To restore from a backup, set `spec.serverless.source_backup_id` and specify the target `cloud` and `region`. Same-cloud cross-region restore is supported when available for the backup's source region. Cross-cloud restore is not supported.
For guidance and examples, see [Create an index](/guides/index-data-create-an-index).

## Cloud regions

For serverless indexes, the `cloud` and `region` fields in `spec.serverless` accept the following values:

| Cloud   | Region                       | [Supported plans](https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/) | [Availability phase](/guides/changelog-feature-availability) |
| ------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `aws`   | `us-east-1` (Virginia)       | Starter, Builder, Standard, Enterprise              | General availability                                         |
| `aws`   | `us-west-2` (Oregon)         | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `aws`   | `eu-west-1` (Ireland)        | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `aws`   | `eu-central-1` (Frankfurt)   | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `aws`   | `ap-southeast-1` (Singapore) | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `gcp`   | `us-central1` (Iowa)         | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `gcp`   | `europe-west4` (Netherlands) | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |
| `azure` | `eastus2` (Virginia)         | Builder, Standard, Enterprise                       | General availability                                         |

The cloud and region can't be changed after a serverless index is created.

:::callout{intent="note"}
On the Starter plan, you can create serverless indexes in the `us-east-1` region of AWS only. To create indexes in other regions, [upgrade to the Builder, Standard, or Enterprise plan](/guides/admin-assistant-upgrade-billing-plan).
:::

For BYOC indexes, set `spec.byoc.environment` to the environment ID provisioned for your account instead. See [Bring Your Own Cloud](/guides/move-to-production-bring-your-own-cloud) for details.

:::code-group
```shell curl
# EXAMPLE REQUEST 1: Serverless index (on-demand)
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
curl -s "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: 2026-04" \
  -d '{
        "name": "example-serverless-index",
        "vector_type": "dense",
        "dimension": 1536,
        "metric": "cosine",
        "spec": {
            "serverless": {
                "cloud": "aws",
                "region": "us-east-1"
            }
        },
        "tags": {
            "tag0": "value0"
        },
        "deletion_protection": "disabled"
      }'

# EXAMPLE REQUEST 2: Serverless index (dedicated)
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
curl "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: 2026-04" \
  -d '{
		"name": "example-serverless-dedicated-index",
		"dimension": 1536,
		"metric": "cosine",
		"deletion_protection": "enabled",
		"tags": {
			"tag0": "value0"
		},
		"vector_type": "dense",
		"spec": {
			"serverless": {
				"cloud": "aws",
				"region": "us-east-1",
				"read_capacity": {
					"mode": "Dedicated",
					"dedicated": {
						"node_type": "b1",
						"scaling": "Manual",
						"manual": {
							"shards": 2,
							"replicas": 1
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}'

# EXAMPLE REQUEST 3: BYOC index
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
curl -s "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: 2026-04" \
  -d '{
        "name": "example-byoc-index",
        "vector_type": "dense",
        "dimension": 1536,
        "metric": "cosine",
        "spec": {
            "byoc": {
                "environment": "aws-us-east-1-b921"
            }
        },
        "tags": {
            "tag0": "value0"
        },
        "deletion_protection": "disabled"
      }'
```
:::

:::code-group
```jsonc curl
// EXAMPLE RESPONSE 1: Serverless index (on-demand)
{
  "name": "example-serverless-ondemand-index",
  "vector_type": "dense",
  "metric": "cosine",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "status": {
    "ready": false,
    "state": "Initializing"
  },
  "host": "example-serverless-ondemand-index-bhnyigt.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "spec": {
    "serverless": {
      "region": "us-east-1",
      "cloud": "aws",
      "read_capacity": {
        "mode": "OnDemand",
        "status": {
          "state": "Ready",
          "current_shards": null,
          "current_replicas": null
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "tags": {
    "tag0": "value0"
  }
}

// EXAMPLE RESPONSE 2: Serverless index (dedicated)
{
	"name": "example-serverless-dedicated-index",
	"vector_type": "dense",
	"metric": "cosine",
	"dimension": 1536,
	"status": {
		"ready": false,
		"state": "Initializing"
	},
	"host": "example-serverless-dedicated-index-bhnyigt.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
	"spec": {
		"serverless": {
			"region": "us-east-1",
			"cloud": "aws",
			"read_capacity": {
				"mode": "Dedicated",
				"dedicated": {
					"node_type": "b1",
					"scaling": "Manual",
					"manual": {
						"shards": 2,
						"replicas": 1
					}
				},
				"status": {
					"state": "Migrating",
					"current_shards": null,
					"current_replicas": null
				}
			}
		}
	},
	"deletion_protection": "enabled",
	"tags": {
		"tag0": "value0"
	}
}

// EXAMPLE RESPONSE 3: 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": {
        "tag0": "value0"
    }
}
```
:::

`POST /indexes`

#### 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` | `2026-04` | Required date-based version header |

#### Body

The desired configuration for the index.

