09.01.2026
8 min
How To Use ChatGPT To Summarize An Article [2026]
By Sanduni
Growth Content Editor
Honestly, I can't stand going through hours of virtual meeting recordings or pages of notes to just summarize text from them. It's very time-consuming (and hair-pulling!!).
However, learning how to use ChatGPT to summarize an article, changed how much time I spent summarizing notes. You can avoid all the time-consuming manual work by automating everything by giving ChatGPT to summarize articles.
In this article, I'll show you how to use ChatGPT to summarize text from an article or transcriptions from online meetings, and I promise you, that I won't bore you to death.
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How To Use ChatGPT To Summarize an Article (Step-By-Step)
1. Open ChatGPT
First, go to chat.openai.com, and log in to your account.
2. Copy Paste the Article You Want To Summarize
Copy and paste the article that you want to summarize into the chatbox
3. Ask ChatGPT to summarize an article
After pasting your article in the ChatGPT chat bar, add a clear instruction on how to summarize your article at the end of the pasted content.
For example: “ChatGPT, summarize this article for me, please.”
Then ChatGPT summarize the texts you pasted and will start to give you a concise and relevant AI-generated summary.
Pro-Tip: Please note that when using ChatGPT, the GPT-3 and -3.5 models have a token limit of 4,096 tokens. This means that if your input article takes up 10 tokens in the chatbox and the model’s response generates an additional 15 tokens, you will be billed for a total of 25 tokens.
4. Review the Summarized Article
After ChatGPT generates the output, or in other words, generates the summarized article, you have to examine it to make sure that ChatGPT has summarized it accurately.
Double-check if it reflects the crucial details of the article that you want to highlight, and adjust any crucial missing details.
Please note that ChatGPT's responses are only based on the training data it was exposed to, so make sure to fact check the generated summary as the information does not go beyond the knowledge cutoff date, April 2023
5. Fine-tuning and Repeating
If the summary isn't quite what you need, it could be that it has errors or doesn't actually focus on the parts you care about most, you can give ChatGPT feedback and ask for a revised summary using a more clear prompt.
For example;
- The summary seems accurate, but it doesn't highlight the importance of [specific aspect]. Can you please revise it to emphasize that aspect more
OR - In the summary, it says [incorrect information], but I believe the article actually states [correct information]. Could you please update the summary to reflect that?
Once these things are done, you should ensure that ChatGPT has generated the correct summary. For that, it is best to look towards a tool designed solely for summarizing texts. You can find a reliable summarizing tool, run your content through it, and compare its output with ChatGPT to see if the chatbot came up with the right summary. Additionally, you can use the summary generated by the text summarizer if ChatGPT isn't working that well for you.
3 Tips to Use ChatGPT to Create Concise Summaries of Articles
1. Specify the length
Let ChatGPT know your desired summary length in the initial prompt. For example, you can say:
"Give me a summary in three sentences please."
OR
"I'd prefer a detailed summary, under 100 words please."
2. Highlight Key points
When summarizing articles, especially if there are important details that you need from the output, you must instruct ChatGPT to include them. This helps capture the key insights when summarizing articles with ChatGPT.
Here are some ways you can ask ChatGPT to highlight key information or points:
“Please make sure the summary mentions [key point 1] and [key point 2].”
OR
“This article discusses [topic], but I’m particularly interested in a comprehensive summary of the main points of the section on [specific aspect]. Can the summary please focus on that?”
3. Multiple Attempts and Refinement
The first try might not be the perfect summary you desire. So feel free to provide feedback and request revisions from ChatGPT. For example;
"The summary is a good start, but it could be more focused on [aspect]. Can you please try a comprehensive and concise summary once again with a stronger emphasis on that?"
3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using ChatGPT to Summarize Articles
1. Avoid one-line prompts.
Avoid one-line prompts for complex tasks like article summaries, because ChatGPT can't always understand your intent or meaning with just one line. So be specific!
Try using templates as much as possible to guarantee the perfect output. this way it adheres to the template as accurately and it can give the most desired output with all the information you need.
This is the prompt that I personally use to summarize most news articles, using ChatGPT;
Please Summarize this context:
[ Paste the content you want to summarize]
Write in simple language
Summarize Format: Bullet points
(You can adjust the format to your preferred style)
Before rephrasing please go through the guidelines below:
Tone:
Primary Tone - Helpful and Informative
Secondary Tone - Trustworthy and Approachable
(Note: Please adjust the tone relevant to the brand identity)
Perplexity
Burstiness: Ensure heterogeneous paragraphs. Ensure heterogeneous sentence lengths. And stick to primarily short, straightforward sentences
Unfluffing: Do not include any fluff when producing content. Each sentence should provide value to the overall goal of the content piece. Strictly follow this guideline
Target Audience:
[ Give a detailed identity to your target audience possible in three simple points]
By providing as much context as possible about the article you want to be summarized, such as the target audience or key points, through a well-structured template, you are bound to get a good-quality generated summary.
