diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeatureCodec.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeatureCodec.java
index dfe1c9174..dbd0afc47 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeatureCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeatureCodec.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import htsjdk.samtools.util.CloserUtil;
 import htsjdk.samtools.util.LocationAware;
 import htsjdk.samtools.util.RuntimeIOException;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 import htsjdk.tribble.readers.PositionalBufferedStream;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -40,4 +41,12 @@ public boolean isDone(final PositionalBufferedStream source) {
             throw new RuntimeIOException("Failure reading from stream.", e);
         }
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Marked as final because binary features could not be tabix indexed
+     */
+    @Override
+    public final TabixFormat getTabixFormat() {
+        throw new TribbleException("Binary codecs does not support tabix");
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/FeatureCodec.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/FeatureCodec.java
index b45d8cf8c..f14191a67 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/FeatureCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/FeatureCodec.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 package htsjdk.tribble;
 
 import htsjdk.samtools.util.LocationAware;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
@@ -119,4 +120,17 @@
      * @return true if potentialInput can be parsed, false otherwise
      */
     public boolean canDecode(final String path);
+
+    /**
+     * Define the tabix format for the feature, used for indexing. Default implementation throws an exception.
+     *
+     * Note that only {@link AsciiFeatureCodec} could read tabix files as defined in
+     * {@link AbstractFeatureReader#getFeatureReader(String, String, FeatureCodec, boolean)}
+     *
+     * @return the format to use with tabix
+     * @throws TribbleException if the format is not defined
+     */
+    default public TabixFormat getTabixFormat() {
+        throw new TribbleException(this.getClass().getSimpleName() + "does not have defined tabix format");
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodec.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodec.java
index 0e9185025..62d202c19 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodec.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 
 import htsjdk.tribble.AsciiFeatureCodec;
 import htsjdk.tribble.annotation.Strand;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 import htsjdk.tribble.readers.LineIterator;
 import htsjdk.tribble.util.ParsingUtils;
 
@@ -224,4 +225,8 @@ public int value() {
         }
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public TabixFormat getTabixFormat() {
+        return TabixFormat.BED;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/index/IndexFactory.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/index/IndexFactory.java
index 85fbd72c7..a588220dc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/index/IndexFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/tribble/index/IndexFactory.java
@@ -260,11 +260,25 @@ public static LinearIndex createLinearIndex(final File inputFile, final FeatureC
     public static <FEATURE_TYPE extends Feature, SOURCE_TYPE> Index createIndex(final File inputFile,
                                                                                 final FeatureCodec<FEATURE_TYPE, SOURCE_TYPE> codec,
                                                                                 final IndexType type) {
+        return createIndex(inputFile, codec, type, null);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Create an index of the specified type with default binning parameters
+     *
+     * @param inputFile the input file to load features from
+     * @param codec     the codec to use for decoding records
+     * @param type      the type of index to create
+     * @param sequenceDictionary May be null, but if present may reduce memory footprint for tabix index creation
+     */
+    public static <FEATURE_TYPE extends Feature, SOURCE_TYPE> Index createIndex(final File inputFile,
+                                                                                final FeatureCodec<FEATURE_TYPE, SOURCE_TYPE> codec,
+                                                                                final IndexType type,
+                                                                                final SAMSequenceDictionary sequenceDictionary) {
         switch (type) {
             case INTERVAL_TREE: return createIntervalIndex(inputFile, codec);
             case LINEAR:        return createLinearIndex(inputFile, codec);
-            // Tabix index initialization requires additional information, so this construction method won't work.
-            case TABIX:         throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Tabix indices cannot be created through a generic interface");
+            case TABIX:         return createTabixIndex(inputFile, codec, sequenceDictionary);
         }
         throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unrecognized IndexType " + type);
     }
@@ -318,7 +332,18 @@ public static void writeIndex(final Index idx, final File idxFile) throws IOExce
         return (TabixIndex)createIndex(inputFile, new FeatureIterator<FEATURE_TYPE, SOURCE_TYPE>(inputFile, codec), indexCreator);
     }
 
