# Deleting a Cluster

To delete a cluster, choose **Actions> Delete Cluster** from the drop-down navigation bar in your cluster’s view.

You must have the [ADMIN role](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/access-management/user-management.md#access-management-user-roles) role to delete a cluster.

## Retaining Backups After Deletion

When a cluster is deleted, its nightly backups are retained for **1 day by default**
to help protect you from accidental data loss.
You can [configure](#configuring-backup-retention) the retention period (up to 60 days) or disable it entirely so that
backups are deleted immediately along with the cluster.

Backup retention after deletion does not apply to clusters that are less than 24 hours old, as they may not have any backups yet.

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### Configuring Backup Retention

**ScyllaDB Cloud UI**

When deleting a cluster, the **Preserve my backups** option is enabled by default,
retaining backups for 1 day. You can increase the retention period up to 60 days.
To delete backups immediately along with the cluster,
disable the **Preserve my backups** option.

![Preserve my backups option in the Delete Cluster dialog, showing the toggle enabled and the Keep backups for field set to 1 day](operate/images/preserve-backups-deletion.png)

**ScyllaDB Cloud API**

Use the `backupRetentionDays` parameter in the
[Delete Cluster endpoint](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/api.html#tag/Cluster/operation/deleteCluster)
to set the number of days (0–60) to retain backups after deletion.

**Terraform Provider**

Use the `backup_retention_days` parameter in the `scylladbcloud_cluster` resource
to set the number of days (0–60) to retain backups after deletion.