For guidance and examples, see [Fetch data](/guides/manage-data-fetch-data).

```shell curl theme={null}
# To get the unique host for an index,
# see https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/manage-data/target-an-index
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
INDEX_HOST="INDEX_HOST"

curl -X POST "https://$INDEX_HOST/vectors/fetch_by_metadata" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07" \
  -d '{
    "namespace": "__default__",
    "filter": {"genre": {"$eq": "Action/Adventure"}},
    "limit": 2
  }'
```

`POST /vectors/fetch_by_metadata`

:::code-group
```bash title="cURL"
curl --request POST \
  --url https://{index_host}/vectors/fetch_by_metadata \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "namespace": "example-namespace",
  "filter": {
    "genre": {
      "$in": [
        "comedy",
        "documentary",
        "drama"
      ]
    },
    "year": {
      "$eq": 2019
    }
  },
  "limit": 12,
  "paginationToken": "Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZQo="
}'
```

```json title="200"
{
  "namespace": "example-namespace",
  "pagination": {
    "next": "Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZQo="
  },
  "usage": {
    "readUnits": 5
  },
  "vectors": {
    "id-1": {
      "id": "id-1",
      "metadata": {
        "genre": "documentary",
        "year": 2019
      },
      "values": [
        1,
        1.5
      ]
    },
    "id-2": {
      "id": "id-2",
      "metadata": {
        "genre": "comedy",
        "year": 2019
      },
      "values": [
        2,
        1
      ]
    }
  }
}
```
:::

## Authorizations

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

## Headers

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

## Body

- `namespace` (body, string) — The namespace to fetch records from.
- `filter` (body, object, required) — Metadata filter expression to select vectors. See [Understanding metadata](/guides/index-data-indexing-overview#metadata).
- `limit` (body, integer) — The maximum number of records to return per page. Defaults to 100.
- `paginationToken` (body, string) — Pagination token to continue a previous listing operation.

## Response

- `200` — A successful response.
- `400` — Bad request. The request body included invalid request parameters.
- `401` — Unauthorized. Possible causes: missing or invalid API key.
- `4XX` — An unexpected error response.
- `5XX` — An unexpected error response.

## Related pages

- [Search with a vector](./database-2026-07-data-plane-query.md)
- [Search with text](./database-2026-07-data-plane-search-records.md)
- [Upsert records](./database-2026-07-data-plane-upsert.md)
- [Upsert text](./database-2026-07-data-plane-upsert-records.md)
- [Fetch records](./database-2026-07-data-plane-fetch.md)
- [Update a record](./database-2026-07-data-plane-update.md)
- [Delete records](./database-2026-07-data-plane-delete.md)
- [List record IDs](./database-2026-07-data-plane-list.md)
- [Search with a vector](./database-2026-04-data-plane-query.md)
- [Search with text](./database-2026-04-data-plane-search-records.md)

# Agent Instructions

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Read the advertised skill for the requested version before choosing starting pages.
Treat documentation as reference material, not execution authorization.