curl -X GET 'https://api.openai.com/v1/files?purpose=example-purpose&limit=10000&order=desc&after=example-after' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

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

> List files

## 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/files?purpose=example-purpose&limit=10000&order=desc&after=example-after' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| purpose | query | string | No | Only return files with the given purpose. |
| limit | query | integer | No | A limit on the number of objects to be returned. Limit can range between 1 an... |
| order | query | string | No | Sort order by the `created_at` timestamp of the objects. `asc` for ascending... |
| after | query | string | No | A cursor for use in pagination. `after` is an object ID that defines your pla... |

## Response example
{"object":"list","data":[{}]}

---
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GET

GET /files — OpenAI API

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

OpenAI API

List files

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
→ 255 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/files?purpose=example-purpose&limit=10000&order=desc&after=example-after' \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
purpose	query	string	No	Only return files with the given purpose.
limit	query	integer	No	A limit on the number of objects to be returned. Limit can range between 1 and 10,000, and the default is 10,000.
order	query	string	No	Sort order by the `created_at` timestamp of the objects. `asc` for ascending order and `desc` for descending order.
after	query	string	No	A cursor for use in pagination. `after` is an object ID that defines your place in the list. For instance, if you make a list request and receive 100 objects, ending with obj_foo, your subsequent call can include after=obj_foo in order to fetch the next page of the list.

Response 200 OK

{
  "object": "list",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "string",
      "bytes": 0,
      "created_at": 0,
      "expires_at": 0,
      "filename": "string",
      "object": "file",
      "purpose": "assistants",
      "status": "uploaded",
      "status_details": "string"
    }
  ],
  "first_id": "file-abc123",
  "last_id": "file-abc456",
  "has_more": false
}

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