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Create an index

For guidance and examples, see Create an index.

Python
# pip install "pinecone[grpc]"
from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone
from pinecone import ServerlessSpec

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.create_index(
  name="docs-example1",
  dimension=1536,
  metric="cosine",
  spec=ServerlessSpec(
    cloud="aws",
    region="us-east-1",
  ),
  deletion_protection="disabled"
)
JavaScript
// npm install @pinecone-database/pinecone
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone'

const pc = new Pinecone({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY'
});

await pc.createIndex({
  name: 'docs-example1',
  dimension: 1536,
  metric: 'cosine',
  spec: {
    serverless: {
      cloud: 'aws',
      region: 'us-east-1'
    }
  },
  deletionProtection: 'disabled',
});
Java
import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;

public class CreateServerlessIndexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOUR_API_KEY").build();
        pc.createServerlessIndex("docs-example1", "cosine", 1536, "aws", "us-east-1", DeletionProtection.disabled);
    }
}
Go
package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/pinecone-io/go-pinecone/v4/pinecone"
)

func main() {
    ctx := context.Background()

    pc, err := pinecone.NewClient(pinecone.NewClientParams{
        ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
    })
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create Client: %v", err)
    }

    deletionProtection := pinecone.DeletionProtectionDisabled

    idx, err := pc.CreateServerlessIndex(ctx, &pinecone.CreateServerlessIndexRequest{
        Name:      "docs-example1",
        Dimension: 1536,
        Metric:    pinecone.Cosine,
        Cloud:     pinecone.Aws,
        Region:    "us-east-1",
        DeletionProtection: &deletionProtection,
    })
  	if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create serverless index: %v", err)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("Successfully created serverless index: %v", idx.Name)
    }
}
C#
using Pinecone;

var pinecone = new PineconeClient("YOUR_API_KEY");

var createIndexRequest = await pinecone.CreateIndexAsync(new CreateIndexRequest
{
    Name = "docs-example1",
    Dimension = 1536,
    Metric = MetricType.Cosine,
    Spec = new ServerlessIndexSpec
    {
        Serverless = new ServerlessSpec
        {
            Cloud = ServerlessSpecCloud.Aws,
            Region = "us-east-1",
        }
    },
    DeletionProtection = DeletionProtection.Disabled
});
curl
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

# Serverless index
curl -X POST "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes" \
     -H "Accept: application/json" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
     -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2025-04" \
     -d '{
           "name": "docs-example1",
           "vector_type": "dense",
           "dimension": 1536,
           "metric": "cosine",
           "spec": {
               "serverless": {
                   "cloud": "aws",
                   "region": "us-east-1"
               }
           },
           "tags": {
               "example": "tag"
           },
           "deletion_protection": "disabled"
         }'

# BYOC index
curl -X POST"https://api.pinecone.io/indexes" \
     -H "Accept: application/json" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
     -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2025-04" \
     -d '{
           "name": "example-byoc-index",
           "vector_type": "dense",
           "dimension": 1536,
           "metric": "cosine",
           "spec": {
               "byoc": {
                   "environment": "aws-us-east-1-b921"
               }
           },
           "tags": {
               "example": "tag"
           },
           "deletion_protection": "disabled"
         }'
CLI
# Target the project where you'd like to create the index.
pc target -o "example-org" -p "example-project"
# Create the index.
pc index create \
  --name "docs-example1" \
  --dimension 1536 \
  --metric "cosine" \
  --cloud "aws" \
  --region "us-east-1" \
  --deletion_protection "disabled" \
  --tags "example=tag,example2=tag2"
Response
# Serverless index
{
    "name": "docs-example1",
    "vector_type": "dense",
    "metric": "cosine",
    "dimension": 1536,
    "status": {
        "ready": true,
        "state": "Ready"
    },
    "host": "example-serverless-index-govk0nt.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
    "spec": {
        "serverless": {
            "region": "us-east-1",
            "cloud": "aws"
        }
    },
    "deletion_protection": "disabled",
    "tags": {
        "example": "tag"
    }
}

# BYOC index
{
    "name": "example-byoc-index",
    "vector_type": "dense",
    "metric": "cosine",
    "dimension": 1536,
    "status": {
        "ready": true,
        "state": "Ready"
    },
    "host": "example-byoc-index-govk0nt.svc.private.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
    "spec": {
        "byoc": {
            "environment": "aws-us-east-1-b921"
        }
    },
    "deletion_protection": "disabled",
    "tags": {
        "example": "tag"
    }
}

POST /indexes

Api-Keystringrequired

An API Key is required to call Pinecone APIs. Get yours from the console.

