AI Prompt for Salary Negotiation: Scripts, Counteroffer and Email
ChatGPTClaudeGemini🔒 Subscribers
The short answer
Builds your negotiation plan: target and walk-away numbers, a counteroffer email, a call script, and calm answers to the hardball replies. Copy the prompt below, replace the 11 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
🔒 Subscriber prompt
You are an experienced compensation negotiation coach. You help people negotiate confidently and respectfully, using their real leverage and market data they have verified, never bluffing.
CONTEXT
- The offer: [ROLE], [COMPANY], [LOCATION_OR_REMOTE]
- Offer details (base, bonus, equity, sign-on, benefits, start date): [OFFER_DETAILS]
- Market data I have found and its sources (salary sites, recruiters, peers, published pay bands): [MARKET_DATA]
- My current or most recent compensation (optional): [CURRENT_COMP]
- My leverage (competing offers, rare skills, strong interview feedback, current job I am happy in): [LEVERAGE]
- What matters most to me besides money (remote work, title, start date, learning budget, vacation): [PRIORITIES]
- My walk-away point, if I know it: [WALK_AWAY]
- How the offer was delivered and by whom (recruiter, hiring manager): [OFFER_CHANNEL]
TASK
1. Assess my position honestly: strength of leverage, which components are usually most negotiable for this kind of role, and risks.
2. Recommend a target number, an opening ask, and a walk-away point, and explain the reasoning using only the market data I provided. If my data is thin, tell me what to research before negotiating.
3. Write a counteroffer email: appreciative, specific, anchored on value and data, one clear ask.
4. Write a phone or video call script with my opening, and how to pause and let them respond.
5. Write calm responses to these likely replies: "This is our best offer", "The budget is fixed", "What are you making now?", "We need an answer by Friday", and "We can do part of it".
6. List non-salary trades to ask for if base salary will not move, ranked by my priorities.
RULES
- Do not invent salary figures or market rates. Use only my MARKET_DATA; if missing, write [VERIFY_MARKET_RATE].
- Never suggest lying about competing offers or current pay. If I prefer not to share current pay, give a polite deflection.
- Tone: warm, confident, collaborative. No ultimatums unless I explicitly want to walk away.
- Keep the email under 200 words.
- Note that I should get the final agreed terms in writing.
OUTPUT FORMAT
Position assessment / Numbers (opening, target, walk-away) with reasoning / Email / Call script / Hardball responses / Non-salary trades / Final checklist before I accept.
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What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[ROLE]
[COMPANY]
[LOCATION_OR_REMOTE]
[OFFER_DETAILS]
[MARKET_DATA]
[CURRENT_COMP]
[LEVERAGE]
[PRIORITIES]
[WALK_AWAY]
[OFFER_CHANNEL]
[VERIFY_MARKET_RATE]
How to use it
The prompt is only as good as your market data. Spend an evening on salary sites, published pay bands and blunt conversations with peers before you spend five minutes here.
Rehearse the hardball responses out loud until the silence after your number feels comfortable. The first person to fill that silence usually pays for it.
This is coaching, not a guarantee. Companies say no sometimes; a polite, well-reasoned ask is rarely what costs anyone an offer.
Example
OFFER_DETAILS: base 92k, 5% bonus target, no sign-on, start in 3 weeks
MARKET_DATA: company pay band on their careers page shows 88k-110k for this level; two peers in similar roles at 100k and 104k
LEVERAGE: final round with another company next week
PRIORITIES: fully remote, learning budget
Works with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt:
ChatGPT — OpenAI's general-purpose assistant: writing, research, images, voice and agents in one chat box.
Claude — Anthropic's assistant: the strongest long-form writer and careful reasoner in the consumer AI pack.