🔥 Fast batch deletes for Active Record and Postgres

Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

gem 'delete_in_batches'

Delete rows in batches

Tweet.where(user_id: 1).delete_in_batches

Important: Be sure to test your query before running it in production

Change the batch size

Tweet.where(user_id: 1).delete_in_batches(batch_size: 50000) # defaults to 10000

Sleep between batches

Tweet.where(user_id: 1).delete_in_batches(sleep: 0.01)

Show progress

Tweet.where(user_id: 1).delete_in_batches do
  puts "Another batch deleted"
end

Works with associations

user.tweets.delete_in_batches

To delete all rows in a table, TRUNCATE is fastest.

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("TRUNCATE tweets")

View the changelog

Note: This project originally had the description “the fastest way to delete 100k+ rows with ActiveRecord” but a single DELETE statement will likely be faster. See this discussion for more details.

Everyone is encouraged to help improve this project. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Report bugs
• Fix bugs and submit pull requests
• Write, clarify, or fix documentation
• Suggest or add new features

To get started with development:

git clone https://github.com/ankane/delete_in_batches.git
cd delete_in_batches
bundle install
bundle exec rake test