OpenAI officially launches (in beta) the Connectors for ChatGPT(here the official news), a new feature designed to integrate with your apps and enterprise data sources such as Google Drive, GitHub, SharePoint, Dropbox and many others.
The result? A much more useful, operational and personalized ChatGPT.
With Connectors you can:
- Search and read files from your apps directly in chat
- Launch complex and well-documented research with citations
- Synchronize data and create a true conversational knowledge base
The whole without ever leaving ChatGPT.
This news marks a concrete step toward the use of truly integrated AI in professional workflows. Is this the end of copy-paste between tools? Perhaps not entirely, but we are very close.
⚠️ Connectors are available by plan (Team, Pro, Enterprise, etc.) and also vary by geographic area.
Let's look in detail at what they allow you to do, how they work, and why they can really improve your productivity.
🧩 What are Connectors in ChatGPT
I Connectors allow ChatGPT to securely connect to external applications (e.g., Google Drive, GitHub, SharePoint), for:
- Search for files and content directly from chat
- Recover live data
- Doing complex research with citations
- Personalize the experience with business data and knowledge
👉 Note: They are in beta and connected apps remain subject to their terms of use.
🔍 Key Features
Depending on your plan (Free, Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise, Edu) e role, you can:
- Search for content in related apps
- Perform deep research on multiple sources at once
- Synchronize and index selected data to speed up responses
🔐 What ChatGPT shares with connected apps
When you activate a connector:
- ChatGPT can submit query to the app to find info relevant to your prompt.
- If you use Memory, can include data from your memories (e.g., repo "acme-uploader") for more intelligent queries.
- You can deactivate Memory or individual memories From the settings.
🧠 How ChatGPT uses recovered data
- Use content from linked apps as a context To improve the quality of responses.
- If the Memory is active, it can remember relevant info For future use.
- It can also use the data to improve web searches.
🤖 Is your data being used to train models?
- NO for Team, Enterprise, Edu: data are not used for training.
- YES (potentially) for Free, Plus and Pro only if the option "Improve the model for everyone.". ✅ Can be disabled from ChatGPT settings.
🧰 Types of Connectors
1. Chat search connectors
- For quick searches (e.g., "Show me Q2 goals in Drive").
- Results appear in chat, with link to original file
2. Deep research connectors
- For complex research across multiple sources
- Includes quotes, reasoning about business and web content
🔍 Examples of use:
- "Summarize everything we released in the last two sprints."
- "Compare the adoption of our features with benchmarks."
- "Find the cause of yesterday's downing and list the planned interventions."
3. Synced connectors (e.g., Google Drive)
- They indicate selected and synchronized content in advance
- Faster responses, even without having to query sources each time
4. Custom connectors
- Only for users Pro, Team/Enterprise/Edu admin/owner
- They are based on the MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- ⚠️ Not verified by OpenAI - use only if you know the source
📊 Availability of Piano Connectors
Team, Enterprise, Edu
Connector Chat Search Deep Research Box ✔︎ ✔︎ Dropbox ✔︎ ✔︎ GitHub - ✔︎ Gmail, Google Calendar - ✔︎ Google Drive - ✔︎ Google Drive (Synced) ✔︎ - SharePoint, OneDrive ✔︎ ✔︎ Outlook Email/Calendar - ✔︎ Microsoft Teams, Hubspot - ✔︎ Custom Connectors (MCP) - ✔︎ Plus and Pro
⚠️ Some connectors (e.g., Google, Microsoft) may not be immediately available in some areas
Connector Chat Search Deep Research GitHub - ✔︎ Gmail*, Calendar*, Drive* - ✔︎ SharePoint*, OneDrive* - ✔︎ Outlook*, Teams*, Box*. - ✔︎ Custom Connectors (MCP)*⁺ - ✔︎ * Not available in Switzerland, UK, EEA
⁺ Not available for the Plus plan.⚙️ How to link a new app
- Go Up Settings (profile icon in the upper right corner)
- Go Up Connectors
- Click on Connect next to the desired app
- You will be redirected to authorize access
💬 How to use them in chat
- Open a new chat
- Go Up Tools → Search connectors o Run deep research
- Select one or more sources
- Ask your question
- The results will contain. clickable quotes
For the Synced connectors, ChatGPT will automatically use them if it thinks they are useful, even without explicit selection.
🛡️ Admin Controls, Security and Privacy
- I owners and admin can enable/disable connectors from Settings → Connectors
- No special limits on queries
- You can remove connectors at any time
- OpenAI is working with other providers to add more
- Supported files: TXT, PDF, CSV, XLSX, PPTX, DOCX
(no images or PDFs with visual content for now)
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