TL;DR
Connectors are Anthropic’s official integrations inside the Claude app (claude.ai web, desktop, and mobile). Once authorized, Claude searches, reads, and — as of 2026 — can write back to your tools mid-conversation instead of you copy-pasting. The Connectors Directory passed 400+ integrations by June 2026, and directory connectors now work on every plan, including Free (older guides that say “Free is excluded” are out of date). This article covers the three most common workplace connectors — Google Drive, Notion, Slack — with what each can actually do, how to scope them, and the failure modes.
What changed in 2026 (read this first)
Two things make older Connector write-ups wrong:
- They are no longer read-only. The 2025 versions only searched and quoted. In 2026, Google Drive can save Claude-generated files back to Drive, the Notion connector can create pages and update database properties, and the Slack Interactive App (shipped January 2026) lets Claude draft and post a message after you preview it. Read access and write access are granted separately, so you can keep a connector read-only if you want.
- The Free plan now includes directory connectors. As of June 2026, anyone — Free, Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise — can browse the directory and connect Drive, Notion, or Slack. The paid line is now drawn at custom connectors and Interactive Apps: Free users get one custom (remote-MCP) connector; Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise get multiple.
Plan and capability summary (as of June 2026)
| Directory connectors (Drive/Notion/Slack) | Custom connectors (remote MCP) | Write actions enabled | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free ($0) | Yes | 1 only | Yes (per grant) |
| Pro ($20/mo) | Yes | Multiple | Yes |
| Max ($100 / $200/mo) | Yes | Multiple | Yes |
| Team ($25/seat) | Yes — Owner enables at org level first | Multiple | Org-policy gated |
| Enterprise | Yes — Owner enables at org level first | Multiple | Org-policy gated |
Connectors themselves cost nothing. You still need an active subscription to the underlying tool (Google, Notion, Slack), and on Team/Enterprise an Owner or Primary Owner must enable a connector at the organization level before members can authenticate.
What each connector does
Google Drive
Google Drive is Google’s cloud file storage: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDFs, images, and uploaded Office files.
Read: search by keyword or filename; open and read Docs / Sheets / Slides / PDFs / images / Office files; compare, summarize, and extract across multiple files; quote specific passages or cells with file links in the reply.
Write (2026): save a Claude-generated file directly to your Drive and upload files of any type. This is a save-out, not in-place editing — Claude does not silently rewrite your existing originals.
Good prompts:
- “Find the last month of product weeklies in Drive and pull the biggest risk from each into a table.”
- “Compare
2026 Q1 OKRand2026 Q2 OKR— list goals that were added, removed, or rewritten.” - “Read the
Pricing v3PDF, explain it for a non-finance teammate in three short paragraphs, and save the summary as a new Doc in myBriefsfolder.”
Limits: it is not a spreadsheet engine — use it for analysis and summaries, not large-scale recalculation; it only sees files your Google account has direct access to; folder permissions inherited through a Google group sometimes do not surface.
Notion
Notion combines docs, databases, kanban boards, and project tracking. Its two building blocks are pages (document-like) and databases (each row is a record, each column a property).
Read: search authorized pages and databases; read page bodies including nested subpages; read database rows and property values; filter rows by property (for example status = In Progress); roll content from many pages and databases into one brief, status update, or weekly report.
Write (2026): create pages with structured content (meeting notes, research docs) and update page or database properties — for example flipping a task from In Progress to Complete.
Good prompts:
- “From my Notion
Engineering Roadmapdatabase, list rows where status = Blocked and owner = me, sorted by priority.” - “Summarize the last 4 entries in
Weekly 1:1 Notesand surface 3 recurring themes.” - “Read
Product Spec - Onboarding v4, list the ambiguous points an engineer would flag, then create a new Notion pageOnboarding open questionswith those points as a checklist.”
Limits: complex formula and rollup properties may not come through fully; the first sync of a very large workspace can be slow; only pages and databases you explicitly shared during OAuth are visible.
Slack
Slack is your team’s chat tool, organized by channels and DMs, with threads and reactions on messages.
Read: search channels and DMs you have access to by keyword, user, or time range; read recent discussions, full threads, and pinned messages; turn a stretch of chat into notes, decisions, and action items; roll up one topic across channels (an incident discussed in both #oncall and #eng).
Write (2026): the Slack Interactive App lets Claude draft a message and you preview the formatting before it posts — Claude does not fire a message off silently.
Good prompts:
- “Summarize the last 7 days of
#product-launchinto three buckets: decided, pending, blocked.” - “Find yesterday’s database-alert thread in
#oncall— list the timeline and the final root cause.” - “Draft a
#product-launchstatus post from this week’s decisions, then show it to me before posting.”
