Plugin controls

Plugins help your team reuse instructions and work with information from connected apps. For example, a plugin can help prepare a weekly update using your team’s template and project documents. Members can use it again without adding the same instructions to every conversation.

As an admin, you decide who can use each plugin and what its apps can do. This guide explains how to choose settings, test access, and help members when something doesn’t work.

See how plugin availability, roles, and groups work together.

Choose plugins for your team’s tasks

A plugin can include skills, apps, or both:

• Skills give ChatGPT instructions, templates, and reference material for a task, such as preparing a brief or presentation.
• Apps let ChatGPT work with tools and information in services such as Google Drive or Slack. An app can only use the information and actions allowed by its settings and the connected account’s permissions.

In the weekly update example, the skill supplies the reporting instructions and template. The app retrieves project documents the connected account can access.

You can read a plugin’s skills in its preview to check whether they suit the task. The preview doesn’t let you edit the instructions or select individual skills from the plugin. See Skill controls for more guidance.

Before choosing settings, decide who needs the plugin and whether their task involves reading information, changing it, or both. A plugin that one department uses every week may be optional for another.

Give members a short description of when to use each approved plugin and one example request.

Understand what each control does

Member permissions control what people can do with plugins. Installation settings control which plugins they can install or receive by default. App and account settings control access to connected information and actions.

Choose what members can do with plugins

Before choosing individual plugins, review member permissions. Open your workspace’s Permissions & roles settings and search for plugins. Depending on your workspace, the controls include:

Where role-based access control (RBAC) is supported, a role holds a set of permissions. Workspace owners can assign a role to a group so its members receive those permissions. For example, a team can use approved plugins while only the people maintaining them have permission to upload or publish them.

These permissions are separate from each plugin’s installation settings. Next, choose which plugins members can install or receive by default. For more on assigning roles and groups, see Roles and workspace permissions.

Choose installation settings

Open Admin console, select your workspace, and open Plugins. The bulk edit menu offers these installation settings:

Where per-plugin role settings are supported, Workspace default uses the workspace setting. For ordinary custom roles, Off means that role doesn’t give access. A member may still get access through another role, so check all roles assigned to them, including those assigned through groups.

For example, make a research plugin available for members to install when they need it. If role controls are available, install the weekly update plugin for the role assigned to the people who prepare those updates. Check their app access before asking them to use it.

Manage multiple plugins together

To change several plugins at once, select them and choose Edit. Use this only when the plugins need the same installation setting. Review who the change affects and which apps each plugin needs before confirming. If a change fails or you’re unsure whether it saved, check that plugin’s setting before trying again.

For current limits and instructions, see the Help Center’s plugin administration guide.

To manage workspace plugins from a repository, see Import and sync plugins from GitHub. For installation on other versions of ChatGPT and Codex, see Plugins.

Manage app access and actions

Installing a plugin doesn’t give members access to its apps or external data. You also need to allow the required apps. If an app requires an account, that account must have permission to access the information or take the action in the connected service.

Review each included app in Plugins in Admin console. Where available, use Manage Legacy Apps to open the older app settings page.

• Use App access to choose who can use the app.
• Where supported, use Tools (or Actions) to allow actions that read or change information in the connected service.
• Use New tools (or New actions), where supported, to decide whether to allow actions added later. This doesn’t turn off actions you’ve already enabled.
• Use Permissions to choose when ChatGPT asks before using the app.

For example, summarizing documents may need only read actions. Updating project records needs write actions. Before allowing write actions, check what they can change and how members can review or correct the result. Asking for confirmation doesn’t replace restrictions on what the app or connected account can access.

If you use a workspace connection, members need permission to use that shared account. Installing a plugin for everyone doesn’t create a shared account. Choose an account with the permissions the task needs, and tell members which account they’re using.

Review content access

Some apps offer Safety & Security Controls to limit which content ChatGPT can access. These settings apply in addition to the connected service’s permissions.

For example, a member may be able to open a file in Google Drive while workspace content restrictions prevent ChatGPT from accessing it. After choosing restrictions, send new requests for an allowed item and a restricted item to check that ChatGPT can access the allowed item but not the restricted item.

For supported apps and setup, see the Help Center’s plugin administration guide.

Check the member experience

Ask a member to try the plugin in their workspace on a version of ChatGPT or Codex that supports it. Test with their account because an owner’s account may have different permissions.

