Claude connectors let Claude read your data and take actions inside the apps you already use, like Gmail, Slack, Notion or HubSpot. This guide lists the best Claude connectors by job, shows what each one can and cannot do, and explains how to add an app that is not in Claude’s directory yet.
Every connector below was checked against its page in Anthropic’s connectors directory in September 2026. Connectors change often, so each section says what the connector can do today, not what it might do later.
What are Claude connectors?
A connector is a link between Claude and another app. Once you connect an app, Claude can search it, read from it and, for many apps, make changes in it. For example, Claude can find an email thread in Gmail, summarize it and draft a reply.
Connectors are built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to outside tools. Each connector is an MCP server run by the app’s maker or by a third party. If you want the longer technical background, our Claude MCP guide covers how MCP works under the hood.
Three things are worth knowing from the start:
- Claude only sees what you can see. A connector uses your own login. If you cannot open a file or record in the app, Claude cannot reach it either.
- There are two kinds. Directory connectors are listed and reviewed in Claude’s Connectors Directory. Custom connectors are any other MCP server you add yourself with a URL.
- They work across Claude. According to Anthropic’s help center, web connectors are available to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and the Claude mobile apps.
How to add a Claude connector from the directory
Adding a directory connector takes about a minute. On Claude or Claude Desktop:
- Go to Customize > Connectors.
- Click the + button next to Connectors to open the directory.
- Pick the app you want and read its description and permissions.
- Click Connect and sign in to the app when asked.
- In a chat, click + (or type /), open Connectors and switch on the ones you want Claude to use.
On a Team or Enterprise plan
- An Owner enables it first: an Owner or Primary Owner has to add the connector for the organization before members can use it.
- Everyone still signs in: enabling a connector does not give anyone access. Each person connects with their own account.
- Actions can be limited: Owners can set each tool to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked, for example read-only Gmail with no sending.
Claude connectors list: the best ones at a glance
This table shows the connectors most people start with. “Can write” means the connector’s tool list includes actions that create or change data, not only search and read.
The best Claude connectors, grouped by job
The right connectors depend on where your questions live. Below, each group lists what the connector does, an example request and one thing to watch out for.
Email and calendar: Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365
Gmail lets Claude search your inbox, read full threads, draft replies, apply labels and send messages. Try: “Find the last three emails from our accountant and list what they asked for.” Watch out: the tool list includes sending, forwarding and trashing, so on a team plan it makes sense to set those actions to Needs approval.
Google Calendar can list and search events, check availability, suggest meeting times, create and update events and respond to invitations. Try: “Find a 30-minute slot next week when I have no meetings before 10:00.”
Microsoft 365 is built by Anthropic and covers SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook and Teams. The tools on its directory page focus on searching and reading: documents, email, calendar and chat messages. Try: “Summarize last week’s Teams messages about the Q4 budget.”
Official setup guides:
Files and docs: Google Drive, Notion, Box
Google Drive can search files, read Docs, Sheets and Slides, and create, update, copy and share files. It helps most when you remember what a document said but not what it was called.
Notion can search your workspace, read pages, create and update pages and databases, and add comments. Try: “Find our onboarding checklist and add a step for setting up the VPN.”
Box searches files and folders, answers questions about one or several documents and can upload new files or versions, while keeping your existing Box permissions.
Official setup guides:
- Google Drive: covered in the Google Workspace guide above
- Notion MCP (Notion)
- Box MCP server (Box)
Team chat: Slack
Slack lets Claude search public and private channels you are in, read threads and user profiles, send messages and create or update canvases. Try: “What did the sales channel decide about the pricing change this week?” Watch out: Claude only sees channels your own account can see, so a summary can miss private conversations you are not part of.
Official setup guides:
Projects and tickets: Asana, Linear, Atlassian, monday.com, ClickUp
All five can search work items and create or update them. Asana covers tasks, projects, portfolios and status overviews. Linear covers issues, projects, cycles and comments. Atlassian covers Jira issues (including JQL search and status changes) and Confluence pages. monday.com covers boards, items, dashboards and workflows. ClickUp covers tasks, lists, comments and time tracking.
Try: “List every open issue assigned to me that is due this week, sorted by priority.” These connectors are most useful for status updates and triage, where you would otherwise click through several screens.
Official setup guides:
- Asana MCP server (Asana)
- Linear MCP (Linear)
- Atlassian MCP tools (Atlassian)
- monday MCP (monday.com)
- ClickUp MCP (ClickUp)
CRM, support and finance: HubSpot, Intercom, Stripe, Xero, QuickBooks
HubSpot can search and update contacts, companies, deals and tickets, and read campaign and content analytics. Try: “Which deals over €5,000 have had no activity for 30 days?”
Intercom has six tools, all for searching and reading conversations, tickets and contacts. It is read-only, which makes it a low-risk first connector for a support team.
Stripe can read your balance, run analytics and read or write through the Stripe API, and it can search Stripe’s documentation. Xero lists 19 tools for reading your financial position, cash, profit and loss, invoices, bills and receivables. QuickBooks lists 74 tools, including financial reports and tools that create or update invoices and create customers.
Official setup guides:
- HubSpot connector for Claude (HubSpot)
- Intercom MCP (Intercom)
- Stripe MCP (Stripe)
- Xero connector in Claude (Xero)
- QuickBooks connector for Claude (Intuit)
Design: Figma, Canva, Miro
Figma gives Claude design context, metadata and variables so it can write code or diagrams that match a design. Its directory page notes that the screenshot tool currently returns only a description of the screenshot in Claude. Canva can search, read, generate, autofill and export designs. Miro can read boards and create diagrams, docs and tables on them.
