How to Use Notion MCP With ChatGPT

There are two ways to use Notion from ChatGPT today. The simple one is the Notion app: in ChatGPT open Settings, then Plugins, choose Notion, connect, and approve your Notion workspace. ChatGPT can then search and read the Notion pages your account can reach. The fuller one is to add Notion’s own MCP server↗ (opens in a new tab), https://mcp.notion.com/mcp, as a custom app in ChatGPT’s developer mode. That gives ChatGPT Notion’s whole tool set, including creating and updating pages, where your ChatGPT plan allows write actions. Which of the two you can use depends on your plan and, in a company workspace, on your ChatGPT admin.

Both routes change quickly, and OpenAI moves menu names as it goes: its help articles now point to Settings, Plugins, and note that very old versions of the mobile apps show Apps instead. The steps below follow OpenAI’s and Notion’s documentation as it reads at the end of September 2026. For what Notion’s tools can and cannot do once connected, see what the Notion MCP server can do.

Route 1: the Notion app in ChatGPT

1. In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Plugins.
2. Find and select Notion, then select Connect. If Notion appears as a plugin, select Install plugin and finish the connection prompt.
3. Sign in to the Notion account you want ChatGPT to use.
4. Review the Notion workspace and content in the authorisation request, and approve it. If you have several workspaces, make sure you authorise the one that holds the pages you need.

Then ask in a chat, naming Notion or picking it from the + menu or with @: “Summarise the decisions in our Q3 planning pages”, or “Find the onboarding guide in Notion and list the steps for a new starter.” Including a page title, project or teamspace in the prompt helps it find the right thing.

OpenAI describes this app mainly as search and read. On writing it is careful: ChatGPT may be able to create or update Notion pages, depending on the app or plugin, your Notion permissions, workspace settings and approvals, and available actions differ between experiences. Notion no longer supports individual sync, so there is nothing to index in advance and no initial sync to wait for.

Route 2: Notion MCP as a developer-mode app

Developer mode lets ChatGPT act as a full MCP client for any remote server you add. OpenAI’s own description↗ (opens in a new tab) is that it supports all tools, both read and write, and that it is powerful but dangerous, meant for people who understand prompt injection, mistaken write actions and malicious servers. With Notion MCP added this way, ChatGPT gets the same tools as any other client: search, fetch, create and update pages, query databases, comment, and the rest.

Who can use it

• OpenAI’s developer documentation lists developer mode for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts, on the web.
• OpenAI’s Help Center is narrower about writes: full MCP support, including write and modify actions, is rolling out in beta to Business, Enterprise and Edu, while Pro users can connect MCP servers with read and fetch permissions in developer mode.
• On Business, only admins and owners can use developer mode and publish apps. On Enterprise and Edu, admins can grant developer mode to chosen people through role-based access.
• MCP apps are web only, not on mobile.

If the two OpenAI pages seem to disagree, trust what your own settings show: the option either appears for your account or it does not.

Steps on a personal account

1. In ChatGPT on the web, open Settings, then Security and login, and turn on Developer mode.
2. Go to Plugins and use the plus button to create a developer-mode app. Name it Notion and give it the server URL below. Choose OAuth for authentication.
3. Sign in to Notion when asked, pick the workspace, and approve. The new app appears under Drafts.
4. In a chat, choose Developer mode from the + menu and select the Notion app for that conversation.

https://mcp.notion.com/mcp

In a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace

An admin creates the app from Workspace settings, Apps, Create: enter the endpoint, choose the authentication, select Scan Tools, complete the OAuth prompt, and create it. It sits in Drafts until an admin publishes it for the workspace. Enterprise and Edu admins can also choose which of the app’s actions are allowed and which groups can use it before publishing. One detail matters for Notion in particular: after an admin approves an app, ChatGPT uses a frozen snapshot of its tools. When Notion adds or changes tools, nothing changes in ChatGPT until an admin reviews and publishes the update, and on Enterprise and Edu new actions arrive switched off.

What is different in ChatGPT

• Tool names. Notion says↗ (opens in a new tab) that in OpenAI clients the notion- prefix is dropped from three tools, so notion-fetch, notion-search and notion-ai-search appear as fetch, search and ai-search. The rest keep their names.
• Confirmations. ChatGPT treats any tool not marked read-only as a write and asks before running it by default. You can tell it to remember your approval for the rest of a conversation; OpenAI advises doing that only for an app you trust to write without asking.
• Being explicit helps. OpenAI suggests naming the app and tool when it matters, for example: “Use the Notion app’s search tool; do not browse the web.”
• Selection is per message. Choosing an app applies to the message you send it with. Mention it again when a follow-up needs fresh data from Notion.
• Other modes. OpenAI retired ChatGPT agent mode in July 2026 and now points longer tasks to ChatGPT Work. Deep research can use custom apps for reading and fetching only.

Permissions on both routes

Notion decides what can be reached. Whichever route you use, ChatGPT sees only what the connected Notion account can see, in the workspace you authorised. OpenAI states plainly that a ChatGPT workspace admin can make the app available but cannot grant access to a Notion page your account is not allowed to view. With Notion MCP the reverse also holds: what your account can edit, ChatGPT can edit, once you approve the call.

ChatGPT decides when to ask. Its app permission settings offer options such as always ask, allow read actions, allow low-risk actions and, for some apps, allow all actions. OpenAI notes these settings never grant new access; they only change when ChatGPT stops to ask. For a Notion connection that can write, keep writes on ask. Both Notion and OpenAI warn about prompt injection↗ (opens in a new tab), where text inside a page tries to steer the assistant, so read what a write will do before approving it.

Which one to use

• You mainly want answers from your notes, specs and wikis: the Notion app. Fewer steps, and no developer mode.
• You want ChatGPT to create pages, update database rows, build views or comment: Notion MCP in developer mode, where your plan allows writes.
• You work in code: use a coding client instead. Notion documents Codex↗ (opens in a new tab), OpenAI’s coding agent, with a two-line entry in ~/.codex/config.toml and codex mcp login notion, and the same server works in Claude Code.

If the work is a list of tasks

Many people connect Notion to ChatGPT to keep a task database up to date. If the list itself is the point, fenbs is a smaller home for it: ChatGPT connects to a fenbs board over MCP with a browser sign-in, holds your role narrowed by the scopes you tick, and every change it makes is recorded with its name. The steps are on connecting ChatGPT to fenbs, and the fair comparison is fenbs vs Notion.