Web Search Tool

The web_search Server Tool enables models to search the web during inference. The model decides when a search is needed, ARouter performs it, and the results are injected back into the model’s context automatically.

This is the recommended replacement for the deprecated web plugin and :online model suffix. See Migration Guide below.

Quick Start

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "user", "content": "What happened in AI research this week?"}
  ],
  "tools": [
    {"type": "arouter", "arouter": {"id": "web_search"}}
  ]
}

TypeScript
Python
cURL

import OpenAI from "openai";

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

const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "openai/gpt-5.4",
  messages: [
    { role: "user", content: "What happened in AI research this week?" }
  ],
  tools: [
    { type: "arouter", arouter: { id: "web_search" } } as any,
  ],
});

console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

from openai import OpenAI

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

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openai/gpt-5.4",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "What happened in AI research this week?"}
    ],
    tools=[
        {"type": "arouter", "arouter": {"id": "web_search"}}
    ],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

curl https://api.arouter.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer lr_live_xxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
    "messages": [
      {"role": "user", "content": "What happened in AI research this week?"}
    ],
    "tools": [
      {"type": "arouter", "arouter": {"id": "web_search"}}
    ]
  }'

Configuration

Pass configuration options inside the arouter object:

{
  "tools": [
    {
      "type": "arouter",
      "arouter": {
        "id": "web_search",
        "max_results": 5,
        "engine": "exa",
        "include_domains": ["arxiv.org", "nature.com"],
        "exclude_domains": ["reddit.com"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`id`	`string`	—	Must be `"web_search"`
`max_results`	`integer`	`5`	Maximum number of search results to return
`engine`	`string`	auto	Search engine: `"native"`, `"exa"`, `"parallel"`, or `"firecrawl"`
`include_domains`	`string[]`	—	Restrict results to these domains (supports wildcards)
`exclude_domains`	`string[]`	—	Exclude results from these domains (supports wildcards)
`max_total_results`	`integer`	—	Cap total results across multiple searches in one request

Engine Selection

Engine	Description	Best For
(unset)	Use native if provider supports it, else Exa	General use
`"native"`	Provider’s built-in search (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI)	Best citation quality
`"exa"`	Exa’s neural+keyword hybrid search	Research, niche topics
`"parallel"`	Parallel’s search API	Fast broad queries
`"firecrawl"`	Firecrawl deep crawl (BYOK)	Full page content

Engine Compatibility

Engine	`include_domains`	`exclude_domains`
Exa	Yes	Yes
Parallel	Yes	Yes (mutually exclusive with include)
Native (Anthropic)	Yes	Yes (mutually exclusive)
Native (OpenAI)	Yes	Ignored
Native (xAI)	Yes	Yes (mutually exclusive, max 5 each)

Domain Filtering

Restrict or exclude domains with optional wildcards:

{
  "tools": [
    {
      "type": "arouter",
      "arouter": {
        "id": "web_search",
        "include_domains": ["*.edu", "arxiv.org", "openai.com/blog"],
        "exclude_domains": ["reddit.com", "quora.com"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Parsing Citations

Web search results are returned in annotations on the assistant message:

{
  "choices": [
    {
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "According to recent research, [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/abs/...) ...",
        "annotations": [
          {
            "type": "url_citation",
            "url_citation": {
              "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12345",
              "title": "Scaling Laws for LLMs",
              "content": "We study the relationship between...",
              "start_index": 32,
              "end_index": 96
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Usage Tracking

Each web search invocation is tracked:

{
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 320,
    "completion_tokens": 180,
    "total_tokens": 500,
    "cost": 0.0045,
    "server_tool_calls": {
      "web_search": 1
    }
  }
}

Pricing

Engine	Cost
Exa	$4.00 per 1,000 results
Parallel	$4.00 per 1,000 results
Native (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI)	Pass-through at provider rate
Firecrawl	BYOK — your Firecrawl API key

With the default max_results: 5, an Exa search costs $0.02 per invocation. Search costs are charged in addition to normal LLM token costs.

Migrating from Web Plugin

If you previously used the web plugin or :online suffix, migration is straightforward: Before (deprecated):

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.4:online",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Latest AI news"}]
}

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
  "plugins": [{"id": "web", "max_results": 3}],
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Latest AI news"}]
}

After (recommended):

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
  "tools": [
    {"type": "arouter", "arouter": {"id": "web_search", "max_results": 3}}
  ],
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Latest AI news"}]
}

The key behavioral difference: the plugin always runs web search on every request, while the Server Tool lets the model decide whether a search is warranted for the given query.

Next Steps

Datetime Tool — Inject current time into model context
Server Tools Overview — All available server tools
Web Search Plugin (Deprecated) — Legacy plugin documentation

Get Started

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Web Search Tool

Quick Start

Configuration

Engine Selection

Engine Compatibility

Domain Filtering

Parsing Citations

Usage Tracking

Pricing

Migrating from Web Plugin

Next Steps

​Quick Start

​Configuration

​Engine Selection

​Engine Compatibility

​Domain Filtering

​Parsing Citations

​Usage Tracking

​Pricing

​Migrating from Web Plugin

​Next Steps

Quick Start

Configuration

Engine Selection

Engine Compatibility

Domain Filtering

Parsing Citations

Usage Tracking

Pricing

Migrating from Web Plugin

Next Steps