Delete buckets

This page shows you how to delete Cloud Storage buckets. For an overview of buckets, read the Key Terms.

Important: Once you delete a bucket, anyone can reuse its name for a new bucket.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites can vary based on the tool used:

Console

In order to complete this guide using the Google Cloud console, you must have the proper IAM permissions. If the bucket you want to access exists in a project that you did not create, you might need the project owner to give you a role that contains the necessary permissions.

For a list of permissions required for specific actions, see IAM permissions for the Google Cloud console.

For a list of relevant roles, see Cloud Storage roles. Alternatively, you can create a custom role that has specific, limited permissions.

Command line

In order to complete this guide using a command-line utility, you must have the proper IAM permissions. If the bucket you want to access exists in a project that you did not create, you might need the project owner to give you a role that contains the necessary permissions.

For a list of permissions required for specific actions, see IAM permissions for gsutil commands.

For a list of relevant roles, see Cloud Storage roles. Alternatively, you can create a custom role that has specific, limited permissions.

Code samples

In order to complete this guide using the Cloud Storage client libraries, you must have the proper IAM permissions. If the bucket you want to access exists in a project that you did not create, you might need the project owner to give you a role that contains the necessary permissions. Unless otherwise noted, client library requests are made through the JSON API.

For a list of permissions required for specific actions, see IAM permissions for JSON methods.

For a list of relevant roles, see Cloud Storage roles. Alternatively, you can create a custom role that has specific, limited permissions.

REST APIs

JSON API

In order to complete this guide using the JSON API, you must have the proper IAM permissions. If the bucket you want to access exists in a project that you did not create, you might need the project owner to give you a role that contains the necessary permissions.

For a list of permissions required for specific actions, see IAM permissions for JSON methods.

For a list of relevant roles, see Cloud Storage roles. Alternatively, you can create a custom role that has specific, limited permissions.

Delete a bucket

Console

Warning: Deleting a bucket also deletes any objects stored within the bucket. These objects cannot be recovered. For tools to prevent accidental data deletion, see Options for controlling data lifecycles.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Storage Browser page.
   

   Go to Browser

2. Select the checkbox of the bucket you want to delete.

3. Click Delete.

4. In the overlay window that appears, confirm you want to delete the bucket and its contents.

5. Click Delete.

Note: If you have a large number of objects in your buckets, the delete operation may take longer than usual to complete.

To learn how to get detailed error information about failed operations in the Cloud Storage browser, see Troubleshooting.

Command line

gcloud

Preview

This product or feature is covered by the Pre-GA Offerings Terms of the Google Cloud Terms of Service. Pre-GA products and features might have limited support, and changes to pre-GA products and features might not be compatible with other pre-GA versions. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

Warning: The following command also deletes all objects stored within the bucket. These objects cannot be recovered. If you want to avoid accidentally deleting objects, do not use the --recursive flag in the command. When you exclude the flag, the command only deletes a bucket if the bucket is empty.

Use the Google Cloud CLI command gcloud alpha storage rm with the --recursive flag:

gcloud alpha storage rm --recursive gs://BUCKET_NAME/

Where BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to delete. For example, my-bucket.

If successful, the response looks like the following example:

Removing gs://my-bucket/...

Note: If you have to delete a large number of objects in your buckets, avoid using gcloud, as the operation takes a long time to complete. Instead, use the Cloud console or the Object Lifecycle Management feature. For more information, see Options for controlling data lifecycles.

gsutil

Warning: The following command also deletes all objects stored within the bucket. These objects cannot be recovered. If you want to avoid accidentally deleting objects, use the gsutil rb command, which only deletes a bucket if the bucket is empty.

Use the gsutil rm command with the -r flag:

gsutil rm -r gs://BUCKET_NAME

Where BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to delete. For example, my-bucket.

If successful, the response looks like the following example:

Removing gs://my-bucket/...

Note: If you have to delete a large number of objects in your buckets, avoid using gsutil, as the operation takes a long time to complete. Instead, use the Cloud console or the Object Lifecycle Management feature. For more information, see Options for controlling data lifecycles.

Code samples

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

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namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name) {
  google::cloud::Status status = client.DeleteBucket(bucket_name);

  if (!status.ok()) throw std::runtime_error(status.message());
  std::cout << "The bucket " << bucket_name << " was deleted successfully.\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

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using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;

public class DeleteBucketSample
{
    public void DeleteBucket(string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        storage.DeleteBucket(bucketName);
        Console.WriteLine($"The bucket {bucketName} was deleted.");
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

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import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// deleteBucket deletes the bucket.
func deleteBucket(w io.Writer, bucketName string) error {
	// bucketName := "bucket-name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	bucket := client.Bucket(bucketName)
	if err := bucket.Delete(ctx); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Bucket(%q).Delete: %v", bucketName, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Bucket %v deleted\n", bucketName)
	return nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

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import com.google.cloud.storage.Bucket;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;

public class DeleteBucket {
  public static void deleteBucket(String projectId, String bucketName) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of the bucket to delete
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    Bucket bucket = storage.get(bucketName);
    bucket.delete();

    System.out.println("Bucket " + bucket.getName() + " was deleted");
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

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/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function deleteBucket() {
  await storage.bucket(bucketName).delete();
  console.log(`Bucket ${bucketName} deleted`);
}

deleteBucket().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

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use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Delete a Cloud Storage Bucket.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 */
function delete_bucket($bucketName)
{
    // $bucketName = 'my-bucket';

    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $bucket->delete();
    printf('Bucket deleted: %s' . PHP_EOL, $bucket->name());
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

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from google.cloud import storage


def delete_bucket(bucket_name):
    """Deletes a bucket. The bucket must be empty."""
    # bucket_name = "your-bucket-name"

    storage_client = storage.Client()

    bucket = storage_client.get_bucket(bucket_name)
    bucket.delete()

    print(f"Bucket {bucket.name} deleted")

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

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def delete_bucket bucket_name:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name, skip_lookup: true

  bucket.delete

  puts "Deleted bucket: #{bucket.name}"
end

REST APIs

JSON API

Note: Your bucket must be empty before you can delete it.

1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials. For instructions, see API authentication.

2. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a DELETE Bucket request:

   curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
     "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME"

   Where:

   • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
   • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to delete. For example, my-bucket.

If successful, the response contains a 204 status code.

XML API

Note: Your bucket must be empty before you can delete it.

1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials. For instructions, see API authentication.

2. Use cURL to call the XML API with a DELETE Bucket request:

   curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
     "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME"

   Where:

   • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
   • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to delete. For example, my-bucket.

What's next

• Create a bucket.
• Move or rename a bucket.
• Delete an object.