Before you start
You need a ChatGPT account and an account with the app you want to link, such as a Google account for Gmail. Plans and workspaces differ. OpenAI's walkthrough says the plugins and actions you can use depend on both, so a colleague's list may be longer than yours.
Three terms come up. A connector is a link between ChatGPT and one app, so ChatGPT can read from it or act in it for you. OAuth is the sign-in method these links use: you approve a list of permissions, called scopes, and the app hands ChatGPT a token that carries only those permissions, never your password. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard many of the links are built on, and Mindket's MCP guide explains it in plain words.
The menu name differs by page: the API guide says connectors and the walkthroughs say Plugins. A timeline further down lists the dated entries.
Connect Gmail in six steps
The steps follow OpenAI's two walkthroughs for the ChatGPT desktop app. Gmail is the example because it is the one both of them use.
- Open Plugins. In the ChatGPT desktop app, choose Plugins in the sidebar. OpenAI's page also names
chatgpt.com/pluginsas the place the list lives. - Find the app. Search for Gmail. One OpenAI page says to select Install while the cards on both pages show a button that reads Add, so press whichever yours shows.
- Check before you connect. OpenAI says to check the account and the access being requested. Choose the Google account you mean to link, and read the access the app requests.
- Choose Work and type @. OpenAI's walkthroughs start the first prompt in Work. In the message box, type @ and select the app from the menu that opens.
- Ask for a read first. The prompt in the next section only looks at your mail and changes nothing.
- Read the answer against your inbox. ChatGPT works from what the app returned, so a quick look at the real mailbox tells you whether the link reads what you expect.
A first prompt that only reads
OpenAI's Getting started walkthrough has one prompt for a freshly linked Gmail, and it is a cleanup job. It is the only example prompt on that page, and it is copied below exactly.
Once you have it, a different job becomes possible: take the senders it lists and decide in your own inbox which to drop. The prompt reads mail, and the unsubscribing stays with you.
Check the last 30 days in my @Gmail and give me top candidates to unsubscribe from.Asking ChatGPT to act: the calendar example
OpenAI's Plugins and skills walkthrough links Gmail and Google Calendar together. It asks ChatGPT to find the latest email about a project, check the calendar and draft a 30-minute kickoff before Friday, with a title, attendees, time and agenda.
Two phrases from that page do the protecting. One is "Show me everything before creating the event." The other is "Flag missing details instead of guessing." The prompt below is the page's step-two prompt with the second phrase added as its last line. Fill in the project name before you send it.
The walkthrough ends with a Ready for review card whose example action is Create meeting. Its third step is to open the source email, check the time, attendees and agenda, then ask for changes or approve the event when it looks right. If the draft is wrong, ask for changes before you approve anything.
Find the latest email about [project] in @Gmail.
Check @Google Calendar and suggest a 30-minute kickoff before Friday.
Draft the title, attendees, time, and agenda.
Show me everything before creating the event.
Flag missing details instead of guessing.What each connector can read
OpenAI documents eight connectors for developers who use its API, with the tools each one exposes and the OAuth scopes it asks for. The list in your own chat app varies by plan and workspace, so yours may differ.
The scope names show what each one may do. drive.readonly, Mail.Read and Calendars.Read say read. gmail.modify and calendar.events do not say read-only. Gmail's tools in the table only read, so its scope is wider than the tools OpenAI lists for it. OpenAI puts the rule in one line: "The available tools depend on which scopes your OAuth token has available to it."
| Connector | What its tools do | Scopes OpenAI lists |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Search emails, get recent emails, read one or several messages, get your profile | gmail.modify for the mail tools, userinfo.email and userinfo.profile for the profile |
| Google Calendar | Search and read events, get your profile | calendar.events, plus userinfo.email and userinfo.profile for the profile |
| Google Drive | List shared drives, search files, get recent documents, download file content | drive.readonly, plus userinfo.email and userinfo.profile for the profile |
| Outlook Email | List, search and fetch emails, get recent emails, get your profile | Mail.Read, plus User.Read for the profile |
| Outlook Calendar | Search, list and fetch events, get your profile | Calendars.Read, plus User.Read for the profile |
| Microsoft Teams | Search chats and channel messages, fetch messages, list chat members, get your profile | Chat.Read and ChannelMessage.Read.All, plus User.Read for the profile |
| SharePoint | Resolve a site, search documents, list recent documents, fetch file content, get your profile | Sites.Read.All and Files.Read.All, plus User.Read for the profile |
| Dropbox | Search and fetch files, list recent files, get your profile | files.metadata.read and files.content.read, plus account_info.read for the profile and some file tools |
Connectors, apps, plugins: what OpenAI's pages say, by date
OpenAI's plugins page defines a plugin as the package people find, install, share and publish in ChatGPT and Codex, and a plugin can hold skills, an MCP server or both. The walkthroughs list Gmail and Google Calendar as plugin cards, and the API guide lists its built-in connectors under the heading Legacy connectors.
