I recently acquired access to plugin development and one question is looking for me as I research the capabilities. Can plugins be enabled for use with the OpenAI api. I know you can enable and use them in the chatGPT UI but I can’t seem to find any information about using them through the API.
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On the beggining of May Patrick said that it’s not possible and plugins are only available from UI. I don’t think anything changed in that regard.
Based on a recent discussion on the OpenAI Developer Forum, as of May 19, 2023, plugins are not currently supported in the OpenAI API. While there’s no specific roadmap for this feature, the developers have mentioned that they are actively working on building the Plugin ecosystem and hope to include plugins in the API in the future. 
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Designing this will certainly demand thorough consideration. The primary challenge with plugins is managing access control due to credential requirements. Additionally, it could increase the memory load on the model when processing requests. However, I’d appreciate a way to utilize basic plugin features through the OpenAI API. These features, defined during the plugin’s creation, would be lightweight and wouldn’t necessitate any authentication. I’m more than willing to include these fundamental features in my plugin and offer it for free to anyone using the OpenAI API.
I’m directing this suggestion to the OpenAI development team, as it has the potential to broaden the system’s applicability.
They announced function calling a while ago while ago.