-
+    /**
+     * @param inputFile The file to be indexed.
+     * @param codec the codec to use for decoding records
+     * @param sequenceDictionary May be null, but if present may reduce memory footprint for index creation.  Features
+     *                           in inputFile must be in the order defined by sequenceDictionary, if it is present.
+     *
+     */
+    public static <FEATURE_TYPE extends Feature, SOURCE_TYPE> TabixIndex createTabixIndex(final File inputFile,
+            final FeatureCodec<FEATURE_TYPE, SOURCE_TYPE> codec,
+            final SAMSequenceDictionary sequenceDictionary) {
+        return createTabixIndex(inputFile, codec, codec.getTabixFormat(), sequenceDictionary);
+    }
 
     private static Index createIndex(final File inputFile, final FeatureIterator iterator, final IndexCreator creator) {
         Feature lastFeature = null;
diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodec.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodec.java
index 7b157ca7c..16857b4e6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodec.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 import htsjdk.tribble.Feature;
 import htsjdk.tribble.NameAwareCodec;
 import htsjdk.tribble.TribbleException;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 import htsjdk.tribble.util.ParsingUtils;
 import htsjdk.variant.utils.GeneralUtils;
 import htsjdk.variant.variantcontext.Allele;
@@ -782,4 +783,9 @@ protected void generateException(String message) {
     protected static void generateException(String message, int lineNo) {
         throw new TribbleException(String.format("The provided VCF file is malformed at approximately line number %d: %s", lineNo, message));
     }
+
+    @Override
+    public TabixFormat getTabixFormat() {
+        return TabixFormat.VCF;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeaturesTest.java b/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeaturesTest.java
index 946609725..eff8939d8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeaturesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/BinaryFeaturesTest.java
@@ -54,4 +54,9 @@ public void testBinaryCodec(final File source, final FeatureCodec<Feature, LineI
         originalReader.close();
         binaryReader.close();
     }
+
+    @Test(expectedExceptions = TribbleException.class)
+    public void testGetTabixFormatThrowsException() {
+        new ExampleBinaryCodec().getTabixFormat();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodecTest.java b/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodecTest.java
index 581466fc1..c7b21931c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodecTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/htsjdk/tribble/bed/BEDCodecTest.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 import htsjdk.tribble.bed.FullBEDFeature.Exon;
 import htsjdk.tribble.index.IndexFactory;
 import htsjdk.tribble.index.linear.LinearIndex;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 import htsjdk.tribble.util.LittleEndianOutputStream;
 import org.testng.Assert;
 import org.testng.annotations.Test;
@@ -219,6 +220,10 @@ private void createIndex(File testFile, File idxFile) throws IOException {
                 stream.close();
             }
         }
+    }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testGetTabixFormat() {
+        Assert.assertEquals(new BEDCodec().getTabixFormat(), TabixFormat.BED);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodecTest.java b/src/test/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodecTest.java
index 051c19b9f..9f81547ed 100644
--- a/src/test/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodecTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/htsjdk/variant/vcf/AbstractVCFCodecTest.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package htsjdk.variant.vcf;
 
 import htsjdk.tribble.TribbleException;
+import htsjdk.tribble.index.tabix.TabixFormat;
 import htsjdk.variant.VariantBaseTest;
 import htsjdk.variant.variantcontext.Allele;
 import htsjdk.variant.variantcontext.VariantContext;
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@
 
 
 public class AbstractVCFCodecTest extends VariantBaseTest {
+
 	@Test
 	public void shouldPreserveSymbolicAlleleCase() {
 		VCFFileReader reader = new VCFFileReader(new File(VariantBaseTest.variantTestDataRoot + "breakpoint.vcf"), false);
@@ -50,4 +52,9 @@ public void testCanDecodeFile(String potentialInput, boolean canDecode) {
 		Assert.assertEquals(AbstractVCFCodec.canDecodeFile(potentialInput, VCFCodec.VCF4_MAGIC_HEADER), canDecode);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testGetTabixFormat() {
+		Assert.assertEquals(new VCFCodec().getTabixFormat(), TabixFormat.VCF);
+		Assert.assertEquals(new VCF3Codec().getTabixFormat(), TabixFormat.VCF);
+	}
 }