MCP Web Search & Scrape in ChatGPT

MCP support in ChatGPT is currently a beta feature. The interface and availability may change as OpenAI continues development.

Availability: Developer mode with MCP connectors is not available on the Free tier and requires a paid ChatGPT subscription. Availability and features vary by plan and region. See OpenAI’s documentation on Developer Mode for current availability and setup instructions.

Add web scraping and search capabilities to ChatGPT with Firecrawl MCP.

Quick Setup

1. Enable Developer Mode

Open ChatGPT settings by clicking your username in the bottom left corner, or navigate directly to chatgpt.com/#settings.

In the settings modal, scroll to the bottom and select Advanced Settings. Toggle Developer mode to ON.

ChatGPT settings showing Advanced Settings with Developer mode toggle

2. Create the Connector

With Developer mode enabled, go to the Apps & Connectors tab in the same settings modal.

Click the Create button in the top right corner.

Apps & Connectors tab with Create button highlighted

Fill in the connector details:

Name: Firecrawl MCP
Description: Web scraping, crawling, search, and content extraction (optional)
MCP Server URL: https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth
Authentication: OAuth

When ChatGPT opens Firecrawl in your browser, sign in, choose the team to use, and approve access. Do not put a Firecrawl API key in the server URL. See Connect an MCP Client to Your Account for the endpoint contract and other supported modes.

Check the “I understand and want to continue” checkbox, then click Create.

3. Verify Setup

Go back to the main ChatGPT interface. You should see Developer mode displayed, indicating that MCP connectors are active.

If you do not see Developer mode, reload the page. If it still does not appear, open settings again and verify that Developer mode is toggled ON under Advanced Settings.

4. Access Firecrawl Tools

To use Firecrawl in a conversation, click the + button in the chat input, then select More and choose Firecrawl MCP.

ChatGPT chat input showing + menu expanded with More submenu and Firecrawl MCP option

Quick Demo

With Firecrawl MCP selected, try these prompts:

Search:

Search for the latest React Server Components updates

Scrape:

Scrape firecrawl.dev and tell me what it does

Get docs:

Scrape the Vercel documentation for edge functions and summarize it

Tool Confirmation

When ChatGPT uses the Firecrawl MCP tools, you may see a confirmation prompt asking for your approval. Some ChatGPT Desktop versions auto-approve tool calls without showing this dialog. If no prompt appears, you can verify the tool was invoked by checking for a “Called tool” section in the response or reviewing your usage at firecrawl.dev/app/usage.

No confirmation prompt appearing? If ChatGPT answers your question without showing a confirmation dialog, the Firecrawl MCP connector is most likely not attached to the conversation. Go back to Step 4 and make sure you click the + button, select More, and choose Firecrawl MCP before sending your prompt. The connector must be attached to each new conversation.

ChatGPT tool confirmation dialog showing Firecrawl MCP request

You can check “Remember for this conversation” to avoid repeated confirmations during the same chat session. This security measure is implemented by OpenAI to ensure MCP tools do not perform unintended actions.

Once confirmed, ChatGPT will execute the request and return the results.