How to Set Up HubSpot WhatsApp MCP with Claude or ChatGPT (Tested)

Your pipeline lives in HubSpot. The conversations that move it happen on WhatsApp — on every rep's phone, in client groups, late in the evening. TimelinesAI already syncs those chats onto the right HubSpot contact and deal, so nothing is lost when a rep is off or leaves.

This guide covers the next step: asking questions that need both at once. Which deals went quiet? What did the customer actually say? Who on the team owes them a reply? With HubSpot's official connector and TimelinesAI's MCP server switched on in the same AI chat, you can ask exactly that, in plain language, and get one answer.

We set this up on our own HubSpot account and WhatsApp workspace before writing a word. Everything below is what we saw, including what didn't work the first time.

Key takeaways

• HubSpot's connector knows when you last talked to a customer on WhatsApp. It can't see what was said. TimelinesAI's MCP server reads the conversation.
• Switch both on in one chat — in Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant that accepts a remote MCP server — and ask "which deals are waiting on us" in plain language. Setup takes about 10 minutes, with no code.
• HubSpot can stay read-only. Every question in this guide runs on its default permissions.
• Match customers by phone number, not name, and group "who's waiting" by WhatsApp assignee, not deal owner.
• No extra cost from TimelinesAI or HubSpot. WhatsApp MCP is included in your TimelinesAI plan, and HubSpot's connectors are available on every tier. You need a paid AI plan.

What "HubSpot WhatsApp MCP" means

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard AI assistants use to connect to other apps. A HubSpot WhatsApp MCP setup means your AI assistant — Claude, ChatGPT or another — is connected to two MCP servers at the same time:

• HubSpot's official connector — HubSpot's own connection to your CRM, available for Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Gemini.
• TimelinesAI's WhatsApp MCP server — the connection to your team's WhatsApp conversations, across every number.

You don't write code or run a server. You add two connectors to your assistant, and it decides which one to ask for each part of your question.

It doesn't replace the sync. TimelinesAI keeps copying every conversation into HubSpot as it does today. MCP is how you ask questions across both.

Which AI assistants work

You need an assistant that can hold both connections at once. HubSpot ships an official connection for four assistants. TimelinesAI connects to any assistant that accepts a remote MCP server.

We ran every test in this guide with Claude. HubSpot's ChatGPT connector works on the same permission model — a Super Admin approves it and chooses what it may access — so the setup, the prompts and the traps carry over.

What each connector can and can't do

In one line: HubSpot's connector knows when you last talked to a customer. TimelinesAI knows what was said. You need both to answer "who's waiting on us".

HubSpot's connector, in detail

HubSpot lists everything its connector can be allowed to do on the screen you see when you connect it.

• By default: read contacts, companies, deals and tickets.
• With optional read permissions: notes, calls, meetings, tasks, one-to-one emails, inbox conversations, users and teams, leads, lists, quotes, invoices and more.
• With optional write permissions: create and update contacts, companies, deals, tickets, notes, tasks and more. Write access has to be allowed by a HubSpot Super Admin.
• Not available at any permission level: sending a message on any channel, replying to or assigning an inbox conversation, and the record type HubSpot uses for logged WhatsApp messages.

TimelinesAI's MCP server, in detail

34 tools, covering WhatsApp Business app numbers and WhatsApp Business API numbers across your whole team:

• Find and read: search chats by phone, name, label, teammate or read status; read full history, including group chats; see whether an API chat's 24-hour window is still open.
• Organise: assign or unassign a teammate, add or remove labels, close or reopen a chat.
• Act (set these to ask first): send a message, reply to a specific message, react, send an approved template, start a new API chat.
• Workspace: list your numbers, your team and your usage.

How the two work together

Take the question "which of my deals went quiet, and why". Your assistant answers it in four moves:

1. You ask in plain language, in a normal chat.
2. HubSpot finds the deals with no recent activity, their contacts and phone numbers.
3. TimelinesAI finds each customer's chat by phone number and reads the last messages.
4. Your assistant combines both into one answer: who's waiting, since when, and on what.

If you then ask for a reply, the assistant drafts it, you approve it, and TimelinesAI sends it from your team's number. The message lands in your shared inbox and on the HubSpot record like any other WhatsApp message.

