Azure openai API - files upload expires_after not supported

Question

When uploading a file with purpose=assistants, I am unable to set the expires_after parameter. This issue occurs in both the Preview and v1 API versions.

According to the API documentation, the expires_after parameter should be supported.

Here is a sample request:

curl https://your_resource.openai.azure.com/openai/v1/files\?api-version\=preview \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_token" \
  -F purpose="assistants" \
  -F file="@fake_file.md" \
  -F 'expires_after={"anchor":"created_at","seconds":1209600}'

However, the parameter appears to be ignored or results in an error.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Attempt to upload a file with purpose=assistants and set the expires_after parameter.
2. Observe that the parameter is not set or an error is returned.

Expected: The expires_after parameter should be accepted and the file should expire after the specified duration.

Actual: The parameter is not set, or the API returns an error.

Answer 1

Hello Dariusz !

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Learn.

Although the expires_after parameter isn't supported for assistant-purpose file uploads, you can apply expiration when creating or updating vector stores, which are used by the file_search tool.

vector_store = client.beta.vector_stores.create_and_poll(
  name="Product Documentation",
  file_ids=['file_1','file_2'],
  expires_after={
    "anchor": "last_active_at",
    "days": 7
  }
)

This sets the vector store to expire 7 days after its last activity.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/openai/how-to/file-search

Uploads made through assistant messages into threads automatically have a default expiration of seven days after last activity, even without specifying expires_after. You can override these settings only by managing vector stores explicitly.

If controlling file expiration is essential, you could:

• upload your files via purpose=assistants for use with your assistant
• individually create a vector store attaching the same file(s), and specify an expires_after policy there attach that vector store to your assistant or thread as needed, allowing you to leverage expiration control