# What does max\_docs do in context of \_delete\_by\_query
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 23, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317 "2020-11-23T07:54:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@vangogh94](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vangogh94)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317/1 "2020-11-23T07:54:35Z")
Hi,
Looking at the documentation for \_delete\_by\_query API, there is a parameter called "max\_docs". From what i see it was added to documentation in 7.3.
This same parameter is shown on \_reindex API documentation and has identical description
> max\_docs
>
> (Optional, integer) Maximum number of documents to process. Defaults to all documents.
What i don't really understand is, what does this mean in context of \_delete\_by\_query API? **Does it mean that that is the max number of documents that will be deleted**?
Main reason I'm asking is because I want to add a hard limit to our EsClient of "how many documents it's possible to delete" so that someone doesn't accidentally delete all of the data.
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 8:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317/2 "2020-11-23T08:54:26Z")
Easy to know:
```auto
DELETE /test
PUT /test/_doc/1
{
"foo": "bar"
}
PUT /test/_doc/2
{
"foo": "bar"
}
PUT /test/_doc/3
{
"foo": "bar"
}
POST /test/_delete_by_query
{
"max_docs": 1,
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}
GET /test/_search?size=0
```
gives
```auto
{
"took" : 1,
"timed_out" : false,
"_shards" : {
"total" : 1,
"successful" : 1,
"skipped" : 0,
"failed" : 0
},
"hits" : {
"total" : {
"value" : 2,
"relation" : "eq"
},
"max_score" : null,
"hits" : []
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@vangogh94](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vangogh94)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 10:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317/3 "2020-11-23T10:25:56Z")
Thanks for showing the behaviour, i get it now 🙂 I still feel that the documentation is ambiguous and should be more specific
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317/4 "2020-11-23T10:53:41Z")
Feel free to send a PR by clicking on the EDIT button in the section you want to edit. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-max-docs-do-in-context-of-delete-by-query/256317/5 "2020-12-21T10:54:02Z")
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