Best ChatGPT Plugins and Connectors for Work in 2026: 12 That Do Real Business

The short version: ChatGPT's integrations got renamed again in July 2026, plugins is the umbrella word now, and underneath the vocabulary the practical question is unchanged: which of these actually do work for a business team. These twelve do. If your team runs on email, the strongest pair is the Gmail connector for your own mail plus Drag, our own product, disclosed throughout, for the shared inbox. Files live in Google Drive or Microsoft 365, customers in HubSpot or Salesforce, projects in Asana or Atlassian, knowledge in Notion, decisions in Slack, design in Canva, and everything else reaches ChatGPT through Zapier. Every integration here is free to attach: you pay for your ChatGPT plan and the underlying tool, nothing extra for the connection, as of August 2026.

We publish and maintain our own MCP server, the standard these integrations increasingly run on, and it connects to ChatGPT as a custom connector. So this list is written from the builder's side, not assembled from other people's roundups, and it starts by untangling the one thing every other page gets wrong: the words.

Plugins, apps, connectors: what OpenAI's words mean now

The vocabulary has changed three times, so here is the current map, as of August 2026:

• Plugins are the umbrella again. OpenAI retired the App Directory in July 2026 and replaced it with the Plugin Directory, which holds skills, apps, and app templates. The 2023-era "ChatGPT plugins" system this word used to describe is long gone; the word came back, the old system did not.
• Apps are the integrations themselves: the pieces that connect ChatGPT to external data and actions. They did not disappear; they now live under the plugin umbrella.
• Connectors are the data integrations most work accounts actually use: Gmail, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, and the rest. They let ChatGPT search and read your real work content.
• Custom connectors are integrations you add yourself in developer mode by pasting an MCP server address. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard underneath; it is the same one Claude's connectors use, which is why a tool that runs an MCP server, like Drag, can connect to both assistants.

If you searched "best ChatGPT plugins" and expected the 2023 catalog: this is what exists now, and it is considerably more useful.

How this list was chosen

Same three rules as our Claude connector list:

• It must be attachable today, either from ChatGPT's own directory or as an official vendor integration, including custom connectors with a published MCP server.
• It must do business work. Email, files, customers, projects, money, content. Developer integrations like GitHub are real but belong on a different list.
• Capabilities are stated plainly and honestly. Native ChatGPT connectors mostly search and read; we say so, entry by entry, rather than implying every integration can act. We have not lab-tested all twelve and will not pretend otherwise. What we know firsthand is the connecting itself, because our own server is one of the things being connected.

The twelve best ChatGPT integrations for work at a glance

1. Drag: a shared team inbox ChatGPT can actually work

Full disclosure first: Drag is our product, and its connector is the one we built. It earns its place here because it covers the gap the native Gmail connector leaves: the native connector reads your own mailbox, but a support@ or sales@ inbox shared by a team needs triage, assignment, drafting, and sending, and that requires write tools. Drag's MCP server gives ChatGPT 47 of them, across boards, threads, replies, labels, knowledge base, WhatsApp, and response analytics.

It attaches as a custom connector: in developer mode, add the server at Drag's published address, paste your API key once from Drag's Settings, then Integrations, and the key is verified and handed over as the access token, with nothing stored by the MCP service. The full ChatGPT walkthrough covers it screenshot by screenshot.

What the 47 tools cover:

• Find, read, and filter email threads across your team's boards
• Draft and send replies, or start new emails and WhatsApp messages
• Move, assign, label, and archive conversations
• Search your knowledge base and reuse article content in replies
• Read response-time and team activity analytics

Drag itself is a shared inbox for Gmail teams from $12 per user per month as of August 2026, with AI included from $18. Try Drag free for 7 days, no card required.

2. Gmail: your own mailbox, searchable in plain language

The Gmail connector is the single most-used work connector for a reason: it turns "I know it's in my email somewhere" into a question. ChatGPT can search and read your mailbox, summarize long threads, and extract the details you actually need, an amount, a date, a commitment, without you scrolling. It reads; it does not send, which for most people is the right default for their personal mailbox. When the mailbox is shared and the work is replying, that is the Drag entry above.

What ChatGPT can do with Gmail connected:

• Search your mailbox in natural language
• Read and summarize threads, including long ones
• Extract specifics: amounts, dates, names, commitments
• Combine mail context with other connectors in the same chat

3. Google Drive: answers from your own documents

Connected to Drive, ChatGPT stops guessing from the open internet and starts answering from your actual files: the planning doc, the pricing sheet, the board deck. The everyday wins are summaries of documents you did not have time to read and specific answers pulled from files you half-remember. It handles Docs, Sheets, and Slides content through search and reading.

