Claude connectors explained: the list, what data they can access, and how MCP works underneath

If you have connected Claude to your Gmail, your Google Drive or your company's Slack, you have used a connector. If you have wondered what Claude can actually see once connected, what the difference is between a connector and an MCP server, or how to add one for your own system, this guide answers it.

What a connector is

A connector is a packaged integration between Claude and an external service. You click Connect, sign in to the service, and from then on Claude can use it inside conversations: search your Drive, read a Slack channel, create a Jira issue, look up a HubSpot contact.

Under the hood, every connector is a remote MCP server. The Model Context Protocol is the open standard Anthropic published in 2024 for connecting AI models to tools; a connector is an MCP server that Anthropic or the vendor hosts, wrapped in a directory entry with OAuth handled for you. If you understand what an MCP server is, you understand connectors. The word "connector" exists so that non-developers never have to see a URL.

Which connectors exist

The directory changes monthly. As of writing it covers roughly these categories:

• Email and calendar: Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and Calendar.
• Files and docs: Google Drive, SharePoint and OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, Notion, Confluence.
• Chat: Slack, Microsoft Teams.
• Work tracking: Jira, Linear, Asana, Monday, ClickUp.
• Code: GitHub, GitLab, Sentry.
• Sales and marketing: HubSpot, Salesforce, Intercom, Zapier.
• Data and design: Snowflake, Databricks, Figma, Canva.
• Payments and finance: Stripe, PayPal, Plaid.

Plus dozens of smaller ones. Anthropic maintains some; most are built and hosted by the vendor. The best MCP servers for marketing guide goes deeper on the marketing ones.

What data Claude can access

This is the question people actually search for, so here is the precise answer.

Only what you authorise. When you connect, the service shows an OAuth consent screen listing the scopes the connector requests: for Gmail that might be "read email" and "send email"; for Drive, "see and download files". Those scopes are the ceiling. Claude cannot exceed them.

Only when a conversation uses it. Connectors are tools. Claude calls them when a conversation needs them, and you can see each call. There is no background indexing of your accounts.

Only what you can see yourself. The connector acts as you. It cannot read a Slack channel you are not in or a Drive file you do not have access to.

What happens to the data. Content retrieved through a connector enters the conversation as context and is handled under the plan's data terms. On Team, Enterprise and API plans it is not used for training. Where it is processed depends on the plan and region; enterprise customers with data residency requirements should read the section on governance below.

What Claude can do, not just read. Some connectors have write tools: send an email, create an issue, post a message. Claude asks before using those the first time, and you can revoke a connector at any time in settings.

Connectors vs custom connectors vs desktop extensions

Three ways to give Claude a tool, and they confuse everyone:

Custom connectors are how a company connects its own systems. If you have built an MCP server over your ERP or your data warehouse, you host it, give users the URL, and they add it under Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector. Claude handles the OAuth flow. This is also how you connect vendor servers that are not yet in the directory.

Desktop extensions solve the problem of local servers: instead of editing a JSON config, you install a packaged extension and it runs on your machine. Right for tools that need local access, such as files or a local database.

How to add a custom connector

1. Get the server's URL from the vendor or your IT team. It will look like https://mcp.example.com/mcp.
2. In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors.
3. Choose Add custom connector, give it a name, paste the URL.
4. If the server requires login, Claude opens the OAuth flow. Sign in and approve the scopes.
5. Start a conversation and enable the connector in the tools menu. Claude lists its tools and asks before the first use.

On Team and Enterprise plans, an admin may need to allow custom connectors or pre-approve specific ones for the organisation.

ChatGPT connectors, briefly

ChatGPT has the same concept: connectors for Drive, SharePoint, Slack, GitHub, Gmail and others, available on Plus and up with admin controls on Business and Enterprise. Developer mode lets you add custom MCP servers with full read and write tools, and Apps in ChatGPT are built on MCP as well. The practical consequence: a remote MCP server you build once works as a Claude custom connector and a ChatGPT connector. That is the point of the standard.

What enterprise admins control

On Team and Enterprise, admins decide:

• which directory connectors are available to the organisation;
• whether users may add custom connectors, and which URLs are allowed;
• whether connectors are enabled at all for certain groups;
• audit visibility of connector usage.

For a company, that admin panel is the beginning of governance, not the end. It controls which servers users can add in Claude. It does not control what those same users do in ChatGPT, Cursor or Claude Code with the same servers, it does not hold the credentials centrally, and it does not give the security team one log across clients.

That gap is what an MCP gateway fills: every client connects to the gateway as a single custom connector, the gateway holds the allowlist and the credentials, applies per-user tool policy, and logs every call, in your region. Walma AI Hub is that gateway, running inside the customer's own Azure tenant in the EU, and it shows up in Claude simply as one connector. If you are deciding how connectors should work for a whole organisation, book a walkthrough.