Search the Plugins list for the app by name. OpenAI's pages use more than one word for linking an app: the API guide says connectors, the walkthroughs say plugins, and the SDK examples say to add apps under Settings, then Connectors. If your screen says Connectors, look for the same app there by name.
Plugins as the package
Approved Apps SDK integrations could ship as Codex plugins, at first only in Codex.
Source: OpenAI: Plugins changelog (read November 6, 2026)
Permission controls
ChatGPT users can choose when connected apps ask for permission: always, before making changes, or only before important changes.
Source: OpenAI: Plugins changelog (read November 6, 2026)
Connector IDs deprecated
In the API, connector_id is deprecated for models released after this date. Existing models keep support.
Source: OpenAI: Tools, connectors and MCP (API guide) (read November 6, 2026)
Common mistakes
- Pressing Add without checking the account and the access requested. OpenAI's walkthrough says to check both before connecting.
- Starting with a request that writes. A read-only first prompt shows what the link returns before anything can change.
- Expecting a colleague's list of apps. Plans and workspaces decide what each person sees.
- Sending a vague request and hoping ChatGPT picks the app. OpenAI's prompts name each app with @, such as @Gmail, so do the same.
Try it yourself
- Link Gmail only, run the unsubscribe prompt and compare its candidates with your inbox.
- Link Google Calendar, run the calendar prompt with a real project, refuse the event once and ask for a change.
- Check the access one more app requests before you connect it, and write down which permissions you would refuse.
- Look at the scope table above and mark which connectors could change something in the account.
Next: Claude connectors
Claude links apps through its own connectors menu, and its approval wording and its desktop extensions work differently. The next lesson covers them. For the ChatGPT basics around this, the ChatGPT tutorial comes first.
Check yourself
In OpenAI's walkthroughs, where do you start to link Gmail to ChatGPT?
Show answer
B. Plugins in the sidebar The Getting started and Plugins and skills walkthroughs both open Plugins and add Gmail from there.
How do you tell ChatGPT to use a linked app in a chat?
Show answer
A. Type @ and pick the app OpenAI's Plugins and skills walkthrough says to type @ in the message box and select a plugin from the menu.
Which scope in OpenAI's connector table is not read-only by its name?
Show answer
C. gmail.modify The other three names say read, while gmail.modify says modify, so it is worth checking the access an app requests before you connect it.
What does the calendar walkthrough tell you to do once the draft is ready?
Show answer
D. Check it against the email, then change or approve The page's third step is to open the source email, check the time, attendees and agenda, then ask for changes or approve the event.
Frequently asked questions
What are ChatGPT connectors?
They are the links that let ChatGPT read from apps such as Gmail, Google Drive or Google Calendar and act in them. OpenAI's API guide lists eight under the heading Legacy connectors.
What is ChatGPT Work?
OpenAI's Getting started walkthrough is titled Getting started with ChatGPT Work. It has you download the ChatGPT desktop app, sign in and choose Work, then add Gmail and Slack from Plugins and ask ChatGPT to find an email, pull context from Slack and draft a reply.
Can ChatGPT send email or change my calendar for me?
OpenAI's Getting started page has ChatGPT draft a reply for you to review and send. Its calendar walkthrough ends with a card marked Ready for review, and you ask for changes or approve. OpenAI's changelog lists three settings for when connected apps ask permission: always, before making changes, or only before important changes. What an app may do depends on its tools and the access you grant, so check the access requested first.
Why does a colleague see apps I do not?
Your plan and workspace decide what shows up in your list, as OpenAI's Plugins and skills page puts it. Ask whoever administers yours before you assume something is missing.
Do I need developer mode to connect Gmail?
Not for the apps the walkthroughs connect from the Plugins list, which mention only Add or Install. Developer mode appears in OpenAI's SDK examples for adding your own server, and lesson 3 covers that.
Sources
- OpenAI: Getting started with ChatGPT Work https://developers.openai.com/training/walkthroughs/getting-started
- OpenAI: Plugins and skills walkthrough https://developers.openai.com/training/walkthroughs/plugins-and-skills
- OpenAI: Tools, connectors and MCP (API guide) https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/tools-connectors-mcp
- OpenAI: Plugin architecture https://developers.openai.com/plugins/concepts/plugins.md
- OpenAI: Plugins changelog https://developers.openai.com/plugins/changelog