TL;DR:
Connectors evolved into Apps, and Apps are now packaged into Plugins for complete AI workflows.
Plugins bundle apps, skills, and app templates into a single installable workflow package.
ChatGPT only operates within the permissions you've already approved. It can't access documents you can't access, and every action that modifies external data requires your confirmation before it runs.
Composio extends ChatGPT with access to over 1,000 integrations.
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly useful because it can work with the information you already have, rather than forcing you to start from scratch every time. That's the idea behind ChatGPT's integration system. Instead of copying documents into a conversation, switching between browser tabs, or manually gathering information from different platforms, you can connect ChatGPT to the tools you already use and let it work with that information directly.
Understanding how these pieces fit together makes it much easier to decide which capabilities you need and how to build workflows that actually save time.
How ChatGPT's integration platform has changed over time
OpenAI's integration platform has developed quickly, and the terminology has changed alongside it. When Connectors were first introduced, their purpose was straightforward. They allowed ChatGPT to securely connect to external services such as Google Drive, GitHub, Gmail, or Notion so that it could retrieve information without requiring users to upload files or paste content into every conversation. The name accurately reflected what the technology did: it connected ChatGPT to another service.
As the platform expanded, however, those integrations began supporting much more than simple data retrieval. Some could synchronize large knowledge bases, others could perform multi-source research, and some could carry out actions inside the connected app after receiving your approval. To reflect these broader capabilities, OpenAI renamed Connectors to Apps. Existing integrations continued to work exactly as before, but the new name better represented the growing range of features they could provide.
The next major milestone arrived on July 9, 2026, when OpenAI migrated the App Directory into the new Plugin Directory. Plugins became the primary way to discover workflow capabilities across both ChatGPT and Codex. Rather than treating every integration as an individual connection, OpenAI introduced a higher-level structure where a Plugin can include multiple Apps, specialized AI skills, and app templates. Apps still exist, but they now sit within a broader ecosystem designed to make complete workflows easier to discover and install.
What Apps actually allow ChatGPT to do
Connecting an App to ChatGPT doesn't simply make another data source available. Depending on the capabilities supported by that App, it can fundamentally change how ChatGPT works with your information. Some Apps focus on retrieving files, while others support large-scale research, background synchronization, or even carrying out actions inside external systems.
File search
Instead of uploading documents into every conversation, ChatGPT can search connected platforms and retrieve the information it needs. Imagine asking, "Find the latest employee onboarding guide in Google Drive," or "Locate the architecture document for the payment service in Notion." Rather than requiring you to remember where those documents are stored, ChatGPT searches the connected service and uses the results to answer your question.
Deep research
Deep research allows ChatGPT to gather information across multiple connected services, combine those findings, and produce a structured report with citations back to the original material. For example, you could ask ChatGPT to summarize every customer complaint about a recently released feature by analyzing Slack discussions, support documentation, meeting notes, and emails together. ChatGPT performs the research across your connected knowledge sources, so you don't have to read dozens of documents yourself.
Sync
Allows certain Apps to index information ahead of time rather than retrieving it only when you ask a question. For large documentation libraries that don't change frequently, this means ChatGPT can answer questions faster without fetching documents on demand each time.
Actions
Actions go beyond reading. ChatGPT can create tasks, update records, draft documents, or perform other operations inside connected software, always after asking for your confirmation. For example, after summarizing a bug report, ChatGPT might create a Jira ticket, update a Notion project page, or prepare a draft email for your review. These actions always require user approval before changes are made, providing an additional layer of control over external systems.
What a connected workflow looks like in practice
ChatGPT's integration platform earns its place once you look beyond individual features and consider complete workflows. Rather than thinking about separate apps, imagine ChatGPT acting as a central workspace that brings together information from every system involved in a task.
Consider a product manager preparing for a weekly planning meeting. Relevant information might be scattered across Jira, Slack, Google Docs, meeting notes, customer feedback, and GitHub issues. Traditionally, gathering that information would require opening each application individually and manually combining the findings. With the appropriate Apps connected, ChatGPT can search across those sources, identify the most important updates, summarize blockers, flag recent customer requests, and prepare a meeting briefing in a matter of minutes.
A software engineer faces a similar challenge. Information about a production issue may exist across GitHub pull requests, incident documentation, internal design documents, and team discussions. The engineer can ask ChatGPT to summarize everything related to the issue, identify recent code changes, explain previous discussions, and suggest likely causes based on the available information, without searching each system independently. The engineer still makes the technical decisions, but much of the manual information gathering disappears.
Security and permissions still remain in your control
Whenever people hear that ChatGPT can connect to external services, one of the first questions they ask is whether it gains unrestricted access to everything stored inside those systems. The answer is no. Apps operate within the same permission model that already exists inside the connected platform. If you don't have access to a particular document, ChatGPT won't suddenly be able to retrieve it simply because you've installed an App.
This permission model is particularly important for organizations using ChatGPT Business or Enterprise. Workspace administrators can decide which Plugins and Apps are available, restrict certain capabilities, require approval for specific integrations, and control whether action-based workflows are permitted. Existing governance policies continue to apply, which allows organizations to benefit from AI-powered workflows without abandoning the security controls they already rely on.
The same principle applies to actions. Even when an App supports creating records or modifying information, ChatGPT asks for confirmation before making external changes. This keeps users in control of important operations while still getting the benefit of automation for repetitive tasks.
How to use ChatGPT Apps and Plugins
Understanding the terminology is useful, but knowing how these capabilities fit into your everyday work is what actually matters.
