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Copilot Connectors: How Microsoft 365 Copilot Reaches Your Other Tools
Coworker AI explains Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors: synced vs federated, prebuilt vs custom, admin setup, licensing, limits, and how they compare to MCP.
Copilot connectors are how Microsoft 365 Copilot reaches data that lives outside Microsoft 365, such as Salesforce, Jira, ServiceNow, Google Drive or Confluence. Microsoft renamed them from Microsoft Graph connectors, and they now come in two kinds: synced connectors that copy and index content into Microsoft Graph, and federated connectors that query the source in real time over the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
That split matters more than it sounds. It decides where your data sits, who has to configure what, which licenses you need and whether Copilot can change anything in the other system. Below I walk through each type, what is prebuilt, when you need a custom connector, admin setup, licensing, limits, and how Copilot connectors compare with the MCP connectors used by Claude and ChatGPT. Every Microsoft fact links to Microsoft Learn, read on October 19, 2026.
What are Copilot connectors?
Per Microsoft's Copilot connectors overview, Copilot connectors "extend the reach of Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Search experiences by connecting to data beyond Microsoft 365." There are two types:
- Synced connectors crawl an external source and index it into Microsoft Graph. They come in a tenant configuration (an admin configures the connection for the whole organization) and a self-serve configuration (an admin enables it, then each user connects with their own credentials and only limited recent data is indexed for that user).
- Federated connectors use MCP to fetch data at the moment someone asks, without indexing anything into Microsoft 365. The data stays in the source system.
For a synced connector, each indexed item carries its content, metadata like title and URL, and an access control list, so Copilot and Search only show items a user is allowed to see in the source. Connectors re-check for changes on a schedule that admins can configure.
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Book a demoSynced vs federated Copilot connectors
| Synced (tenant) | Synced (self-serve) | Federated | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where data lives | Indexed into Microsoft 365 | Indexed into Microsoft 365, per user | Stays in the source, fetched live |
| Protocol | Copilot connectors API (Microsoft Graph) | Copilot connectors API | MCP |
| Who sets it up | Admin configures | Admin enables, users authenticate | Admin enables, users authenticate |
| Access model | Organization level | User level | User level |
| Custom connectors | Yes | No | Microsoft documents a separate custom federated setup |
| Writes back to the source | No | No | Write, update and delete tools rolling out from early October 2026 |
| Best for | Large bodies of content: wikis, knowledge bases, tickets | Content a user picks | Live, sensitive or fast-changing data |
Sources: Microsoft's connectors overview, federated connectors overview (updated October 16, 2026) and prerequisites, checked October 19, 2026.
A simple rule: sync what you want searched broadly and cited across Microsoft 365; federate what changes constantly, should not be copied, or needs actions.
Which prebuilt Copilot connectors are available?
Microsoft says it offers "over 100 prebuilt connectors" built by Microsoft and partners. The connectors gallery splits them by publisher. Microsoft-built synced connectors I found in the gallery on October 19, 2026 include:
- CRM and service: Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Knowledge, ServiceNow Knowledge, Tickets and Catalog, Zendesk Help Center, Zendesk Ticket (preview)
- Engineering: Jira Cloud and Data Center, Confluence Cloud and on-premises, GitHub Issues, Pull Requests and Knowledge, Azure DevOps Wiki and Work Items
- Files and data: Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Windows file shares, Azure SQL, SQL Server, Oracle SQL, enterprise websites
- People: Workday and SAP SuccessFactors
Slack is a notable gap on the Microsoft-built list. Slack connectors exist, but they come from partner publishers in the partner gallery.
Federated connectors are a separate list. Microsoft's federated overview names sources such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Linear, Notion, HubSpot, Intercom, Asana, monday.com, Smartsheet, Box, Airtable, Miro and Granola, plus a long tail of finance, legal and research data providers.
When do you need a custom Copilot connector?
When nothing in the gallery covers your system. Microsoft points you to the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit or the Copilot connectors API. Building one means a developer defines a schema, registers the connection in Microsoft Entra ID, and writes code to push items and permissions into Microsoft Graph. On-premises sources can go through the Microsoft Graph connector agent.
