Google Drive MCP Server

Read, list, and search your Google Drive from any MCP-compatible AI client.

Free· Free and open-source (MIT). Google Cloud/Drive API usage governed by Google's free quotas.MCP Servers

Best for

Individual developers and small teams who want to ground Claude or another MCP client in their personal or shared Google Drive without building a custom connector.

Skip if

Enterprises needing supported, write-capable, or audit-logged Drive access, or anyone uncomfortable running an archived, unmaintained OSS server.

Google Drive MCP Server is a reference Model Context Protocol implementation from the official modelcontextprotocol organization that lets an MCP-aware AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Continue, or any custom agent) list, search, and read files stored in a user's Google Drive. It exposes a single `search` tool that runs a Drive query and returns matching file names with MIME types, plus a `gdrive:///<file_id>` resource scheme so the model can fetch the contents of any file the authenticated user can see. Native binary files come through untouched, while Google Workspace formats are auto-converted for the LLM: Docs render to Markdown, Sheets to CSV, Slides to plain text, and Drawings to PNG - a small but genuinely useful piece of glue that saves you from writing your own Docs-to-text pipeline. Installation is straightforward via the `@modelcontextprotocol/server-gdrive` npm package, an official `mcp/gdrive` Docker image, or a one-click VS Code button. Auth is standard OAuth 2.0: create a Google Cloud project, enable the Drive API, set up an OAuth consent screen and a desktop-app client, then run `node ./dist auth` to cache credentials locally (Docker users mount their keys and a credentials volume). Typical workflows include grounding a Claude conversation in a folder of meeting notes, letting an agent pull the latest spec doc into a coding session, summarising a spreadsheet without downloading it, or wiring Drive into a broader multi-server MCP setup alongside GitHub, Slack, or a vector store. Important context: the repo was archived by the maintainers on 29 May 2025 and moved into `servers-archived`, so no further updates or bug fixes are expected from Anthropic - it still works, but you're now maintaining a fork if anything breaks.

Editor's take

A tidy reference server that does exactly one job - read and search Drive from an MCP client - and does it well. The archival on 29 May 2025 is the real story: it still runs, but treat it as sample code you now own, not a supported product. Fine for hobby setups; fork it (or pick a maintained community alternative) if it's touching real work.

— The AI Tool Bible editorial team

Pros

✅ Official reference implementation - clean, minimal code that's easy to audit or fork.
✅ Auto-converts Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings to LLM-friendly formats out of the box.
✅ Works with any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Continue, custom agents).
✅ Three install paths: npx, Docker, and one-click VS Code - no build step required for most users.
✅ MIT-licensed and open source, so you can fork and extend it freely.
✅ Standard OAuth 2.0 with local credential storage - no third-party broker in the loop.

Cons

⚠️ Archived on 29 May 2025 - no upstream maintenance, security fixes, or new features from Anthropic.
⚠️ Read-only: no create, edit, move, share, or delete operations on Drive files.
⚠️ OAuth setup is fiddly - you have to stand up a Google Cloud project and consent screen yourself.
⚠️ Search returns only names and MIME types, not snippets or ranked relevance.
⚠️ No native folder-scoping, permission filtering, or workspace-account controls beyond what the OAuth token grants.

Use cases

Ground Claude in a folder of meeting notesPull the latest spec doc into a coding agentSummarise a Google Sheet without downloadingSearch Drive from Claude DesktopFetch Docs as Markdown into a RAG pipelineMulti-server MCP setup with GitHub and SlackExtract Slides content as plain text for briefingsReference implementation for a custom Drive MCP fork