Delete a Compute Engine instance

This document explains how to delete a Compute Engine instance. To learn more about the lifecycle of an instance, see Compute Engine instance lifecycle.

If you no longer need an instance, then delete it to stop incurring charges for the instance and its attached resources.

Before you begin

If you haven't already, set up authentication. Authentication verifies your identity for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:
Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
Console

When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloud
1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
  gcloud init
  If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
  
  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.
2. Set a default region and zone.
C#

To use the .NET samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Go

To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Java

To use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Node.js

To use the Node.js samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

PHP

To use the PHP samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Python

To use the Python samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Ruby

To use the Ruby samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
```
gcloud auth application-default login
```
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

REST

To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to delete a compute instance, ask your administrator to grant you the Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to delete a compute instance. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to delete a compute instance:

compute.instances.delete on the instance
To force the deletion of an attached disk: compute.disks.delete on the disk

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Billing implications

After you delete a compute instance, you stop incurring charges for the instance and its attached resources, except in the following cases:

If you delete an instance that is hosted on a sole-tenant node, then you still incur charges for the sole-tenant node.
If you delete an instance that is using a reservation, then you continue to pay for the reserved resources until one of the following occurs:
- Compute Engine automatically deletes the reservation at your chosen date and time.
- You delete the reservation.
- You reduce the number of reserved instances in the reservation.
If you have a committed use discount, then you continue to pay for the committed resources, regardless if you use them or not.
If you preserve any resources attached to the instance, such as disks, then you continue to pay for those resources until you delete them.

For more information, see VM instances pricing.

Preserve attached resources

In some cases, before you delete a compute instance, you might want to preserve one of its attached resources. You can preserve attached resources by doing the following:

To preserve a GPU attached to an N1 virtual machine (VM) instance, remove the GPU from the VM.
To preserve an attached disk, do one of the following:
- To preserve a boot disk, detach the boot disk from the instance.
- To preserve a boot or non-boot disk, set the auto-delete setting of the disk to false.
To preserve the data of a Local SSD disk, copy the data of the disk to a persistent storage option.
To reuse the static external IP address of an instance, unassign the IP address.

Delete instances

When you delete a compute instance, Compute Engine stops the instance before deleting it.

If you delete one or more instances simultaneously, then you must decide what happens to the attached disks:

Delete instances and all attached resources

This option deletes the instances and deletes, or forces the deletion of, boot, non-boot, or all attached disks.
Delete instances and preserve disks

This option deletes the instances but preserves boot, non-boot, or all attached disks for later use.

Delete instances and all attached resources

Depending on what you want to do when deleting a compute instance, use the following options:

If you configured an attached disk to be preserved upon instance deletion, then you can override this setting and force its deletion using the Google Cloud CLI.

Caution: Forcefully deleting a disk that is attached to an instance also deletes all its instant snapshots. You can't recover these snapshots. To retain the data in an instant snapshot, create a standard snapshot from it before deleting the instance.
If you've enabled graceful shutdown in the instance, then you can delete the instance without gracefully shutting it down or end an ongoing graceful shutdown using the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI, or REST API.
To delete multiple instances simultaneously, use the Google Cloud console or, for instances located in the same zone, the gcloud CLI.

To delete one or more instances and all attached resources, select one of the following options:

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

Go to VM instances
Select the instances that you want to delete.
Click Delete.
In the dialog, do the following:
1. Optional: To delete the instances without gracefully shut them down, or end an ongoing graceful shutdown, select the Skip graceful shutdown (if applicable) checkbox.
2. To confirm, click Delete.

gcloud

To delete one or more instances in the same zone, use the gcloud compute instances delete command:

gcloud compute instances delete INSTANCE_NAMES \
    --zone=ZONE

Replace the following:

INSTANCE_NAMES: a list of instance names separated by spaces—for example, instance-01 instance-02 instance-03.
ZONE: the zone where the instances are located.

Optionally, you can do one or both of the following:

To force the deletion of the disks attached to one or more instances, include the --delete-disks flag:
```
gcloud compute instances delete INSTANCE_NAMES \
    --delete-disks=DELETE_DISK_TYPE \
    --zone=ZONE
```
Replace DELETE_DISK_TYPE with one of the following values:
- To delete attached boot and non-boot persistent storage: all
- To delete only attached boot persistent storage: boot
- To delete only non-boot persistent storage: data
If you've enabled graceful shutdown in one or more instances, then you can delete the instances without gracefully shutting them down, or manually end an ongoing graceful shutdown. To do so, use the gcloud beta compute instances delete command with the --no-graceful-shutdown flag:

Preview — The --no-graceful-shutdown flag

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.
```
gcloud beta compute instances delete INSTANCE_NAMES \
    --no-graceful-shutdown \
    --zone=ZONE
```

C#


using Google.Cloud.Compute.V1;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class DeleteInstanceAsyncSample
{
    public async Task DeleteInstanceAsync(
        // TODO(developer): Set your own default values for these parameters or pass different values when calling this method.
        string projectId = "your-project-id",
        string zone = "us-central1-a",
        string machineName = "test-machine")
    {

        // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
        // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
        InstancesClient client = await InstancesClient.CreateAsync();

        // Make the request to delete a VM instance.
        var instanceDeletion = await client.DeleteAsync(projectId, zone, machineName);

        // Wait for the operation to complete using client-side polling.
        await instanceDeletion.PollUntilCompletedAsync();
    }
}

Go

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	compute "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1"
	computepb "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb"
)

// deleteInstance sends a delete request to the Compute Engine API and waits for it to complete.
func deleteInstance(w io.Writer, projectID, zone, instanceName string) error {
	// projectID := "your_project_id"
	// zone := "europe-central2-b"
	// instanceName := "your_instance_name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	instancesClient, err := compute.NewInstancesRESTClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("NewInstancesRESTClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer instancesClient.Close()

	req := &computepb.DeleteInstanceRequest{
		Project:  projectID,
		Zone:     zone,
		Instance: instanceName,
	}

	op, err := instancesClient.Delete(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete instance: %w", err)
	}

	if err = op.Wait(ctx); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to wait for the operation: %w", err)
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Instance deleted\n")

	return nil
}

Java


import com.google.api.gax.longrunning.OperationFuture;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.DeleteInstanceRequest;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.InstancesClient;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.Operation;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class DeleteInstance {

  public static void main(String[] args)
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String project = "your-project-id";
    String zone = "zone-name";
    String instanceName = "instance-name";
    deleteInstance(project, zone, instanceName);
  }

  // Delete the instance specified by `instanceName`
  // if it's present in the given project and zone.
  public static void deleteInstance(String project, String zone, String instanceName)
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call
    // the `instancesClient.close()` method on the client to safely
    // clean up any remaining background resources.
    try (InstancesClient instancesClient = InstancesClient.create()) {

      System.out.printf("Deleting instance: %s ", instanceName);

      // Describe which instance is to be deleted.
      DeleteInstanceRequest deleteInstanceRequest = DeleteInstanceRequest.newBuilder()
          .setProject(project)
          .setZone(zone)
          .setInstance(instanceName).build();

      OperationFuture<Operation, Operation> operation = instancesClient.deleteAsync(
          deleteInstanceRequest);
      // Wait for the operation to complete.
      Operation response = operation.get(3, TimeUnit.MINUTES);

      if (response.hasError()) {
        System.out.println("Instance deletion failed ! ! " + response);
        return;
      }
      System.out.println("Operation Status: " + response.getStatus());
    }
  }
}

Node.js

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// const zone = 'europe-central2-b'
// const instanceName = 'YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME';

const compute = require('@google-cloud/compute');

// Delete the instance specified by `instanceName` if it's present in the given project and zone.
async function deleteInstance() {
  const instancesClient = new compute.InstancesClient();

  console.log(`Deleting ${instanceName} from ${zone}...`);

  const [response] = await instancesClient.delete({
    project: projectId,
    zone,
    instance: instanceName,
  });
  let operation = response.latestResponse;
  const operationsClient = new compute.ZoneOperationsClient();

  // Wait for the delete operation to complete.
  while (operation.status !== 'DONE') {
    [operation] = await operationsClient.wait({
      operation: operation.name,
      project: projectId,
      zone: operation.zone.split('/').pop(),
    });
  }

  console.log('Instance deleted.');
}

deleteInstance();

PHP

use Google\Cloud\Compute\V1\Client\InstancesClient;
use Google\Cloud\Compute\V1\DeleteInstanceRequest;

/**
 * Delete an instance.
 *
 * @param string $projectId Your Google Cloud project ID.
 * @param string $zone Zone where the instance you want to delete is (like "us-central1-a").
 * @param string $instanceName Unique name for the Compute instance to delete.
 *
 * @throws \Google\ApiCore\ApiException if the remote call fails.
 * @throws \Google\ApiCore\ValidationException if local error occurs before remote call.
 */
function delete_instance(
    string $projectId,
    string $zone,
    string $instanceName
) {
    // Delete the Compute Engine instance using InstancesClient.
    $instancesClient = new InstancesClient();
    $request = (new DeleteInstanceRequest())
        ->setInstance($instanceName)
        ->setProject($projectId)
        ->setZone($zone);
    $operation = $instancesClient->delete($request);

    // Wait for the operation to complete.
    $operation->pollUntilComplete();
    if ($operation->operationSucceeded()) {
        printf('Deleted instance %s' . PHP_EOL, $instanceName);
    } else {
        $error = $operation->getError();
        printf('Failed to delete instance: %s' . PHP_EOL, $error?->getMessage());
    }
}

Python

from __future__ import annotations

import sys
from typing import Any

from google.api_core.extended_operation import ExtendedOperation
from google.cloud import compute_v1


def wait_for_extended_operation(
    operation: ExtendedOperation, verbose_name: str = "operation", timeout: int = 300
) -> Any:
    """
    Waits for the extended (long-running) operation to complete.

