We study a class of gauged nonlinear Schrödinger equations in the planewhere h(s) = ´s 0 r 2 u 2 (r)dr, λ, µ > 0 are constants, V (x) and K(x) are continuous functions vanishing at infinity. Assume that f is of critical exponential growth and g(x) = g(|x|) satisfies some technical assumptions with 1 ≤ q < 2, we obtain the existence of two nontrivial solutions via the Mountain-Pass theorem and Ekeland's variational principle. Moreover, with the help of the genus theory, we prove the existence of infinitely many solutions if f in addition is odd.This system consists of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation augmented by the gauge field A j : R 1+2 → R, where i denotes the imaginary unit,, φ : R 1+2 → C is the complex scalar field and D j = ∂ j iA j is the covariant derivative for j = 0, 1, 2. For each C ∞ 0 (R 1+2 ) function χ, under the following gauge transformation φ → φe iχ , A j → A j − ∂ j χ, system (1.2) is invariant because of the Chern-Simons theory [22].