How to Use ChatGPT to Summarise a Long Article

Twenty pages of article, five minutes to understand it: that is the job ChatGPT is actually good at — turning a long read into a short summary you can use. The catch is that the summary is only useful if it is faithful: names, numbers and dates must match the original, and anything the summary invents is worse than no summary at all. This guide shows how to paste an article in, ask for a summary that keeps the facts that matter, and check the result before you trust it.

Privacy note: do not paste sensitive or private information into ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot. Only summarise articles you are comfortable sharing, and remove personal details before pasting.

Before you start

You need the full text of the article and a ChatGPT account. Short articles work best when pasted in full. For very long articles, summarise the article in sections instead of all at once. Menus may look slightly different by version.

If the article is too long to paste in one go

Very long articles hit the paste limit, or the chat starts dropping the middle. Split the article at its own breaks — section headings first, paragraph breaks if a section is still too long — and paste one part at a time into the same chat, asking for a short summary of each part as you go.

When every part has a short summary, ask for one combined summary of those part-summaries, in the article’s original order. Keep it all in the same chat: a new chat has no memory of the earlier parts, so if you must start over, paste the part-summaries in, not the raw article again. Then run the checks below on the combined summary before you trust it.

Steps

1. Copy the article text. Open the article, select the main text, and copy it. Leave out adverts, menus, and comment sections.
2. Paste the article text into ChatGPT. Start a new chat, paste the text, and add a short instruction such as: “Summarise this article in bullet points.”
3. Ask for a bullet summary. If the first answer is too long, ask: “Make it shorter, keeping only the main points.”
4. Ask it to keep key names and numbers. Follow up with: “Keep the key names, dates, and numbers from the original.”
5. Verify the summary against the original. Read the summary next to the article and check that every name, number, and claim in the summary appears in the original. Correct anything that does not match.

What to check

Check that the summary covers the article’s main points, that names and numbers match the original, and that nothing important was left out. If a point looks wrong, ask ChatGPT to quote the part of the article it came from.

A summary you can trust

Used this way, ChatGPT is a fast first draft for understanding a long article — not a replacement for reading it. The summary gives you the shape of the argument and the key facts; the original article stays the source you quote from and check against.

Checking the summary for invented details

AI summaries can sound confident while adding details that were not in the original article. Before you rely on a summary, check it line by line against the original.

• Compare names. Check every person, organisation, and place name in the summary against the original article, and remove or correct any name that does not appear there.
• Compare numbers. Check every figure, percentage, price, and measurement in the summary against the original, and correct any number that has been changed or invented.
• Compare dates. Check every date and time period in the summary against the original, and correct any date that has been added, moved, or misread.
• Check quotes and claims. If the summary includes a quote or a strong claim, find that exact wording or fact in the original before sharing it. If you cannot find it, leave it out.

Related guides: browse more guides in the AI Tools category, and see How to Turn On Two-Factor Authentication for Your Google Account.

A summary that checks out is worth more than a longer one that invents: it tells you what the article actually says, in the time you have, without asking you to take its word for anything. Keep the original article open whenever a fact matters, and treat every summary as a draft until the names, numbers and dates match. For more single-task AI guides, and the AI Tools guides.