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YES

As of 13 August 2026, AI can reply to a recruiter.

Most people should do this themselves; the prompt is on this page.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

15 minutesto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill needednone

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsNo comparable human-service price is supplied; Grammarly is an AI writing assistant offering grammar, tone and rewriting support wherever you type.

If this goes wrong: the reply sounds generic, misses a question or gives the wrong availability, and you can usually correct it before the hiring process moves on.

What to actually do

  1. Do it yourself

    The route this page recommends

    A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open the recruiter's email or LinkedIn message and copy the full message, including the job title, proposed dates, questions and contact name.
    2. Gather the facts you want to use, including your availability, salary position, location, relevant experience and any question you want to ask back.
    3. Paste the message and facts into the prompt, filling in the bracketed slots and choosing the channel and tone.
    4. Ask the chatbot to produce the ready-to-send reply and the separate list of facts or decisions to check.
    5. Compare every sentence in the draft with the recruiter's original message and your own facts, replacing any [NEEDS MY INPUT] text before sending.
    6. Check the recipient, proposed dates, time zone, salary wording, attachments and contact details in the original message, then send the reply through the same channel.

    Prompt

    Draft a reply to the recruiter message below. Write in natural British English and keep it concise, warm and professional. Answer every question the recruiter asked, use only facts I provide, and do not invent experience, enthusiasm, availability, salary expectations or interview details. If information is missing, mark it as [NEEDS MY INPUT] rather than guessing. Preserve my intended position on salary and availability. Give me one ready-to-send version and then list any facts or decisions I must check before sending.

Recruiter's message:
[PASTE THE RECRUITER'S MESSAGE]

Role and company details I know:
[PASTE THE JOB TITLE, COMPANY AND ANY RELEVANT DETAILS]

My facts and preferences:
[PASTE YOUR EXPERIENCE, AVAILABILITY, SALARY POSITION, LOCATION, RIGHT-TO-WORK POSITION IF RELEVANT, AND ANY QUESTIONS OR POINTS YOU WANT TO RAISE]

Preferred channel:
[EMAIL OR LINKEDIN MESSAGE]

My preferred tone:
[BRIEF, FRIENDLY, FORMAL OR OTHER]

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Hand it to a person

    The distant third

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot know whether the recruiter or vacancy is genuine unless you investigate the sender and company yourself.
  • AI cannot choose the level of enthusiasm or salary firmness that best fits your situation without your judgement.
  • AI cannot know which personal detail will make you sound like yourself rather than like a standard application.
  • AI can misread an informal message or overlook a condition buried in a long recruiter email.

Even on a YES, the friction has a name: taste and context depth.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs2
Verification2
Liability2
Effort delta2
Total10 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can AI write a reply to a recruiter?
Yes. Give it the recruiter's full message and your actual availability, experience and preferences, and it can produce a concise draft. Check every factual claim and date before sending.
What should I say when a recruiter contacts me?
Acknowledge the message, state whether the role interests you, answer the recruiter's questions and give clear availability for the next step. If you are unsure about salary, location or the vacancy itself, ask a specific question rather than letting AI guess.
Can I use ChatGPT to reply to a recruiter?
Yes, for drafting and improving tone. Paste only the information needed, remove unnecessary private details, and compare the result with the original message before you send it.
How do I reply to a recruiter if I am not interested?
Thank them, decline plainly and keep the door open only if you genuinely want future contact. AI can make the wording polite, but you should decide whether to give a reason and whether you want the recruiter to contact you again.

Nearby answers

All Job search & applications rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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