***

title: Thinking Variant
subtitle: 'Enable extended reasoning with :thinking'
headline: Thinking Variant | Extended Reasoning
canonical-url: '[https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/routing/model-variants/thinking](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/routing/model-variants/thinking)'
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'og:title': Thinking Variant - Extended Reasoning
'og:description': 'Enable extended reasoning capabilities using the :thinking variant.'
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[https://openrouter.ai/dynamic-og?title=Thinking%20Variant\&description=Extended%20reasoning](https://openrouter.ai/dynamic-og?title=Thinking%20Variant\&description=Extended%20reasoning)
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'og:image:height': 630
'twitter:card': summary\_large\_image
'twitter:site': '@OpenRouter'
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---------------

The `:thinking` variant enables extended reasoning capabilities for complex problem-solving tasks.

## Usage

Append `:thinking` to any model ID:

```json
{
  "model": "deepseek/deepseek-r1:thinking"
}
```

## Details

Thinking variants provide access to models with extended reasoning capabilities, allowing for more thorough analysis and step-by-step problem solving. This is particularly useful for complex tasks that benefit from chain-of-thought reasoning.

See also: [Reasoning Tokens](/docs/best-practices/reasoning-tokens)