Microsoft's own advice is blunt: "Custom connectors offer flexibility but require maintenance." Use prebuilt where you can.
If you do build one, plan around the published API limits:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Properties in a connection schema | 128 |
| External groups per tenant | 100,000 |
| External groups per user, per search query | 10,000 |
| Item size (parsed text) | 30 MB, roughly 10,000 pages |
| Throttling response | HTTP 429 with a suggested wait time |
The external groups matter more than they look. Systems like Salesforce or ServiceNow have their own permission groups, and you have to map them into Microsoft Graph so the connector honors them.
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How do admins set up Copilot connectors?
Per Microsoft's prerequisites, you need to be an AI administrator in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
For a prebuilt synced connector you also need admin access to the outside system, for example a Google Workspace Super Admin or Confluence Admin, plus credentials such as API keys or service account tokens and any external setup, such as a Google Cloud project for Google Drive. Plan for that two-admin requirement: the Microsoft side can be ready while the Salesforce or Atlassian admin still has to create the credential.
Federated connectors need less from the source system, since nothing is ingested, but they have their own control layers in the admin center:
- Agent and plugin access allows or blocks connectors in bulk by publisher type: built by Microsoft, by your organization, or by external publishers, including future ones.
- User access sets the tenant-wide ceiling on who can use any agent or connector.
- Your connections turns individual connectors on or off and supports staged rollout to specific users or Entra ID groups.
- Tools blocks individual tools, and activity can be audited in Microsoft Purview.
A user only sees a federated connector when all of those allow it and they hold a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
What licenses do Copilot connectors need?
This is the part to read carefully. Microsoft's licensing table, from the prerequisites page:
| License | Synced connectors in Microsoft Search | Synced connectors for Copilot grounding and agents | Federated connectors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 (any plan) | Yes | No | No |
| Microsoft 365 + Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft 365 + Copilot Studio license | Yes | Agents only, no Copilot grounding | No |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go | Yes | Agents only, no Copilot grounding | No |
Two practical consequences. First, indexing synced connector data "incurs no extra cost for tenants with Microsoft 365 licenses," but without Copilot licenses that data only shows up in Microsoft Search. Second, federated connectors need a Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on license for every user who queries the source.
Microsoft lists the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on at $30.00 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan, as of October 19, 2026. The full seat math is in my Microsoft Copilot enterprise pricing breakdown, and agent costs are in Copilot Studio pricing.
What are the limits of Copilot connectors?
Credit where it is due: synced connectors are a mature, well documented way to make outside content searchable inside Microsoft 365, with source permissions carried through and citations in answers. The trade-offs are structural:
- They only serve Microsoft's surfaces. Connector content powers Copilot Chat, Copilot Search, agents and Microsoft Search. Your Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor users do not get it.
- Synced means copied. Content is indexed into your Microsoft 365 tenant. That is fine for many teams and a blocker for some data owners.
- Sync is not live. Synced items are as fresh as the last crawl.
- Writes are new. Copilot Chat has been read-only with connector content unless extended with action connectors or plugins, and federated write tools only started rolling out in early October 2026. The Researcher agent stays read-only.
- Each connector is still its own source. Copilot can pull from several in one answer, but the Jira item, the Salesforce account and the Teams thread about the same customer are not linked to each other ahead of time.
How do Copilot connectors compare to MCP connectors?
Federated Copilot connectors are MCP connectors, governed through Microsoft's admin center. That makes the comparison less "Microsoft vs MCP" and more "which MCP client, under whose controls."
| Copilot connectors (synced) | Copilot connectors (federated) | MCP connectors in Claude or ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol | Copilot connectors API | MCP | MCP |
| Data indexed ahead of time | Yes, into Microsoft Graph | No | No, fetched per request |
| Clients that can use it | Microsoft 365 Copilot, Search, agents | Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences | The AI app the connector is added to |
| Admin control | Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft 365 admin center, Purview audit | Each AI vendor's org settings |
| License gate | Copilot license for grounding | Copilot license per user | That AI vendor's plan |
Copilot Studio also lets makers add any MCP server's tools and resources to a custom agent, with generative orchestration turned on. And Microsoft's own comparison frames Copilot connectors as "search and index" and Power Platform connectors as live API bridges for reads, writes and actions.