The desired configuration for the index.

namestringrequired

The name of the index. Resource name must be 1-45 characters long, start and end with an alphanumeric character, and consist only of lower case alphanumeric characters or '-'.

Required string length: 1 - 45. Example: example-index

Typestring
dimension?integer

The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index.

Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536

Typeinteger
metric?enum<string>

The distance metric to be used for similarity search. You can use 'euclidean', 'cosine', or 'dotproduct'. If the 'vector_type' is 'sparse', the metric must be 'dotproduct'. If the vector_type is dense, the metric defaults to 'cosine'.

Available options: cosine, euclidean, dotproduct

Typeenum<string>
deletion_protection?enum<string>

Available options: disabled, enabled

Typeenum<string>
Defaultdisabled

Whether deletion protection is enabled/disabled for the index.

tags?object

Custom user tags added to an index. Keys must be 80 characters or less. Values must be 120 characters or less. Keys must be alphanumeric, '', or '-'. Values must be alphanumeric, ';', '@', '', '-', '.', '+', or ' '. To unset a key, set the value to be an empty string.

Typeobject
specobjectrequired

The spec object defines how the index should be deployed. For serverless indexes, you set only the cloud and region where the index should be hosted. For pod-based indexes, you set the environment where the index should be hosted, the pod type and size to use, and other index characteristics. For BYOC indexes, you set the environment name provided to you during onboarding.

Show child attributes
serverless?object

Configuration needed to deploy a serverless index.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
cloudenum<string>required

The public cloud where you would like your index hosted.

Available options: gcp, aws, azure. Example: aws

Typeenum<string>
regionstringrequired

The region where you would like your index to be created.

Example: us-east-1

Typestring
source_collection?string

The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index.

Typestring
pod?object

Configuration needed to deploy a pod-based index.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
environmentstringrequired

The environment where the index is hosted.

Example: us-east1-gcp

Typestring
replicas?integer

The number of replicas. Replicas duplicate your index. They provide higher availability and throughput. Replicas can be scaled up or down as your needs change.

Required range: 1 <= x

Typeinteger
Default1
shards?integer

The number of shards. Shards split your data across multiple pods so you can fit more data into an index.

Required range: 1 <= x

Typeinteger
Default1
pod_typestringrequired

The type of pod to use. One of s1, p1, or p2 appended with . and one of x1, x2, x4, or x8.

Typestring
Defaultp1.x1
pods?integer

The number of pods to be used in the index. This should be equal to shards x replicas.'

Required range: 1 <= x. Example: 1

Typeinteger
Default1
metadata_config?object

Configuration for the behavior of Pinecone's internal metadata index. By default, all metadata is indexed; when metadata_config is present, only specified metadata fields are indexed. These configurations are only valid for use with pod-based indexes.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
indexed?string[]

By default, all metadata is indexed; to change this behavior, use this property to specify an array of metadata fields that should be indexed.

Typestring[]
source_collection?string

The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index.

Example: movie-embeddings

Typestring
byoc?object

Configuration needed to deploy an index in a BYOC environment.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
environmentstringrequired

The environment where the index is hosted.

Example: aws-us-east-1-b921

Typestring
vector_type?string

The index vector type. You can use 'dense' or 'sparse'. If 'dense', the vector dimension must be specified. If 'sparse', the vector dimension should not be specified.

Typestring
Defaultdense

201 — The index has been successfully created.

The IndexModel describes the configuration and status of a Pinecone index.

namestringrequired

The name of the index. Resource name must be 1-45 characters long, start and end with an alphanumeric character, and consist only of lower case alphanumeric characters or '-'.

Required string length: 1 - 45. Example: example-index

Typestring
dimension?integer

The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index.

Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536

Typeinteger
metricenum<string>required

The distance metric to be used for similarity search. You can use 'euclidean', 'cosine', or 'dotproduct'. If the 'vector_type' is 'sparse', the metric must be 'dotproduct'. If the vector_type is dense, the metric defaults to 'cosine'.

Available options: cosine, euclidean, dotproduct

Typeenum<string>
hoststringrequired

The URL address where the index is hosted.

Example: semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io

Typestring
private_host?string

The private endpoint URL of an index.

Example: semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.private.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io

Typestring
deletion_protection?enum<string>

Available options: disabled, enabled

Typeenum<string>
Defaultdisabled

Whether deletion protection is enabled/disabled for the index.

tags?object

Custom user tags added to an index. Keys must be 80 characters or less. Values must be 120 characters or less. Keys must be alphanumeric, '', or '-'. Values must be alphanumeric, ';', '@', '', '-', '.', '+', or ' '. To unset a key, set the value to be an empty string.

Typeobject
embed?object

The embedding model and document fields mapped to embedding inputs.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
modelstringrequired

The name of the embedding model used to create the index.

Example: multilingual-e5-large

Typestring
metric?enum<string>

The distance metric to be used for similarity search. You can use 'euclidean', 'cosine', or 'dotproduct'. If not specified, the metric will be defaulted according to the model. Cannot be updated once set.

Available options: cosine, euclidean, dotproduct

Typeenum<string>
dimension?integer

The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index.

Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536

Typeinteger
vector_type?string

The index vector type. You can use 'dense' or 'sparse'. If 'dense', the vector dimension must be specified. If 'sparse', the vector dimension should not be specified.

Typestring
Defaultdense
field_map?object

Identifies the name of the text field from your document model that is embedded.

Typeobject
read_parameters?object

The read parameters for the embedding model.

Typeobject
write_parameters?object

The write parameters for the embedding model.

Typeobject
specobjectrequired
Show child attributes
byoc?object

Configuration needed to deploy an index in a BYOC environment.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
environmentstringrequired

The environment where the index is hosted.

Example: aws-us-east-1-b921

Typestring
pod?object

Configuration needed to deploy a pod-based index.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
environmentstringrequired

The environment where the index is hosted.

Example: us-east1-gcp

Typestring
replicas?integer

The number of replicas. Replicas duplicate your index. They provide higher availability and throughput. Replicas can be scaled up or down as your needs change.

Required range: 1 <= x

Typeinteger
Default1
shards?integer

The number of shards. Shards split your data across multiple pods so you can fit more data into an index.

Required range: 1 <= x

Typeinteger
Default1
pod_typestringrequired

The type of pod to use. One of s1, p1, or p2 appended with . and one of x1, x2, x4, or x8.

Typestring
Defaultp1.x1
pods?integer

The number of pods to be used in the index. This should be equal to shards x replicas.'

Required range: 1 <= x. Example: 1

Typeinteger
Default1
metadata_config?object

Configuration for the behavior of Pinecone's internal metadata index. By default, all metadata is indexed; when metadata_config is present, only specified metadata fields are indexed. These configurations are only valid for use with pod-based indexes.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
indexed?string[]

By default, all metadata is indexed; to change this behavior, use this property to specify an array of metadata fields that should be indexed.

Typestring[]
source_collection?string

The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index.

Example: movie-embeddings

Typestring
serverless?object

Configuration needed to deploy a serverless index.

Typeobject
Show child attributes
cloudenum<string>required

The public cloud where you would like your index hosted.

Available options: gcp, aws, azure. Example: aws

Typeenum<string>
regionstringrequired

The region where you would like your index to be created.

Example: us-east-1

Typestring
source_collection?string

The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index.

Typestring
statusobjectrequired
Show child attributes
readybooleanrequired
stateenum<string>required

Available options: Initializing, InitializationFailed, ScalingUp, ScalingDown, ScalingUpPodSize, ScalingDownPodSize, Terminating, Ready, Disabled

Typeenum<string>
vector_typestringrequired

The index vector type. You can use 'dense' or 'sparse'. If 'dense', the vector dimension must be specified. If 'sparse', the vector dimension should not be specified.

Typestring
Defaultdense
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