What ChatGPT can do with Google Drive connected:

• Search files across your Drive in natural language
• Read and summarize documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
• Pull specific figures or decisions out of named files
• Answer questions using several documents at once

4. Microsoft 365: Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams in one connector

For companies on the Microsoft stack, this is the equivalent of the Gmail and Drive entries combined: ChatGPT can search Outlook mail, SharePoint and OneDrive files, and Teams messages. The Teams search is the quietly valuable part, because Teams threads are where decisions go to be forgotten. Admins on Business and Enterprise plans control which of these sources are enabled workspace-wide.

What ChatGPT can do with Microsoft 365 connected:

• Search and read Outlook email
• Search SharePoint and OneDrive files and summarize documents
• Search Teams messages for decisions and context
• Answer questions that span mail, files, and chat at once

5. Slack: institutional memory, searchable

A huge share of company knowledge exists only as a Slack thread someone half-remembers. The Slack connector makes that memory queryable: what did we decide, who agreed to what, where is that link. It is a read-side connector in ChatGPT, which suits its job; the value is retrieval, not posting.

What ChatGPT can do with Slack connected:

• Search messages and channels in natural language
• Reconstruct decisions and their context from old threads
• Pull relevant discussion into whatever you are writing
• Combine chat history with docs and CRM context in one answer

6. Notion: your handbook, answering questions

Teams that keep procedures, policies, and project docs in Notion get something close to an internal help desk: ask the policy question, get the policy answer, sourced from your own workspace instead of the internet's idea of a typical company. It is the difference between "ChatGPT says" and "our handbook says", and for onboarding and operations questions that difference is everything.

What ChatGPT can do with Notion connected:

• Search pages and databases across the workspace
• Answer policy and process questions from your own documentation
• Summarize project docs and meeting notes
• Ground drafts in what your company actually wrote down

7. HubSpot: call prep without the dashboard

The HubSpot connector's job is context on demand: what do we know about this company, what deals are open, what happened last time. Asking in chat beats clicking through records, and the answer arrives already summarized. Pair it with the Gmail or Drag entry and pre-call prep becomes one question instead of twenty minutes.

What ChatGPT can do with HubSpot connected:

• Look up contacts, companies, and deals
• Summarize account history before a call or renewal
• Answer pipeline questions in plain language
• Combine CRM context with email history in the same chat

8. Salesforce: the enterprise pipeline in plain language

Salesforce is where enterprise revenue lives and where plain-language questions go to die in report builders. Connected, ChatGPT answers the questions managers actually ask: what closes this month, what stalled, what changed since last week. It will not replace your dashboards; it replaces the twenty-minute detour to check one number.

What ChatGPT can do with Salesforce connected:

• Query opportunities, accounts, and activity in natural language
• Summarize pipeline status and flag stalled deals
• Pull account context before meetings
• Answer one-off questions without building a report

9. Asana: from conversation to tracked work

The Asana connector covers both directions that matter: reading project status so nobody writes the Monday summary by hand, and turning discussion into tasks so agreements stop evaporating. "Create tasks for everything we agreed" is the single habit that makes an assistant part of the workflow instead of a novelty.

What ChatGPT can do with Asana connected:

• Read projects and tasks, including what is overdue
• Create tasks with assignees and due dates from a conversation
• Summarize project status for stakeholders
• Answer "who is doing what" without opening the tool

10. Atlassian: Jira and Confluence for the rest of the company

Most of a company does not open Jira, and Jira is where the answers are. The Atlassian connector lets ChatGPT search tickets and Confluence pages and translate them for humans: what shipped, what slipped, what the Q2 page actually decided. For the people inside Jira it also removes the ticket-writing chore, since a pasted bug report becomes a well-formed issue.

What ChatGPT can do with Atlassian connected:

• Search Jira issues with plain questions
• Summarize sprints and releases in non-technical language
• Search and read Confluence pages
• Turn descriptions into well-formed tickets

11. Canva: production design from a prompt

Canva was one of the launch partners when apps came to ChatGPT, and it remains the best example of an app that acts rather than reads: describe the asset, get an editable design in your Canva projects. It covers the everyday marketing queue, social posts, one-pagers, resizes, that otherwise waits behind a busy designer.

What ChatGPT can do with Canva connected:

• Generate designs from a described brief
• Edit and resize existing designs for different platforms
• Turn a few stats or bullets into a presentable one-pager
• Keep results in your Canva projects, ready to refine

12. Zapier: the bridge to everything else

When the tool you need has no ChatGPT integration, Zapier almost certainly reaches it: more than 9,000 apps and 30,000 actions by Zapier's own count as of August 2026. It is the acting side of the connector world, triggering real changes in other systems, with the trade-off that multi-step work needs a Zap behind it and runs on Zapier's own plan limits. As the answer to "can ChatGPT talk to our weird internal tool", nothing else comes close.

What ChatGPT can do with Zapier connected:

• Run actions across more than 9,000 apps, by Zapier's own count
• Update CRMs, spreadsheets, calendars, and lists from chat
• Chain a lookup in one tool with an action in another
• Reach the long tail of software no directory covers

Which one should you connect first?

Same advice we give for Claude's connectors, adapted to this side:

• You live in email: the Gmail connector for your own mail; Drag if the inbox is shared and the work is replying.
• Your company runs on Microsoft: Microsoft 365 first, it replaces three separate connectors at once.
• You answer the same internal questions repeatedly: Notion, and let the handbook do the talking.
• You do sales: HubSpot or Salesforce, whichever holds your pipeline, plus Gmail for the thread history.
• You run projects: Asana, or Atlassian if your company already speaks Jira.
• The tool is not in the directory: Zapier for actions, or a custom connector if the vendor publishes an MCP server.

The pairing rule holds here too: one integration that reads customer or company reality, plus one that creates tracked work or sends the reply. That pair is where the time savings stop being theoretical.

How to connect any of these to ChatGPT, step by step

1. Open the Plugin Directory. In ChatGPT, open the directory from settings. On Business and Enterprise workspaces an admin may need to enable apps first, under Workspace settings, then Apps; Business plans have them on by default, Enterprise plans start with them off, as of August 2026.
2. Find the integration and click Connect. Browse or search, then select the tool.
3. Approve access in the vendor's own sign-in flow. You authenticate with the tool directly, with the account you already have. ChatGPT receives an access token; you never hand it a password.
4. Set your permission level. In Settings, then Apps, choose when ChatGPT asks before acting: always ask, ask on any change, ask on important actions (the default), or never ask. Keep asking on for anything that sends or changes data.
5. For tools outside the directory, add a custom connector. Developer mode, available on Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans as of August 2026, lets you add any MCP server by URL. That is how Drag connects: our ChatGPT guide walks the whole flow with screenshots.

Frequently asked questions

What replaced ChatGPT plugins?

The 2023 plugin system was retired and replaced by GPTs, then apps, and in July 2026 OpenAI brought the word back: the Plugin Directory is now the umbrella for skills, apps, and app templates. So "plugins" is current vocabulary again, but it names a different, more capable system than the 2023 one.

What is the difference between a ChatGPT connector and an app?

Connectors are the data integrations: they let ChatGPT search and read sources like Gmail, Drive, and Slack. Apps are the broader integration category, including ones that act, like Canva generating a design. Both now live under the Plugin Directory. For most work accounts the distinction matters less than the permission settings.

Do ChatGPT connectors cost anything?

No. You pay for your ChatGPT plan and for the underlying tool's own subscription; the connection itself is free, as of August 2026. Availability varies by plan: Business workspaces have apps on by default, Enterprise workspaces start with them off, and custom connectors require developer mode on Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise, or Edu plans.

Can ChatGPT send emails through these connectors?

Not through the native Gmail connector, which searches and reads. Sending and replying need write tools, which come from custom connectors: Drag's MCP server, for example, lets ChatGPT draft and send replies in a shared Gmail inbox, with per-action permission prompts so nothing sends without being allowed.

Are ChatGPT connectors safe for business data?

The controls are real: vendor-side sign-in, admin enablement per workspace, and permission levels that make ChatGPT ask before acting. The sensible policy is the same as on any assistant: reading on freely, anything that sends, pays, or deletes stays on ask-first. Enterprise admins can also restrict which integrations are available at all.

If you add one integration today, make it the one that replies

Disclosure once more: Drag is our product. The native connectors on this page read, and reading is genuinely useful, but the gap between "ChatGPT knows what your customers said" and "ChatGPT drafted the replies for your review" is the gap between interesting and load-bearing. Drag is the entry that crosses it: a two-minute custom-connector setup, a free 7-day trial with no card, and a first prompt, "which support threads mention the pricing change, draft a reply to each", that your own queue will grade honestly. If the drafts miss, disconnect and keep the readers. Try Drag free, or start from the ChatGPT walkthrough.

Where this fits

The ChatGPT side of our estate: the Gmail-to-ChatGPT guide is the setup walkthrough, running a shared inbox from ChatGPT or Claude shows the day-to-day, and ChatGPT prompts for email covers the asking itself. The mirror of this page for the other assistant is the best Claude MCP servers list, and the standard both run on is documented in our MCP docs. If the shared inbox itself is the decision you are making, start with the AI shared inbox guide.