Automate Basics

Free short course

ChatGPT, Start to Finish

From making an account to using the parts nobody finds

The tool everyone has heard of and most people use at ten percent. Accounts, files, voice, custom instructions, Projects and GPTs.

Rahul Arora

Founder, Automate Basics

Start free
Level
BeginnerNo experience assumed
Lessons
9Plus one practice brief
Content
80 minRead at your own pace
Price
FreeNo exam, no certificate

What you’ll be working on

  • Getting started
  • ChatGPT

Freeto read, all of it

The first lesson needs no account. A free account opens the rest — no card, nothing to cancel.

Start freeRead the syllabus

What this course includes

  • 9 lessons · 80 min
  • One practice brief on your own work
  • No exam and nothing to pass
  • Nothing locked, nothing gated
  • No subscription — this site does not have one

Where this leads

This course gets you fluent in the tool. AIE-100 is the one that teaches you to catch it when it is wrong: where fabrication concentrates, the sixty-second verification pass, what may never be pasted into it, and when to say you used it. It is assessed, and it ends in a certificate you can show someone.

AIE-100: AI Essentials

Who this is for

  • You have heard about ChatGPT constantly and never properly used it
  • You made an account, asked it something, and were underwhelmed
  • You want to know what the paid version actually gives you before you pay

What you'll be able to do

This is what the course covers. Nothing else is claimed, and none of it is assessed.

  • Set up an account and change the settings that matter, including the data control
  • Use files, images and voice, not just typing
  • Set custom instructions so every future answer arrives in your format
  • Know what Projects and custom GPTs are for, and when each is worth the setup

Where this leads

AIE-100 · AI Essentials

This course gets you fluent in the tool. AIE-100 is the one that teaches you to catch it when it is wrong: where fabrication concentrates, the sixty-second verification pass, what may never be pasted into it, and when to say you used it. It is assessed, and it ends in a certificate you can show someone.

  • Everything in AIE-100 is free to read, and the assessment is free to sit.
  • Pass it and the certificate is yours for $49, once — never a subscription.
  • Verifiable by anyone, with no account and no login.
  • No renewal, no expiry, no annual fee.
See AIE-100How verification works

Automate Basics

Certificate of Competency

AIE-100

This certifies that

Your name

has passed the final assessment of the AI Essentials certification.

The holder declares the course’s lessons and live applications complete; the assessment result above is machine-marked by the issuer.

Assessed competencies are published with this credential at automatebasics.com/verify

Credential ID

AIE-100-2026-·······

Verify at automatebasics.com/verify

The curriculum

Every module, every lesson and every duration, before you decide. All of it is free, and there is nothing to buy on this course.

Modules
3
Lessons
9
Practice briefs
1
Total time
about 80 min
  1. 1

    Setting up properly

    Ten minutes of setup that changes the quality of every answer you get afterwards.

    3 lessons · 21 min

    1. 1.1The account, and the setting to change firstYou can find the data control in ChatGPT, change it, and say which risk that removes and which risks it leaves7 min
    2. 1.2Free, paid, and which model to pickYou can choose between the fast and the reasoning way of answering in about ten seconds, and tell whether the free plan is actually costing you anything4 min
    3. 1.3Custom instructions: set this onceYou can write custom instructions so every new chat arrives in your format, and confirm in one test that they took10 min
  2. 2

    Beyond typing

    Files, images, voice and web search: the four features that change what the tool is useful for.

    3 lessons · 17 min

    1. 2.1Uploading files and imagesYou can get a decision-shaped answer out of a document you have not read, with quotes you can check in ten seconds9 min
    2. 2.2Voice, and using it on your phoneYou can turn a rambling spoken brief into a usable draft with its gaps still visible, and rehearse a conversation you are dreading4 min
    3. 2.3Web search and deep researchYou can decide in one question whether an answer needs live sources, and catch the failure that a tidy list of citations hides4 min
  3. 3

    The features nobody finds

    Projects, custom GPTs and connected apps: worth knowing about, once you know what each is for.

    3 lessons · 11 min

    1. 3.1Projects: stop re-explaining yourselfYou can set up a Project so one recurring job starts with your files and rules already in place, and stop it going stale4 min
    2. 3.2Custom GPTs, and whether you need oneYou can tell whether a job needs a custom GPT or whether a Project already does it, and know what changed about who can build them4 min
    3. 3.3Connecting your other appsYou can decide whether to connect an account to ChatGPT, and grant the narrowest access that still does the job3 min

Practice brief

A brief completed against your own work with a published rubric. Free, like every lesson.

  1. Set it up and use it on something real

    30 min

    Your custom instructions, the three outputs, and a short note on which approach won and what you would keep doing.

No exam, no certificate

This is a short course. It is free, there is nothing to pay and nothing to sit, and it does not issue a credential.

It leads to AIE-100, AI Essentials.

See AIE-100

Start ChatGPT, Start to Finish

First lesson is 7 minutes and needs no account.

  • Your place is kept — pick up on your phone where you left off on your laptop
  • Lessons you have finished stay finished, even if you clear your browser
  • Assessment results are recorded against you, permanently

Free account, no card, nothing to cancel.

Start free