emails that will help you get started with your own follow-ups:

Example 1: Following Up on a Job Application

Prompt:

“Write a polite and professional follow-up email.
Situation: I applied for a [industry] role and haven't heard back. (You could also use the job title.)
Time since last email: 10 days.
Goal: Politely ask if there are any updates or next steps.”

Example 2: Following Up After a Sales Call

Prompt:

“Write a friendly follow-up email.
Situation: I had a great sales call with a client about a [topic of your call].
Time since last contact: 4 days.
Goal: Thank them for their time and see if they have any additional questions.”

Example 3: Following Up on a Proposal

Prompt:

“Write a professional but friendly follow-up email.
Situation: I sent a project proposal to a client and want to check if they had a chance to review it.
Time since last email: 1 week.
Goal: Encourage them to reach out with any feedback or next steps.”

How to Write Better Follow-Up Emails Using ChatGPT

Refer to the previous email or interaction: When you follow up, make sure you mention the last email you sent or the last interaction you had with the person to give them some context for your follow-up questions.
Keep it short: Follow-up emails shouldn’t be super long. Keep them polite and concise so that they can read and respond quickly and easily.
Make the next steps clear: Make sure that you’re offering clear instructions, such as answering a question, scheduling a call, approving a deliverable, or confirming a timeline so that the person receiving the follow-up email has guidance on how to respond and what you need from them. Clear action items are always a good idea.
Match the tone of the email to the nature of your relationship: If you’ve known the contact for a while and work closely with them regularly, a more informal writing style is totally fine. If this person is a newer acquaintance, it’s best to keep things more formal and send a more professional email.

The Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT for Follow-Up Emails

Sending follow-up emails is important because they can produce real results, but they can also feel a bit difficult to get exactly right. Using a ChatGPT prompt like the templates above can help, but knowing the pros and cons of using AI for follow-up emails can help you avoid making unnecessary mistakes.

Pros of Using ChatGPT Prompts for Follow-Up Emails

1. It can save time

Rather than stressing about how to word a check-in or reminder, ChatGPT allows you to have an initial draft, ready to edit, in no time at all.

2. It can help you capture the right tone

Although ChatGPT is responsive to what you tell it you need, you can use additional prompts to adjust the tone of voice in the email, making it more formal and professional, more familiar, more urgent and informative, or whatever else you need.

3. It can eliminate writer’s block

If you’ve ever battled writer’s block, you know how hard it can be to produce good work when you’re experiencing it. A great ChatGPT prompt can help break you out of the writer’s block and give you a starting point that allows for a solid finished product (with your thoughtful edits, of course).

4. It allows you to customize your prompts for different situations

No matter what you’re following up on, you’ll be able to customize your prompt with the information you need so that you get more useful results.

Cons of Using ChatGPT Prompts for Follow-Up Emails

1. The responses can sound generic

If you’re using whatever ChatGPT gives you without personalizing or customizing the draft afterwards, you’re at risk for sending emails that seem a little less genuine than if you had written it yourself. Make sure you add a personal touch.

2. The responses can lack subtlety

ChatGPT’s follow-ups don’t allow for everything you’ll get directly from a human. Make sure you vet everything before sending so that you can add in the context you need.

3. There can be privacy or confidentiality worries

You shouldn’t include confidential, sensitive, or personal information in your ChatGPT prompts. Do your best to keep prompts more general and make sure to look over and edit the response you get from ChatGPT before you send your email.

Follow-up emails can move the needle and help you get results. Use prompts for follow-up emails to help you draft emails more quickly and move on to the next project.

FAQs

No. You won’t be connecting ChatGPT with your email inbox. Instead, to use ChatGPT to reply to an email, you’ll copy and paste (or summarize) any email content into your ChatGPT prompt and then go from there.
When you’re done with using ChatGPT, you can copy and paste the response and edit it in your email inbox before hitting send.
It’s better not to share anything sensitive or overly personal, if you don’t need to.
If you don’t like the generated response you get from your ChatGPT prompt, you can add further details, ask for a different tone, ask for a shorter or longer response, ask that it not use a certain phrase (or make sure to include specific information), and more. Continue revising with ChatGPT or on your own until you’re happy with the results.
You definitely can. Using ChatGPT to draft responses for customer service emails, FAQs, and other similar policies can really help make your workflow more efficient. If you choose to do this, however, make sure you check any results for accuracy and tone before sharing or sending.
One of the best ways to understand how to get the best results out of AI chatbots is to practice. Take note of particularly successful prompts and anything that can help you refine your prompts to get better responses sooner in the process.

Final Thoughts

Using a ChatGPT prompt to reply to an email can save you lots of time sitting, staring at a blinking cursor, not knowing how to respond. Putting ChatGPT to use can help streamline your inbox and save you some time. After you get an initial draft from ChatGPT, you can refine your response, make any edits as needed, and add in some personality if it’s required. Let ChatGPT do the hard work for you and make it the best AI assistant you’ve ever had.

ChatGPT Prompt to Reply to an Email: How to Save Time

Why Use ChatGPT to Reply to Emails?

The Best ChatGPT Prompt to Reply to an Email