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How to Delete Custom Images

Validated on 5 Jun 2019 • Last edited on 10 Dec 2025

Custom images are Linux and Unix-like images you import to DigitalOcean. You can create Droplets based custom images, which lets you migrate and scale your workloads without spending time recreating your environment from scratch.

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Delete a Custom Image using the Automation

How to Delete a Custom Image Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
```
doctl auth init
```
Finally, run doctl compute image delete. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
```
doctl compute image delete <image-id> [flags]
```
The following example deletes an image with the ID 386734086:
```
doctl compute image delete 386734086
```

How to Delete a Custom Image Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
Send a DELETE request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/images/{image_id}.

cURL

Using cURL:

curl -X DELETE \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/images/7938391"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    _, err := client.Images.Delete(ctx, 7938391)
}

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean API client for Ruby:

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

client.images.delete(id: 7938391)

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

resp = client.images.delete(image_id=134215)

Delete a Custom Image using the Control Panel

To delete a custom image via the control panel, in the left menu, click Backups & Snapshots, then click the Custom Images tab.

Custom Images page listing uploaded images with image details, and a More dropdown menu for starting a Droplet or deleting the image.

Click the More menu for the custom image you want to delete, then choose Delete. A confirmation window titled Confirm delete item opens. Click Delete Item to confirm the deletion

Droplets you’ve created from a custom image are not deleted when you delete the image from your account. You can destroy Droplets from the control panel separately.