AbstractWe prove that an operator on H2 of the disc commutes modulo the compacts with all analytic Toeplitz operators if and only if it is a compact perturbation of a Toeplitz operator with symbol in H∞ + C. Consequently, the essential commutant of the whole Toeplitz algebra is the algebra of Toeplitz operators with symbol in QC. The image in the Calkin algebra of the Toeplitz operators with symbol in H∞ + C is a maximal abelian algebra. These results lead to a characterization of automorphisms of the algebra of compact perturbations of the analytic Toeplitz operators.