```python Python theme={null}
# pip install "pinecone[grpc]"
from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.describe_index(name="movie-recommendations")
```

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

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

await pc.describeIndex('movie-recommendations');
```

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

public class DescribeIndexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOURE_API_KEY").build();
        IndexModel indexModel = pc.describeIndex("movie-recommendations");
        System.out.println(indexModel);
    }
}
```

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

import (
    "context"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "log"

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

func prettifyStruct(obj interface{}) string {
    bytes, _ := json.MarshalIndent(obj, "", "  ")
    return string(bytes)
}

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)
    }

    idx, err := pc.DescribeIndex(ctx, "movie-recommendations")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to describe index \"%v\": %v", idx.Name, err)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("index: %v\n", prettifyStruct(idx))
    }
}
```

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

var pinecone = new PineconeClient("YOUR_API_KEY");

var indexModel = await pinecone.DescribeIndexAsync("docs-example");

Console.WriteLine(indexModel);
```

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

curl -i -X GET "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/movie-recommendations" \
    -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
    -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2024-10"
```

```Python Python theme={null}
{'dimension': 1536,
  'host': 'example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io',
  'metric': 'cosine',
  'name': 'docs-example',
  'spec': {'serverless': {'cloud': 'aws', 'region': 'us-east-1'}},
  'status': {'ready': True, 'state': 'Ready'}}
```

```javascript JavaScript theme={null}
{
  "name": "docs-example",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "host": "example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "deletionProtection": "disabled",
  "tags": { "environment": "development", "example": "tag" },
  "spec": { "pod": undefined, "serverless": { "cloud": "aws", "region": "us-east-1" } },
  "status": { "ready": true, "state": "Ready" }
}
```

```java Java theme={null}
class IndexModel {
    name: example-index
    dimension: 1536
    metric: cosine
    host: example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io
    deletionProtection: disabled
    spec: class IndexModelSpec {
        pod: null
        serverless: class ServerlessSpec {
            cloud: aws
            region: us-east-1
        }
    }
    status: class IndexModelStatus {
        ready: true
        state: Ready
    }
}
```

```go Go theme={null}
index: {
  "name": "docs-example",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "host": "example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "metric": "cosine",
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "spec": {
    "serverless": {
      "cloud": "aws",
      "region": "us-east-1"
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "Ready"
  },
  "tags": {
    "environment": "development",
    "example": "tag"
  }
}
```

```csharp C# theme={null}
{
  "name": "docs-example",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "host": "example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "spec": {
    "pod": null,
    "serverless": {
      "cloud": "aws",
      "region": "us-east-1"
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "Ready"
  }
}
```

```json curl theme={null}
{
    "name": "docs-example",
    "metric": "cosine",
    "dimension": 1536,
    "status": {
        "ready": true,
        "state": "Ready"
    },
    "host": "example-index-4mkljsz.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
    "spec": {
        "serverless": {
            "region": "us-east-1",
            "cloud": "aws"
        }
    },
    "deletion_protection": "disabled",
    "tags": {
        "environment": "development",
        "example": "tag"
    }
}
```

`GET /indexes/{index_name}`

:::code-group
```bash title="cURL"
curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/{index_name} \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'
```

```json title="200"
{
  "name": "example-index",
  "dimension": 1536,
  "metric": "cosine",
  "host": "semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io",
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "tags": {
    "tag0": "val0",
    "tag1": "val1"
  },
  "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>`.

## Path Parameters

- `index_name` (path, string, required) — The name of the index to be described.

## Response

- `200` — Configuration information and deployment status of the index.
- `401` — Unauthorized. Possible causes: Invalid API key.
- `404` — Index not found.
- `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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