Delete a draft order in Shopify
A draft order that falls through is not cancelled. Drafts are deleted; cancelling belongs to real orders that were placed and paid for. This tutorial deletes a draft whose invoice had already gone out: 2 hoodies at $45.00 and 4 tees at $28.00, $202.00 of products plus $10.00 shipping, a $212.00 total. The invoice was sent on 10 November 2026, and on 13 November the customer wrote that they do not want it. Deleting the draft that day, 3 days after the invoice, is the whole of the cancellation. A draft the customer still wants to pay is a different job, covered by the guide to converting a draft order to a paid order.
Written November 13, 2026 · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Draft | 2 × hoodie $45.00 + 4 × tee $28.00 |
| Products | $202.00 |
| Shipping | $10.00 |
| Draft total | $212.00 |
| Invoice sent | 10 November 2026 |
| Deleted | 13 November 2026, after 3 days open |
| Cleanup pass | 14 open drafts, 5 stale ones deleted, 9 remain |
Download the cleanup log: draft-cleanup-log.csv (376 bytes).
Five drafts deleted on 13 November 2026, with the total, the invoice date, and the days each one sat open. Fill in a row before you delete the draft, because the row is what is left afterwards.
1Check that it really is a draft
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders, then Drafts, and find the order in that list. Deleting is a draft-order action. A completed order sitting in Orders is a real order, and real orders are cancelled, not deleted; the two lists are side by side and the names look alike, so read which list you are in before anything is removed.
2Tell the customer first, when an invoice went out
If the customer already holds an invoice for the draft, as they do here from sending the order invoice on 10 November, email them yourself and say the quote is off before you delete anything. Deleting the draft is the whole cancellation: there is no separate cancel action for a draft, and nothing reaches the customer from the deletion itself. On this draft the customer's own message came first, which settles the order of the two steps; when it does not, yours goes first.
3Open the draft
In Orders, then Drafts, click the draft to open it. Read the total on the draft once, $212.00 here, and write it into your cleanup log now. Step 5 removes the draft from the list, and the log row is easier to write while the figures are on screen.
4Click Delete draft order
On the open draft, click Delete draft order. Nothing is deleted yet at this point: the click opens a confirmation, and backing out here leaves the draft exactly as it was.
5Confirm the deletion
In the modal that opens, click Delete draft order to confirm. The draft leaves the Drafts list. For this draft, that single confirmation ends a $212.00 quote that had been open for 3 days, and there is no further step: no cancellation notice, no restocking, no refund, because no order was ever placed.
6Tidy the list in passes
Work the Drafts list oldest first and delete each stale draft the same way. In this cleanup pass the list holds 14 open drafts; 5 of them are stale, and deleting those 5 leaves 9. Log each draft's total and customer before you delete it, in the cleanup log from this tutorial, so the pass leaves a record behind it.
The arithmetic
What the deleted draft was worth, and what the cleanup pass did to the list.
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hoodies, 2 × $45.00 | $90.00 |
| Tees, 4 × $28.00 | $112.00 |
| Products | $202.00 |
| Total with $10.00 shipping | $212.00 |
| Days open, 10 November to 13 November | 3 |
| Stale drafts deleted, of 14 open | 5, which is 35.71% |
| Drafts remaining, 14 − 5 | 9 |
2 × $45.00 = $90.00 and 4 × $28.00 = $112.00, so the products come to $90.00 + $112.00 = $202.00, and $202.00 + $10.00 shipping = $212.00. The invoice went out on 10 November and the draft was deleted on 13 November, 3 days open. The cleanup pass deleted 5 of 14 open drafts: 14 − 5 = 9 remain, and 5 ÷ 14 = 35.71% of the list went in one pass.
Held at the counter
Deleting a completed draft leaves its order standing. A draft can be deleted whether it is open or completed. Deleting a completed draft does not delete the order that was created from it: the order stays in Orders, and only the draft copy goes.
Old drafts delete themselves after a year of inactivity. Drafts created on or after 1 April 2025 are automatically deleted after 1 year of inactivity, and any edit resets that timer. A draft you still need should be edited or invoiced from time to time, not left untouched and assumed safe.
The deleted draft's details go with it. Once a draft is deleted, its details are gone from the Drafts list. Copy the total and the customer into your cleanup log before you confirm the deletion, as in Step 3; afterwards there is nothing left to copy from.
Sources
- Creating draft orders — Shopify's help pages: deleting a draft order, deleting open and completed drafts, and the automatic deletion of inactive drafts after one year.
- Canceling orders — Shopify's help pages: cancelling a placed order, the action that belongs to real orders rather than drafts.