# Delete an index

:::code-group
```shell curl theme={null}
PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

curl -i -X DELETE "https://api.pinecone.io/indexes/docs-example" \
  -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07"
```
:::

`DELETE /indexes/{index_name}`

:::code-group
```json title="403"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "FORBIDDEN",
    "message": "Deletion protection is enabled for this index. Disable deletion protection before retrying."
  },
  "status": 403
}
```

```json title="404"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "Index example-index not found."
  },
  "status": 404
}
```

```json title="412"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "FAILED_PRECONDITION",
    "message": "Unable to delete an index. There are pending collections for this index: ['test-collection']"
  },
  "status": 412
}
```

```json title="500"
{
  "error": {
    "code": "UNKNOWN",
    "message": "Internal server error"
  },
  "status": 500
}
```
:::

#### Authorizations

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Key` | `string` | - |  |

An API Key is required to call Pinecone APIs. Get yours from the [console](https://app.pinecone.io/).

#### Headers

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `X-Pinecone-Api-Version` | `string` | `2026-07` | Required date-based version header |

#### Path Parameters

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `index_name` | `string` | - | The name of the index to delete. |

#### Response

`202` — The request to delete the index has been accepted.

## Related pages

- [List indexes](./database-2026-07-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-07-control-plane-create-for-model.md)
- [Describe an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-describe-index.md)
- [Configure an index](./database-2026-07-control-plane-configure-index.md)
- [Get index stats](./database-2026-07-data-plane-describeindexstats.md)
- [List indexes](./database-2026-04-control-plane-list-indexes.md)
- [Create an index](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-index.md)
- [Create an index with integrated embedding](./database-2026-04-control-plane-create-for-model.md)
- [Describe an index](./database-2026-04-control-plane-describe-index.md)

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