curl -X GET 'https://api.openai.com/v1/vector_stores/vs_abc123/files/file-abc123' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

# GET /vector_stores/{vector_store_id}/files/{file_id} (OpenAI API)
Base URL: https://api.openai.com/v1
Auth: Authorization; OpenAI API key; required.
Last verified: 2026-10-20

> Retrieve vector store file

## 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 GET 'https://api.openai.com/v1/vector_stores/vs_abc123/files/file-abc123' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| vector_store_id | path | string | Yes | The ID of the vector store that the file belongs to. |
| file_id | path | string | Yes | The ID of the file being retrieved. |

## Response example
{"id":"string","object":"vector_store.file"}

---
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GET

GET /vector_stores/{vector_store_id}/files/{file_id} — OpenAI API

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

OpenAI API

Retrieve vector store file

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
→ 190 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 GET 'https://api.openai.com/v1/vector_stores/vs_abc123/files/file-abc123' \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
vector_store_id	path	string	Yes	The ID of the vector store that the file belongs to.
file_id	path	string	Yes	The ID of the file being retrieved.

Response 200 OK

{
  "id": "string",
  "object": "vector_store.file",
  "usage_bytes": 0,
  "created_at": 0,
  "vector_store_id": "string",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "last_error": {
    "code": "server_error",
    "message": "string"
  },
  "chunking_strategy": {
    "type": "static",
    "static": {
      "max_chunk_size_tokens": 0,
      "chunk_overlap_tokens": 0
    }
  },
  "attributes": {}
}

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