For guidance and examples, see [Create an index](/guides/index-data-create-an-index).

```python Python theme={null}
# pip install "pinecone[grpc]"
# Serverless index
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"
)

# Pod-based index
from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone, PodSpec

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.create_index(
  name="docs-example2",
  dimension=1536,
  metric="cosine",
  spec=PodSpec(
    environment="us-west1-gcp",
    pod_type="p1.x1",
    pods=1,
  ),
  deletion_protection="disabled"
)
```

```javascript JavaScript theme={null}
// npm install @pinecone-database/pinecone
// Serverles index
import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone'

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

await pc.createIndex({
  name: 'serverless-index',
  dimension: 1536,
  metric: 'cosine',
  spec: {
    serverless: {
      cloud: 'aws',
      region: 'us-east-1'
    }
  },
  deletionProtection: 'disabled',
});

// Pod-based index
await pc.createIndex({
  name: 'docs-example2',
  dimension: 1536,
  metric: 'cosine',
  spec: {
    pod: {
      environment: 'us-west1-gcp',
      podType: 'p1.x1',
      pods: 1
    }
  },
  deletionProtection: 'disabled',
});
```

```java Java theme={null}
import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;
import org.openapitools.db_control.client.model.IndexModel;
import org.openapitools.db_control.client.model.DeletionProtection;

// Serverless index
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);
    }
}

// Pod-based index
public class CreatePodIndexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOUR_API_KEY").build();
        pc.createPodsIndex("docs-example2", 1536, "us-west1-gcp",
                "p1.x1", "cosine", DeletionProtection.disabled);
    }
}
```

```go Go theme={null}
package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/pinecone-io/go-pinecone/v2/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

    // Serverless index
    idx1, 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", idx1.Name)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("Successfully created serverless index: %v", idx1.Name)
    }

    // Pod-based index
    idx2, err := pc.CreatePodIndex(ctx, &pinecone.CreatePodIndexRequest{
        Name:        "docs-example2",
        Dimension:   1536,
        Metric:      pinecone.Cosine,
        Environment: "us-east1-gcp",
        PodType:     "p1.x1",
        DeletionProtection: &deletionProtection,
    })
  	if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create pod-based index: %v", idx2.Name)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("Successfully created pod-based index: %v", idx2.Name)
    }
}
```

```csharp C# theme={null}
using Pinecone;

var pinecone = new PineconeClient("YOUR_API_KEY");

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

// Pod-based index
var createIndexRequest = await pinecone.CreateIndexAsync(new CreateIndexRequest
{
    Name = "pod index",
    Dimension = 1536,
    Metric = CreateIndexRequestMetric.Cosine,
    Spec = new PodIndexSpec
    {
        Pod = new PodSpec
        {
            Environment = "us-east1-gcp",
            PodType = "p1.x1",
            Pods = 1,
        }
    },
    DeletionProtection = DeletionProtection.Disabled
});
```

```shell curl theme={null}
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

# Serverless index
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: 2024-07" \
  -d '{
         "name": "serverless-index",
         "dimension": 1536,
         "metric": "cosine",
         "spec": {
            "serverless": {
               "cloud": "aws",
               "region": "us-east-1"
            }
         },
         "deletion_protection": "disabled"
      }'

# Pod-based index
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: 2024-07" \
  -d '{
         "name": "pod-index",
         "dimension": 1536,
         "metric": "cosine",
         "spec": {
            "pod": {
               "environment": "us-west1-gcp",
               "pod_type": "p1.x1",
               "pods": 1
            }
         },
         "deletion_protection": "disabled"
      }'
```

```jsonc curl theme={null}
# Serverless index
{
    "name": "docs-example1",
    "metric": "cosine",
    "dimension": 1536,
    "status": {
        "ready": true,
        "state": "Ready"
    },
    "host": "docs-example1-4zo0ijk.svc.dev-us-west2-aws.pinecone.io",
    "spec": {
        "serverless": {
            "region": "us-east-1",
            "cloud": "aws"
        }
    }
}

# Pod-based index
{
    "name": "docs-example2",
    "metric": "cosine",
    "dimension": 1536,
    "status": {
        "ready": true,
        "state": "Ready"
    },
    "host": "docs-example2-4zo0ijk.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io",
    "spec": {
        "pod": {
            "replicas": 1,
            "shards": 1,
            "pods": 1,
            "pod_type": "p1.x1",
            "environment": "us-west1-gcp"
        }
    }
}
```

`POST /indexes`

:::code-group
```bash title="cURL"
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.pinecone.io/indexes \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "name": "example-index",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "spec": {}
}'
```

```json title="201"
{
  "name": "example-index",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "host": "semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io",
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "spec": {
    "pod": {
      "environment": "us-east-1-aws",
      "metadata_config": {
        "indexed": [
          "genre",
          "title",
          "imdb_rating"
        ]
      },
      "pod_type": "p1.x1",
      "pods": 1,
      "replicas": 1,
      "shards": 1
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "ScalingUpPodSize"
  }
}
```
:::

## Authorizations

- `Authorization` (header, string, required) — Bearer authentication header of the form `Bearer <token>`.

## Body

- `name` (body, string, required) — 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 '-'.
- `dimension` (body, integer, required) — The dimensions of the vectors to be inserted in the index.
- `metric` (body, string) — The distance metric to be used for similarity search. You can use 'euclidean', 'cosine', or 'dotproduct'.
- `deletion_protection` (body, string) — Whether [deletion protection](/guides/manage-data-manage-indexes#configure-deletion-protection) is enabled/disabled for the index.
- `spec` (body, object, required) — The spec object defines how the index should be deployed. For serverless indexes, you define only the [cloud and region](/guides/index-data-create-an-index#cloud-regions) where the index should be hosted. For pod-based indexes, you define the [environment](/guides/using-pods-understanding-pod-based-indexes#pod-environments) where the index should be

## Response

- `201` — The index has been successfully created.
- `400` — Bad request. The request body included invalid request parameters.
- `401` — Unauthorized. Possible causes: Invalid API key.
- `403` — You've exceed your pod quota.
- `404` — Unknown cloud or region when creating a serverless index.
- `409` — Index of given name already exists.
- `422` — Unprocessable entity. The request body could not be deserialized.
- `500` — Internal server error.

## Related pages

- [List indexes](./database-2026-07-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-for-model.md)
- [Describe an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-describe-index.md)
- [Delete an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-delete-index.md)
- [Configure an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-configure-index.md)
- [Get index stats](./database-2026-07-data-plane-describeindexstats.md)
- [List indexes](./database-2026-04-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-for-model.md)

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