ChatGPT and Claude are great at being correct and terrible at sounding like a person. Paste their output into a Reddit comment or an X reply and it gets called out instantly. Here's how to fix it — in the prompt, in the edit, and in one click.
1. Fix it in the prompt
Most of the "AI sound" comes from defaults you can override. A prompt that works:
Rewrite this as a casual Reddit comment, first person.
Rules: no em dashes, no "I hope this helps," no "it's not
just X — it's Y," no listicle structure, no perfect grammar.
2–4 sentences. Take a clear stance. Sound like a real person
who's done this, not an assistant.
Give it an example of your actual voice if you can — paste two real comments you've written and say "match this tone." That does more than any instruction.
2. Fix it in the edit
Even with a good prompt, do a 20-second pass:
- Cut the summary sentence at the end. Stop on the last real thought.
- Add one personal detail — "I ran this for ~3 months," "we hit this exact wall." Specifics read human.
- Take a side. Delete one half of every "on one hand / on the other."
- Lowercase the opener, add a contraction, allow a fragment.
- Delete the sign-off entirely.
- Knock the em dashes down to one per paragraph. (Why.)
See the full checklist in 17 signs of AI writing and the AI words to avoid.
3. Fix it in one click
If you're doing this more than occasionally, the free Prowlo Comment Humanizer applies all of the above automatically — strips the tells, rewrites in a Reddit, X, or casual voice, and shows you what made the original sound AI. Paste, pick a voice, post.
One thing the rewrite can't fix
Sounding human is about tone. It won't save a comment that's off-topic, spammy, or self-promotional in a thread that doesn't want it — those get removed no matter how natural the text reads. Humanizing is the last step, not the strategy: contribute something genuinely useful, then make it sound like you.
Related reading
- 17 signs a comment was written by AI
- The em dash: the #1 sign of AI writing
- The words that scream "AI wrote this"
- Humanize an AI comment now →
FAQ
How do you make ChatGPT sound more human? Prompt it to write first-person and casual, ban the AI tells, cap sentence length, and give it your real voice as an example — then edit: cut the summary, add a personal detail, take a side. Or use the free humanizer.
What prompt makes ChatGPT write like a human? "Rewrite this as a casual Reddit comment in first person. No em dashes, no 'I hope this helps,' no listicle structure, no perfect grammar. 2–4 sentences, take a clear stance, sound like a real person."