# Deleting an Amazon DocumentDB instance
You can delete your Amazon DocumentDB instance using either the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. To delete an instance, the instance must be in the *available* state. You cannot delete an instance that is stopped. If the Amazon DocumentDB cluster that contains your instance is stopped, first start the cluster, wait for the instance to become *available*, and then delete the instance. For more information, see [Stopping and starting an Amazon DocumentDB cluster](db-cluster-stop-start.md).
**Note**
Amazon DocumentDB stores all of your data in the cluster volume. The data persists in that cluster volume, even if you remove all the instances from your cluster. If you need to access the data again, you can add an instance to the cluster at any time and pick up where you left off.
------
#### [ Using the AWS Management Console ]
The following procedure deletes a specified Amazon DocumentDB instance using the console.
1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console, and open the Amazon DocumentDB console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/docdb](https://console.aws.amazon.com/docdb).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Clusters **.
**Tip**
If you don't see the navigation pane on the left side of your screen, choose the menu icon (![\[Hamburger menu icon with three horizontal lines.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/documentdb/latest/developerguide/images/docdb-menu-icon.png)) in the upper-left corner of the page.
1. In the Clusters navigation box, you’ll see the column **Cluster Identifier**. Your instances are listed under clusters, similar to the screenshot below.
![\[Clusters table showing list of clusters under Cluster identifier column, with instances nested inside clusters.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/documentdb/latest/developerguide/images/choose-clusters.png)
1. Check the box to the left of the instance you wish to delete.
1. Select **Actions**, and then choose **Delete**.
1. If you are deleting the last instance in your cluster:
+ **Create final cluster snapshot?** — Choose **Yes** if you want to create a final snapshot before the cluster is deleted. Otherwise, choose **No**.
+ **Final snapshot name** — If you choose to create a final snapshot, enter the cluster snapshot identifier of the new cluster snapshot created.
+ **Delete instance?** — Enter the phrase **delete entire cluster** into the field to confirm the deletion.
1. If you are not deleting the last instance in your cluster:
+ **Delete instance?** — Enter the phrase **delete me** into the field to confirm the deletion.
1. Select **Delete** to delete the instance.
It takes several minutes for an instance to be deleted. To monitor the status of an instance, see [Monitoring an Amazon DocumentDB instance's status](monitoring_docdb-instance_status.md).
------
#### [ Using the AWS CLI ]
The following procedure deletes an Amazon DocumentDB instance using the AWS CLI.
1. **First, determine how many instances are in your Amazon DocumentDB cluster:**
To determine how many instances are in your cluster, run the `describe-db-clusters` command, as follows.
```
aws docdb describe-db-clusters \
--db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster \
--query 'DBClusters[*].[DBClusterIdentifier,DBClusterMembers[*].DBInstanceIdentifier]'
```
Output from this operation looks something like the following.
```
[
[
"sample-cluster",
[
"sample-instance-1",
"sample-instance-2"
]
]
]
```
1. **If there are more than one instances in your Amazon DocumentDB cluster:**
To delete a specified Amazon DocumentDB instance, use the `delete-db-instance` command with the `--db-instance-identifier` parameter, as shown below. It takes several minutes for an instance to be deleted. To monitor the status of an instance, see [Monitoring an Amazon DocumentDB instance's status](monitoring_docdb-instance_status.md).
```
aws docdb delete-db-instance \
--db-instance-identifier sample-instance-2
```
Output from this operation looks something like the following.
```
{
"DBInstance": {
"DBInstanceIdentifier": "sample-instance-2",
"DBInstanceClass": "db.r5.large",
"Engine": "docdb",
"DBInstanceStatus": "deleting",
"Endpoint": {
"Address": "sample-instance-2.node.us-east-1.docdb.amazonaws.com",
"Port": 27017,
"HostedZoneId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLM"
},
"InstanceCreateTime": "2020-03-27T08:05:56.314Z",
"PreferredBackupWindow": "02:00-02:30",
"BackupRetentionPeriod": 1,
"VpcSecurityGroups": [
{
"VpcSecurityGroupId": "sg-abcd0123",
"Status": "active"
}
],
"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c",
"DBSubnetGroup": {
"DBSubnetGroupName": "default",
"DBSubnetGroupDescription": "default",
"VpcId": "vpc-6242c31a",
"SubnetGroupStatus": "Complete",
"Subnets": [
{
"SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-abcd0123",
"SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
"Name": "us-east-1a"
},
"SubnetStatus": "Active"
},
{
"SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-wxyz0123",
"SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
"Name": "us-east-1b"
},
"SubnetStatus": "Active"
}
]
},
"PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "sun:06:53-sun:07:23",
"PendingModifiedValues": {},
"EngineVersion": "3.6.0",
"AutoMinorVersionUpgrade": true,
"PubliclyAccessible": false,
"DBClusterIdentifier": "sample-cluster",
"StorageEncrypted": true,
"KmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1::key/sample-key",
"DbiResourceId": "db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ",
"CACertificateIdentifier": "rds-ca-2019",
"PromotionTier": 1,
"DBInstanceArn": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1::db:sample-instance-2",
"EnabledCloudwatchLogsExports": [
"profiler"
]
}
}
```
1. **If the instance your want to delete is the last instance in your Amazon DocumentDB cluster: **
If you delete the last instance in an Amazon DocumentDB cluster, you also delete that cluster and the automatic snapshots and continuous backups associated with that cluster.
To delete the last instance in your cluster, you can delete the cluster and optionally create a final snapshot. For more information, see [Deleting an Amazon DocumentDB cluster](db-cluster-delete.md).
------
## Deletion protection
Deleting the last instance of an Amazon DocumentDB cluster will also delete the cluster, as well as the automatic snapshots and continuous backups associated with that cluster. Amazon DocumentDB enforces deletion protection for a cluster whether you perform the delete operation using the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. If deletion protection is enabled, you can't delete a cluster.
To delete a cluster that has deletion protection enabled, you must first modify the cluster and disable deletion protection. For more information, see [Deleting an Amazon DocumentDB cluster](db-cluster-delete.md).