Roll out Zapier MCP to your ChatGPT workspace

Create Zapier as a custom MCP plugin in your ChatGPT workspace, publish it, and install it for every member. Members sign in using their own Zapier account.

This guide makes Zapier available to everyone in your ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, or Edu workspace, with each member signing in to their own Zapier account. To understand the shared model first, read what an organization rollout of Zapier MCP is.

Before you begin

To do an organization rollout of Zapier in your ChatGPT workspace, you need:

• A ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, or Edu workspace.
• The Owner role in your ChatGPT workspace. Admin is not enough: you need Owner, the role above it.
• A Zapier Enterprise account. Enterprise provides the workspace-level app access controls, SSO, and audit logging this rollout relies on.
• Every member provisioned into your organization and into a User Group with access to your workspace. Manage members and User Groups covers both requirements.

1. Turn on workspace capabilities

Your workspace must allow custom plugins before you can create Zapier as one.

1. Open Workspace settings

   In ChatGPT, select the user tile in the lower left, then Workspace settings. The admin console opens.

2. Open Permissions

   In the left menu, under Policy & security, select Permissions.

3. Turn on the plugin capabilities

   Scroll to Workspace capabilities and make sure these are turned on:

   • Use plugins
   • Publish plugins to workspace
   • Create plugins with MCPs, which is what lets you create the custom Zapier plugin.
4. Save your changes

   If you changed anything, click Save in the upper right. ChatGPT does not save these changes automatically.

You return to the admin console in step 4, so leave it open. Once Zapier is installed, you can turn two of these capabilities back off, as Turn off the setup capabilities describes.

2. Create the Zapier plugin

You create Zapier as a custom MCP server and save it as a plugin.

Create the plugin in regular ChatGPT, not in the admin console. The admin console’s Plugins page also offers a way to add a custom MCP server, but that version does not support OAuth, and Zapier requires OAuth.

1. Open Plugins in ChatGPT

   In a new tab, go to chatgpt.com and click Plugins in the ChatGPT sidebar.

2. Add a custom MCP server

   In the upper right, click Add, then select Create custom MCP server, not the plugin option.

3. Enter the name

   In the Name field, enter Zapier.

4. Enter the connect URL

   In the Connection field, enter the connect URL:

   https://mcp.zapier.com/api/v1/connect
   
5. Select OAuth

   Set Authentication to OAuth. The plugin does not work with any other option.

6. Accept the disclaimer

   Select the I understand and want to continue checkbox.

7. Create the plugin

   Click Create as a plugin.

ChatGPT then offers to connect your own Zapier account. This is optional, and it connects only you: every member makes their own connection the first time they use Zapier. If you connect, click Connect, continue to Zapier, and select your organization’s Zapier workspace when asked.

3. Publish the plugin to your workspace

Until you publish it, the plugin is yours alone. Publishing shares it with your workspace, and it is also where you set which roles and tools the plugin covers.

1. Open the plugin

   In ChatGPT, click Plugins in the sidebar, then select Zapier under Installed.

2. Open Manage

   Click the three-dot menu, then select Manage.

3. Start publishing

   At the bottom of the page, click Publish to workspace. The publish page opens in the admin console and can take a long time to load. If it seems stuck, give it time.

4. Open Configure tools

   All roles and all tools are enabled by default. To check the tool settings before you publish, open Configure tools.

5. Select Read tools and Write tools

   Make sure Read tools and Write tools are both selected.

6. Enable all new tools

   Under In the future, when new tools are added, make sure Enable all new tools is selected, so members get new Zapier tools as they are added.

7. Refresh the tool list

   In the upper right of the dialog box, click Refresh. ChatGPT calls the Zapier MCP server and stores its available tools, so they are in place before you share the plugin.

8. Confirm the tools

   Click Confirm.

9. Review the risk panels

   Review both risk panels, Review potential risk: Unauthorized data access and Review potential risk: Malicious app. Publish stays unavailable until you have reviewed them.

