Connect Odoo to Claude and ChatGPT

Check your plan, version and hosting first

What you can do depends on three things: your Odoo plan, your version, and whether Odoo runs online or on your own server.

The plan limit appears in the 17.0, 19.0 and 20.0 documentation alike: "Access to data via the external API is only available on Custom Odoo pricing plans," and it is not available on One App Free or Standard plans. That note is about Odoo's pricing plans. It does not say how it applies to a self-hosted installation, so ask Odoo or your Odoo partner if that is your case.

By version, Odoo's documentation describes these routes:

Odoo's built-in AI versus an outside assistant

Odoo has AI inside the app. Its 19.0 documentation describes an Ask AI agent that works anywhere in a database, opened with Ctrl + K or the AI button, which answers questions, opens views and improves text. In that documentation the standard Ask AI agent cannot make changes to the database.

Claude and ChatGPT are separate products. They can sit next to several systems, but each needs a connection to Odoo, and that connection decides what the assistant can see and do.

Odoo's own MCP server

MCP is an open standard for connecting AI applications to other systems (see our general guide). Odoo's documentation shows this flow:

1. Create an API key for the user the assistant will act as. Open the user menu, then My Preferences, the Security tab and Add API Key. Confirm your password, name the key, choose the MCP scope and an expiry, and create it. Odoo shows the key once.
2. Add the server to your AI client. The address is your database address plus /mcp, for example https://example.odoo.com/mcp. Odoo's page shows a developer-style setup for Claude Desktop and Claude Code: a configuration entry that runs a small helper called mcp-remote through Node.js and sends the key in an Authorization header. It also covers Antigravity and Codex. It does not cover ChatGPT. This is a local setup on one person's computer: Anthropic says servers set up in Claude Desktop's configuration file are a separate mechanism from custom connectors and are not available on claude.ai or in Cowork.
3. Decide which tools to expose. By default a database exposes five tools: Get Fields, Get Models, MCP Retrieve initial context, Search and Read group. Every other tool stays hidden until someone turns on Available in MCP on its server action.
4. Treat the Readonly Tool option as advice. Odoo says it only tells the client that a tool is safe to run without approval. It does not hide the tool or block writes.

What the page does not say

Odoo's page says the client uses the key to authenticate the user's identity and permissions in the database. It does not say which editions or plans include the MCP server, or whether the Custom plan limit on the external API also applies. A blog from an Odoo partner says Enterprise users get the native MCP server, but that is not Odoo's own statement. Ask Odoo or your partner before you plan around it.

The external API: JSON-2, and the older XML-RPC

Before version 19, Odoo's external API meant XML-RPC and JSON-RPC. Version 19 added the External JSON-2 API, which takes an API key as a bearer token and checks every call against the user's access rights, record rules and field access. Odoo's documentation now lists the older interfaces as deprecated, with this timeline:

• The db service was removed in Odoo 20 (fall 2026) and Odoo Online 19.1 (winter 2025).
• The common and object services are scheduled for removal in Odoo 22 (fall 2028) and Odoo Online 21.1 (winter 2027).
• Odoo names the JSON-2 API as the replacement.

If a connector you are considering still uses XML-RPC, ask when it moves to JSON-2.

Set up a dedicated API user

1. Confirm your plan allows the external API. On Odoo Online that means a Custom plan.
2. Create a dedicated user for the connector. Odoo recommends dedicated bot users for automated integrations: you can limit their permissions, leave the password empty to disable login, and keep their audit-log entries apart from personal accounts.
3. Give that user only the access it needs, ideally read access to the models your questions use. Because every call is checked against the user's rights, the key can never do more than the user.
4. Create an API key for that user. Odoo does not allow keys that last more than three months, so plan to rotate it. The key is shown once: keep it in a secrets store, not in a chat or a spreadsheet.
5. Test it. Ask questions whose answers you can check in Odoo's own reports, and ask one about data the user should not be able to see.

Third-party connector options

Odoo's App Store lists third-party modules that mention MCP or AI connectors for several Odoo versions, and hosted services and open-source servers exist outside it. We have not tested any of them and do not endorse any. Questions to ask before you install or subscribe:

• Which Odoo versions and editions does it support? Does it work on Odoo Online, or only where you can install your own modules?
• Does it use JSON-2, or the older XML-RPC that Odoo is removing?
• Which Odoo user and access rights does it run as? Can you give it a dedicated user with read-only rights?
• Is it read-only by default, and how are tools that change data switched on?
• Where does it run, what does it log, and who can see your data on the way?
• Who maintains it, and how quickly does it follow new Odoo releases?

Multi-company and multi-branch setups

Odoo checks each call against the user's access rights and record rules, so the company and branch scope of the API user matters. Give the user only the companies it should report on, then test with a question about a company it should not see.

If you need one answer across Odoo and other systems, such as a point-of-sale system or an online store, each connection has to be set up separately with the same care. Our guide on one report for all branches and channels shows how to start from the questions.

Keep it safe

• Start read-only. Allow changes only after you have watched it work and a person approves each one.
• Never use an administrator's key. Use the dedicated user, and revoke its key when you stop using the connector.
• Mind personal data. If Odoo holds customer or staff data that a connector can read, check with your legal adviser first.

More in Is it safe to connect company data to AI? and AI that asks before it changes anything.

Questions people ask

Does Odoo have a Claude or ChatGPT connector?

Odoo's documentation for version 20 and Online 19.4 describes an MCP server and shows setup for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Antigravity and Codex. ChatGPT is not covered on that page. Third-party modules and services exist for other cases.

Can I use the external API on One App Free or Standard?

No. Odoo says access to the external API is only available on Custom pricing plans.

Will my XML-RPC connection stop working?

Not yet. The db service is already removed, but the common and object services are scheduled for removal in Odoo Online 21.1 (winter 2027) and Odoo 22 (fall 2028). Ask whoever maintains your connector for a JSON-2 plan.

Can the assistant change data in Odoo?

Only if the user's rights and the exposed tools allow it. The five tools exposed by default in the MCP server are Get Fields, Get Models, MCP Retrieve initial context, Search and Read group. Odoo's page does not label them read-only, so check them yourself. Other tools stay hidden until you expose them.

Where Vootlabs fits

Odoo is often the ERP a company runs next to a point-of-sale system, an online store and spreadsheets. A connector for Odoo alone answers questions about Odoo alone. Vootlabs is onboarding design partners who use Odoo alongside other systems, with access by role, approval before any change and a full audit trail.

If that is your setup and you want one view across it, we would like to hear what you need.

Book a demo Join the design-partner programme

Sources

Plans, versions and menu names change. Check the live vendor page before you act. All pages below were read on 17 October 2026.

• Odoo 20.0 documentation: AI MCP server
• Odoo 19.4 (Online) documentation: AI MCP server
• Odoo 20.0 documentation: External JSON-2 API
• Odoo 20.0 documentation: External RPC API (deprecated)
• Odoo 19.0 documentation: External JSON-2 API
• Odoo 17.0 documentation: External API
• Odoo 19.0 documentation: AI
• Odoo Apps
• Claude Help Center: Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP
• Much Consulting: Odoo 20 MCP Server (third party)

By the Vootlabs team. Last verified 17 October 2026.