diff --git a/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py b/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
index d4a3fae73824..8280fe8fb212 100644
--- a/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
+++ b/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
@@ -121,6 +121,8 @@ class EngineArgs:
     otlp_traces_endpoint: Optional[str] = None
     collect_detailed_traces: Optional[str] = None
 
+    model_architecture_override: Optional[str] = None
+
     def __post_init__(self):
         if self.tokenizer is None:
             self.tokenizer = self.model
@@ -674,6 +676,14 @@ def add_cli_args(parser: FlexibleArgumentParser) -> FlexibleArgumentParser:
             "modules. This involves use of possibly costly and or blocking "
             "operations and hence might have a performance impact.")
 
+        parser.add_argument(
+            '--model-architecture-override',
+            type=str,
+            default=None,
+            help=
+            'Override the model architecture to use - useful for using plugins.'
+        )
+
         return parser
 
     @classmethod
@@ -735,6 +745,11 @@ def create_engine_config(self, ) -> EngineConfig:
             skip_tokenizer_init=self.skip_tokenizer_init,
             served_model_name=self.served_model_name,
             multimodal_config=multimodal_config)
+        if self.model_architecture_override:
+            model_config.hf_config.architectures = [
+                self.model_architecture_override
+            ]
+
         cache_config = CacheConfig(
             block_size=self.block_size,
             gpu_memory_utilization=self.gpu_memory_utilization,
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
index 1a0addfedc55..6066cb2464fe 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.serving_tokenization import (
     OpenAIServingTokenization)
 from vllm.logger import init_logger
+from vllm.plugins.model_plugin import load_model_plugins
 from vllm.usage.usage_lib import UsageContext
 from vllm.utils import FlexibleArgumentParser, get_open_zmq_ipc_path
 from vllm.version import __version__ as VLLM_VERSION
@@ -352,6 +353,7 @@ async def run_server(args, **uvicorn_kwargs) -> None:
     logger.info("vLLM API server version %s", VLLM_VERSION)
     logger.info("args: %s", args)
 
+    load_model_plugins()
     async with build_async_engine_client(args) as async_engine_client:
         app = await init_app(async_engine_client, args)
 
diff --git a/vllm/plugins/__init__.py b/vllm/plugins/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e69de29bb2d1
diff --git a/vllm/plugins/model_plugin.py b/vllm/plugins/model_plugin.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d669dfffef82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vllm/plugins/model_plugin.py
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from importlib.metadata import entry_points
+from typing import Iterable, List, Optional, Tuple, Type
+
+import torch
+from transformers import PretrainedConfig
+
+from vllm import ModelRegistry
+from vllm.attention import AttentionMetadata
+from vllm.config import CacheConfig
+from vllm.logger import init_logger
+from vllm.model_executor.layers.quantization import QuantizationConfig
+from vllm.sequence import IntermediateTensors
+
+logger = init_logger(__name__)
+
+
+class ModelArchitectureBase(torch.nn.Module, ABC):
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        config: PretrainedConfig,
+        cache_config: Optional[CacheConfig] = None,
+        quant_config: Optional[QuantizationConfig] = None,
+    ):
+        self.config = config
+        self.cache_config = cache_config
+        self.quant_config = quant_config
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def load_weights(self, weights: Iterable[Tuple[str, torch.Tensor]]):
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def forward(
+        self,
+        input_ids: torch.Tensor,
+        positions: torch.Tensor,
+        kv_caches: List[torch.Tensor],
+        attn_metadata: AttentionMetadata,
+        intermediate_tensors: Optional[IntermediateTensors] = None,
+    ) -> torch.Tensor:
+        pass
+
+
+@dataclass
+class ModelPlugin:
+    architecture_name: str
+    implementation_cls: Type[ModelArchitectureBase]
+
+
+def load_model_plugins():
+    for entry_point in entry_points().select(group="vllm.model_architectures"):
+        logger.debug("Loading model architecture plugin %s", entry_point.name)
+        model_architecture_plugin = entry_point.load()
+        if not isinstance(model_architecture_plugin, ModelPlugin):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Model architecture plugin must be an instance of "
+                f"ModelPlugin, got {model_architecture_plugin}")
+
+        ModelRegistry.register_model(
+            model_architecture_plugin.architecture_name,
+            model_architecture_plugin.implementation_cls,
+        )