2. Don't Stay in The Same Chat Expecting Same Results
ChatGPT tends to forget past conversations. Always start fresh for each new summary that you do. Avoid continuing conversations within the same chat window if you want varied results. Asking too many different things in the same chat window can lead the AI to hallucinate and generate outputs that confuse you and the AI.
For example;
Imagine ChatGPT as a chef. If you keep asking for different dishes (summaries) without clearing the kitchen (starting a new chat), the chef might get confused and use leftover ingredients (past conversation) to create something unexpected (hallucinated output). For the best summaries, give ChatGPT a clean workspace (new chat) and clear instructions (templates)!
3. Not Summarizing Sections of Long Articles.
For lengthy pieces, consider summarizing sections individually. When you want to summarize an article, but it is very long, ChatGPT tends to hallucinate and only provide outputs that contain half of the original context.
To get the best use of the lengthy article's content, you must summarize each section of the article individually.
This way, ChatGPT generate summaries that are relevant to your article and has the same main points and ideas portrayed in the article.
Capture your first meeting
Jamie transcribes your computer's audio directly, with no meeting bots joining your call. Available for MacOS and Windows.
What Is the Best Way To Use ChatGPT To Summarize an Article?
While ChatGPT is an incredibly advanced tool, there are steps you can take to fine-tune its summarization abilities. This is done by fine-tuning the prompts that you give ChatGPT.
You can, for example, ask ChatGPT to:
- Generate a general summary
- Extract the main takeaways
- Extract action items
- Give a generic executive summary
- Summarize the decisions agreed upon in the meeting
- Write down all tasks that were assigned to you
And many more.
Note: If you want to know more about prompts, you can take a look at our list of the 100 best ChatGPT prompts.
To summarize your meetings, you can use prompts to tell the model exactly what to do with the summary. Generally speaking, the more details you give, the better the output.
Tip: If you want chatgpt to summarize better results, you must give ChatGPT examples of how your summary should look like. For example;
For Example Consider Using a Meeting Template:
"I'd like you to summarize the text below in the following format:
Meeting Topic: Website Redesign Project Date: April 25th Key Points:
- Reviewed latest website wireframes.
- Identified usability issues (be specific if possible). Action Items:
- Revise wireframes based on feedback (assign to appropriate team member)."
You can download our free meeting agenda template, and use it as a template prompt for ChatGPT to generate consice summary.
Best Prompts for Meeting Summaries with ChatGPT
1. Prompt to Summarize Transcripts
“The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to summarize the meeting and write down the most important notes.
2. Prompt to Generate Executive summary
“The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to create an executive summary about the meeting that you can send out to your subordinate. The executive summary should include the most important information of the meeting.
3. Prompt to Generate Action Items
“The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Insert Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to identify To-Dos and Decisions that were assigned or agreed on in this meeting. Only include decisions that have been specifically agreed on. If there are no specific action items, don't return any. Only include to-dos that have been assigned to a person. If there are no specifics to-dos, don't return any.
Bad examples of decisions: - Alan and Peter discussed the importance of profits
Bad examples of to-dos: - Speaker_x asked questions about topic z
Good examples of decisions: - The group agreed on the new measures that were presented to the group
Good examples of to does: - Speaker_x will create a presentation for company x by next week
Group both to-dos and decisions into different groups like this:
Decisions: - Decision 1 - Decision 2
To-Dos: - To Do 1 - To Do 2
Prompt to Generate Main Takeaways
“The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to identify, summarize the main takeaways from this meeting. Only include the most important takeaways that have been discussed.
Prompt to Generate Decisions
“The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Insert Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to identify decisions that were assigned or agreed on in this meeting. Only include decisions that have been specifically agreed on. If there are no specific action items, don't return any.
Bad examples of decisions: - Alan and Peter discussed the importance of profits
Bad examples of to-dos: - Speaker_x asked questions about topic z
Good examples of decisions: - The group agreed on the new measures that were presented to the group
Good examples of to does: - Speaker_x will create a presentation for company x by next week
The output of the decisions should look as follows
Decisions:
- Decision 1 - Decision 2
Prompt to Generate Tasks
The following is a transcript of a meeting: (Insert Transcript)
Imagine you are an assistant that listened to this meeting. Your task is to identify to-dos that were discussed in this meeting. Only include to-dos that have been assigned to a person. If there are no specific to-dos, don't return any.
Bad examples of to-dos: - Send email to client - Schedule meeting
Good examples of to-dos: - John: sent out email to client by next Friday (23.06.23) - Anna: Schedule meeting for marketing team to discuss the next campaign
Use Jamie To Automate Your Meeting Notes
Instead of doing all the manual work of copying the transcript into ChatGPT and experimenting with prompts, there is a lot easier way to do it. You can simply download jamie and have it automatically summarize your meetings with just a few clicks.
Advantage of Using jamie as Your AI Note Taker
Get readable summaries and clear action items instead of messy transcripts
You stop digging through walls of text to find what was decided. Jamie structures every meeting into readable summaries organized by topic, pulls out specific action items with the right people assigned, and gives you clean transcripts you can edit in seconds.