Four ways to connect HubSpot, WhatsApp and AI

If you're choosing a setup, this is how the options differ.

If your team already runs WhatsApp through HubSpot's own inbox channel, HubSpot's connector can read those threads — but it still can't reply. If you're on any other HubSpot tier, use WhatsApp Business app numbers, or want your assistant to act on a conversation, you need a WhatsApp connector alongside it.

Before you start

• An AI assistant that takes both connectors: Claude on a paid plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise), or ChatGPT on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education.
• HubSpot on any tier, including Free and Starter, and a HubSpot user account.
• TimelinesAI with the HubSpot integration switched on, and your team's numbers connected. WhatsApp MCP is included in your plan. New to it? Start with syncing WhatsApp to HubSpot.
• Permission to connect apps in HubSpot. Users with App Marketplace access can connect straight away; everyone else needs a Super Admin to approve the connector first.
• An AI plan that fits your volume. Occasional questions run fine on standard paid plans. A team running this every morning on a large inbox uses far more — our WhatsApp MCP setup guide has measured numbers.

Set it up in Claude (about 10 minutes)

Step 1: Connect HubSpot

In Claude, go to Customize → Connectors, find HubSpot and click Connect. Sign in to HubSpot and choose your account.

HubSpot then shows what Claude may access. The defaults — read contacts, companies, deals and tickets — are enough for every question in this guide. If you want more, tick only the View permissions:

• Notes, calls, meetings and tasks — for "what's happened on this deal"
• Users and teams — so "my deals" works without typing your name
• Execute queries — for counts and breakdowns across the pipeline

You don't need anything that says create, change or publish. If those options are greyed out, a HubSpot Super Admin has to allow them.

Step 2: Connect TimelinesAI

Still in Customize → Connectors, click +, then Add custom connector. Name it TimelinesAI and paste the server URL: https://mcp.services.timelines.ai/mcp. Click Add, then Connect, sign in to TimelinesAI and approve. There's no API key to copy.

On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the connector once under Organization settings → Connectors; then each person connects their own account (Claude's guide).

Finally, open each connector's tool settings and set anything that sends, updates or assigns to ask for approval. HubSpot recommends the same for its own connector.

Step 3: Switch both on in the same chat

In a new chat, click + in the lower left, open Connectors, and make sure HubSpot and TimelinesAI are both on. Connectors are switched on per conversation.

Step 4: Check it works

Ask two quick questions. If both answer, you're ready:

How many open deals do we have in HubSpot, by stage?

List our WhatsApp numbers in TimelinesAI and whether each one is connected.

The first question is HubSpot's; the second is TimelinesAI's.

Set it up in ChatGPT

1. Connect HubSpot. Add HubSpot's connector for ChatGPT and sign in. The same Super Admin approval and data permissions apply as in Claude.
2. Turn on developer mode. In ChatGPT on the web, open Settings → Security and login and turn on Developer mode. It's available on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education; on a company account, your admin may need to allow it (OpenAI's guide).
3. Add TimelinesAI. Create a developer-mode app with the server URL https://mcp.services.timelines.ai/mcp, then sign in to TimelinesAI.
4. Ask with both on. Enable TimelinesAI for the chat and include the word "HubSpot" in your question — HubSpot's own tip for bringing its connector in.
5. Keep actions behind approval. Set HubSpot's connector to ask before updates, as HubSpot recommends, and review every proposed send before you confirm it.

Set it up in Claude Code, Cursor or Codex

For analysts and technical teams. TimelinesAI takes one config line in each tool — the snippets are in our WhatsApp MCP setup guide. On the HubSpot side, developers connect to HubSpot's remote MCP server, which needs a HubSpot MCP auth app. We ran this guide's tests from Claude Code with both connectors attached.

A Monday pipeline review, start to finish

This is the question that justifies the setup. Ask:

Show my open deals with no activity in the last 7 days. For each one, find the customer's WhatsApp conversation in TimelinesAI and tell me what they last said and whether we replied.

Behind the scenes, HubSpot finds the quiet deals and each contact's phone number; TimelinesAI finds each chat by that number and reads the last messages. The answer comes back as one table: which deals are waiting on you, since when, and on what.

