Delete indices | Elasticsearch API documentation

Delete indices Generally available

DELETE /{index}

Deleting an index deletes its documents, shards, and metadata. It does not delete related Kibana components, such as data views, visualizations, or dashboards.

You cannot delete the current write index of a data stream. To delete the index, you must roll over the data stream so a new write index is created. You can then use the delete index API to delete the previous write index.

Required authorization

Index privileges: delete_index

Path parameters

index string | array[string] Required

Comma-separated list of indices to delete. You cannot specify index aliases. By default, this parameter does not support wildcards (*) or _all. To use wildcards or _all, set the action.destructive_requires_name cluster setting to false.

Query parameters

allow_no_indices boolean

If false, the request returns an error if any wildcard expression, index alias, or _all value targets only missing or closed indices. This behavior applies even if the request targets other open indices.
expand_wildcards string | array[string]

Type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden. Valid values are: all, open, closed, hidden, none.

Values are all, open, closed, hidden, or none.
ignore_unavailable boolean

If false, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index.
master_timeout string

Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

Values are -1 or 0.
timeout string

Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

Values are -1 or 0.

Responses

200 application/json
Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
- acknowledged boolean Required
  
  For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.
- _shards object
  
  Hide _shards attributes Show _shards attributes object
  
  failed number Required
  
  successful number Required
  
  total number Required
  
  failures array[object]
  
  Hide failures attributes Show failures attributes object
  
  index string
  
  node string
  
  reason object Required
  
  Hide reason attributes Show reason attributes object
  
  type string Required
  
  The type of error
  
  reason
  
  stack_trace string
  
  The server stack trace. Present only if the error_trace=true parameter was sent with the request.
  
  caused_by object
  
  root_cause array[object]
  
  suppressed array[object]
  
  shard number Required
  
  status string
  
  skipped number

DELETE /{index}

DELETE /books

curl \
 --request DELETE 'http://api.example.com/{index}' \
 --header "Authorization: $API_KEY"