    If the operation is successful, it will return its result.
    If the operation ends with an error, an exception will be raised.
    If there were any warnings during the execution of the operation
    they will be printed to sys.stderr.

    Args:
        operation: a long-running operation you want to wait on.
        verbose_name: (optional) a more verbose name of the operation,
            used only during error and warning reporting.
        timeout: how long (in seconds) to wait for operation to finish.
            If None, wait indefinitely.

    Returns:
        Whatever the operation.result() returns.

    Raises:
        This method will raise the exception received from `operation.exception()`
        or RuntimeError if there is no exception set, but there is an `error_code`
        set for the `operation`.

        In case of an operation taking longer than `timeout` seconds to complete,
        a `concurrent.futures.TimeoutError` will be raised.
    """
    result = operation.result(timeout=timeout)

    if operation.error_code:
        print(
            f"Error during {verbose_name}: [Code: {operation.error_code}]: {operation.error_message}",
            file=sys.stderr,
            flush=True,
        )
        print(f"Operation ID: {operation.name}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
        raise operation.exception() or RuntimeError(operation.error_message)

    if operation.warnings:
        print(f"Warnings during {verbose_name}:\n", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
        for warning in operation.warnings:
            print(f" - {warning.code}: {warning.message}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)

    return result


def delete_instance(project_id: str, zone: str, machine_name: str) -> None:
    """
    Send an instance deletion request to the Compute Engine API and wait for it to complete.

    Args:
        project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use.
        zone: name of the zone you want to use. For example: “us-west3-b”
        machine_name: name of the machine you want to delete.
    """
    instance_client = compcompute_v1tInstancesClient    print(f"Deleting {machine_name} from {zone}...")
    operation = instinstance_client.delete      project=project_id, zone=zone, instance=machine_name
    )
    wait_for_extended_operation(operation, "instance deletion")
    print(f"Instance {machine_name} deleted.")

Ruby


require "google/cloud/compute/v1"

# Sends an instance deletion request to the Compute Engine API and waits for it to complete.
#
# @param [String] project project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use.
# @param [String] zone name of the zone you want to use. For example: "us-west3-b"
# @param [String] instance_name name of the instance you want to delete.
def delete_instance project:, zone:, instance_name:
  # Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
  # once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
  client = ::Google::Cloud::Compute::V1::Instances::Rest::Client.new

  puts "Deleting #{instance_name} from #{zone}..."
  begin
    # Make the request to delete a VM instance.
    operation = client.delete project: project, zone: zone, instance: instance_name
    # Wait for the delete operation to complete.
    operation = wait_until_done operation: operation

    if operation.error?
      warn "Error during deletion:", operation.error
    else
      compute_operation = operation.operation
      warn "Warning during creation:", compute_operation.warnings unless compute_operation.warnings.empty?
      puts "Instance #{instance_name} deleted."
    end
  rescue ::Google::Cloud::Error => e
    warn "Exception during deletion:", e
  end
end

REST

To delete an instance, make a DELETE request to the instances delete method:

DELETE https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/INSTANCE_NAME

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the instance is located.
ZONE: the zone of the instance.
INSTANCE_NAME: the instance name.

Optionally, if you've enabled graceful shutdown in the instance, you can delete the instances without gracefully shutting it down, or manually end an ongoing graceful shutdown. To do so, make a DELETE request to the beta instances.delete method. In the request URL, include the noGracefulShutdown query parameter set to true:

DELETE https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME?noGracefulShutdown=true

Delete instances and preserve disks

By default, deleting a compute instance deletes the instance and its attached resources. However, when you delete an instance using the gcloud CLI, you can specify to preserve the attached disks, regardless of their auto-delete settings.

To delete one or more instances in the same zone while preserving their attached disks, use the gcloud compute instances delete command with the --keep-disks flag:

gcloud compute instances delete INSTANCE_NAMES \
    --keep-disks=KEEP_DISK_TYPE \
    --zone=ZONE

Replace the following:

INSTANCE_NAMES: a list of instance names separated by spaces—for example, instance-01 instance-02 instance-03.
KEEP_DISK_TYPE: specify one of the following values:
- To preserve attached boot and non-boot persistent storage: all
- To preserve only attached boot persistent storage: boot
- To preserve only attached non-boot persistent storage: data
ZONE: the zone where the instances are located.

Optionally, if you've enabled graceful shutdown in one or more instances, you can delete the instances without gracefully shutting them down, or manually end an ongoing graceful shutdown. To do so, use the gcloud beta compute instances delete command with the --no-graceful-shutdown flag:

gcloud beta compute instances delete VM_NAMES \
    --keep-disks=KEEP_DISK_TYPE \
    --no-graceful-shutdown \
    --zone=ZONE

What's next

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-10-02 UTC.

Delete a Compute Engine instance Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Before you begin

Console

gcloud

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

REST

Required roles

Required permissions

Billing implications

Preserve attached resources

Delete instances

Delete instances and all attached resources

Console

gcloud

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

REST

Delete instances and preserve disks

What's next

Delete a Compute Engine instance