Hi there! It’s a great question, and it can definitely be a bit confusing since ChatGPT and DALL·E are both made by OpenAI, but they serve different purposes. When you use ChatGPT, it generates text descriptions—imaginative or descriptive prompts that could be used for art. It doesn’t create images directly. So, if you give it a prompt for an image, it might use a creative, conversational understanding to refine or add details that would help an artist or another AI to visualize what you're imagining. DALL·E 3 (or any of its versions), on the other hand, is specifically designed to generate images from text prompts. When you use it, the focus is on interpreting your prompt as clearly as possible to create visual art. Sometimes DALL·E might lean more literally into the words given, while ChatGPT can be more nuanced or expressive because it’s trained to converse and understand subtleties. The reason ChatGPT might seem to "understand the assignment" better is likely because it can add an extra layer of context and richness to the prompt. It uses conversational logic to try to interpret the nuances of what you’re describing and can even adjust based on preferences or style cues. In short: ChatGPT: Enhances prompts, adds context, and uses deeper conversational understanding. DALL·E: Directly generates images based on a prompt. For a great outcome, you could combine them: use ChatGPT to refine or enhance your image idea, then give that more detailed prompt to DALL·E for image generation. This way, you get the best of both worlds! Hope this helps clarify things a bit! Answer from GenieTheScribe on reddit.com
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OpenAI
openai.com › index › dall-e-3
DALL·E 3 | OpenAI
Modern text-to-image systems have a tendency to ignore words or descriptions, forcing users to learn prompt engineering. DALL·E 3 represents a leap forward in our ability to generate images that exactly adhere to the text you provide. Just ask ChatGPT what you want to see in anything from a simple sentence to a detailed paragraph.
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ChatGPT
chatgpt.com › g › g-2fkFE8rbu-dall-e
ChatGPT - DALL·E
ChatGPT helps you get answers, find inspiration, and be more productive.
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OpenAI Help Center
help.openai.com › en › articles › 8932459-creating-images-in-chatgpt
Creating images in ChatGPT | OpenAI Help Center
ChatGPT Free, Plus, Team, and Pro users can still generate images with DALL·E using our DALL·E GPT.
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Zapier
zapier.com › productivity › app tips
How to Use DALL·E 3 | Zapier
May 21, 2025 - ... text prompt (e.g., "A short-haired Pekingese, made of origami"). You'll also see some suggested prompts and an aspect ratio option, so you can tweak it however you want. DALL·E 3 will give you two images.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/chatgpt › how does using chat gpt to generate images differ from using dalle 4 or whatever?
r/ChatGPT on Reddit: How does using chat gpt to generate images differ from using Dalle 4 or whatever?
November 20, 2024 -

Sometimes I give the same prompt to chat gpt and the dream app or Dalle 4. Sometimes they all seem to come up with something similar, but sometimes chat gpt seems to 'understand the assignment' so much better.

Does anyone have any insight into this? I don't understand this AI stuff.

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OpenAI
openai.com › index › dall-e-2
DALL·E 2 | OpenAI
DALL·E 2 can create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles. ... DALL·E 2 began as a research project and is now available in beta.
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OpenAI
openai.com › index › introducing-4o-image-generation
Introducing 4o Image Generation | OpenAI
4o image generation rolls out starting today to Plus, Pro, Team, and Free users as the default image generator in ChatGPT, with access coming soon to Enterprise and Edu. It’s also available to use in Sora. For those who hold a special place in their hearts for DALL·E, it can still be accessed through a dedicated DALL·E GPT.
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TechRadar
techradar.com › openai › chatgpt
I compared ChatGPT's new image generator to DALL-E 3, and it's an astonishing improvement, if you have the patience | TechRadar
March 28, 2025 - OpenAI recently dropped a new image creator inside ChatGPT, showcasing that fact. The new model is not an upgrade to DALL-E 3, the standard AI image creator from OpenAI, but an entirely new technology.
Find elsewhere
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DALL-E 3
dalle3.ai › home
DALL-E 3 AI - Try DALL-E 3 Online For Free
February 22, 2024 - DALL-E 3 uses a lot of processing power due to the fact that it combines ChatGPT and an image generator. On some websites like NightCafe you’ll get a number of free trials, but if you want to use it a lot then you’ll probably need to pay. DALL-E 3 demonstrates groundbreaking image generation capabilities not yet seen in other services.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › DALL-E
DALL-E - Wikipedia
November 6, 2025 - DALL-E, DALL-E 2, and DALL-E 3 (stylised DALL·E) are text-to-image models developed by OpenAI using deep learning methodologies to generate digital images from natural language descriptions known as prompts.
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OpenAI
openai.com › index › dall-e-3-is-now-available-in-chatgpt-plus-and-enterprise
DALL·E 3 is now available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise | OpenAI
You can ask for revisions right in the chat. This is powered by our most capable image model, DALL·E 3⁠. ... DALL·E 3 is the culmination of several research advancements, both from within and outside of OpenAI. Compared to its predecessor, DALL·E 3 generates images that are not only more visually striking but also crisper in detail.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/chatgpt › chatgpt with dall-e blows away every ai image generator in terms of control and accuracy
r/ChatGPT on Reddit: ChatGPT with Dall-E blows away every AI image generator in terms of control and accuracy
March 25, 2023 -

