ChatGPT prompts for TikTok and Instagram Reels: 6 structured templates (2026)

Why short prompts return generic TikTok ideas

A request such as “give me viral TikTok ideas for coffee” gives ChatGPT one word of context about you. OpenAI explains that ChatGPT learns patterns from large amounts of information and uses them to predict what comes next as it writes. With only the word coffee to work from, the answer is shaped by coffee content in general rather than by your account, your viewer, or your kitchen.

The fix is more context. Tell ChatGPT who you are, who the viewer is, which structure the video follows, and what you can film. Every prompt below carries that brief, so each answer starts from your niche. The prompts use one running example, a home espresso creator, so you can see how the same brief flows from angle to hook to script to shot list.

What you'll need

• A niche and one viewer. One line for what you make, one line for the person it is for and the problem they have.
• One named video structure. This guide uses Common Problem, My Solution: name the problem in the first line, show the fix on camera, end on the result.
• Your filming limits. Where you film, what gear you have, who appears on camera, and anything you will not show.
• A ChatGPT account. OpenAI's custom instructions help page says the feature is available on all plans, with a 1,500-character limit on Free and Go and 5,000 characters on Plus and Pro.
• A posted video's retention graph. For the last step, a screenshot from your platform analytics.

A paid plan is optional for these prompts. OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus help page lists Plus at $20 per month with higher limits than Free. If you are weighing an upgrade, the ChatGPT Plus guide for content creators compares the plans for creator work.

Step 1: Save your creator brief

Write the brief once and save it where ChatGPT applies it for you. Custom instructions apply to all your chats. A ChatGPT Project keeps related chats, files, and instructions together, and OpenAI says project instructions override your global custom instructions inside that project. A Project suits a creator who runs more than one account, because each account gets its own brief.

The example below is for a home espresso creator and fits inside the 1,500-character Free limit. Swap every line for your own niche and keep the field names, because the later prompts refer to them.

Creator brief. Apply it to every request in this chat.
Niche: home espresso for beginners.
Me: a home barista who films at my kitchen counter.
Viewer: someone who bought their first espresso machine and keeps pulling shots that taste sour or bitter.
What the viewer wants: better shots from the machine and grinder they already own.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution. Name the problem in the first line, show the fix on camera, end on the result.
Platforms: TikTok and Instagram Reels, vertical video.
Filming limits: one phone on a tripod, window light, hands and machine in frame, no face on camera, no second person.
Never: invent statistics, imply a sponsor, or claim health effects.
Tone: calm and specific, no hype words.

Step 2: Ask for angles inside one structure

Ask for angles, not finished videos, and keep the structure fixed. Five angles are enough to check against your filming limits in one read. Asking for the camera proof and the filming gaps of each angle lets you reject the ones that only sound plausible. For the espresso brief, a usable angle names one problem the viewer can taste and one fix the camera can show in close-up.

Use my creator brief.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution.
Give me 5 video angles inside this structure. For each angle, list:
1. The viewer's problem, in the words they would type into search
2. The one thing the camera shows that proves the fix
3. Why it fits Common Problem, My Solution
4. Anything it needs that my filming limits do not allow
Drop any angle that needs my face or a second person. Do not write hooks or scripts yet.

Step 3: Write hooks for one angle

Pick the angle you can film best and ask for three hooks, each built on a different named hook pattern. The viral hook formula guide defines the curiosity gap, contrarian claim, and stakes patterns used here. Ask for the spoken line, the on-screen text, and the first visual together, because a viewer meets all three at once.

Use my creator brief.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution.
Angle: [paste the angle you picked]
Write 3 hooks for this angle, one each using the curiosity gap, contrarian claim, and stakes patterns.
For each hook give:
1. The spoken first line, 12 words or fewer
2. The on-screen text
3. The first visual, inside my filming limits
Every hook must promise something the video then shows. Use no numbers, results, or claims I have not given you.

Step 4: Turn the hook into a script

Give ChatGPT the beats of the structure and a hard limit on spoken lines. A line limit is easier to film against than a word count, and it keeps the script on one problem. Ask it to mark every factual line so you can check each one against your own experience before you press record.

