How to Connect Shopify to ChatGPT with MCP?

Before you start

You'll need a SourcetoMCP account with at least one brand created, a Shopify store, and permission to create an app in the Shopify Dev Dashboard under the same organisation as the store, plus a ChatGPT account on a Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise or Education plan. Custom MCP connectors run through developer mode, which works on ChatGPT on the web only.

Connect Shopify to SourcetoMCP

1. 1In the Shopify Dev Dashboard (dev.shopify.com), create an app in the same organisation as your store.
2. 2Add read scopes for the data ChatGPT should see: read_orders and read_customers for sales and customer questions, read_products, read_inventory and read_locations for catalogue and stock, and read_markets and read_reports for market and report data. Add read_all_orders to reach orders older than 60 days. Editing needs the matching write scope for each area, such as write_discounts for discount codes, and Shopify refuses a change when that scope is missing.
3. 3Release a version of the app, then install it on your store. Copy the client ID and client secret from the app's settings.
4. 4From your SourcetoMCP dashboard, go to Connectors → Add a connection and find the Shopify card.
5. 5Enter your your-store.myshopify.com address (your custom domain will not work), choose Dev Dashboard app, and paste the client ID and client secret. SourcetoMCP verifies them against your store.
6. 6Confirm the store on the next screen. It then appears on your Connections page.

There is no consent screen to approve in this part, because Shopify connects with the app's client ID and secret. A store that already has an older custom app can paste that app's Admin API access token instead.

Add SourcetoMCP as a connector in ChatGPT

1. 1In SourcetoMCP, open Connect an agent from the dashboard sidebar and copy your server address (it looks like https://sourcetomcp.com/api/mcp).
2. 2In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Security and login, and turn on Developer mode. Custom MCP connectors sit behind this toggle, and it only appears on ChatGPT on the web.
3. 3Open the Plugins menu and select the “+” button to create a developer-mode app.
4. 4Enter the name SourcetoMCP, paste in your server address, and pick OAuth as the authentication type.
5. 5Save. The app now sits under Drafts in your app settings, where you can switch individual tools on or off.
6. 6The first time ChatGPT calls it, you'll be asked to sign in to SourcetoMCP and approve access, the same OAuth approval you'd see connecting any other app. After that it reconnects on its own.

Once approved, the connection appears under Active connections on the Connect an agent page in SourcetoMCP, so you can see exactly what has access at any time.

Ask ChatGPT about your Shopify store

A developer-mode app stays off until you pick it. In a chat, open the Plus menu, choose Developer mode, and select SourcetoMCP for that conversation. Naming the app in your question helps ChatGPT reach for the right tool, as in “Use the SourcetoMCP app to check my store”.

Anything that writes back to a connected account asks you to confirm first, and ChatGPT shows you the JSON payload it plans to send. Read it before you approve.

With both pieces connected, ChatGPT can count abandoned checkouts, review discounts and refunds, find orders that need attention, and change your store if you ask. Try something like:

1. 1How many checkouts were abandoned this week?
2. 2Which discount codes are active, and how many times has each been used?
3. 3Which orders from the last 30 days have been refunded?
4. 4Which unfulfilled orders are more than three days old?
5. 5Put the fulfilment order for #1047 on hold.

The first four are read-only reports. The last one changes your store. See the note below on how SourcetoMCP handles those.

How this differs from Shopify's own ChatGPT plugin

Shopify offers its own plugin for ChatGPT, described on Shopify's help page. On 17 October 2026 that page listed read access to orders and customers, percentage-off discount codes, and no refunds, cancellations, order capture or returns.

SourcetoMCP covers those gaps. It edits orders, creates refunds and returns, creates percentage, fixed amount, buy X get Y and free shipping discounts, and puts your store on the same connection as your ad and analytics accounts. The Shopify MCP server page has the full comparison, and Shopify's help page is the place to check what its own tool covers today.

A note on write actions

Anything that changes your store goes through its own tool, which is what lets ChatGPT show you the payload and ask first. Read that payload before you approve it. New products are created as drafts, customers are emailed only when you say so, and deleting something or issuing a refund cannot be undone from here. The scopes on your Shopify app still decide what works: a write without the right scope is refused with Shopify's message naming the missing one.

Troubleshooting

Shopify rejects the client ID and secret: the app has to be installed on this store and sit in the same Shopify organisation as it, and the pair has to be copied exactly. Shopify's answer is the same whichever of those is wrong.

A change fails and names a missing scope: add that scope to your app in the Dev Dashboard, release a new version, install it on the store and ask again.

Orders older than 60 days are missing: add read_all_orders to the app, then release and install the new version. Without it Shopify returns the last 60 days only.

Developer mode is missing from Settings: it is available on Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts, and only on ChatGPT on the web. The mobile apps do not show it.

The app never appears in a chat: developer-mode apps sit under Drafts and stay off until you pick them. Open the Plus menu, choose Developer mode, and tick SourcetoMCP for that conversation.

ChatGPT says it can't find the tool or has no data: open the app's details page and use Refresh to pull the current tool list from the server. If that changes nothing, check the connection still shows under Active connections in SourcetoMCP.

Revoking access

You can disconnect from either side. In SourcetoMCP, remove the store from your Connections page, or revoke ChatGPT's access entirely from the Connect an agent page. In ChatGPT, open your app settings, find SourcetoMCP under Drafts, and delete it. Turning Developer mode back off hides every custom app at once without deleting any of them. To cut off SourcetoMCP's access to your store itself, uninstall the app in Shopify.

Still stuck?

Reach us at [email protected].