Found some examples today. None of the other models quite get any of this right nor they have this precision and adherence to prompt.

  • Here is a "horse riding an astronaut" which was originated by Andrej Karpathy I think to show the limitation of image generation. https://x.com/willdepue/status/1705005718666158107?s=20

  • Another one is “A giant ladybug looking disapprovingly at a mini elephant” considered as the "end boss" of prompts (devised by Ted Cook). Dall-E 2 with ChatGPT gets it right https://x.com/fabianstelzer/status/1704872224182641006?s=20

  • Finally a video on generating clouds in the shape of puppies and creating logos and T-shirt design based on that. https://youtu.be/eF9xii7vYG8?si=X3ZD3QDRjlwSaHAD

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OpenAI
openai.com › index › dall-e
DALL·E: Creating images from text | OpenAI
We’ve trained a neural network called DALL·E that creates images from text captions for a wide range of concepts expressible in natural language.
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WIRED
wired.com › gear › artificial intelligence › how to create images with chatgpt’s new dall-e 3 integration
How to Create Images With ChatGPT’s New Dall-E 3 Integration | WIRED
October 28, 2023 - Since then, Microsoft has added ... AI image generator. For anyone curious about using ChatGPT with Dall-E 3 to create images, here’s how to get started and some advice based on my experience testing the new chatbot tools. ... If you’re a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, it’s pretty simple to turn on the chatbot’s Dall-E 3 features. First, log in to OpenAI’s website or the ChatGPT mobile app (Apple, Android). After opening ChatGPT, click on the GPT-4 tab at the ...
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How-To Geek
howtogeek.com › home › cutting edge › how to generate ai images in chatgpt with dall-e
How to Generate AI Images in ChatGPT With DALL-E
February 3, 2024 - If you're looking for a quick and easy way to generate images with AI, don't sleep on ChatGPT's DALL-E plugin. If you're already using GPT-4, you can use DALL-E 3 at no extra charge without having to head to a separate platform.
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Search Engine Journal
searchenginejournal.com › sej › generative ai
DALL-E 3 Image Generator Now Accessible In ChatGPT Plus
October 20, 2023 - OpenAI announced that it’s expanding access to its newest text-to-image generator, DALL-E 3, by allowing ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers to use the AI system within the ChatGPT app.
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OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › t › your-dall-e-problems-now-solved-by-gpt-4o-multimodal-image-creation-in-chatgpt › 1152166
Your DALL-E problems now solved by GPT-4o multimodal image creation in ChatGPT? - Community - OpenAI Developer Community
March 26, 2025 - We need a different topic to feature the discussions around this product and what it can do, and where it fulfills all your hopes and dreams Instead of a best-of gallery. So here it is. I’ve got a lot of mental bookmarks of past topics posted here that highlighted challenges in getting the desired output from DALL-E 3 - where it was simply resistant to any attempts to prompt your way into the product needed.
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Opace
opace.agency › blog › chatgpt-image-generation-gpt-4o-vs-dall-e-3-and-others
GPT-4o vs DALL-E | ChatGPT - Text in AI Image Generation
2 days ago - When you used DALL-E through ChatGPT, you were essentially using two different AI systems working in sequence, one to understand your request and another to generate the image. GPT-4o integrates image generation as a native capability within ...
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OpenAI
openai.com › research › dall-e
DALL·E: Creating images from text
DALL·E is a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3 trained to generate images from text descriptions, using a dataset of text–image pairs.
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Tom's Guide
tomsguide.com › ai › chatgpt
I just tested ChatGPT image generation — and it looks like DALL-E has been given a secret upgrade | Tom's Guide
June 17, 2024 - ChatGPT uses the DALL-E 3 AI image generator to create pictures. It seems to have improved so I put it to the test.