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How to delete documents from Chroma

Q: How to delete documents from Chroma

To delete documents from Chroma, use the delete method on your collection object, specifying document IDs or filters. This removes the vectors and metadata associated with those documents from the vector store.

Quick answer

To delete documents from Chroma, use the delete method on your collection object, specifying document IDs or filters. This removes the vectors and metadata associated with those documents from the vector store.

PREREQUISITES

Python 3.8+
pip install chromadb
Basic familiarity with vector databases and Python

Setup

Install the chromadb Python package and import it. Initialize a client and create or connect to a collection where your documents are stored.

python

import chromadb

client = chromadb.Client()
collection = client.get_or_create_collection(name="example_collection")

Step by step

Use the delete method on the collection to remove documents by their IDs or by a metadata filter.

python

import chromadb

client = chromadb.Client()
collection = client.get_or_create_collection(name="example_collection")

# Add sample documents
collection.add(
    documents=["Document 1", "Document 2", "Document 3"],
    ids=["doc1", "doc2", "doc3"]
)

print("Before deletion:", collection.get(ids=["doc1", "doc2", "doc3"]))

# Delete document with id 'doc2'
collection.delete(ids=["doc2"])

print("After deletion:", collection.get(ids=["doc1", "doc2", "doc3"]))

output

Before deletion: {'ids': ['doc1', 'doc2', 'doc3'], 'documents': ['Document 1', 'Document 2', 'Document 3'], ...}
After deletion: {'ids': ['doc1', 'doc3'], 'documents': ['Document 1', 'Document 3'], ...}

Common variations

You can delete documents by metadata filters instead of IDs, for example deleting all documents where a metadata field matches a value.

python

collection.delete(filter={"category": "obsolete"})

Troubleshooting

If deletion does not seem to work, verify that the document IDs or filter keys exactly match those in the collection. Also, ensure you are calling collection.persist() if using a persistent Chroma setup.

✅

Key Takeaways

Use collection.delete(ids=[...]) to remove specific documents by ID.
You can also delete documents by metadata filters with collection.delete(filter={...}).
Always verify document IDs and metadata keys match exactly to avoid failed deletions.
Call collection.persist() if using persistent storage to save changes.
Deleting documents removes both vectors and associated metadata from Chroma.

Verified 2026-04

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