Anthropic quietly turned Claude into an app store. The Claude Marketplace opened with over 2,000 connectors and plugins, and most people still have no idea it exists. If you use Claude for work, this changes what the app can actually do.
What the Claude Marketplace actually is
Think of it as one catalog for everything that plugs into Claude. Before, you had to hunt through settings menus, docs pages, and third-party blogs just to connect Claude to your email or your project tracker. Now there’s a single place inside Claude where all of that lives.
The Claude Marketplace went live on September 23, 2026, and it arrived stocked. Anthropic says more than 2,000 connectors and plugins were available at launch, built by companies like Atlassian, Google, Microsoft, Notion, and Salesforce. So this isn’t Anthropic filling a shelf with its own stuff. It’s the integrations people already use, gathered in one spot.
There are three sections, and each one does something different. Connectors and plugins wire Claude into the tools your team already runs. Agents and products are ready-made Claude-powered software you can buy from partners like CrowdStrike, Cursor, Harvey, and Snowflake. Service partners are consulting firms (Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte) that help bigger companies roll Claude out across whole departments.
Here’s the short version:
| Section | What you get | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Connectors and plugins | Live links between Claude and your apps | Google, Microsoft 365, Notion, Salesforce, Atlassian |
| Agents and products | Pre-built Claude-powered software you buy, not build | CrowdStrike, Cursor, Harvey, Lovable, Snowflake |
| Service partners | Humans who set it up for you | Accenture, BCG, Deloitte |
How to add your first connector
This part takes about two minutes. Seriously.
- Open Claude and sign in at anthropic.com.
- Look for the Marketplace section in the app (it lives where your settings and integrations used to hide).
- Browse or search for the app you want. Try “Gmail” or “Notion” or whatever your team actually uses.
- Click the connector, then hit add. You’ll go through a login screen for that app (that’s the OAuth handshake, and it’s normal).
- Approve the permissions. Read them. Then start asking Claude things like “summarize my unread email” or “find the doc where we discussed Q4 budgets.”
That last step is where the magic is. A connector gives Claude live access to your actual data, not a copy you paste in. Ask it a question and it reads the real thing.
Which connector should you try first? Pick the app you open most during the workday. For most people that’s email or Slack or their docs tool. The payoff is instant, and it teaches you how the whole system works.
If you build things: getting listed
Maybe you’re not just a user. Maybe you’ve built a little tool with the Claude API or Agent Skills and you’re wondering if it can live in the marketplace too.
It can. Anthropic opened submissions on September 25, two days after launch. Any developer on a paid Claude plan can submit, and there are two paths. You can point to a remote MCP server that’s already running, or you can bundle your MCP servers and skills in a GitHub repo and submit that.
The requirements sound scarier than they are. You need OAuth if your tool requires login, safety annotations on your tools, human-readable titles, a published privacy policy and terms, a support channel, at least three example prompts, and a test account with sample data. If you’ve already built an MCP server, you’ve done most of this. If you haven’t built one yet, start with our beginner’s guide to running MCP servers.
One thing worth knowing: when someone installs your connector, it’s a small vote for the MCP standard. Anthropic released that protocol as an open spec, and the industry adopted it. Every connector in this store runs on it. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds, because it means the plumbing you learn today transfers to other AI tools tomorrow. Zapier’s MCP integration works the same way, which is a nice fallback if you want to connect apps without writing any code at all.
Why this store might not flop
You’ve seen this movie before, right? An AI company launches an app store, the hype lasts a month, and then the whole thing quietly dies. OpenAI’s plugin store did exactly that in 2023.
So what’s different this time?
The catalog, mostly. OpenAI kept its store small and curated, so developers had no reason to build and users had no reason to browse. Anthropic went the opposite way: anyone can submit, outside builders sit next to giant partners, and the store launched with 2,000 entries instead of 20. Density matters in a marketplace. Empty shelves kill them.
The billing is quietly clever too. Enterprise customers with committed Anthropic spend can put part of that budget toward third-party products in the marketplace, and Anthropic takes no cut of those transactions. That turns the Claude Marketplace into a procurement channel, not just a novelty tab. Companies already paying for Claude can buy a Cursor seat or a CrowdStrike agent without a new vendor contract.
Will it work? Honestly, nobody knows yet. Marketplaces live or die on daily use, and that depends on whether people actually leave connectors installed after week one. But the incentives are lined up better than last time, and that’s more than most AI app stores ever managed.
Pro tips before you connect everything
A little caution goes a long way here.
Think of the Claude Marketplace like your phone’s app drawer. Install what you need, delete what you don’t, and nothing breaks.
Don’t connect every app on day one. Each connector gives Claude access to real data, and each one is another thing to manage. Start with one, use it for a few days, and see if it earns its place. You can always add more.
Also, check what the connector can actually do. Reading your calendar is different from being able to send invites. Permissions vary by app, and the approval screen tells you which is which. Take the ten seconds to read it.
And if you use Claude’s memory feature, connectors make it sharper. Claude remembers your projects better when it can see the actual docs and messages behind them. The two features stack in a good way.
Last one: connectors work best with specific questions. “What’s going on with my week?” gives you mush. “Summarize the open threads in the launch channel and flag anything blocked” gives you something you can act on. The tool rewards precision.
The takeaway
The Claude Marketplace solves a real annoyance: integrations used to be scattered, and now they’re one searchable catalog with 2,000+ options. Open it up, add the one app you live in, and give it a real task this week. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to make Claude your actual work assistant instead of a chat tab, this is a pretty good one.
