> This page is for version 1.0.0 (Latest) (default).
> For other versions, use one of these documentation indexes:
> - 1.0.0 (Latest) (default): https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/metadata-api/1.0.0/llms.txt

> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/metadata-api/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/metadata-api/_mcp/server.

# Overview

> Read an NVIDIA NIM microservice's profiles, hardware requirements, and capabilities over HTTP, in one request, before you download the container.

Every [NVIDIA NIM microservice](https://developer.nvidia.com/nim) ships with
a set of profiles, which are precompiled configurations tuned for particular
GPUs, precisions, and inference backends. A single NIM microservice can carry a
handful of profiles or several dozen, and the profile you run depends on the
hardware you have: how much vRAM per device, how many GPUs, and which driver.
The NIM Metadata API answers that question over HTTP, in one request, before you
download anything.

Historically, the only complete answer lived in the NIM microservice manifest.
That manifest lived inside the container or in the documentation support matrix
(for example, the [NIM LLM and VLM support matrix](https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/large-language-models/latest/reference/support-matrix.html)).
To find out whether a NIM microservice fits your hardware, you had to pull the
image, start it, and inspect it. That is a significant investment of time and
bandwidth to answer a question you had before you started.

> **Note**
>
> This API is the canonical source for profile metadata. The NIM build process
> populates it at publish time, so what you read is what the NIM microservice
> actually contains.

## Skip Ahead

Explore the following information to start working with the NIM Metadata API.

#### [Architecture Overview](/nim/metadata-api/about/architecture-overview)

Understand publication-time metadata and the HTTP request flow.

#### [Ecosystem Overview](/nim/metadata-api/about/ecosystem)

Choose between tag-level metadata and complementary NGC information.

#### [Get Started](/nim/metadata-api/get-started/get-started-overview)

Choose your path through the NIM Metadata API documentation.

#### [Quickstart](/nim/metadata-api/get-started/quickstart)

Make your first request and read the response.

#### [Reference Overview](/nim/metadata-api/reference/reference-overview)

Look up endpoints, response fields, and current limitations.

#### [Troubleshooting](/nim/metadata-api/troubleshooting)

Resolve unexpected status codes and missing fields.

## Use Cases

Explore the common use cases for the NIM Metadata API.

#### [Check Fit Before You Pull](/nim/metadata-api/guides/choose-a-profile)

Compare the minimum vRAM per device across profiles against the GPUs you
have, before you spend bandwidth on a container image.

#### [Choose a Profile Deliberately](/nim/metadata-api/guides/choose-a-profile)

Compare precision, inference backend, and tensor or pipeline parallelism
side by side instead of accepting a default.

#### [Compare NIM Microservices](/nim/metadata-api/reference/response-fields)

Query several NIM microservices and rank them by hardware footprint,
context window, or feature support.

#### [Automate Selection](/nim/metadata-api/guides/automated-agents)

Consume stable, machine-readable JSON from tooling and agents without a
human in the loop.

## Core Concepts

Explore the core concepts to understand the NIM Metadata API.

#### [Profiles](/nim/metadata-api/about/core-concepts)

Deployable configurations that pair a model with a GPU target, a
precision, an inference backend, and a parallelism layout.

#### [GPU Targeting](/nim/metadata-api/about/core-concepts)

How the API distinguishes a profile that targets a specific GPU from one
that runs anywhere with sufficient vRAM.

#### [Absent Means Unknown](/nim/metadata-api/about/core-concepts)

Why the service omits empty fields entirely, and why an absent field is
never the same as a false or zero value.

#### [Metadata Coverage](/nim/metadata-api/get-started/prerequisites)

Why a 404 response is a normal outcome rather than a fault in your
request.

## Scope of This Documentation

This documentation covers the public read endpoints, which use the HTTP `GET`
method. Reading metadata is not the same as gaining access to a NIM
microservice. Being able to read the profiles for a NIM microservice does not
grant you the right to pull the container. Pulling still follows the normal
entitlement rules for that container.