Updates configuration on an existing index. You can update `deletion_protection`, `tags`, and `read_capacity` (for example, converting from `OnDemand` to `Dedicated`). The schema itself is immutable — to change field types or add new indexed fields, create a new index and re-upsert.

This is a partial update: only the fields you include in the request body are modified. Unspecified fields are left unchanged. To clear `tags`, send `"tags": {}`.

```python Python theme={null}
# pip install --upgrade pinecone
import os
from pinecone import Pinecone

pc = Pinecone(api_key=os.environ["PINECONE_API_KEY"])

# Enable deletion protection
pc.indexes.configure(
    name="articles",
    deletion_protection="enabled",
)

# Convert read capacity from OnDemand to Dedicated
pc.indexes.configure(
    name="articles",
    read_capacity={
        "mode": "Dedicated",
        "dedicated": {
            "node_type": "b1",
            "scaling": "Manual",
            "manual": {"shards": 1, "replicas": 1},
        },
    },
)
```

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

# Enable deletion protection
curl -X PATCH "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/articles" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07" \
  -d '{ "deletion_protection": "enabled" }'

# Convert read capacity from OnDemand to Dedicated
curl -X PATCH "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/articles" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07" \
  -d '{
    "read_capacity": {
      "mode": "Dedicated",
      "dedicated": {
        "node_type": "b1",
        "scaling": "Manual",
        "manual": { "shards": 1, "replicas": 1 }
      }
    }
  }'
```

`PATCH /indexes/{index_name}`

:::code-group
```bash title="cURL"
curl --request PATCH \
  --url https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/{index_name} \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "deployment": {
    "replicas": 4
  },
  "schema": {
    "fields": {
      "content": {
        "read_parameters": {
          "input_type": "query",
          "truncate": "NONE"
        },
        "type": "semantic_text",
        "write_parameters": {
          "input_type": "passage"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "read_capacity": {
    "mode": "OnDemand"
  },
  "tags": {
    "tag0": "val0",
    "tag1": "val1"
  },
  "deletion_protection": "<string>"
}'
```

```json title="200"
{
  "deletion_protection": "disabled",
  "deployment": {
    "cloud": "aws",
    "deployment_type": "managed",
    "region": "us-east-1"
  },
  "host": "my-index-abc123.svc.pinecone.io",
  "name": "my-index",
  "read_capacity": {
    "mode": "OnDemand",
    "status": {
      "state": "Ready"
    }
  },
  "schema": {
    "fields": {
      "embedding": {
        "dimension": 1536,
        "metric": "cosine",
        "type": "dense_vector"
      },
      "title": {
        "full_text_search": {
          "language": "en",
          "stemming": false,
          "stop_words": false
        },
        "type": "string"
      }
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "Ready"
  }
}
```
:::

## 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 configure.

## Headers

- `X-Pinecone-Api-Version` (header, string, required) — Required date-based version header

## Body

- `deployment` (body, object) — Deployment update parameters for pod-based indexes. Specify `replicas`, `pod_type`, or both. Deployment type, cloud/region, and environment cannot be changed after creation. Do not include a `deployment_type` field; it is not accepted.
- `schema` (body, object) — Schema updates to apply to an existing index. Only `semantic_text` field parameters can be updated after index creation. The model itself cannot be changed once set; only `write_parameters` and `read_parameters` may be updated if the model stays the same.
- `read_capacity` (body, object) — Read capacity changes for an existing managed or BYOC index. Switch to `OnDemand`, or set `Dedicated` and change any subset of `node_type`, `scaling`, and `manual` replicas/shards; fields you omit keep their current value. BYOC indexes do not support `OnDemand`.
- `tags` (body, object) — Custom user tags added to an index, at most 20 per index. Keys must be 80 characters or less and alphanumeric, '\_', or '-'. Values must be 120 characters or less and consist of printable ASCII characters or spaces. To unset a key, set the value to be an empty string. `null` in responses when the index has no tags.
- `deletion_protection` (body, string) — Whether [deletion protection](/guides/manage-data-manage-indexes#configure-deletion-protection) is enabled/disabled for the index. Possible values: `disabled` or `enabled`.

## Response

- `200` — The configuration change was recorded and the updated index is returned. Changes that resize the index (replicas, shards, read capacity) are applied asynchronously; poll the index `status` to see when they take effect.
- `400` — Bad request. The request body included invalid request parameters.
- `401` — Unauthorized. Possible causes: missing or invalid API key.
- `403` — Forbidden. Possible causes: the project's index quota is exhausted, dedicated read capacity is not enabled for the organization, or (when configuring) the index's read capacity is not yet `Ready`.
- `404` — Index not found.
- `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)
- [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)
- [Describe an index](./database-2026-04-control-plane-describe-index.md)

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