Skip to content
Primary navigation
API Dashboard
API Reference
Vector Stores
Files

Retrieve vector store file

vector_stores.files.retrieve(strfile_id, FileRetrieveParams**kwargs) -> VectorStoreFile
GET/vector_stores/{vector_store_id}/files/{file_id}

Retrieves a vector store file.

ParametersExpand Collapse
vector_store_id: str
file_id: str
ReturnsExpand Collapse
class VectorStoreFile: …

A list of files attached to a vector store.

id: str

The identifier, which can be referenced in API endpoints.

created_at: int

The Unix timestamp (in seconds) for when the vector store file was created.

last_error: Optional[LastError]

The last error associated with this vector store file. Will be null if there are no errors.

code: Literal["server_error", "unsupported_file", "invalid_file"]

One of server_error, unsupported_file, or invalid_file.

Accepts one of the following:
"server_error"
"unsupported_file"
"invalid_file"
message: str

A human-readable description of the error.

object: Literal["vector_store.file"]

The object type, which is always vector_store.file.

status: Literal["in_progress", "completed", "cancelled", "failed"]

The status of the vector store file, which can be either in_progress, completed, cancelled, or failed. The status completed indicates that the vector store file is ready for use.

Accepts one of the following:
"in_progress"
"completed"
"cancelled"
"failed"
usage_bytes: int

The total vector store usage in bytes. Note that this may be different from the original file size.

vector_store_id: str

The ID of the vector store that the File is attached to.

attributes: Optional[Dict[str, Union[str, float, bool]]]

Set of 16 key-value pairs that can be attached to an object. This can be useful for storing additional information about the object in a structured format, and querying for objects via API or the dashboard. Keys are strings with a maximum length of 64 characters. Values are strings with a maximum length of 512 characters, booleans, or numbers.

Accepts one of the following:
str
float
bool
chunking_strategy: Optional[FileChunkingStrategy]

The strategy used to chunk the file.

Accepts one of the following:
class StaticFileChunkingStrategyObject: …
chunk_overlap_tokens: int

The number of tokens that overlap between chunks. The default value is 400.

Note that the overlap must not exceed half of max_chunk_size_tokens.

max_chunk_size_tokens: int

The maximum number of tokens in each chunk. The default value is 800. The minimum value is 100 and the maximum value is 4096.

minimum100
maximum4096
type: Literal["static"]

Always static.

class OtherFileChunkingStrategyObject: …

This is returned when the chunking strategy is unknown. Typically, this is because the file was indexed before the chunking_strategy concept was introduced in the API.

type: Literal["other"]

Always other.

Retrieve vector store file

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()

vector_store_file = client.vector_stores.files.retrieve(
  vector_store_id="vs_abc123",
  file_id="file-abc123"
)
print(vector_store_file)

{
  "id": "file-abc123",
  "object": "vector_store.file",
  "created_at": 1699061776,
  "vector_store_id": "vs_abcd",
  "status": "completed",
  "last_error": null
}
Returns Examples
{
  "id": "file-abc123",
  "object": "vector_store.file",
  "created_at": 1699061776,
  "vector_store_id": "vs_abcd",
  "status": "completed",
  "last_error": null
}