How to Destroy a Droplet from the DigitalOcean Control Panel
Validated on 21 Jun 2023 • Last edited on 6 Sep 2023
DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use, either standalone or as part of a larger, cloud-based infrastructure.
Deleting a Droplet permanently and irreversibly destroys the Droplet and its automated backups. Optionally, you can also destroy a Droplet and its associated snapshots, volumes, and volume snapshots.
To destroy a Droplet from the control panel, open the Droplet’s More menu and click Destroy. Alternately, you can click the Droplet’s name to access its main page and select Destroy from the left menu.
On the Destroy page, in the Destroy Droplet section, click the Destroy the Droplet button. If the Droplet has backups, the button says Destroy this Droplet and backups.
In the confirmation window that opens, you can choose to destroy the Droplet and its backups. If the Droplet has associated resources, you can also choose to delete some or all of them, but they are not destroyed by default.
Check the boxes next to any of the Droplet’s associated snapshots, volumes, or volume snapshots that you would like to destroy along with the Droplet.
Type the name of the Droplet in the text field, then click Destroy to destroy the Droplet and its backups, and any selected associated resources.
Any resources that you do not destroy will appear in their respective category in the control panel’s Manage section.
Automate the Destruction of a Droplet
How to destroy a Droplet using the DigitalOcean CLI
To destroy a Droplet via the command-line, follow these steps:
Use the token to grant doctl access to your
DigitalOcean account.
doctl auth init
Finally, destroy a Droplet with
doctl compute droplet delete. The basic usage looks
like this, but you'll want to read the usage docs for more details: