# Deleting a vector index


You can delete a vector index when you no longer need it. This operation permanently removes the index and all vectors that are stored within it.

**Important**  
When you delete a vector index, you need to know the following:  
You can delete vector indexes even when the indexes contain vectors.
All vectors stored in the index are permanently deleted
All metadata associated with those vectors is permanently lost
The operation can't be undone or reversed
Any ongoing operations on the index will fail immediately
Applications querying the index will receive errors
The index name becomes available for reuse within the bucket

## Using the Amazon CLI


Before you delete a vector index, verify the vector index. For more information about how to check the index details, see [GetIndex](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/AmazonS3/latest/API/API_GetIndex.html) in the *Amazon S3 API Reference*. For more information about how to list vectors inside the index to see what will be deleted, see [Listing vector indexes](s3-vectors-index-list.md).

To delete a vector index, use the following example commands. Replace the *user input placeholders* with your own information.

```
aws s3vectors delete-index --vector-bucket-name "amzn-s3-demo-vector-bucket" \
          --index-name "idx2"
```

For more information about how to verify whether the index is deleted, see [Listing vector indexes](s3-vectors-index-list.md).

## Using the Amazon SDKs


------
#### [ SDK for Python ]

```
import boto3

# Create a S3 Vectors client in the AWS Region of your choice. 
s3vectors = boto3.client("s3vectors", region_name="us-west-2")

#Delete a vector index
response = s3vectors.delete_index(
    vectorBucketName="media-embeddings",
    indexName="movies")
```

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