If the plugin is installed but a task fails, check the app connection, allowed actions, content restrictions, and the connected account’s permissions before reinstalling it. For more checks, see Troubleshooting plugins and apps in ChatGPT.

Troubleshoot “Disabled by admin”

If you’re a workspace owner, check these settings when a plugin shows “Disabled by admin” on the web or desktop:

1. Open Admin console, select the workspace, and open Plugins (Apps in FedRAMP workspaces). Review the plugin’s workspace availability and any supported role settings. ChatGPT Business uses workspace-wide availability.
2. If your workspace supports RBAC, open Permissions & roles. Check the workspace default and every role assigned to the member, directly or through a group. The general plugin permission must be on. Look for Allow members to use plugins or Use plugins. FedRAMP workspaces may show Use apps.
3. Confirm the member can access each app required by the plugin and that the task’s required actions are enabled.
4. If Lockdown Mode roles are available, check whether they restrict what the member is trying to do. Review roles assigned directly and through groups. Lockdown Mode restrictions can apply even when an ordinary role gives access. They don’t automatically disable every app in managed workspaces.

For self-serve ChatGPT Business accounts, ask the member to review Lockdown Mode in Settings > Security, where available. Lockdown Mode doesn’t affect Codex network access.

Correct unintended settings or role assignments according to your organization’s security policy. Allow up to five minutes for role changes to apply, then ask the member to try again. See Role-based access control (RBAC) for details.

Keep approved workflows useful

For each shared plugin, give members a contact who can answer questions and review changes to its skills and apps. Review access when the team, task, or connected account changes.

When you stop using a plugin, review its installation settings and app access separately. Disabling an app doesn’t necessarily uninstall the plugin or remove skills that work without it. Tell members what’s changing and suggest a replacement, if one exists.

Export the public catalog for review

Eligible ChatGPT Enterprise workspace owners and admins can download a CSV of the public plugins available to their workspace. Use the export to review plugin descriptions, apps, and skills before changing availability. Apps use Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect to services, so the export describes them as MCP servers. The export doesn’t show what each member can access. Use the member checks above for that.

1. Open Admin console and select the intended workspace.
2. Open Plugins and select Public.
3. Select Export CSV in the page header.

The download uses the filename public-plugins-security-review.csv and includes:

• Plugin metadata: Plugin Name, Plugin Description, Date Added (UTC), OpenAI Verified, Developer Name, and Version.
• MCP server metadata: App Name(s) and App Description(s).
• Chat skill metadata: Skill Name(s) and Skill Description(s).

Semicolons separate multiple MCP servers or skills in the same cell. The catalog data can be up to 48 hours old. It includes public plugins visible to your workspace, but not plugins created for that workspace. The export isn’t available in FedRAMP workspaces.

Restrict company app accounts to authorized workspaces

Verified-domain restrictions let you require employees to connect company accounts only in authorized ChatGPT workspaces. When activated, this blocks new connections to supported apps in personal or other unauthorized workspaces. It applies to accounts that use your company’s verified domain.

Verifying a domain does not activate this restriction. Existing app connections are not automatically disconnected.

For supported apps, availability, and setup guidance, see Admin controls, security, and compliance for plugins and apps.

Review permissions for the computer or cloud environment

If an agent uses plugins on a computer or in a cloud environment, review that environment’s permissions too. These work alongside workspace and account permissions.

Hooks can run scripts or tools at specific points during an agent’s work. If you use them, check that the environment supports them and test what happens when they fail. A hook failure doesn’t necessarily stop the action. Keep access restrictions in place even when you use hooks.

See Agent Security for environment-specific controls and Hooks for supported events and configuration.

Understand data flow and security

When ChatGPT uses an app in a plugin, it sends a request to the connected service. The account’s permissions and workspace controls limit the data ChatGPT can access and the actions it can take.

Before allowing access to sensitive information, review what the task needs, which account it uses, and whether the connected service meets your organization’s requirements.

For current data handling, retention, and compliance guidance, see Admin controls, security, and compliance for plugins and apps. For locally configured MCP servers, see Codex MCP configuration.

Go deeper

• Install and use plugins
• Understand skills and plugins
• Import and sync plugins from GitHub
• Read the App Security Whitepaper (PDF, June 2026)