Custom MCP connector only works for person who set it up

ChatGPT Bugs
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1

Hi, I have been developing an MCP server for my company. The server is a remote StreamableHTTP transport server with OAuth which successfully implements the ChatGPT search/fetch protocol. We have a team account which allows us to access custom connector functionality.

As of now the connector works great for me (yay!) but does not work for anyone else within my workspace.

Failure Symptoms

Other workspace users are able to successfully OAuth the connector, but when they try to use the connector in Chat or Deep Research, the connector does not work.

For example, when other workspace users use DeepResearch, the Agent Activity says:

I encountered a 404 error, possibly indicating a problem with the XXX connector, such as authentication or incorrect configuration.

Checking if an incorrect endpoint or missing parameter might be causing the 404 error. Simplifying the query could help confirm the search functionality.

Chat, similarly, does not seem to be able to access any info from the connector.

Server-side Observations

On our remote server I can see requests for the OAuth step when users connect to the custom connector initially. Checking the process on my side it aligns with what I would expect to see to the best of my abilities. I.e. It matches the process that I see when I connect and auth, but with different user metadata and token in the JWT access token returned in the result.

Once connected, when another workspace user attempts to chat or use deep research, I dont see any request logs on the server side. When I use the connector, I see lots of logs with successful initialization, tools/list and search and fetch tool calls.

At this point I am pulling my hair out. I’m not sure why the connector works for my user, but not for others.

TL;DR

Remote MCP custom connector w/ OAuth works for my user but not for others within my workspace. Other users can authenticate correctly but any time they try to use the connector nothing can be searched or fetched and no API requests show up on the MCP server side.

2

Right now, custom MCP connectors are effectively admin only in ChatGPT Team/Enterprise workspaces. Regular members can walk through the OAuth flow, but when the agent actually tries to run a tool call ChatGPT refuses to hit the remote /mcp endpoint unless the user’s role is “admin” (or owner). Thats why you never see any traffic in your server logs for those colleagues. The request never leaves OpenAI’s side.

OpenAIs own docs mention thid, only workspace owners and admins have permission to add and use custom connectors while the feature is in beta OpenAI Help Center.

3

Thanks @Foxalabs!

Good reminder to always check the docs :slight_smile:

Long shot, but do you have any idea of when support will open to non-admins/owners?

4

You are very welcome, Brian!

The sheer slope of the learning curve with AI can be extreamly daugnting, even for people with a lot of software dev experience.

This is excaserbated by the pace of change, a lot of the time I am scratching my head wondering what the heck the current best practice is.

On the Whentm I don’t, however, there is a lot of activity over the next 2 months, and I will also add this to the agenda to discus with the OAI dev rel team, and hopefully get you a response, I think that may well be a few weeks away with the current rollout phase. Feel free to ping this thread back if I’ve not replied in a timley manner.

5

Hey @Foxalabs

Reading through the docs you sent over. They seem to imply that once an admin/owner creates and publishes a custom connector to the workspace, the custom connector can be used by all users within the workspace:

Note: In Team, Enterprise, and Edu workspaces, only workspace owners and admins have permission to add custom connectors. Users with a regular member role do not have the ability to add custom connectors themselves.

Once a connector is added and enabled by an owner or admin user, it becomes available for all members of the workspace to use.

As with other connectors, end users must authenticate with each connector themselves before first use. For custom connectors configured with no authentication, end users must still individually search and connect to the connector within their settings before first use.

What you mentioned previously does match exactly what I am experiencing, so just wondering if the docs are incorrect or if there is actually something else going on.

Thanks again for your quick replies.

6

Right, that’s for a connector, but the /MCP endpoint is treated differently, it’s singled out as Admin only for the duration of the Beta.

7

Ah was excited to finally have something working on my account. Then tried out with a user and it failed :frowning: .
Docs do need to be clearer on this.

8

I am seeing this same issue, but even after promoting a separate account to admin and re-adding the connector, that account still cannot access the MCP server. Only requests from the original admin that added the connector make it through to the server. No other requests from owners or admins make it through, even though they were able to successfully authenticate and add the connector. The docs indicate that once it has been published the rest of the workspace members should be able to use it. I have to assume that is the intent and this is a bug, or what is the point of allowing the connection but not use of the endpoint? My only workaround in the meantime will be to promote each user to admin and have them individually add the connector as a separate new one and this is really not ideal.

9

Hi, given the recent announcement that connectors are officially out of beta, are there any timelines for when can we expect custom MCP connectors to work for users other than the connecting user please?

Thanks!

10

This is a legit bug, we have been stuck due to this for the last 40 days. Please resolve soon.

11

i’m very confused. are MCP connectors out of beta or not? There was the announcement, but i’m still seeing the banner “Beta intended for developer use only.”

12

Hey everyone, happy to announce I think the fix for this has been deployed.

We got in touch with some folks, that knew some folks, that knew some folks, that put out a fix today.

If others can try and confirm that would help close this one for good.

13

thanks Brian! Haven’t managed to confirm it works yet. but, should that beta tag still be present? (fyi im in Australia, possible changes aren’t deployed here yet)

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14

Can’t say much about the beta tag. I see the same thing. But it should now work for everyone when the admin sets it up in the workspace.

Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 10.32.58 PM
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To verify the change, set up the custom connector and verify it works for you. Then have a non-admin/owner check that it works for them.

15

Hi Brian, thanks for the message we’ve tested this morning in UK and it does seem to be fixed!

The beta message still shows for the connecting user, but after it is published to the org regular users can use the connector :tada: