Web Search

You can incorporate relevant web search results for any model on OpenRouter by activating and customizing the web plugin, or by appending :online to the model slug:

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{
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  "model": "openai/gpt-4o:online"
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}

This is a shortcut for using the web plugin, and is exactly equivalent to:

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{
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  "model": "openrouter/auto",
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  "plugins": [{ "id": "web" }]
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}

The web search plugin is powered by Exa and uses their “auto” method (a combination of keyword search and embeddings-based web search) to find the most relevant results and augment/ground your prompt.

Parsing web search results

Web search results for all models (including native-only models like Perplexity and OpenAI Online) are available in the API and standardized by OpenRouterto follow the same annotation schema in the OpenAI Chat Completion Message type:

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{
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  "message": {
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    "role": "assistant",
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    "content": "Here's the latest news I found: ...",
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    "annotations": [
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      {
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        "type": "url_citation",
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        "url_citation": {
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          "url": "https://www.example.com/web-search-result",
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          "title": "Title of the web search result",
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          "content": "Content of the web search result", // Added by OpenRouter if available
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          "start_index": 100, // The index of the first character of the URL citation in the message.
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          "end_index": 200 // The index of the last character of the URL citation in the message.
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        }
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      }
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    ]
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  }
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}

Customizing the Web Plugin

The maximum results allowed by the web plugin and the prompt used to attach them to your message stream can be customized:

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{
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  "model": "openai/gpt-4o:online",
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  "plugins": [
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    {
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      "id": "web",
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      "max_results": 1, // Defaults to 5
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      "search_prompt": "Some relevant web results:" // See default below
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    }
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  ]
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}

By default, the web plugin uses the following search prompt, using the current date:

A web search was conducted on `date`. Incorporate the following web search results into your response.
IMPORTANT: Cite them using markdown links named using the domain of the source.
Example: [nytimes.com](https://nytimes.com/some-page).

Pricing

The web plugin uses your OpenRouter credits and charges $4 per 1000 results. By default, max_results set to 5, this comes out to a maximum of $0.02 per request, in addition to the LLM usage for the search result prompt tokens.

Non-plugin Web Search

Some model has built-in web search. These model charges a fee based on the search context size, which determines how much search data is retrieved and processed for a query.

Search Context Size Thresholds

Search context can be ‘low’, ‘medium’, or ‘high’ and determines how much search context is retrieved for a query:

• Low: Minimal search context, suitable for basic queries
• Medium: Moderate search context, good for general queries
• High: Extensive search context, ideal for detailed research

Specifying Search Context Size

You can specify the search context size in your API request using the web_search_options parameter:

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{
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  "model": "openai/gpt-4.1",
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  "messages": [
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    {
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      "role": "user",
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      "content": "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"
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    }
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  ],
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  "web_search_options": {
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    "search_context_size": "high"
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  }
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}

OpenAI Model Pricing

For GPT-4, GPT-4o, and GPT-4 Omni Models:

For GPT-4 Mini, GPT-4o Mini, and GPT-4 Omni Mini Models:

Perplexity Model Pricing

For Sonar and SonarReasoning:

For SonarPro and SonarReasoningPro: