Bulk delete data

Use the managed bulk delete service to delete data from your database. This feature supports deletion against one or more collection groups.

This page describes how to delete documents in bulk using the managed bulk delete service. The Firestore with MongoDB compatibility managed bulk delete service is available through the gcloud command-line tool and the Firestore REST API.

Before you begin

Before you can use the managed bulk delete service, you must complete the following tasks:

  1. Enable billing for your Google Cloud project. Only Google Cloud projects with billing enabled can use the bulk delete functionality.

  2. Make sure your account has the necessary permissions for Firestore with MongoDB compatibility. If you are the project owner, your account has the required permissions. Otherwise, the following roles grant the necessary permissions for bulk delete operations:

Set up gcloud for your project

You can initiate bulk delete operations through the Google Cloud console or the gcloud command-line tool. To use gcloud, set up the command-line tool and connect to your project in one of the following ways:

Bulk delete data

A bulk delete operation first finds all applicable documents in your database and deletes them in batches. You may still query or read these documents while the results may vary based on the progress made. Bulk delete doesn't delete any documents added or modified after the operation starts.

Bulk delete specific collection groups

gcloud

To bulk delete specific collection groups, use the --collection-ids flag. The operation deletes only the collection groups with the given IDs. 

gcloud firestore bulk-delete \
--collection-ids=[COLLECTION_GROUP_ID_1_OR_KIND_1],[COLLECTION_GROUP_ID_2_OR_KIND_2],[SUBCOLLECTION_GROUP_ID_1_OR_KIND_3] \
--database=[DATABASE]
For example, consider multiple documents that represent restaurants in the restaurants collection of the cymbal database. You also have collections for ratings, reviews, and outlets. To bulk delete the restaurants and reviews collections, your command looks as follows:

gcloud firestore bulk-delete \
--collection-ids=restaurants,reviews \
--database='cymbal'

Manage bulk delete operations

After you start a bulk delete operation, Firestore with MongoDB compatibility assigns the operation a unique name. You can use the operation name to delete, cancel, or check the status of the operation.

Operation names are prefixed with projects/[PROJECT_ID]/databases/[DATABASE_ID]/operations/, for example:

projects/my-project/databases/(default)/operations/ASA1MTAwNDQxNAgadGx1YWZlZAcSeWx0aGdpbi1zYm9qLW5pbWRhEgopEg

However, you can leave out the prefix when specifying an operation name for the describe, cancel, and deletecommands.

List all bulk delete operations

gcloud

Use the operations list command to see all running and recently completed operations, including bulk delete operations:

gcloud firestore operations list

Check operation status

gcloud

Use the operations describe command to show the status of a bulk delete operation.

gcloud firestore operations describe [OPERATION_NAME]

Estimate the completion time

A request for the status of a long-running operation returns the metrics workEstimated and workCompleted. Each of these metrics is returned in both number of bytes and number of documents:

  • workEstimated shows the estimated total number of bytes and documents an operation will process. Firestore with MongoDB compatibility might omit this metric if it can't make an estimate.

  • workCompleted shows the number of bytes and documents deleted so far. After the operation completes, the value shows the total number of bytes and documents that were actually processed, which might be larger than the value of workEstimated.

Divide workCompleted by workEstimated for a rough progress estimate. This estimate might be inaccurate, because it depends on delayed statistics collection.

Cancel an operation

gcloud

Use the operations cancel command to stop an operation in progress:

gcloud firestore operations cancel [OPERATION_NAME]

Cancelling a running operation doesn't undo the operation. A cancelled bulk delete operation doesn't recover the deleted documents.

Delete an operation

Use the gcloud firestore operations delete command to remove a completed operation from the list of recent operations. To cancel a running operation, use the earlier cancellation operation.

gcloud firestore operations delete [OPERATION_NAME]

Billing and pricing for bulk delete operations

You are required to enable billing for your Google Cloud project before you use the managed bulk delete service.

Bulk delete operations are charged for document reads and deletes at the rates listed in Firestore Enterprise edition pricing.

You are charged 1 write unit for each tranch of 1 KiB of document data or index entry data deleted.

You are charged a minimum of one read unit per document deleted. If the size of the document name is greater than 4 KiB, you are charged 1 read unit per 4 KiB tranche, rounded up, for that document.

Note that Firestore with MongoDB compatibility charges on the actual work done. If the operation is cancelled or failed due to user error, you will be charged with progress made. Firestore with MongoDB compatibility won't charge reads or deletes for the documents that are not eventually deleted, such as documents that are modified after the delete operation started. The cost will be attributed on the day of operation completion.

Bulk delete operations doesn't trigger your Google Cloud budget alerts until after completion. Similarly, reads and deletes performed during a bulk delete operation are applied to your free tier usage after the operation is complete. Bulk delete operations don't affect the usage shown in the usage section of the console.

View bulk delete costs

Bulk delete operations apply the goog-firestoremanaged:bulkdelete label to billed operations. In the Cloud Billing reports page, you can use this label to view costs related to bulk delete operations.