10. Publish

    Click Publish. The Apps page in the admin console opens.

The new plugin can take a while to appear on the Apps page. If it is missing, refresh the page and wait.

4. Install it for every member

Publishing makes the plugin available to your workspace. To push it into every member’s account, set its workspace default to Installed in the admin console.

1. Open the admin console

   Switch back to the admin console you left open in step 1. If you closed it, select the user tile in the lower left of ChatGPT, then Workspace settings.

2. Open Plugins

   In the left menu, select Plugins.

3. Open your organization's tab

   Select the tab named for your organization, next to Public.

4. Select Zapier

   Select Zapier. Its status is Enabled.

5. Set the availability

   Under Availability, choose a Workspace default:

   • Installed pushes Zapier to every member’s account, so nobody has to find or install it. The first time a member uses it, ChatGPT takes them to Zapier’s sign-in screen.
   • Available only lists Zapier in your organization’s plugins, and each member finds and installs it themselves.

   Zapier recommends Installed. To set a different availability for some roles, use Customize per role.

Turn off the setup capabilities (optional)

Create plugins with MCPs and Publish plugins to workspace were needed to set Zapier up, but members do not need them to use it. While they stay on, any member covered by them can create a plugin from any MCP server and publish it to your workspace. To close that off once Zapier is installed:

1. Open Permissions

   In the admin console, under Policy & security, select Permissions.

2. Turn off the setup capabilities

   Under Workspace capabilities, turn off Create plugins with MCPs and Publish plugins to workspace. Leave Use plugins on: members need it to use Zapier.

3. Save your changes

   Click Save in the upper right.

To change the Zapier plugin later, such as republishing it or refreshing its tools, turn both capabilities back on first.

Connect as a member

Each member signs in to Zapier once, which creates their own MCP server connection. Tell them which Zapier workspace to select, because that workspace’s controls govern their connection. The Workspace app tab of the ChatGPT connection guide walks members through it.

To limit which Zapier apps and actions members can use, set app and action restrictions on your Zapier account.

Never distribute a connection token or a connection-token URL. A connection token is long-lived, tied to one server, and grants whoever holds it the ability to run the server’s tools and read the data they return.

Announcement you can send to members

Replace WORKSPACE_NAME with the workspace your members select:

Zapier is now available in ChatGPT for our workspace, and it is already installed. In a chat, select Zapier with @ or from the + menu, and sign in with your Zapier account when prompted.
If Zapier asks which account to use, select WORKSPACE_NAME.
If you have not connected any apps to Zapier yet, paste the onboarding prompt from https://docs.zapier.com/mcp/get-started/quickstart#2-set-up-your-tools.

Verify the result

• Check the plugin. In the admin console, open Plugins and select your organization’s tab. Confirm Zapier shows Enabled and its Workspace default is Installed.
• Check a second account. Sign in as a non-admin member and confirm Zapier is already installed.
• As a member, run one call. In a chat, ask @Zapier which tools do I have available?. ChatGPT lists the Zapier tools available to that member. Any answer confirms Zapier is working, even if the member has not connected any apps yet.

If Zapier does not appear

• If the plugin is missing from the Apps page after you click Publish, refresh the page and wait. It can take a while to appear.
• If you cannot click Publish, review both risk panels on the publish page first.
• If a member cannot find Zapier, confirm their role has access to it, and check its availability under Customize per role.
• If availability is Available rather than Installed, the member installs Zapier themselves: Plugins in the ChatGPT sidebar, then your workspace’s tab.
• If Zapier is connected but tools are missing, learn how to troubleshoot missing tools in an MCP client.

Related

Roll out to your organization

The rollout model every client guide relies on, and the Zapier controls that govern it.

ChatGPT

Connecting to a workspace plugin, or creating your own plugin outside a rollout.

How tools work

How Zapier MCP discovers and manages tools, and what a new connection starts with.

Security

Access control, app and action restrictions, SSO, and audit logging.