How can I retrieve and save the actual binary image data from the Assistants API?

Below is some guidance on how to get the actual binary image data rather than a markdown or URL string:

Explanation

The value you're seeing is a markdown representation with a link to the hosted image—not the actual image bytes. Often, Assistants API returns a reference to the file (or a markdown snippet) rather than the binary data. This is why when you try to write it as if it were raw bytes, the output file isn’t a valid image.

How to Retrieve the Binary Content

If your goal is to download the actual image file, you may need to use the Files API's content retrieval endpoint. For example, the documentation demonstrates retrieving the file content by passing the file ID to get a file stream. Here’s an example:

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from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI()

# Replace 'file-abc123' with your actual file ID
image_data = client.files.content("file-abc123")
image_data_bytes = image_data.read()

with open("testoutput.png", "wb") as file:
    file.write(image_data_bytes)

This code downloads the actual binary data output by the API. Be sure that:

• You are using the correct endpoint/method that returns a file-like object.
• The file ID corresponds to a file whose purpose is set appropriately (e.g., for assistive tools like code interpretation).

If You Only Have a URL

If the API returns only a URL (or markdown containing a URL), then you’ll need to manually download the image using that URL. For example:

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import requests

# Extract the URL from the markdown string you received.
# For demonstration, let’s assume you have the URL:
url = "https://global.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/3X/b/6/b6548248bab9c1e7cf714e99cdd0ab8bd8b8d8de.png"

response = requests.get(url)
if response.status_code == 200:
    with open("testoutput.png", "wb") as f:
        f.write(response.content)
else:
    print("Failed to download the image.")

This method downloads the image from the provided URL.

Summary

Check whether you’re using the correct API method. It should return a file-like object from which you can directly obtain binary image data. If it instead returns a markdown string, then extract the URL and download the file externally. This ensures that the saved file is a valid image.