---
title: "Remove Forwarding Rules from a Load Balancer"
method: DELETE
path: "/v2/load_balancers/{lb_id}/forwarding_rules"
tags: ["DigitalOcean-public.v2-new_Load Balancers"]
---

# Remove Forwarding Rules from a Load Balancer

`DELETE /v2/load_balancers/{lb_id}/forwarding_rules`

To remove forwarding rules from a load balancer instance, send a DELETE
request to `/v2/load_balancers/$LOAD_BALANCER_ID/forwarding_rules`. In the
body of the request, there should be a `forwarding_rules` attribute containing
an array of rules to be removed.

No response body will be sent back, but the response code will indicate
success. Specifically, the response code will be a 204, which means that the
action was successful with no returned body data.

## Path parameters

- `lb_id` string, required

## Request body

- object
  - `forwarding_rules` ForwardingRule[], required
    - `entry_protocol` 'http' | 'https' | 'http2' | 'http3' | 'tcp' | 'udp', required — The protocol used for traffic to the load balancer. The possible values are: `http`, `https`, `http2`, `http3`, `tcp`, or `udp`. If you set the `entry_protocol` to `udp`, the `target_protocol` must be set to `udp`. When using UDP, the load balancer requires that you set up a health check with a port that uses TCP, HTTP, or HTTPS to work properly.
    - `entry_port` integer, required — An integer representing the port on which the load balancer instance will listen.
    - `target_protocol` 'http' | 'https' | 'http2' | 'tcp' | 'udp', required — The protocol used for traffic from the load balancer to the backend Droplets. The possible values are: `http`, `https`, `http2`, `tcp`, or `udp`. If you set the `target_protocol` to `udp`, the `entry_protocol` must be set to `udp`. When using UDP, the load balancer requires that you set up a health check with a port that uses TCP, HTTP, or HTTPS to work properly.
    - `target_port` integer, required — An integer representing the port on the backend Droplets to which the load balancer will send traffic.
    - `certificate_id` string — The ID of the TLS certificate used for SSL termination if enabled.
    - `tls_passthrough` boolean — A boolean value indicating whether SSL encrypted traffic will be passed through to the backend Droplets.

## Response `204`

The action was successful and the response body is empty.

## Other responses

- `401` — Authentication failed due to invalid credentials.
- `404` — The resource was not found.
- `429` — The API rate limit has been exceeded.
- `500` — There was a server error.
- `default` — There was an unexpected error.

## Changes

- **2025-10-16** `cb3bf9b21459` — 2 info
  - api tag `DigitalOcean-public.v2-new_Load Balancers` added
  - api tag `Load Balancers` removed
- **2025-07-18** `f8e8c290636c` — 1 info
  - endpoint added
- **2025-07-17** `5fc9af728e82` — 1 breaking
  - api path removed without deprecation
- **2025-07-17** `f8e8c290636c` — 1 info
  - endpoint added

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/digitalocean/apis/digitalocean-api/changes/v2/load_balancers/:lb_id/forwarding_rules/delete.md)

---

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