# Connect apps to ChatGPT Dots and set what they can do

Connect Gmail, Calendar, Drive and other apps to your dot, then pick one of four permission levels to decide what it does without asking you first.

*From How to Use Dots, an independent guide (not affiliated with OpenAI). Web version: https://howtousedots.com/apps Last verified: 2026-10-06.*

*Step 5 of 10 on the path "Learn Dots, step by step". Before it: [Give your dot a job](https://howtousedots.com/tasks-and-schedules.md). After it: [Custom rules and approvals](https://howtousedots.com/custom-rules.md).*

Your dot uses your apps through ChatGPT plugins. You connect an app once, pick how much your dot can do there without asking, and it can read and act in that app from then on.

**In short**

- An app you already connected to ChatGPT is already connected to your dot.
- Connect a new one from the chat, when your dot offers a button, or from the **Plugins** page.
- Each app has four permission levels, from **Always ask** to **Allow all actions**.
- A send you didn't ask for and a permanent delete wait for you at every level.

## The three kinds of connection

Before you connect anything, it helps to know that a dot has three separate kinds of connection, and apps are only one of them.

Diagram: Your dot in the middle with three separate lines going out: a way to talk to it, such as Slack or a call; apps it can use, such as Gmail and Drive; and computers it can work on, its own and yours.
- Your dot — A way to talk to it
- Your dot — Apps it can use
- Your dot — Computers it can work on

Connecting one never connects another. Adding your dot to [Slack](https://howtousedots.com/slack) gives you a place to talk to it, and your inbox stays closed until you connect Gmail as an app.

## Connect an app

Your dot starts with every plugin already on your ChatGPT account, so look before you connect. These four steps check what's there and add what's missing.

**Walkthrough: Connect an app**

### Step 1: See which apps your dot already has

Click **+** in the box where you message your dot. A brand-new account still lists a few built-in plugins here, such as Documents, Spreadsheets and PDF.

![The Add menu: Add photos and files, then a Plugins list with Slack, Google Drive, Google Contacts, Google Calendar and Gmail, each with a one-line description](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/apps-add-menu.jpg)

1. Everything under Plugins is an app your dot can use right now.
2. Pick one to point a single message at that app.

Image: Zinho Automates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGHiJF6g0c)

### Step 2: Ask for a job, then click the connect button

If the app you want isn't in that list, ask your dot for something that needs it, such as "Send me a short test email". It tells you the app isn't connected and puts a button in the chat. Click **Connect with Gmail**, then sign in on the page that opens.

![The dot's message: Your email isn't connected yet. Connect whichever you use, Gmail or Outlook. Under it, two buttons: Connect with Gmail and Connect with Outlook Email](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/apps-connect-in-chat.jpg)

Image: Taha El Harti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZBDmD13-A)

### Step 3: Check the button says Connected

Back in ChatGPT, the button has turned grey and reads **Connected with Gmail**, with a tick. Your dot picks the job up where it stopped.

![The same message a minute later. The first button is greyed out and reads Connected with Gmail with a tick](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/apps-connected-in-chat.jpg)

Image: Taha El Harti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZBDmD13-A)

### Step 4: For any other app, use the Plugins page

Click the **@** icon in the narrow bar at the far left of ChatGPT to open **Plugins**. Find the app with **Search plugins**, click the **+** on its row, and sign in.

![The Plugins page: a search box, Public and Personal tabs, and a Popular list. Gmail and Google Drive end in three dots. Outlook Email, GitHub and others end in a plus](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/apps-plugins-page.jpg)

1. Search for the app by name.
2. Three dots: this app is already connected.
3. A plus: click it to connect this one.

Image: Skill Leap AI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfh6l3DxHK0)

If your dot can't find something you know is there, check which account you connected.

> **Common mistake: Connecting the wrong account**
>
> You signed in with a personal Google account, and your dot can't find the work files you asked about.
>
> **The fix:** Connect the account that already has access to what you need. An app only shows your dot what that account can see.

## Choose how much your dot can do without asking

Once an app is connected, it has a permission level of its own. To change it, open **Plugins**, click **...** on the app's row, choose **Manage**, then open **Permission**.

![The Permission screen for Gmail with four choices: Always ask, Read-only actions, Allow low-risk actions (selected) and Allow all actions, each with a line of explanation](https://howtousedots.com/assets/shots/apps-permission-levels.jpg)

Image: OpenAI (https://openai.com/index/how-we-build-safety-security-and-privacy-into-dots/)

A newly connected app starts on **Allow low-risk actions**. Each level lets a little more happen without a question, and the next section lets you try all four.

## Try it: the permission playground

Pick an app and a level, and watch where each request lands.

**Interactive: The permission playground**

Open it: https://howtousedots.com/widgets/permission-playground.html

What it does: Pick an app (Gmail, Google Calendar or Google Drive) and one of its permission levels (not connected, Always ask, Read-only actions, Allow low-risk actions, Allow all actions). Six requests sort into what a dot just does, what it asks you about first, and what it can't do, each with the reason.

Its content as text:

### The permission playground

Pick an app and a permission level. Six things you might ask for sort themselves into what your dot just does, what waits for your OK, and what can't happen.

**What this level means**

#### Just does it · 0

#### Asks you first · 0

#### Can't · 0

#### The six requests

- Find last week's email from a client
- Write a reply in the chat for you to look at
- Send the reply you told it to send
- Send a reply when you only asked for a draft
- Permanently delete old emails
- Email someone on its own, with no request from you
- Check tomorrow's meetings
- Suggest three free times in the chat
- Add the event you told it to add
- Send invites when you only asked for free times
- Permanently delete an event
- Move a meeting on its own, with no request from you
- Open a doc and pull out the numbers
- Outline a report in the chat from two docs
- Create the new doc you told it to create
- Share a doc when you only asked for a summary
- Permanently delete a folder
- Edit a file on its own, with no request from you

#### What each level does with them

| Level | Just does it | Asks you first | Can't |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Not connected | Nothing | Nothing | Everything in that app |
| Always ask | Nothing | Reading, drafting, sending, creating, deleting | Acting on its own |
| Read-only actions | Reading, drafting in the chat | Sending, creating, deleting | Acting on its own |
| Allow low-risk actions | Reading, drafting in the chat | Sending, creating, deleting | Acting on its own |
| Allow all actions | Reading, drafting, and the sends and changes you asked for | Anything you didn't ask for, and every permanent delete | Acting on its own |

#### What each level means

- **Not connected:** Your dot has no way into the app. It tells you the app isn't connected and offers a button to connect it.
- **Always ask:** ChatGPT will ask before using this app.
- **Read-only actions:** ChatGPT can use the app to read without asking, but will ask before making changes.
- **Allow low-risk actions:** ChatGPT will automatically approve low-risk actions but may deny actions involving sensitive information. This is the level a newly connected app starts on.
- **Allow all actions:** ChatGPT won't ask before using this app to read or take action. You can choose this level for one app at a time. It isn't offered as the default for all your plugins.

#### Why each request lands where it does

- **The app isn't connected:** The app isn't connected, so there's nothing for your dot to use.
- **Always ask:** At this level ChatGPT asks before using the app at all, even to read.
- **Reading:** Reading changes nothing in the app, so there's nothing to approve.
- **Drafting in the chat:** The draft lives in your conversation. Nothing in the app changes.
- **A change at Read-only actions:** Read-only stops at reading. Any change in the app waits for your OK.
- **A change at Allow low-risk actions:** OpenAI doesn't list which actions count as low-risk. Sending and creating can still need your OK, and an action that involves sensitive information can be refused.
- **A change you asked for at Allow all actions:** The app won't prompt. Your request has to cover what goes out and who it goes to.
- **Something you didn't ask for:** Asking for a draft isn't permission to send. Your dot stops and checks with you at every level.
- **A permanent delete:** Permanently deleting data needs your confirmation every time, whatever the level.
- **Acting on its own:** When your dot looks through a connected app without being asked, it only has read-only tools. They can't send a message or change anything.

OpenAI doesn't publish which actions count as low-risk. For certainty about one kind of action, [write a rule for it](https://howtousedots.com/custom-rules).

## What your dot reads without being asked

A connected app isn't only used when you ask. Your dot looks through it on its own to find ways to help.

- **It only reads.** Background reading can't send a message or change anything in the app.
- **Old connections count.** An app you connected to ChatGPT last year is open to your dot from its first minute.
- **It remembers what it reads.** Taking the app away stops new reading, and what your dot already learned stays in [its memory](https://howtousedots.com/memory).

To take an app away, open **Plugins**, click **...** on its row and choose **Uninstall**.

## Check yourself

One question before you move on.

**Predict: You added your dot to Slack this morning. Can it read your Gmail now?**

- Yes. Slack and Gmail are both apps, so one covers the other
- No. Slack is only a place to talk to it
- Only the emails you forward to it in Slack

Answer: No. Slack is only a place to talk to it

Messaging your dot in Slack doesn't connect your inbox. Gmail is its own connection, with its own permission level.

Your apps are connected. Next, decide what your dot has to ask you about.

**Next:** [Custom rules and approvals](https://howtousedots.com/custom-rules)

Your dot reads and drafts freely and asks before it sends, buys or deletes. Add a custom rule in Settings to change that, with one of four behaviors.

### Can my dot act when something changes in an app, without a schedule?

Yes, where the app supports it. Tell your dot what to watch for, such as new bug reports in a Slack channel, and ask it to confirm what it set up. [Give your dot a job](https://howtousedots.com/tasks-and-schedules) covers this.

### Can I connect apps on a work account?

Your workspace admin decides which apps are available and what they can do. [Dots for workspace admins](https://howtousedots.com/admin) has the settings.

- 2026-10-06: Rebuilt as a lesson with the real screens and the permission playground.
- 2026-10-05: First published.

## Sources

- [OpenAI docs: Connect computers and apps to your dot](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/computers-and-apps)
- [OpenAI docs: Meet dots](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots)
- [OpenAI docs: Control your dot](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controls)
- [OpenAI: How we build safety, security, and privacy into dots (the Permission screen)](https://openai.com/index/how-we-build-safety-security-and-privacy-into-dots/)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Dots privacy, security, and safety FAQs](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001529-dots-privacy-security-and-safety-faqs)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Getting started with your dot](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001530-getting-started-with-your-dot)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Managing app permissions in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001495-managing-app-permissions-in-chatgpt)
- [OpenAI docs: Tasks and memory](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memory)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Manage dots in ChatGPT workspaces](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001554-manage-dots-in-chatgpt-workspaces)
- [Taha El Harti on YouTube: screenshots of connecting Gmail from the chat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coZBDmD13-A)
- [Zinho Automates on YouTube: screenshot of the Add menu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGHiJF6g0c)
- [Skill Leap AI on YouTube: screenshot of the Plugins page](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfh6l3DxHK0)