# Self-correction (LLM)

**Source:** https://promtable.com/glossary/self-correction

> Self-correction is a prompting pattern where the model reviews its own initial answer, identifies errors, and produces a revised answer — a cheap reliability boost for many tasks.

---
Self-correction is a prompting pattern where the model reviews its own initial answer, identifies errors, and produces a revised answer — a cheap reliability boost for many tasks.

Self-correction (sometimes called "critique-then-revise") gives the model a second pass at its own work. Variants: pure self-critique (same model reviews itself), critic-then-actor (a separate model critiques, then the original revises), constitutional self-correction (rules-based critique). The technique works on factual accuracy, code correctness, and tone alignment with mixed empirical results — strong models gain less than weaker models. In 2026 reasoning models (o-series, Claude with extended thinking) effectively self-correct internally during thinking, so explicit self-correction is most valuable on smaller non-reasoning models.

## When to use

- Non-reasoning models on hard tasks.
- Code generation where compile-then-fix loops are feasible.
- Factual generation with verification budget.

## Common mistakes

- Self-correction with the same prompt — model rationalises its first answer.
- Over-applying on strong models — adds cost with no quality gain.

## Related terms

- [chain-of-verification](https://promtable.com/glossary/chain-of-verification)
- [chain-of-thought](https://promtable.com/glossary/chain-of-thought)
- [self-consistency](https://promtable.com/glossary/self-consistency)
- [reasoning-model](https://promtable.com/glossary/reasoning-model)

*Last updated: 2026-06-01*
---

Original page: https://promtable.com/glossary/self-correction
Maintained by Promtable (https://promtable.com). Content: CC BY 4.0. Cite as "Promtable — https://promtable.com/glossary/self-correction".
Contact: info@vibecodingturkey.com.