---
description: Create AI Search instances programmatically using the REST API.
title: Create AI Search instances programmatically via REST API
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-01-20-ai-search-simplified-api/og.png?v=52f729332345331e
---

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January 20, 2026

## Create AI Search instances programmatically via REST API

[AI Search](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/)

Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-01-20-ai-search-simplified-api/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

You can now create [AI Search](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/) instances programmatically using the [API](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/get-started/api/). For example, use the API to create instances for each customer in a multi-tenant application or manage AI Search alongside your other infrastructure.

If you have created an AI Search instance via the [dashboard](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/get-started/dashboard/) before, you already have a [service API token](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/configuration/indexing/service-api-token/) registered and can start creating instances programmatically right away. If not, follow the [API guide](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-search/get-started/api/) to set up your first instance.

For example, you can now create separate search instances for each language on your website:

```bash
for lang in en fr es de; do
  curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/ai-search/instances" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{
      "id": "docs-'"$lang"'",
      "type": "web-crawler",
      "source": "example.com",
      "source_params": {
        "path_include": ["**/'"$lang"'/**"]
      }
    }'
done
```

Refer to the [REST API reference](https://developers.cloudflare.com/api/resources/ai_search/subresources/instances/methods/create/) for additional configuration options.

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