Plugins

Plugins extend any model’s capabilities without changing the underlying model. Pass a plugins array in your request body to activate one or more plugins.

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
  "messages": [...],
  "plugins": [
    {"id": "web"},
    {"id": "context-compression"}
  ]
}

Plugins are composable — you can combine multiple plugins in a single request.

Available Plugins

`web` — Web Search

Ground responses with real-time web data. Works with any model.

{"plugins": [{"id": "web"}]}

Shorthand: append :online to any model slug.

Option	Type	Description
`max_results`	`number`	Number of results to retrieve (default: 5)
`engine`	`string`	Search engine: `"native"`, `"exa"`, `"parallel"`
`include_domains`	`string[]`	Restrict results to these domains
`exclude_domains`	`string[]`	Exclude results from these domains

See Web Search for the full reference.

`context-compression` — Context Window Management

Automatically compress prompts that exceed a model’s context window by removing middle messages.

{"plugins": [{"id": "context-compression"}]}

Option	Type	Description
`enabled`	`boolean`	Set to `false` to disable (useful for small-context models where it’s on by default)

See Message Transforms for details.

`auto-router` — Configurable Auto Routing

Customize which models the auto router can select from using wildcard patterns.

{
  "model": "auto",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "id": "auto-router",
      "allowed_models": ["anthropic/*", "openai/gpt-5.4"]
    }
  ]
}

Option	Type	Description
`allowed_models`	`string[]`	Wildcard patterns restricting which models `auto` can select

Pattern syntax:

Pattern	Matches
`anthropic/*`	All Anthropic models
`openai/gpt-5*`	All GPT-5 variants
`google/*`	All Google models
`openai/gpt-5.4`	Exact match only

See Model Routing — Auto Routing for full details.

Using Multiple Plugins

Plugins can be combined in a single request:

TypeScript
Python
cURL

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.arouter.ai/v1",
  apiKey: "lr_live_xxxx",
});

// Web search + context compression
const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
  messages: longConversation,
  // @ts-ignore
  plugins: [
    { id: "web", max_results: 3 },
    { id: "context-compression" },
  ],
});

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.arouter.ai/v1",
    api_key="lr_live_xxxx",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
    messages=long_conversation,
    extra_body={
        "plugins": [
            {"id": "web", "max_results": 3},
            {"id": "context-compression"},
        ]
    },
)

curl https://api.arouter.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer lr_live_xxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
    "messages": [...],
    "plugins": [
      {"id": "web", "max_results": 3},
      {"id": "context-compression"}
    ]
  }'

Plugin Shorthands

Some plugins have model suffix shorthands for convenience:

Shorthand	Plugin equivalent
`:online`	`plugins: [{"id": "web"}]`

Plugin Execution Order

When multiple plugins are active, ARouter applies them in this order:

context-compression — Input is compressed if needed before being sent to the model
web — Search results are retrieved and injected into the prompt
auto-router — Model selection happens (if model: "auto")
Request is forwarded to the selected model

Pricing

Plugin pricing is in addition to normal LLM token costs:

Plugin	Additional Cost
`context-compression`	Free
`web` (Exa engine)	$4 / 1,000 results
`web` (Parallel engine)	$4 / 1,000 results
`web` (Native engine)	Provider passthrough (varies)
`auto-router`	Free

Get Started

Core Concepts

Routing

Features

Guides

Privacy

Administration

Best Practices

Frameworks & Integrations

For Providers

Support

Available Plugins

`web` — Web Search

`context-compression` — Context Window Management

`auto-router` — Configurable Auto Routing

Using Multiple Plugins

Plugin Shorthands

Plugin Execution Order

Pricing

​Available Plugins

​web — Web Search

​context-compression — Context Window Management

​auto-router — Configurable Auto Routing

​Using Multiple Plugins

​Plugin Shorthands

​Plugin Execution Order

​Pricing

Available Plugins

`web` — Web Search

`context-compression` — Context Window Management

`auto-router` — Configurable Auto Routing

Using Multiple Plugins

Plugin Shorthands

Plugin Execution Order

Pricing