Connect ChatGPT to Your Mac

To connect ChatGPT to your Mac apps, install LMCP and add it as a custom connector at chatgpt.com. LMCP is a free, local MCP server for macOS that reaches Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Messages, Notes, Reminders, Teams, Slack, Files and more through native macOS APIs. Requests travel over an encrypted relay to your own Mac and execute there, so your data never sits on an intermediate server. Custom connectors require a paid ChatGPT plan.

What This Lets You Do

ChatGPT runs in the cloud, but your email, calendar, and Teams chats live on your Mac. With LMCP plus the Cloud Relay, ChatGPT can call tools that run directly on your Mac. Ask it from any device:

“Summarize my unread emails from this week”
“What’s on my calendar tomorrow?”
“Find the Teams message where Marco mentioned the API migration”
“Draft a reply to Sarah’s email about the budget”

ChatGPT sends the request to the LMCP backend, the backend forwards it through an encrypted WebSocket tunnel to your Mac, your Mac runs the tool, and the result comes back to ChatGPT — usually in under 2 seconds.

What You Will Need

macOS 12 (Monterey) or later — Apple Silicon or Intel
ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu — custom MCP connectors (Developer mode) are not available on the free plan
A browser on chatgpt.com — creating the connector is web-only (the desktop/mobile apps can use it afterward)

How to Connect ChatGPT to Your Mac

chatgpt.com → Settings → Security and login → Developer mode

Adding a custom connector needs Developer mode, available on ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu (not the free plan). ChatGPT flags it high-risk because a custom connector can act on your data.

1
Install LMCP on your Mac
Download LMCP from local-mcp.com and run the installer — it installs Local MCP to Applications and auto-configures your AI clients in ~30 seconds.
2
Turn on web access and copy your Connection URL
Click the LMCP icon in your menu bar and find Your web AI · Cloud Relay. Turn web access ON (it is off by default for privacy), then open your assistant’s panel and click Copy URL.
That URL already contains your personal token — it looks like . Every step below that says “the URL you copied” means this one. Treat it like a password: anyone holding it can reach your Mac, and you can rotate it any time from the LMCP menu, which invalidates the old one.
3
Turn on Developer mode (one-time)
Use a desktop browser at chatgpt.com — connectors can’t be added from the mobile or desktop apps. Open Settings → “Security and login” and turn on Developer mode: it’s the one-time prerequisite, and the custom-connector section (labeled “Connectors”, “Apps” or “Apps & Connectors” depending on rollout) only appears after it’s on — that’s why there may be no “Apps” yet.
Still don’t see it? Fully reload chatgpt.com after toggling — Developer mode also has to stay on to use the connector. On Business/Enterprise/Edu a workspace admin must enable connectors first.
4
Create the LMCP connector
With Developer mode on, go to chatgpt.com/plugins and click the ＋ at the top right — that is where the button lives, not on the Settings page (Settings → Plugins → “Browse plugins” takes you to the same screen). Fill in Name: and, in Server URL, paste the URL you copied from the LMCP menu bar — the tokenized one, exactly as copied. Authentication stays on “OAuth” — that is already the default, and the client ID/secret stay empty because we auto-register. Tick I understand and want to continue and click Create.
5
Sign in and approve on your Mac
Create only registers the connector — it still reads “No app actions available yet”. Click Sign in with LMCP: ChatGPT opens an Authorize page on , and a dialog appears on your Mac. Click Approve there and the tool catalog loads.
If no dialog shows up, or the page says LMCP isn’t running, the approval simply expired — it only lasts 5 minutes. Click the button again; nothing needs reinstalling. (Pasting your token is the fallback for a different device or a browser that blocks the app-open.)
6
Enable it in a chat
Start a new conversation and enable the LMCP connector from the composer’s tools menu (+). Then ask: “List my email accounts” or “What meetings do I have today?”

Steps verified 2026-08-08. 100% local · you confirm anything it sends · free.

Create the connector from the web at chatgpt.com — the desktop and mobile apps can use a connector once it exists, but can’t create one. On Business/Enterprise/Edu a workspace admin may need to enable Developer mode first (Workspace Settings → Connectors).

The token identifies your specific Mac — it’s the secure, unambiguous way to grant access (no email, so it can’t collide with another machine). You only approve once; with forwarding ON, ChatGPT then discovers the full catalog (269 tools).

Try It

Start a new conversation in ChatGPT. Make sure the LMCP connector is enabled in the chat (the connector toggle in the input bar). Then ask:

“List my email accounts”
“What meetings do I have today?”
“Search my emails for ‘invoice’ this month”
“Show me the latest messages in the engineering Teams channel”

ChatGPT will route the request through the Cloud Relay to your Mac, which executes the tool and returns the result. You’ll see a tool call indicator in ChatGPT’s UI, and the response usually arrives in under 2 seconds.

Privacy Story

Cloud Data Forwarding is off by default and opt-in per machine. When off, the connector's tools/list advertises only setup_install — data tools are not listed until you enable forwarding.

When you turn it on, your data still comes from your Mac — nothing is stored in the cloud. The bytes transit through the encrypted tunnel between your Mac and the LMCP backend, but they’re never persisted server-side. Turn it off any time and ChatGPT instantly loses access.

If you prefer zero cloud transit, you can use the local lmcp connector inside Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code instead — tool calls go through stdio and never touch the network. Read the privacy guide for the full breakdown.

What Tools Are Available?