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | `string` | - | 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 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `dimension?` | `integer` | - | The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index. Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `metric?` | `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'. Possible values: cosine, euclidean, or dotproduct. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `deletion_protection?` | `string` | `disabled` |  |

Whether [deletion protection](/guides/manage-data-manage-indexes#configure-deletion-protection) is enabled/disabled for the index. Possible values: `disabled` or `enabled`.

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `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. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `spec` | `object` | - |  |

:::::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `serverless` | `object` | - | Configuration needed to deploy a serverless index. |

::::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `cloud` | `string` | - | The public cloud where you would like your index hosted. Possible values: gcp, aws, or azure. Example: aws |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `region` | `string` | - | The region where you would like your index to be created. Example: us-east-1 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `read_capacity?` | `object` | - |  |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `mode` | `string` | - | The mode of the index. Possible values: OnDemand or Dedicated. Defaults to OnDemand. If set to Dedicated, dedicated.node_type, and dedicated.scaling must be specified. |
:::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source_collection?` | `string` | - | The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index. Example: movie-embeddings |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source_backup_id?` | `string` | - | The ID of a backup from which to restore the index. Mutually exclusive with source_collection. The target cloud and region may differ from the backup's source region for same-cloud cross-region restore. Cross-cloud restore is not supported. Example: 670e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `schema?` | `object` | - | Schema for the behavior of Pinecone's internal metadata index. By default, all metadata is indexed; when schema is present, only fields which are present in the fields object with a filterable: true are indexed. Note that filterable: false is not currently supported. |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `fields` | `object` | - | A map of metadata field names to their configuration. The field name must be a valid metadata field name. The field name must be unique. |
:::
::::
:::::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vector_type?` | `string` | `dense` | 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. |

#### Response

`201` — The index has been successfully created.

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

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | `string` | - | 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 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `dimension?` | `integer` | - | The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index. Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `metric` | `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'. Possible values: cosine, euclidean, or dotproduct. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `host` | `string` | - | The URL address where the index is hosted. Example: semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `private_host?` | `string` | - | The private endpoint URL of an index. Example: semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.private.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `deletion_protection?` | `string` | `disabled` |  |

Whether [deletion protection](/guides/manage-data-manage-indexes#configure-deletion-protection) is enabled/disabled for the index. Possible values: `disabled` or `enabled`.

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `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. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `embed?` | `object` | - | The embedding model and document fields mapped to embedding inputs. |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `model` | `string` | - | The name of the embedding model used to create the index. Example: multilingual-e5-large |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `metric?` | `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. Possible values: cosine, euclidean, or dotproduct. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `dimension?` | `integer` | - | The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index. Required range: 1 <= x <= 20000. Example: 1536 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vector_type?` | `string` | `dense` | 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. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `field_map?` | `object` | - | Identifies the name of the text field from your document model that is embedded. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `read_parameters?` | `object` | - | The read parameters for the embedding model. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `write_parameters?` | `object` | - | The write parameters for the embedding model. |
:::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `spec` | `object` | - |  |

:::::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `serverless` | `object` | - | Configuration of a serverless index. |

::::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `cloud` | `string` | - | The public cloud where you would like your index hosted. Possible values: gcp, aws, or azure. Example: aws |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `region` | `string` | - | The region where you would like your index to be created. Example: us-east-1 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `read_capacity` | `object` | - |  |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `mode` | `string` | - | The mode of the index. Possible values: OnDemand or Dedicated. Defaults to OnDemand. If set to Dedicated, dedicated.node_type, and dedicated.scaling must be specified. |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `status` | `object` | - | The current status of factors affecting the read capacity of a serverless index |
:::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source_collection?` | `string` | - | The name of the collection to be used as the source for the index. Example: movie-embeddings |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source_backup_id?` | `string` | - | The ID of the backup this index was restored from, if any. Example: 670e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `schema?` | `object` | - | Schema for the behavior of Pinecone's internal metadata index. By default, all metadata is indexed; when schema is present, only fields which are present in the fields object with a filterable: true are indexed. Note that filterable: false is not currently supported. |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `fields` | `object` | - | A map of metadata field names to their configuration. The field name must be a valid metadata field name. The field name must be unique. |
:::
::::
:::::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `status` | `object` | - | The current status of the index |

:::accordion{title="Show child attributes"}
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `ready` | `boolean` | - | Whether the index is ready for use |

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `state` | `string` | - | The state of the index. Possible values: Initializing, InitializationFailed, ScalingUp, ScalingDown, ScalingUpPodSize, ScalingDownPodSize, Terminating, Ready, or Disabled. |
:::

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vector_type` | `string` | `dense` | 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. |

## Related pages

- [Account management](./account-management-index.md)
- [Admin](./admin-2-index.md)
- [Admin](./admin-index.md)
- [APIs](./apis-index.md)
- [Architecture](./architecture-index.md)
- [Bring Your Own Cloud](./bring-your-own-cloud-index.md)
- [Build an assistant](./build-an-assistant-index.md)
- [Build an integration](./build-an-integration-index.md)
- [Changelog](./changelog-index.md)
- [Changelog](../changelog.md)

# Agent Instructions

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