Use my creator brief.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution.
Hook: [paste the hook you chose]
Write the script in four beats:
Beat 1: the problem, in the viewer's words
Beat 2: the fix, one action per line, matched to what my hands are doing
Beat 3: the result the viewer can see or taste
Beat 4: one call to action that fits the video
Keep it to 8 spoken lines or fewer. Put the on-screen text beside each line. Mark every line that states a fact I should check before filming.

Step 5: Plan shots you can film

A script you cannot film alone becomes a rewrite on filming day. Ask for a shot list tied to each spoken line and to your filming limits, and ask ChatGPT to offer a replacement for any shot that breaks them. Request the TikTok and Reels captions in the same prompt, so each caption describes the video you will actually post.

Use my creator brief.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution.
Turn the script above into a shot list I can film alone within my filming limits.
For each spoken line give: shot number, camera position (overhead, side, or close-up), what is in frame, what my hands do, and the on-screen text.
Flag any shot that needs my face, a second person, or a second camera, and give me a version without it.
Then write one caption for TikTok and one for Instagram Reels, two sentences or fewer each, with no hashtags unless I ask.

Step 6: Review the post with your own data

ChatGPT sees your performance only when you supply it. OpenAI's file upload guide lists documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images, and audio. It does not list video files, so the practical input is a screenshot of the retention graph plus the script with the second each line starts. Image uploads work on Free and paid plans, and OpenAI limits Free users to 3 file uploads per day.

Ask for observations before suggestions. If you have not read a retention graph before, the guide to reading your TikTok retention curve explains what the drop points mean and how to change one variable in the next post.

Use my creator brief.
Structure: Common Problem, My Solution.
Attached: a screenshot of this video's retention graph from my platform analytics, and the script with the second each line starts.
1. Describe where the curve drops most, using only what the screenshot shows.
2. Name the script line and shot that were on screen at that point.
3. Suggest one change to test in my next Common Problem, My Solution video.
Do not estimate numbers the screenshot does not show, and do not treat one video as proof.

Where prompting stops for short-form video

The six prompts make ChatGPT's drafts specific to you. They do not change what ChatGPT draws on. Three limits come from OpenAI's own documentation.

It predicts likely text. It does not select proven formats. OpenAI's page on how ChatGPT is developed says the model learns patterns from its training data and uses them to predict the next most likely word as it writes a response. ChatGPT will follow Common Problem, My Solution because you named it. It cannot tell you whether that structure has worked for home espresso creators, because the OpenAI pages cited here describe no library of short-form formats selected by how videos performed. Choosing the structure stays your job.

It sees your retention data only when you supply it. ChatGPT works from the chat, your saved instructions, your project files, apps you connect, and memory when it is on. Your watch time and drop-off points reach it only when you supply them, as in Step 6. Without them, a review is general advice about short-form video rather than a reading of your post.

The same prompt can return different answers. OpenAI notes an element of randomness in how the model responds, so the same question may produce a different draft each time. Keep the brief fixed and change one input at a time, or you will not know which change produced the better draft.

Common mistakes with ChatGPT prompts for TikTok and Reels

• Asking for viral ideas with no brief. The model fills every gap with the most likely answer for the topic in general.
• Letting ChatGPT pick the structure. It will choose a plausible one. Plausible and proven are different standards.
• Asking for everything in one prompt. Ideas, hooks, script, and shots in one request leave no point where you can reject a weak angle before it becomes a script.
• Scripting shots you cannot film. Keep the filming limits in the brief and ask for a replacement whenever a shot breaks them.
• Keeping facts you have not checked. Every product detail, number, and result in a script needs your own confirmation. The prompts tell ChatGPT not to invent them. Check anyway.
• Judging a prompt by one post. Compare the next post with your own videos in the same structure before you decide a change worked.

Does Format Finder do this for you?

Yes, and it starts from a different source. Every prompt above asks you to bring the structure. Format Finder selects ideas from 65+ formats that have actually gone viral across 161,000+ student creators at OnePeak Creative, matched to the niche you set once. Choose an idea and it writes the hook, script, and filmable shot plan for it. The One Click Editor cuts and captions the footage you film. After you post, Analyse Your Videos reviews the video's craft, and adding a platform analytics screenshot grounds that review in the post's real retention drop-off.

ChatGPT drafts from the brief you write. Format Finder selects from formats with a performance record, then writes the production plan. These are different jobs, not the same job at different prices. See how Format Finder plans a video, or read the Format Finder versus ChatGPT comparison for the full side-by-side.