Restore a pod-based index

Legacy guide for restoring Pinecone pod-based indexes from collections. Pod indexes are no longer available to new customers as of August 2025.

You can restore a pod-based index by creating a new index from a collection.

Create a pod-based index from a collection

To create a pod-based index from a collection, use the create_index endpoint and provide a source_collection parameter containing the name of the collection from which you wish to create an index. The new index can differ from the original source index: the new index can have a different name, number of pods, or pod type. The new index is queryable and writable.

Python

from pinecone.grpc import PineconeGRPC as Pinecone, PodSpec

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

pc.create_index(
  name="docs-example",
  dimension=128,
  metric="cosine",
  spec=PodSpec(
    environment="us-west-1-gcp",
    pod_type="p1.x1",
    pods=1,
    source_collection="example-collection"
  )
)

JavaScript

import { Pinecone } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone'

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

await pc.createIndex({
  name: 'docs-example',
  dimension: 128,
  metric: 'cosine',
  spec: {
    pod: {
      environment: 'us-west-1-gcp',
      podType: 'p1.x1',
      pods: 1,
      sourceCollection: 'example-collection'
    }
  }
});

Java

import io.pinecone.clients.Pinecone;
import org.openapitools.db_control.client.model.IndexModel;
import org.openapitools.db_control.client.model.DeletionProtection;

public class CreateIndexFromCollectionExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pinecone pc = new Pinecone.Builder("YOUR_API_KEY").build();
        pc.createPodsIndex("docs-example", 1536, "us-west1-gcp",
                "p1.x1", "cosine", "example-collection", DeletionProtection.DISABLED);
    }
}

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/pinecone-io/go-pinecone/v4/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)
    }

    indexName := "docs-example"
    metric := pinecone.Dotproduct
    deletionProtection := pinecone.DeletionProtectionDisabled

    idx, err := pc.CreatePodIndex(ctx, &pinecone.CreatePodIndexRequest{
        Name:               indexName,
        Metric:             &metric,
        Dimension:          1536,
        Environment:        "us-east1-gcp",
        PodType:            "p1.x1",
        SourceCollection:   "example-collection",
        DeletionProtection: &deletionProtection,
    })
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to create pod-based index: %v", idx.Name)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("Successfully created pod-based index: %v", idx.Name)
    }
}

curl

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: 2025-10" \
  -d '{
         "name": "docs-example",
         "dimension": 128,
         "metric": "cosine",
         "spec": {
            "pod": {
               "environment": "us-west-1-gcp",
               "pod_type": "p1.x1",
               "pods": 1,
               "source_collection": "example-collection"
            }
         }
      }'