- Meeting notes: Get topic-organized summaries with speaker quotes that help you remember the exact conversation
- Action items: See captured tasks with assigned owners automatically pulled from the discussion
- Transcription: Access instant transcripts for every meeting that are readable and searchable
- Editing: Make changes to summaries or transcripts with formatting tools, find-replace, and link insertion
- Tagging: Organize meetings with tags so you can filter and find them later
Remember who said what without replaying the recording
You skip the confusion of "who was that again" in your notes. Jamie identifies speakers, remembers voices across meetings, syncs with your calendar to auto-populate attendee names, generates descriptive meeting titles automatically, and sends optional consent emails to participants before recording.
- Speaker identification: Jamie labels speakers in transcripts so you know who contributed each point
- Speaker memory: The tool remembers voices from past meetings and links names automatically for future calls
- Calendar integration: Connect Google or Outlook calendar to sync meeting details and populate attendee information
- Automatic meeting titles: Get meaningful titles generated for ad-hoc meetings instead of generic time stamps
- Consent emails: Send automatic notifications to attendees 24 hours before meetings informing them about recording
Work anywhere without platform restrictions or privacy concerns
You avoid the awkwardness of bots joining calls and platform compatibility headaches. Jamie works as a native application on your device, captures meetings online or offline, supports in-person discussions, handles conversations in any language, and keeps everything secure with European privacy standards.
- Bot-free operation: No virtual bot joins your calls, Jamie captures system audio directly from your device
- Cross-platform support: Works on macOS, Windows, and iOS so you can record meetings on any device
- Online and offline meetings: Capture notes during video calls, in-person meetings, or offline discussions without internet
- 100+ languages: Transcribe and generate summaries in over 100 languages with automatic language detection
- GDPR-compliant encryption: All data encrypted with AES in transit and at rest, stored in Frankfurt Germany servers
- iOS mobile app: Record in-person meetings from your phone with same features as desktop
Push meeting insights into your tools without manual data entry
You stop copying and pasting meeting notes into five different systems. Jamie connects directly to your CRM and productivity apps, sends summaries and tasks automatically, and preserves formatting when you need to move content manually.
- Salesforce integration: Send summaries and transcripts as notes to any Salesforce record like leads or opportunities
- HubSpot integration: Push meeting notes to HubSpot contacts, deals, or companies automatically or manually
- Attio integration: Sync summaries and transcripts to Attio person or company records as notes
- Asana integration: Send action items as tasks to Asana projects with summary attached as PDF
- Notion and OneNote: Automatically or manually sync meeting notes to Notion databases or OneNote pages
- Webhooks: Set up custom integrations through Zapier or Make using webhook triggers for new meetings
- Copy-paste compatibility: Preserve formatting and task status when pasting into tools like Linear, Todoist, or Bear
Get answers and insights without reading every transcript
You avoid scrolling through hours of past meetings hunting for one detail. Jamie lets you ask questions about your meetings, jot quick thoughts during calls, structure notes with custom templates, and search across all your meeting history.
- Ask AI: Ask questions about single meetings or search across all your meetings to find specific information
- Scratch Pad: Jot down quick thoughts, follow-ups, or reminders during meetings without switching tabs or apps
- Templates: Apply predefined note structures for different meeting types like sales calls, standups, or interviews
- Search: Find past meetings and specific topics across your entire meeting history with searchable transcripts
Try jamie now for free and save hours of work.
Conclusion
First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this article till the end. I truly appreciate it.
I sincerely hope that you found this article valuable and informative. Writing this piece was a such pleasure for me, and I hope that it has provided you with some helpful insights that you can use to enhance your summarization skills with ChatGPT.
As always, if you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to reach out to me. Once again, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!
Capture your first meeting
Jamie transcribes your computer's audio directly, with no meeting bots joining your call. Available for MacOS and Windows.
FAQs
How Long Should a Summary Be?
The length of a summary depends on various factors, such as the length of the original article and the purpose of the summary. As a general guideline, aim for a summary that is approximately 25-30% of the original article's length. However, adapt the length according to your specific needs and the level of detail required.
Can ChatGPT Summarize Videos?
No, ChatGPT cannot directly summarize videos. Because ChatGPT is a text-based AI. It can only process and generate text, but it cannot still transcribe video content. However, if you want your video meetings to be transcribed, consider using jamie, as it does it so seamlessly without interfering with the meeting. So you can relax and enjoy the meeting while jamie writes and summarizes the meeting notes for you.
Can ChatGPT Summarize Technical or Specialized Articles?
ChatGPT can provide summaries for a wide range of topics, including technical or specialized articles. However, it may not possess domain-specific knowledge and may not fully understand complex technical concepts. In such cases, it's important to fact-check the generated summaries to make sure their accuracy and coherence.
Sanduni Yureka is a Growth Content Editor at Jamie, known for driving a 10x increase in website traffic for clients across Singapore, the U.S., and Germany. With an LLB Honors degree and a background in law, Sanduni transitioned from aspiring lawyer to digital marketing expert during the 2019 lockdown. She now specializes in crafting high-impact SEO strategies for AI-powered SaaS companies, particularly those using large language models (LLMs). When she’s not binge-watching true crime shows, Sanduni is obsessed with studying everything SEO.
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