The pattern across all of them is the same: one connector per system. For background on that model, see MCP vs API and RAG vs MCP.
What if your team also uses Claude or ChatGPT?
Plenty of companies do not run on one assistant. Engineering may live in Claude Code or Cursor, another team may use ChatGPT Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Copilot sits in Outlook and Teams. Copilot connectors cover the last one only. Anthropic ships its own Microsoft 365 connector for Claude so Claude can reach SharePoint, Outlook and Teams, but that is another connection to approve and govern.
That leaves you rebuilding the same connections, permissions and admin reviews in every tool, and none of them shares what it learns about your company.
Coworker MCP is built for that situation. It connects to 50+ work tools, such as Slack, Jira, Confluence, Salesforce, HubSpot, Gong, Google Drive and Gmail, and organizes them into OM2, a permission-aware context graph of your company. Then it exposes that through one MCP server any compatible client can use: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code and others. It works as a shared context layer across your AI tools rather than an index inside one of them.
One caveat for Microsoft-heavy teams: if most of your knowledge lives in SharePoint, Outlook and Teams, confirm Coworker's coverage of those specific sources on a demo before you plan around it. The full list is on the connectors page.
How does Coworker MCP work alongside Copilot?
It does not replace Copilot connectors for people who live in Microsoft 365 Copilot. It covers the other AI tools, from one place. Per the Coworker MCP page:
- Your admin enables MCP access for your company, and users sign in with their existing Coworker login and SSO.
- Queries respect your existing permission model, and the MCP tools are search and retrieval only.
- Setup typically takes under 30 minutes, and Coworker maintains the connectors, so your team does not build its own MCP servers.
Because OM2 links facts across tools before a question is asked, cross-tool answers cost less. In Coworker's benchmarks, Claude with Coworker MCP used 9x fewer tokens (89.1% lower cost) on retrieval-heavy tasks than Claude with its native connectors, and was 75.5% cheaper across all 7 task categories tested.
If your company is weighing Microsoft against other assistants, my posts on enterprise AI without Microsoft 365 and Glean vs Copilot go further. To see Coworker MCP on your own stack, book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
What are Copilot connectors?
Copilot connectors, formerly Microsoft Graph connectors, connect Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Search to data outside Microsoft 365. Synced connectors index external content into Microsoft Graph; federated connectors use MCP to fetch data live without indexing.
What is the difference between Graph connectors and Copilot connectors?
They are the same product under a new name. Microsoft's API docs describe "Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors (formerly Microsoft Graph connectors)." The newer federated, MCP-based connectors were added under the same Copilot connectors name.
How many Copilot connectors are there?
Microsoft says it offers over 100 prebuilt connectors from Microsoft and partners, covering systems such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, Google Drive and Box. Federated connectors are a separate, growing list in the same gallery.
Do Copilot connectors cost extra?
Indexing synced connector data has no extra cost for tenants with Microsoft 365 licenses. Using that data for Copilot grounding, and using federated connectors at all, requires Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, listed at $30 per user per month paid yearly on October 19, 2026.
Who can set up Copilot connectors?
An AI administrator in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Prebuilt synced connectors also need an admin of the external system, such as a Google Workspace Super Admin or Confluence Admin, to supply credentials.
Can Copilot connectors write back to other systems?
Synced connectors cannot. Federated connectors can when the connector provides write, update or delete tools, with the user's approval; Microsoft says that support began rolling out in early October 2026. The Researcher agent remains read-only.
Is there a Slack connector for Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Not in Microsoft's own list of Microsoft-built connectors as of October 19, 2026. Slack connectors are available from partner publishers in the partner-built connectors gallery.
Do Copilot connectors work with Claude or ChatGPT?
No. Copilot connectors feed Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Search, agents and Microsoft Search. To give Claude or ChatGPT the same company context, you need MCP connectors in those tools, or one MCP server such as Coworker MCP that serves all of them.
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