With Cloud Data Forwarding on, ChatGPT sees the same 269 tools as the local lmcp connector:

Mail (Mail.app + Outlook): list, read, search, send, reply, move, save attachments
Calendar: list events, create, delete, check availability
Contacts: search, list, get details
Microsoft Teams: list chats, read messages, channel messages (no Graph API needed)
OneDrive: list, read, write, move, delete, search files
Notes & Reminders: list, search, create, complete
Messages: read iMessage chats
OmniFocus: list tasks, projects, complete, search
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF: read and create
Finder & Safari: search files (Spotlight), list folders, bookmarks

Use Cases

Inbox triage from your phone

You’re away from your Mac but want to triage your inbox. Open ChatGPT on your phone: “Summarize new emails from the last 24 hours, group by sender, flag anything from legal or finance.” ChatGPT calls your Mac, reads Mail.app, returns a categorized summary in seconds.

Meeting prep before walking into the room

You have a 3pm meeting and 5 minutes to prepare. From ChatGPT: “Prep me for the 3pm with Maria and Juan. Find recent emails, Teams chats, and shared docs from the last week.” ChatGPT cross-references your calendar attendees with email/Teams/OneDrive activity and gives you a context brief.

Weekly status report

Friday afternoon: “Write my weekly status report based on this week’s emails, calendar events, and Teams discussions.” ChatGPT pulls the data, generates the report, you copy-paste to Slack or send by email.

Turning It Off

Open the LMCP menu bar popover → Web AIs section, toggle Cloud Data Forwarding back to OFF. The change is instant: ChatGPT immediately loses access to data tools. Your tunnel stays connected for setup_install, but no data flows through.

Troubleshooting

ChatGPT says “Could not reach your Mac”

The LMCP app isn’t running, or the Cloud Relay tunnel is down. Open the LMCP menu bar — the dot should be green and Cloud Relay should read Connected. If LMCP isn’t running at all, download and reinstall LMCP.

Settings shows “No app actions available yet” after connecting

This is expected — it does not mean the connector is broken. ChatGPT’s developer-mode app settings panel does not enumerate MCP tools there. Once it says Connected (and the button reads Disconnect), the tools work in chat: start a new chat, enable it from the composer’s + menu, then ask e.g. “using LMCP, list my calendars.” The tool call runs and returns data from your Mac. (The connector shows up under the name you gave it when creating it — LMCP if you followed the steps above.)

LMCP’s tools don’t appear right after connecting

A known ChatGPT Developer-Mode quirk: it caches the connector’s tool list and doesn’t always reload it the moment OAuth completes. Open Settings → Connectors → LMCP → Információn and click Actualizar (Refresh) — or just start a new chat. The full tool set then loads. (LMCP advertises 269 tools; ChatGPT also surfaces only the few relevant to your current question and loads the rest on demand, so don’t worry if “list all tools” shows just a handful.)

Tools list shows only setup_install (no Mail, Calendar, etc.)

Cloud Data Forwarding is OFF — the cloud connector intentionally lists only setup_install until you opt in. Open the LMCP menu bar popover → Web AIs section, toggle Cloud Data Forwarding ON, then refresh ChatGPT.

ChatGPT says “the connector is not authenticated”

The grant is gone — usually because the token was rotated. Open the LMCP menu bar popover → Your web AI · Cloud Relay, click Copy URL next to ChatGPT, and re-add the connector with that URL. You will be asked to approve again on your Mac.

Cloud Relay isn’t connected

The Cloud Relay connects automatically when LMCP runs (green dot, reads Connected). For data tools you also need Cloud Data Forwarding ON. Check both in the Web AIs section.

There’s no way to add a connector in ChatGPT’s Apps

Developer mode isn’t on yet — the Apps connector section only appears after you enable it. In a desktop browser on chatgpt.com, open Settings → Security (“Security and login”) and turn on Developer mode, then go back to Settings → Apps to add the connector. On a Business/Enterprise/Edu workspace, an admin may need to allow custom connectors first. The desktop and mobile apps can’t create connectors.

The token isn’t being accepted

You never have to type or handle the token by hand: use Copy URL in the Your web AI · Cloud Relay section — the URL already carries it, percent-encoded. That section only shows a URL once the relay is connected (green dot) andweb access is ON. If ChatGPT later says the connector is “not authenticated”, copy the URL again and re-add the connector.

What About Other AI Clients?

The Cloud Relay works with any MCP-compatible client that supports custom servers and Bearer authentication:

Claude.ai web: same flow, add as Custom Connector in Settings — see the Claude.ai guide
Custom MCP clients: any tool that can hit a JSON-RPC endpoint over HTTPS with Bearer auth

For Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, or Zed running on your Mac, you don’t need the Cloud Relay at all — LMCP autoconfigures the local lmcp connector during install, and tool calls go through stdio without touching the cloud. See the Claude Desktop guide for that flow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can ChatGPT access my Mac's email and calendar?

Yes. With LMCP's custom connector on chatgpt.com, ChatGPT can read your email, manage your calendar and search Teams. Requests route to your Mac over an encrypted tunnel and run locally — your data isn't stored in the cloud.

Do I need API keys to connect ChatGPT to my Mac?

No API keys. LMCP itself is free. Adding a custom connector on ChatGPT's side requires a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu) with Developer mode enabled — that's a ChatGPT requirement, not an LMCP one.

Which Mac apps can ChatGPT use through LMCP?

Mail, Calendar, Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Notes, Reminders, Files and more —269 tools across 25+ domains, all on your Mac.

How to Connect ChatGPT to Your Mac

What This Lets You Do

What You Will Need

How to Connect ChatGPT to Your Mac