# Describe a collection

Collections are supported only for pod-based indexes. Pod-based indexes cannot be created with API version `2026-07`, so this operation applies to pod-based indexes created with an earlier API version.

:::code-group
```shell curl
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -i -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/collections/tiny-collection" \
    -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
    -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07"
```
:::

`GET /collections/{collection_name}`

:::code-group
```json title="200"
{
  "dimension": 3,
  "environment": "us-east1-gcp",
  "name": "tiny-collection",
  "size": 3126700,
  "status": "Ready",
  "vector_count": 99
}
```

```json title="404"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "Collection example-collection not found."
  },
  "status": 404
}
```

```json title="500"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "UNKNOWN",
    "message": "Internal server error"
  },
  "status": 500
}
```
:::

#### Authorizations

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Key` | `string` | - |  |

An API Key is required to call Pinecone APIs. Get yours from the [console](https://app.pinecone.io/).

#### Headers

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `X-Pinecone-Api-Version` | `string` | `2026-07` | Required date-based version header |

#### Path Parameters

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `collection_name` | `string` | - | The name of the collection to be described. |

#### Response

`200` — Configuration information and status of the collection.

The CollectionModel describes the configuration and status of a Pinecone collection.

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | `string` | - | The name of the collection. Example: example-collection |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `size?` | `integer` | - | The size of the collection in bytes. Example: 10000000 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `status` | `string` | - | The status of the collection. Possible values: Initializing, Ready, Terminating, or Terminated. Example: Initializing |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `dimension?` | `integer` | - | The dimension of the vectors stored in each record held in the collection. Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vector_count?` | `integer` | - | The number of records stored in the collection. Example: 120000 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `environment` | `string` | - | The environment where the collection is hosted. Example: us-east1-gcp |

## Related pages

- [Create a backup of an index](./database-control-plane-create-backup.md)
- [List backups for all indexes in a project](./database-control-plane-list-project-backups.md)
- [List backups for an index](./database-control-plane-list-index-backups.md)
- [Describe a backup](./database-control-plane-describe-backup.md)
- [Delete a backup](./database-control-plane-delete-backup.md)
- [Create an index from a backup](./database-control-plane-create-index-from-backup.md)
- [List restore jobs](./database-control-plane-list-restore-jobs.md)
- [Describe a restore job](./database-control-plane-describe-restore-job.md)
- [List collections](./database-control-plane-list-collections.md)
- [Create a collection](./database-control-plane-create-collection.md)

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