ChatGPT’s Google Drive integration is now official, but there’s a catch

Artificial intelligence is everywhere you look on the internet today. This week, in particular, has been filled with a few AI-related developments. OpenAI started off by announcing its flagship GPT-4o model with some key upgrades in tow. Following up on this announcement earlier this week, ChatGPT is now picking up Google Drive and OneDrive integration, as previously revealed by a leak.

OpenAI announced the new integration on its website, detailing how GPT-4o will supercharge data analysis. It works exactly as you would expect, with subscribers now finding the Connect to Google Drive and Connect to Microsoft OneDrive options just above the Upload from computer option via the attachment menu. A video shared by OpenAI takes us through the entire process (via 9to5Google).

OpenAI didn’t share a similar video of the OneDrive integration, with Google Drive even being the first option above OneDrive. Given the close relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, one would expect the former’s service to be prioritized in ChatGPT, but that doesn’t appear to be the case right now.

The ability to add files to ChatGPT for further analysis is not new, as users could always add files through their computers. However, this process meant you had to download the file from another source and then re-upload it to the chatbot. This new Google Drive and OneDrive integration effectively eliminates that step, provided you have your documents or spreadsheets stored in either of the two cloud storage services.

OpenAI says this integration supports Docs, Sheets Slides, and Microsoft’s alternatives like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Along with this feature addition, ChatGPT is also getting a new expandable view to interact more effectively with tables or charts. Furthermore, it is now possible to customize certain elements of the generated chart or graph, like colors.

Not available to all users

ChatGPT’s chart customization feature

These newly added features will be limited to users on ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Enterprise tiers, per OpenAI. The same can be said about the Google Drive and OneDrive integration, with free ChatGPT accounts currently not seeing either of the cloud storage options.

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But since OpenAI gave GPT-4o access to users on its free tier (albeit with some big caveats), we won’t be surprised if some of these other perks are made available to free users sometime in the future. OpenAI’s announcement comes days after Google revealed new Gemini for Workspace additions at I/O 2024.