Delete spans

Permanently deletes spans by their span IDs. This operation is irreversible.

Accepts between 1 and 5000 span IDs per request. Only spans within the supported lookback window (2 years) are considered; older spans are not affected.

A 200 OK response always includes:

• completed — true if the operation finished and no retry is needed; false if the operation could not fully complete (retry the full request).
• deleted_span_ids — span IDs confirmed deleted in this request.
• not_deleted_span_ids — requested IDs not deleted: either not found within the supported lookback window, or not reached when completed is false.

The delete operation is idempotent — re-submitting already-deleted IDs is safe.

This endpoint is in alpha, read more here.

DELETE /v2/spans

Delete spans

cURL

curl --request DELETE \
  --url https://api.arize.com/v2/spans \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "project_id": "UHJvamVjdDox",
  "span_ids": [
    "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8",
    "f8e7d6c5b4a39281"
  ]
}
'

200

full_success

{
  "completed": true,
  "deleted_span_ids": [
    "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8",
    "b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9"
  ],
  "not_deleted_span_ids": []
}

Authorizations

Authorization · string · header · required

Most Arize AI endpoints require authentication. For those endpoints that require authentication, include your API key in the request header using the format

Body

application/json

Body containing span IDs to delete

project_id · string · required

The project ID containing the spans to delete

span_ids · string[] · required

List of span IDs to delete (maximum 5000)

Required array length: 1 - 5000 elements

Response

200

application/json

Spans deleted. The response body always includes:

• completed: whether all requested spans were fully processed. This endpoint is idempotent — retries are safe.
• deleted_span_ids: IDs of spans confirmed deleted.
• not_deleted_span_ids: IDs of spans not deleted — either not found, or not yet processed when completed is false.

Result of a DELETE /v2/spans request.

deleted_span_ids lists every span ID confirmed deleted. not_deleted_span_ids lists every requested span ID that was not deleted.

completed indicates whether the server fully processed all data for the request — not whether all spans were found and deleted. A span may appear in not_deleted_span_ids even when completed is true if it was not found in the system (never ingested or already deleted).

When completed is true, every requested ID appears in exactly one of deleted_span_ids or not_deleted_span_ids. No retry is needed.

When completed is false, the server could not fully process all data. Some IDs in not_deleted_span_ids may still be deletable — retry the original full request to resolve them. The delete is idempotent.

completed · boolean · required

true when the server fully processed all data for the request — both lists are complete and no retry is needed. false when processing could not fully complete; retry the original request. Note: completed reflects whether all data was processed, not whether all requested spans existed.

deleted_span_ids · string[] · required

Span IDs confirmed deleted in this request.

not_deleted_span_ids · string[] · required

Requested span IDs that were not deleted. When completed is true, these were not found in the system (never ingested or already deleted). When completed is false, some IDs may not have been reached — retry to resolve them.