curl -X POST 'https://api.openai.com/v1/conversations' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{}'

# POST /conversations (OpenAI API)
Base URL: https://api.openai.com/v1
Auth: Authorization; OpenAI API key; required.
Request formats: application/json.
Last verified: 2026-10-20

> Create a conversation

## Critical Gotchas
* The Responses API is the primary interface for new text and tool workflows; Chat Completions remains a separate compatibility API.
* Audio transcription uploads use multipart form data rather than a JSON request body.

## cURL
curl -X POST 'https://api.openai.com/v1/conversations' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{}'

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| metadata | body | object | No | Set of 16 key-value pairs that can be attached to an object. This can be usef... |
| items | body | object[] | No | Initial items to include in the conversation context. You may add up to 20 it... |

## Response example
{"id":"string","object":"conversation","metadata":{},"created_at":0}

---
Need an API key? Get one at https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

POST

POST /conversations — OpenAI API

OpenAI API key (required); https://api.openai.com/v1

OpenAI API

Create a conversation

Base URL: https://api.openai.com/v1
Auth: Authorization: Bearer <OPENAI_API_KEY>
Last verified: 2026-10-20 · upstream hash matched

Actions Try in browser→

Agents: curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" this URL
→ 219 tokens · Vary: Accept

Critical gotchas

The Responses API is the primary interface for new text and tool workflows; Chat Completions remains a separate compatibility API.

Audio transcription uploads use multipart form data rather than a JSON request body.

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.openai.com/v1/conversations' \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \  -d '{}'

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
metadata	body	object	No	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.
items	body	object[]	No	Initial items to include in the conversation context. You may add up to 20 items at a time.

Response 200 OK

{
  "id": "string",
  "object": "conversation",
  "metadata": {},
  "created_at": 0
}

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