Limits: it cannot read private channels or DMs you were never in; on free or lower-tier Slack workspaces, message history is capped, so Claude cannot read past the retained window — that is a Slack-plan limit, not a connector bug; a too-wide time range on a busy channel overflows context, so scope by week or thread.
Who this is for, and when to skip it
Use a connector when the answer lives in your own material but is scattered across many files, pages, or channels; when you want Claude to cite a specific source instead of answering from general knowledge; or when the task repeats (weekly report, monthly review, project kickoff) and is worth saving as a reusable prompt.
Skip it for a one-off question — dragging the file straight into the chat is faster. Skip it if your account mixes a lot of unrelated personal content you cannot wall off with minimum scope. And clear it with security or legal first if compliance forbids sending this material to an external model.
Setup, step by step
- Open connector settings: Claude app → Settings → Customize → Connectors (the directory now opens from a
+button). Browse by category and find Google Drive, Notion, or Slack. - Connect and complete OAuth: you are redirected to the provider’s official sign-in. For Drive, pick a Google account; for Notion, pick the workspace and tick the specific pages and databases to share; for Slack, pick the workspace and confirm the requested scopes.
- Grant minimum scope, and decide read vs. write. In Notion, do not tick “entire workspace” — select only the pages and databases you need. In Drive, restrict to a folder if the option appears. Slack does not let you pick channels, but Claude still cannot read channels you were never in. If you only want lookups, decline the write/action scopes.
- (Team/Enterprise only) an Owner enables the connector at the org level under Organization Settings → Connectors before any member can authenticate; admins can also block specific actions (for example “no posting to Slack”) org-wide.
- Reference content by name in chat: “find … in Drive,” “read the Notion page
Project A,” “summarize what#frontenddiscussed yesterday.” Claude decides when to call the connector. - Verify citations: Claude returns filenames, page links, and message timestamps — click through and confirm nothing was paraphrased into something it does not say.
- Disconnect when done: Settings → Connectors → Disconnect revokes the OAuth grant.
First-run check
Run a connector on a low-risk sample first — an internal doc, a database view, a non-sensitive channel, not salary or customer data. Ask one well-scoped prompt (“summarize the 5 key points in this doc with quotes”), then confirm the cited filenames, pages, and timestamps are real and quoted accurately. If Claude obviously missed a source it should have pulled, your scope is usually too narrow or the keyword missed. For anything you forward externally, double-check nothing sensitive leaked in.
Common mistakes
- Over-granting scope. Connecting an entire Notion workspace means “find one doc” drags in unrelated pages and dilutes the answer. Share the few pages and databases you actually need.
- Granting write access you did not want. Now that connectors can post and create, decline action scopes if you only need lookups, and use the Slack/Drive preview step before anything goes out.
- Leaving stale connectors enabled. Changed jobs or projects but the old workspace is still connected — a privacy risk and a source of noisy results. Disconnect it.
- Trusting Claude’s claims without checking. Connector content still gets paraphrased. For numbers, dates, or decisions, click through to the original.
- Reading “I don’t have access to that tool” as a model limitation when it is usually a dropped OAuth grant or a per-plan tool toggle (Claude tool unavailable).
- Time ranges too wide. “Summarize the entire Slack channel history” rarely works. Scope by week or by thread.
FAQ
Q: Are Claude Connectors read-only? A: Not anymore. The 2025 versions were search-and-quote only, but as of 2026 Drive can save generated files back, Notion can create pages and update properties, and Slack can draft-and-post via the Interactive App. Read access and write access are granted separately, so you can keep any connector read-only by declining the action scopes.
Q: Can I use Connectors on the Free plan? A: Yes. As of June 2026, directory connectors (Drive, Notion, Slack, and 400+ others) work on every plan including Free. The paid line is custom connectors and Interactive Apps: Free users get one custom remote-MCP connector, while Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise get multiple.
Q: Why does the Drive connector miss files I know exist? A: Indexing lag and permissions. Newly added files can take a few minutes to surface, and Claude only sees files your Google account has direct access to. Shared-drive permissions inherited through a Google group sometimes aren’t visible to the connector.
Q: Should I scope queries by time range? A: Yes. “Summarize the entire Slack channel” rarely works. Scope by week, thread, or sender. Connectors fetch a bounded result set, so a narrow query returns better signal than a wide one — and on free Slack workspaces, history is capped server-side regardless.
Q: What does Claude do with my data when a connector is active? A: It reads on demand in the active conversation and mirrors your existing permissions. On Team and Enterprise plans connected content is not used for model training; consumer plans follow your account’s training opt-in. Disconnect a connector from Settings to revoke access, and check Anthropic’s connectors help center for current data handling.