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What is Chain of thought?
Short answer
Chain of thought is when an AI writes out its steps one by one before it gives a final answer.
- Category Models
- Also called CoT, chain-of-thought
- Updated 20 Oct 2026
Chain of thought, explained simply
Ask a person 17 times 4 and they may work it out in pieces. Chain of thought lets an AI do the same.
Writing steps down often gives better answers on math, logic and planning. It also lets you see how the AI got there.
You can ask for it in a chatbot with a line like: think step by step.
On ITG Now, our guides on prompts and reasoning models sometimes mention chain of thought as a way to get better answers.
Related terms
Reasoning modelPrompt engineeringPromptLLMHallucination
Questions people ask about Chain of thought
How do I use chain of thought?
Ask the AI to explain its steps or think step by step before it answers.
Does chain of thought always give the right answer?
No. The steps can still contain mistakes, so check anything important.