big can keep a read-only copy of the documents in your Google Drive folders, so you can search them in big and the AI tools you connect to big can read them. You share a folder with big once and link it in big; big then reads everything in it, including files you add later, and keeps it current with no further steps.

Linking a folder works on every plan. It doesn't use up an integration slot, and it doesn't need a Google connection: it uses the Google account you sign in to big with.

Before you start

• Sign in to big with Google. big checks that the folder was shared by the Google account you signed in with, so nobody can link a folder they don't control.
• You need to be a workspace admin or the owner to link or unlink a folder. Everyone in the workspace can see the linked folders and their documents.

Link a folder

Open Connect → Integrations → Google Drive. The page shows big's address. It ends in iam.gserviceaccount.com: it is big's own reading account, not a person.

1. Choose Copy beside big's address.
2. In Google Drive, right-click the folder you want big to use and choose Share.
3. Add big's address as a Viewer, untick Notify people, then choose Share.
4. Back in big, paste the folder's link (from Share → Copy link, or the address bar while the folder is open) and choose Link folder.

big checks that the folder is shared with it and that you shared it, then starts reading. Google can take a moment to tell big about a new share, so big keeps checking for about two minutes; if it still can't see the folder, choose Check again.

Sharing a folder gives big everything in it, sub-folders included. A folder shared with big's address that nobody has linked in big is ignored: big reads nothing from it.

Work or school accounts. If Drive refuses to share outside your organisation, your Google admin needs to allow sharing with big's address, usually by adding the iam.gserviceaccount.com domain it ends in to the allowed external domains. A personal Gmail account needs nothing extra.

big only reads, even as Editor. If you share the folder as Editor by mistake, big warns you, and still never changes anything. Change the share to Viewer in Drive to be safe.

What big reads

big also keeps the folder names, and the email address of the Google account that shared the folder, as part of the link. A Google file whose text is over 10 MB, or whose owner has turned off downloading, printing and copying for viewers, is kept by title only. If Google can't hand over a file's text for a while, big keeps its title and tries again later, waiting longer each time, up to a day.

How quickly changes arrive

• The first copy. Titles of about a thousand files are listed within about ten minutes. Text takes longer, because big fetches it a few files at a time.
• Changes. big checks Google for changes every few minutes, and most new and edited files arrive at that pace.
• Every change, within a day. Some changes are only guaranteed by big's full re-check of each folder, which runs once a day: changes deep inside sub-folders, folders in a shared drive, and a file moved out of the folder.

Your folder is the source, and big follows it. A file you add, edit or move into the folder is read again. A file you delete, trash or move out of the folder is deleted from big with its text, within one sync. A sub-folder you remove is deleted from big with everything in it.

Limits on each plan

• Files and storage count across every linked folder in the workspace. A single folder also holds at most 5,000 files and 1,000 sub-folders in big, on every plan.
• Synced copies don't use your Files storage. The Files page shows them on a separate line.
• Past a limit, big keeps what it holds current and stops adding new files. The folder says on the Google Drive page that your plan's file limit is reached, with a link to upgrade.
• Downgrading deletes nothing. Folders you already linked keep syncing; you can't link a new folder, and new files aren't added, until you are back under the new plan's limits.

Where you see your documents

The Google Drive page lists each linked folder with its state (Syncing with a file count, Synced with the last sync time, or Access lost, plus a notice when your plan's file limit is reached) and, below, the synced documents. Search them by title and text, and open any of them with Open in Drive.

AI agents

On every plan except teeny, an AI tool you connect to big's MCP server, or a script using the CLI, can read the synced documents, read-only:

• search or list them with list_documents (big documents list --search "<words>" on the CLI), each with the folder it sits in;
• read one document's text, a page at a time, with get_document (big documents get <id>);
• see the linked folders, how far each has got and big's address with list_document_folders (big documents folders), which needs integrations:read.

Linking and unlinking a folder are dashboard-only: no token can add a folder to big Titles, text and folder names are marked as untrusted text, so the AI tool treats them as information, never as instructions. Every read of a document's text is recorded in your workspace's audit history: who read which document, through which token, and how much text, never the text itself. big does not use your documents to train AI models.

Unlink a folder and remove big's access

1. On the Google Drive page, choose Unlink beside the folder and confirm. big stops reading it at once and deletes every document it synced from that folder.
2. In Google Drive, open the folder's Share settings and remove big's address. big can't unshare itself, so until you do, the folder stays shared with big's address, though big reads nothing from a folder that isn't linked.

You can also do it the other way round: removing big's address in Drive, or deleting or trashing the folder, makes big delete everything it holds from that folder, within about a day. Deleting your big account deletes every synced document too.

What big never does

• big never changes anything in your Drive. It only reads: it never edits, moves, renames, shares or deletes a file or folder, whatever role you share it with.
• big never unshares. Only you can remove big's address from a folder.
• big never sees what you haven't linked. The rest of your Drive is invisible to it.

Troubleshooting

If something here doesn't match what you see, contact us.