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GET
/
indexes
/
{index_name}
# pip install --upgrade pinecone
import os
from pinecone import Pinecone

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

index_model = pc.preview.indexes.describe(name="articles")
print(index_model.status, index_model.schema)

host = index_model.host

// Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "e51ea4e1-2dda-4607-94dc-9054b1fa8492",
  "name": "articles",
  "host": "articles-jweaq8m.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "Ready"
  },
  "deployment": {
    "deployment_type": "managed",
    "cloud": "aws",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "environment": "aped-4627-b74a"
  },
  "schema": {
    "version": "v1",
    "fields": {
      "title":    { "type": "string", "full_text_search": { "language": "en", "stemming": false, "stop_words": false, "lowercase": true, "max_token_length": 40 } },
      "body":     { "type": "string", "full_text_search": { "language": "en", "stemming": false, "stop_words": false, "lowercase": true, "max_token_length": 40 } }
    }
  },
  "read_capacity": {
    "mode": "OnDemand",
    "status": { "state": "Ready" }
  },
  "tags": null,
  "deletion_protection": "disabled"
}
Full-text search is in public preview and uses API version 2026-01.alpha. APIs may continue to evolve before general availability.
Returns detailed information about a specific schema-defined index, including its schema, status, host URL, and read capacity. Poll this endpoint after POST /indexes until status.ready: true (and, for Dedicated read capacity, read_capacity.status.state: "Ready") before performing data plane operations. 
# pip install --upgrade pinecone
import os
from pinecone import Pinecone

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

index_model = pc.preview.indexes.describe(name="articles")
print(index_model.status, index_model.schema)

host = index_model.host

// Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "e51ea4e1-2dda-4607-94dc-9054b1fa8492",
  "name": "articles",
  "host": "articles-jweaq8m.svc.aped-4627-b74a.pinecone.io",
  "status": {
    "ready": true,
    "state": "Ready"
  },
  "deployment": {
    "deployment_type": "managed",
    "cloud": "aws",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "environment": "aped-4627-b74a"
  },
  "schema": {
    "version": "v1",
    "fields": {
      "title":    { "type": "string", "full_text_search": { "language": "en", "stemming": false, "stop_words": false, "lowercase": true, "max_token_length": 40 } },
      "body":     { "type": "string", "full_text_search": { "language": "en", "stemming": false, "stop_words": false, "lowercase": true, "max_token_length": 40 } }
    }
  },
  "read_capacity": {
    "mode": "OnDemand",
    "status": { "state": "Ready" }
  },
  "tags": null,
  "deletion_protection": "disabled"
}

Authorizations

​
Api-Key
string
header
required

An API Key is required to call Pinecone APIs. Get yours from the console.

Headers

​
X-Pinecone-Api-Version
string
default:2026-01.alpha
required

Required date-based version header

Path Parameters

​
index_name
string
required

The name of the index to be described.

Response

Configuration information and deployment status of the index.

The IndexModel describes the configuration and status of a Pinecone index.

​
name
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 '-'.

Required string length: 1 - 45
Example:

"example-index"

​
host
string
required

The URL address where the index is hosted.

Example:

"semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io"

​
status
object
required

The current status of the index.

Example:
{ "ready": true, "state": "Ready" }
​
deployment
Pod-based · object
required

The deployment configuration of a Pinecone index. The deployment_type field indicates which infrastructure model the index uses.

  • pod: Dedicated pod-based infrastructure. Suitable for workloads that

    require predictable performance.

  • managed: Serverless infrastructure managed by Pinecone, including

    full-text search indexes. Scales automatically; billed per usage.

  • byoc: Bring-your-own-compute. Runs in customer-managed infrastructure.

Example:
{
  "deployment_type": "pod",
  "environment": "us-east1-gcp",
  "pod_type": "p1.x1",
  "replicas": 1,
  "shards": 1
}
​
schema
object
required

The schema of a Pinecone index. The schema defines the typed fields that documents in the index can contain, including vector fields, semantic text fields, and metadata fields.

Example:
{
  "fields": {
    "embedding": {
      "dimension": 1536,
      "metric": "cosine",
      "type": "dense_vector"
    },
    "title": {
      "full_text_search": { "language": "en" },
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}
​
deletion_protection
string
default:disabled
required

Whether deletion protection is enabled/disabled for the index. Possible values: disabled or enabled.

​
private_host
string

The private endpoint URL of an index.

Example:

"semantic-search-c01b5b5.svc.private.us-west1-gcp.pinecone.io"

​
read_capacity
On-demand · object

Response containing read capacity configuration

Example:
{
  "mode": "OnDemand",
  "status": { "state": "Ready" }
}
​
source_collection
string

The name of the collection this index was created from, if any.

Example:

"movie-embeddings"

​
source_backup_id
string

The ID of the backup this index was restored from, if any.

Example:

"670e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

​
cmek_id
string

The ID of the customer-managed encryption key (CMEK) used to encrypt this index, if any.

Example:

"arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/mrk-abc123"

​
tags
object

Custom user tags added to an index. Keys must be 80 characters or less. Values must be 120 characters or less. Keys must be alphanumeric, '', or '-'. Values must be alphanumeric, ';', '@', '', '-', '.', '+', or ' '. To unset a key, set the value to be an empty string.

Example:
{ "tag0": "val0", "tag1": "val1" }