Connect Google Drive and SharePoint

Your documents, accessible directly from ChatGPT

The Google Drive and SharePoint apps change the nature of the tool: ChatGPT stops being an isolated chatbot where you describe context and becomes an assistant that retrieves your documents. Copy-pasting fades into the background, taking with it a source of accidental leaks: when someone pastes an entire report into a conversation, they no longer truly control what they’re sending.

What the connectors actually enable

Once the account is connected, ChatGPT can search for a file, rely on a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides document, compare two versions, or draft a summary based on what you can already open. On the Microsoft side, the SharePoint app covers SharePoint sites and OneDrive for Business or school; personal OneDrive accounts are not supported.

Depending on the permissions granted and the actions enabled by the administrator, the connectors can also write: create a folder, upload or update a file, manage sharing links, and work on certain SharePoint lists and pages. ChatGPT may then ask for confirmation before modifying content.

To query multiple sources at once, the Company Knowledge plugin—available on Business, Enterprise, and Edu—relies on connected apps and the organization’s MCP apps: you call it by typing @Company Knowledge, then verify the links to sources before trusting the response.

The golden rule: source permissions apply

ChatGPT retrieves only what the connected account can already open: permissions from Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 groups continue to apply. No one reaches a file via ChatGPT that they don’t have rights to, but a folder open to the entire company remains visible from ChatGPT. This guarantee holds only if your sharing settings are clean to begin with.

Two administrations are involved, and they aren’t always the same people. On the ChatGPT side, the workspace owner or administrator decides which apps are available and which actions are allowed. On the Google or Microsoft side, the Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra administrator approves the requested permissions. A permission granted in Microsoft doesn’t automatically enable the corresponding action in ChatGPT, and vice versa.

Connecting, step by step

1. Verify that the app is enabled for your workspace, under plugins or apps depending on your ChatGPT version.
2. Connect the Google or Microsoft account that has access to the relevant files.
3. Review the requested permissions and complete authorization, with prior approval from your Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra administrator if your organization requires it.
4. Test with a simple request, such as summarizing a recent project document.

On Enterprise, administrators have finer-grained controls. For Google Drive, they allow or block specific shared drives by ID, and decide separately whether files outside shared drives, grouped under My Drive, remain accessible; this option is enabled by default. For SharePoint, a whitelist of site collections and exclusions by sensitivity label limit what ChatGPT can reach.

Governing connectors

Response quality depends on your preparation. Organize your drives and sites before connecting: if your storage is a jumble of unclassified files, ChatGPT will inherit that mess and confidently return the wrong document. Adopt naming conventions—“Budget 2026 - v3 - approved” is findable, “doc final final” much less so.

Above all, resist the temptation to connect everything on day one. The broader the scope, the higher the risk that a user accidentally reaches a sensitive document through a poorly phrased request: a summary “on raises” that pulls up the salary review file. On Enterprise and Edu, activity logs, including those for apps, export via the Compliance Platform to your audit tools.

Your turn

Choose your initial scope. Pick one or two well-maintained shared drives or SharePoint sites, verify who has access, then list the write actions you will or won’t allow. Have your Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra administrator approve the list before connecting anything.

Official sources: Google Drive app and setup in ChatGPT · Managing Google Drive access in ChatGPT · SharePoint app and setup in ChatGPT · Company knowledge in ChatGPT · Admin controls, security, and compliance for plugins and apps (OpenAI Help Center)

Key takeaways

• The Google Drive and SharePoint apps let you search, read, and, depending on settings, write to your documents.
• ChatGPT retrieves only what the connected account can already open: source permissions apply.
• Two administrations are involved: the ChatGPT workspace enables apps and actions, while Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra approves permissions.
• On Enterprise, allowed or blocked shared drives, access to My Drive, SharePoint site whitelists, and sensitivity labels refine the scope.
• Start with a narrow, well-organized scope: messy storage produces messy responses.