ISA After Hours Augsburg
The Claude logo in the centre, joined by dotted lines to the logos of partner companies around it: Atlassian, Notion and Salesforce on the left, Snowflake, CrowdStrike and Legora on the right. Under Claude a label reads: plus 2,000 connectors and plugins.

AI at work · Tools

Claude Marketplace: AI's App Store?

· About 6 min read

On 23 September Anthropic put everything that works with Claude into one shop: more than 2,000 connectors and plugins, software from partners such as Cursor, Harvey and Snowflake, and consulting firms such as Accenture and Deloitte. Instead of hunting for integrations scattered across the web, you now find them under one roof. The obvious question is whether this is the App Store of AI. One shop, yes. But look at who is buying, and it is mostly a shop for companies.

ISA After Hours Augsburg · All posts

In this article
  1. One shop
  2. What's on the shelves
  3. The App Store question
  4. What it means for you
  5. Official sources

Short version

The Claude Marketplace is one catalogue for three things: connectors and plugins that link Claude to the tools you already use, ready-made software built on Claude, and consulting firms that help companies roll it out. The connectors are open to every Claude user. The software is bought by companies out of the budget they have already promised to Anthropic. So it works like an app store for people and like a procurement shop for companies.

One shop for everything Claude connects to

ClaudeMarketplace · live since 23 September 2026

Anthropic's announcement is one sentence long at its core: "Starting today, the Claude Marketplace brings plugins and connectors, agents and products, and service partners into one place." Until now these lived in different corners. Connectors had their own directory inside Claude, partner software was bought through separate deals, and consulting firms were found through Anthropic's partner programme.

A connector is a bridge between Claude and another tool, such as Google Drive, Jira or Salesforce, so Claude can read what is there and act on it for you. An agent is an AI that carries out a task step by step on its own, using the tools you give it. The marketplace puts both, and the people who install them, behind the same front door.

The idea is not brand new. Anthropic opened a small version in March, as a limited preview for large customers with six partners: GitLab, Harvey, Lovable, Replit, Rogo and Snowflake. What changed this week is the scale, and the fact that the connectors everyone uses now sit in the same shop as the software companies buy.

What this means for you: the question "can Claude work with our tools?" now has one place to check, not a web search.

What's on the shelves

The shop has three shelves. Anthropic names the partners on each in its announcement.

1. Connectors and plugins

Link Claude to the tools you already use. Open to every Claude user.

Atlassian Notion Salesforce

Also Google, Microsoft, Slack, Figma and more than 2,000 others.

2. Agents and products

Software built on Claude, which companies can pay for out of their Anthropic budget.

CrowdStrike Legora Snowflake Hebbia

Also Cursor, Harvey, Lovable, GitLab and Vercel.

3. Service partners

Consulting firms and system integrators who plan and install Claude inside a company.

Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte and other members of the Claude Partner Network.

The three shelves of the Claude Marketplace, with partners Anthropic names in its announcement and on the marketplace pages. Logos are the partners' own, as shown by Anthropic.

Connectors and plugins are the shelf most people will use. Anthropic counts more than 2,000 of them, and connectors from the directory are "available for all users" of Claude, on the web, the desktop app and the phone. At work there is one extra step: on a Team or Enterprise plan, an owner of the company account has to switch a connector on before colleagues can use it.

Screenshot of the Claude Marketplace connectors page. Under the heading 'Connectors and plugins' and the line 'Bring the tools you already use into every Claude conversation' are two buttons, 'Submit a connector' and 'Submit a plugin'. Below, a search box and a grid of top connectors, each with a small verified badge and an add button: Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Canva, Microsoft 365, Notion, Figma, Slack and Atlassian.
The connectors shelf as it looked on 25 September 2026. The small tick next to each name, from Google Drive to Slack and Atlassian, is Anthropic's "verified" badge. Screenshot of claude.com/marketplace.

That tick matters, because a connector gives Claude access to your data in that tool. Anthropic's documentation explains that verified connectors "have been tested by Anthropic for quality and compatibility", while community connectors are screened before listing but not reviewed in depth. It also says plainly that verification "is not a security audit". The shop is tidier than the open web. It is not a guarantee.

Agents and products is the shelf with a price tag. Big customers usually sign a commitment with Anthropic: a promise to spend a set amount over a year or more. The marketplace lets them "use a portion of your committed Anthropic spend on Claude-powered software" from partners. Anthropic's examples: the code-review company CodeRabbit put part of its commitment towards Vercel, where its agents run, and Power Digital and ThoughtSpot put theirs towards Snowflake, where their data lives. Anthropic does not say how large that portion can be.

Service partners are the people, not the software: consulting firms from the Claude Partner Network who help a company plan and install Claude.

What this means for you: the first shelf is for you, today. The other two are for whoever in your company owns the AI budget.

So is it the App Store of AI?

In some ways it already behaves like one. Developers submit their connectors and plugins for listing, Anthropic labels the ones it has checked, and the order you see them in follows popularity. Anthropic's own documentation makes the comparison: "Ranking is usage-based, similar to other app stores."

But the App Store is a shop where you pay with your own card. The buying side of the Claude Marketplace works differently. The button on the software shelf says "Request to buy", and the money comes out of a company's contract with Anthropic. The model Anthropic itself points to is not Apple but the cloud marketplaces run by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, where companies spend money they have already committed. When the preview opened in March, The Next Web reported one difference: Amazon and Microsoft typically take 3 to 15% of every sale, and Anthropic was taking nothing.

Anthropic is not alone in trying to become the place where AI tools are found. Microsoft runs an Agent Store inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, and OpenAI opened an app directory inside ChatGPT in December 2025, built around everyday apps such as Canva and Expedia, as The Next Web notes. Each wants to be the front door. Whichever shop companies and developers fill first is likely to keep them.

So the honest answer to the question is: half of it is. For a person, the connectors shelf works like an app store, open, free to browse and ranked by use. For a company, it is a procurement shop. Time will tell which half matters more. The first sign will be whether the software shelf grows the way the connectors shelf already has.

What this means for you: you do not need to wait to find out. The part that is an app store is already open to you.

What it means for you on Monday

Look up your own tools. In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, and check which of the tools you use every day are there. Start with one, such as your calendar or your shared drive, and ask Claude something only that tool knows.

Prefer the verified ones. A connector can read what is in the tool it connects to. Look for Anthropic's badge, and for company data check with whoever looks after data protection at your workplace before you connect it.

At work, use the Request button. On a Team plan, if you cannot switch a connector on yourself, the Request button sends it to your admins. That is quicker than an email.

If your company already pays Anthropic, mention the shop. Ask whoever owns the contract whether a tool you already pay for separately, such as Cursor, GitLab or Snowflake, could come out of the same budget. That is exactly what the marketplace was built for.

Official sources