Then ask for the follow-ups, without sending anything:

Draft a short follow-up for the three waiting on us, in the language they wrote in. Don't send anything.

Your assistant drafts each reply in the customer's language. When you say "send the first one", it asks before TimelinesAI sends anything. Nothing reaches a customer until you allow it.

Prompt library

Copy these as they are, or swap in your own stages, names and time ranges. More ideas in WhatsApp MCP use cases.

Pipeline

• "Which deals in Contract sent close this month and have had no activity for 7 days? For each, what did the customer last say on WhatsApp?"
• "Before my call with [company]: summarise the HubSpot deal and our last 30 WhatsApp messages with them."
• "Which deals moved forward on WhatsApp this week but are still in the same HubSpot stage?"

Team

• "Which customers wrote to us last and still haven't had a reply? Oldest first, with the teammate assigned."
• "How many customers is each teammate waiting to reply to right now?"
• "Which WhatsApp chats from this week aren't assigned to anyone?"

Customer

• "What did we promise [company] on WhatsApp this month, and did we deliver?"
• "In the WhatsApp group with [client], who asked for what, and what's still open?"
• "Translate the last 10 messages from [customer] into English and tell me what they need."

Action (ask first)

• "Draft replies to everyone who has waited more than 24 hours, in their language. Don't send anything."
• "Assign this week's unassigned chats to [teammate]."
• "Which of our WhatsApp Business API chats still have an open 24-hour window?"

Prefer the terminal? The same WhatsApp data works in Claude Code — see WhatsApp analytics with Claude Code.

What we learned setting it up

1. The default HubSpot connection is narrower than you'd think. It covers four record types: contacts, companies, deals and tickets. Ask for notes, calls, your own user or a pipeline count, and Claude replies: "This connector requires additional permissions." Reconnecting alone didn't fix it for us: a Super Admin has to allow the extra permissions first, then each user reconnects.
2. Match by phone number, not by name. One HubSpot contact in our test had four WhatsApp chats — one for each teammate who'd talked to them — and none was named like the HubSpot contact. Deals created from WhatsApp also keep the chat's name from the day they were created. Ask the assistant to match by phone and use the chat with the most recent message.
3. The deal owner isn't always the person answering WhatsApp. In our account, every deal created from WhatsApp belonged to one HubSpot owner, while the chats were assigned to different teammates. For "who owes whom a reply", go by the WhatsApp assignee.
4. The sync is tight. HubSpot's "last contacted" time and TimelinesAI's last message were 14 seconds apart. Trust HubSpot's dates for "who went quiet" and TimelinesAI for "what was said".
5. Disconnected numbers still count. Your assistant can read the history of a number that has been disconnected, but can't send from it — useful when a rep leaves.

Troubleshooting

• "This connector requires additional permissions." The default HubSpot connection covers four record types. Ask a Super Admin to allow the View permissions you need, then reconnect HubSpot.
• Permission options are greyed out. Your account restricts what the connector may access. A Super Admin approves the connector and its data permissions.
• The assistant answers from only one app. The other connector isn't on for this chat. In Claude: + → Connectors, switch both on. In ChatGPT: enable the TimelinesAI app and include "HubSpot" in your question. Naming the app ("in TimelinesAI") helps everywhere.
• It can't find a customer's chat. Chat names don't match HubSpot names, or the phone format differs. Ask it to match by phone in international format (+country code), and check the contact's phone field in HubSpot.
• It picked an old conversation. One customer can have several chats, one per teammate's number. Ask for the chat with the most recent message.
• "Waiting" counts per rep look wrong. The HubSpot deal owner isn't the WhatsApp assignee. Group by WhatsApp assignee.
• The answer stops or slows on big questions. Reading months of history hits rate limits. Narrow it to one date range, one number or one label at a time.
• TimelinesAI asks you to sign in again. The session expired. Reconnect TimelinesAI in your assistant's connector settings.
• A message won't send. The number is disconnected, or an API chat's 24-hour window has closed. Reconnect the number, or send an approved template.
• No activity or conversation data from HubSpot at all. Sensitive Data is on in your HubSpot account, and HubSpot blocks it by design — see HubSpot's Sensitive Data settings.