The first step is connecting the services you already use. Inside ChatGPT, open the Plugin Directory and install the Plugin or App you want to use. Depending on the service, you'll usually be asked to sign in and authorize access through OAuth. ChatGPT only receives the permissions you approve, and you can disconnect the App at any time.
Once connected, you interact with your Apps the same way you interact with ChatGPT itself. You simply describe what you want in plain English, with no menus or buttons to click.
For example, if you've connected Google Drive, you could ask:
"Find the latest Q3 sales presentation and summarize the main revenue trends."
ChatGPT locates the document, reads it using your existing permissions, and produces a summary. No folder browsing required.
If you've connected Gmail, you might ask:
"Summarize unread emails from customers that mention billing issues."
ChatGPT identifies the relevant messages and groups the common themes into a concise report, without you opening each email one by one.
Developers can take a similar approach with GitHub. After connecting the App, they might ask:
"Summarize the pull requests merged this week and flag any changes affecting authentication."
ChatGPT gathers the information and presents the important updates in one place, cutting out the manual pull request review.
The real productivity gains appear when multiple Apps work together. Imagine you've connected Slack, Gmail, Notion, and Jira. A single request such as:
"Review today's customer feedback, summarize the common issues, create a Jira ticket for each recurring bug, and save the summary in Notion."
This can coordinate work across several connected systems. ChatGPT retrieves the relevant information, prepares the outputs, and asks for confirmation before making any external changes.
Extending ChatGPT use with Composio
OpenAI's Plugin Directory continues to grow, but even with new Apps being added regularly, most organizations rely on far more software than the native ecosystem currently covers. Internal tools, niche SaaS products, industry-specific platforms, and long-tail business applications often aren't available as first-party ChatGPT Apps. If your workflow depends on dozens or even hundreds of different systems, you'll eventually reach the limits of what's available natively.
This is where Composio fills the gap. Rather than replacing ChatGPT's native Apps, Composio extends them by acting as a single integration layer that gives ChatGPT access to more than 1,000 pre-built apps through one Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Think of MCP as a universal connector for AI. It's one endpoint that lets ChatGPT talk to any service Composio supports, without you having to wire up each one separately. You connect ChatGPT to Composio once, then authorize individual services as you need them, with no separate integration setup for each application.
Why use Composio instead of native ChatGPT Apps alone?
Native ChatGPT Apps work well when the software you use is already supported in OpenAI's Plugin Directory. However, businesses often need access to a much broader range of services. Marketing teams may use HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and LinkedIn together. Engineering teams may rely on GitHub, Linear, Jira, Vercel, Supabase, and internal developer tools. Operations teams frequently combine dozens of smaller SaaS platforms that aren't available as native ChatGPT Apps.
Composio solves this by providing access to more than 1,000 apps spanning categories including CRM, developer tools, marketing platforms, project management, finance, analytics, collaboration, and productivity software. Popular services such as Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Linear, HubSpot, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Salesforce, Outlook, and many others are available through the same connection, with new toolkits added regularly.
How does Composio handle permissions?
Connecting AI to business systems naturally raises questions about security, and Composio uses a permission-first model. Connections are established through OAuth or an API key, depending on the app. For OAuth connections, you authenticate directly with each service and explicitly approve the permissions being granted. Composio doesn't automatically gain unrestricted access to every application you use simply because you've connected the platform. Each application must be individually authorized. Composio is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified.
Just as importantly, ChatGPT still operates within the permissions granted by those connected services. If an action requires authorization, you'll be prompted to approve it, and the available capabilities depend on both the application's API and the permissions you've chosen to grant. This layered approach helps organizations expand ChatGPT's capabilities without abandoning the access controls they already rely on.
When does Composio make sense?
If you primarily use the services already available in OpenAI's Plugin Directory, native Apps may provide everything you need. However, organizations with larger or more specialized software stacks often benefit from a broader integration layer.
Composio is particularly useful for teams that want to connect ChatGPT to dozens or hundreds of business applications without managing separate integrations for each one. It also appeals to developers building AI-powered workflows because a single MCP connection can expose a large catalog of external services while loading only the tools a task needs, as needed. For businesses looking to make ChatGPT the central interface across their software ecosystem, Composio provides a practical way to extend well beyond the native integration catalog.
Get started with Composio. You get 20,000 tool calls per month, no credit card required, and access to 1,000+ pre-built integrations that work in ChatGPT, Claude, or your own code from day one.
FAQs
What is the difference between ChatGPT Connectors and ChatGPT Apps?
They are the same feature. OpenAI rebranded "Connectors" to "Apps" in December 2025 to unify the naming across both interactive UI apps and search-and-reference connectors. The underlying functionality didn't change.
Which ChatGPT plan do I need to use the ChatGPT Slack app?
The ChatGPT Slack app, previously called the Slack connector, is available on Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise/Edu plans. Plus and Pro users in the EEA, Great Britain and Switzerland cannot currently access it. Business and Enterprise users in those regions are unaffected.
Can I use Composio tool connections outside of ChatGPT?
Yes. Connections set up through Composio work across any supported framework, including Anthropic's Claude, LangChain, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, and custom Python or TypeScript code. You build the integration once and run it anywhere without reconfiguring auth or rewriting tool schemas.
Glossary
Actions: App capabilities that let ChatGPT create records, update data, or perform operations inside connected software. Every action requires user approval before changes are made.
App: The part of a Plugin that connects ChatGPT to an external service such as Google Drive, GitHub, or Slack. Apps handle authentication and respect the permissions you've already granted inside that service.
Deep research: An app capability that lets ChatGPT gather and synthesize information across multiple connected services at once, then produce a structured report with citations.
Plugin: A complete workflow package in the Plugin Directory. A Plugin can bundle one or more Apps, skills, and app templates into a single installable unit.