Official setup guides:
Data and developer tools: BigQuery, Supabase, Vercel
BigQuery lists datasets and tables, reads schemas and runs SQL. Supabase runs SQL on your Postgres database and can also create branches, apply migrations and change schemas. Watch out: point it at a test project first, because a schema change made by mistake is hard to undo. Vercel can search its documentation and read projects, deployments and deployment logs.
Official setup guides:
Automation and marketing data: Zapier and Windsor.ai
Some directory connectors are bridges to other platforms. Zapier lets Claude trigger automations across the apps you have set up in Zapier. Windsor.ai lets Claude query marketing data (ad platforms, analytics, e-commerce) that already flows through a Windsor.ai account. Both are useful if you already use those services.
What Claude connectors do not do well
Connectors are useful, but it helps to know their limits before you rely on them.
Limits worth knowing
- One app per connector: each connector knows one app. A question like “Which customers with an open deal still owe us over €10k?” needs your CRM and your accounting tool at the same time, and Claude has to stitch the two answers together by itself.
- Search is not a full export: connectors search and fetch records. For a question over thousands of rows, Claude may only look at the results the search returns, not every record.
- A separate login for each app: ten connectors mean ten sign-ins, and each one needs to be kept connected.
- Too many tools at once: every connector adds tools to the conversation. Anthropic suggests switching Tool access to “On demand” when you have 10 or more connectors active.
- Many business apps are missing: many ERP and accounting tools used in Europe are not listed yet.
That last point matters for a lot of businesses. For example, Exact Online, Teamleader and Odoo are not in Claude’s connectors directory today. Odoo does have its own MCP server since Odoo 19.4, which you can add yourself as a custom connector by following Odoo’s MCP server docs.
If you use Exact Online, our Exact Online and Claude guide shows what finance teams ask it and how the connection is set up.
If your data lives across several of these tools, our guide to cross-source MCP queries explains why joining data from separate MCP servers is harder than it looks.
How to add a custom connector in Claude
If an app is not in the directory, you can still connect it, as long as someone runs an MCP server for it. You add it as a custom connector with a URL.
- Go to Customize > Connectors and click +.
- Choose Add custom connector.
- Enter a name and the MCP server’s URL, then click Add.
- Sign in when asked, the same way as a directory connector. The optional advanced settings (OAuth client ID and secret) are only needed if the server’s provider tells you to fill them in.
What to know before adding one
- Plan limits: custom connectors work on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. Free users can add one custom connector.
- It must be online: Claude connects to the server from Anthropic’s cloud, not from your computer. A server that only runs on your laptop or behind a company firewall will not work without extra network setup.
- Anthropic does not review it: custom connectors are not verified by Anthropic. Only add servers from organizations you trust, and read what access you approve when you sign in.
- Team accounts: an Owner adds it under Organization settings > Connectors, then each member connects with their own login.
Where custom connectors come from
There are three common sources, each with its own trade-off:
- The app vendor’s own MCP server. Some vendors publish an MCP server before they are in Claude’s directory, like Odoo. This is usually the most reliable option for that one app.
- Community servers. Many open source MCP servers exist on GitHub. Some are excellent, some are hobby projects that stop being updated. Check who maintains it and how it stores your login before you connect.
- Hosted services that cover many apps. One custom connector gives Claude access to many apps at once. This also saves custom connector slots, which matters on the Free plan.
We keep a longer list of options in our overview of MCP servers for European businesses.
Example: connecting many apps through one custom connector
Peliqan is one example of the hosted option. You connect your business apps in Peliqan once, then add a single custom connector to Claude. The Peliqan connector library lists 300+ apps, including ones that are not in Claude’s directory, such as Exact Online, Teamleader and Odoo. You can check any app on the Peliqan connectors page.
How the setup works
Prefer to watch it? The academy video walkthrough shows the same steps on screen.
The full setup, including Claude Code and organization accounts, is in the Peliqan MCP server docs.
Because the data from all your apps sits in one place, Claude can answer a question that spans several apps in one step instead of stitching separate answers together. Claude can also write back to an app where that app’s connector supports it. Not every connector does: AFAS, for example, is read-only for now. Our page on writeback with MCP explains how that works.
Are Claude connectors safe?
Connectors are as safe as the permissions you give them. A few habits cover most of the risk.
A simple safety checklist
- Read the sign-in screen: check what access you approve before you click allow.
- Start read-only: on Team and Enterprise plans, set write and delete tools to Needs approval or Blocked until you trust the setup.
- Prefer verified connectors: directory connectors are reviewed by Anthropic. Custom connectors are not.
- Remove what you do not use: disconnect old connectors under Customize > Connectors.
- Remember where data goes: connected services process data on their own infrastructure and under their own terms, which may be in another country.
For a deeper look at what to configure in production, read our guide to MCP security settings.
If you work in the EU and need to check data residency, our GDPR MCP checklist lists the questions to ask each provider.
How to choose your first connectors
Adding every connector at once makes Claude slower and harder to steer. A better approach:
- Start with the question, not the app. Write down three questions you ask every week and note which apps hold the answers.
- Add two or three connectors. For most people that means email or calendar, one document store and one work tool.
- Test with read-only requests first. Ask Claude to find and summarize before you let it send, update or delete.
- Add a custom connector only when you hit a gap. For example, when the app you need is not in the directory or your question spans several apps. Teamleader users can follow our Teamleader and Claude guide.
Conclusion
The best Claude connectors are the ones that match where your questions live. For most people that is email, calendar, documents and one work tool, all available in Claude’s directory and quick to set up. Start read-only, add a few at a time and keep an eye on what each connector is allowed to change.
If the app you need is not in the directory, or your questions span several apps at once, a custom connector fills the gap. You can add a vendor’s own MCP server, a community server you trust, or a hosted service that covers many apps. To see how one connector can reach your whole stack, the Peliqan MCP page shows the apps and example questions.