Permissions and safety

• HubSpot stays read-only unless a Super Admin allows write permissions. Nothing in this guide needs them.
• Nothing reaches a customer without your approval when TimelinesAI's send tools are set to ask. The assistant drafts; you decide.
• In Claude, careful with Research mode. Claude can call connector tools automatically during Research, without asking each time. Switch TimelinesAI off, or keep its send tools blocked, before you run Research.
• In ChatGPT, developer mode is for servers you trust. OpenAI's advice is to connect only MCP servers you trust, and HubSpot's is to review every change ChatGPT proposes before confirming it.
• Replies and follow-ups only, never bulk. WhatsApp restricts numbers that send unsolicited messages in volume. Use this with people who are already talking to you — see our WhatsApp dos and don'ts for HubSpot teams.
• Everything is attributed. Changes made through HubSpot's connector are recorded against both the user and the connector.
• HubSpot Sensitive Data: if it's on, HubSpot blocks activity and conversation data from its connector.

FAQ

What is HubSpot WhatsApp MCP?

It's a setup where an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT connects to HubSpot through HubSpot's official connector and to your team's WhatsApp through TimelinesAI's MCP server, at the same time. You can then ask one question that needs both — for example, which deals are waiting on a WhatsApp reply — without code.

Which AI assistants does it work with?

Claude and ChatGPT for the full routine, plus Claude Code, Cursor and Codex for technical teams. HubSpot's Copilot and Gemini connections cover CRM questions only.

Can HubSpot's own AI read our WhatsApp messages?

Not the ones TimelinesAI syncs. In our test, HubSpot's connector showed when a customer was last contacted and how many times, but not the messages. If you use HubSpot's own WhatsApp inbox channel, its connector can read those inbox threads — but can't reply to them.

Do I need HubSpot's own WhatsApp integration?

No. HubSpot's WhatsApp channel needs Marketing Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise and doesn't accept personal accounts. TimelinesAI works on every HubSpot tier, with WhatsApp Business app and API numbers.

Is this the same as AI summaries inside HubSpot?

No. Summaries on the record are HubSpot's own AI. This is for teams who already work in Claude or ChatGPT and want to ask one question across HubSpot and every rep's WhatsApp.

Do I need to give the AI write access to HubSpot?

No. Every question in this guide works on HubSpot's default read-only connection.

Can the assistant update HubSpot deals, notes and tasks?

Yes, in Claude and ChatGPT, if a Super Admin allows write permissions. ChatGPT's connector updates up to 10 records at a time. HubSpot recommends setting the connector to ask for approval before every update.

What's the difference between HubSpot's MCP server and the HubSpot connector for Claude?

The connector is the ready-made app you add inside Claude or ChatGPT — use it for this guide. HubSpot's remote MCP server is what developers connect their own AI tools to.

Does it work with WhatsApp Business app numbers, or only the API?

Both, across your whole team.

Does it work on HubSpot Free or Starter?

Yes. Both HubSpot's connector and TimelinesAI work on every HubSpot tier.

Can it read group chats?

Yes, including who sent each message.

Does it cost extra?

Not from TimelinesAI: WhatsApp MCP is included in your TimelinesAI plan. HubSpot doesn't list a separate charge for its connectors either — they're available on every HubSpot tier, including Free. What you do need is a paid AI plan, and a team that runs this every morning on a large inbox should budget for a higher tier.

Can I use ChatGPT instead of Claude?

Yes. HubSpot's official ChatGPT connector reads your CRM and, if allowed, updates it. TimelinesAI connects through ChatGPT's developer mode on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans.

Does it work with Microsoft Copilot or Gemini?

For CRM questions, yes: HubSpot has an agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot and a read-only connector for Gemini. We haven't verified a way to add TimelinesAI to either, so for questions that need WhatsApp, use Claude or ChatGPT.

Related guides

• How WhatsApp syncing into HubSpot works
• WhatsApp MCP setup guide
• WhatsApp shared inbox for HubSpot teams
• HubSpot + WhatsApp dos and don'ts
• WhatsApp MCP use cases
• WhatsApp analytics with Claude Code

Ready to try it on your own pipeline? Start free with TimelinesAI, connect your team's WhatsApp to HubSpot, then ask your first question.