---
title: Purging all content via the control panel
summary: null
url: >-
  https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/purging/purging-all-content
---

Fastly provides several levels of cache purging. You can use the _Purge all_ option to purge all content under a service.

> **WARNING:** Exercise caution when purging all content from cache, especially if you're seeing an increase in [503 errors](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/fastly-vcl/synthetic-errors-in-vcl). Purging all content overrides other caching-related settings that allow you to [serve stale content](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/performance/serving-stale-content) and forces Fastly to retrieve that content again from your origin servers before it can be re-cached in Fastly POPs. This means that purging all content will temporarily cause your [cache hit ratio](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/caching/caching-best-practices#use-your-cache-hit-ratio-to-diagnose-potential-problems) to drop dramatically and cause an associated spike of traffic to your origin servers. Be certain your origins can handle that temporary spike in traffic until the cache repopulates

## Before you begin

Be sure you know how to [access the web interface controls](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/getting-started/navigating-fastly/about-the-web-interface-controls) before learning about each of the pages you'll encounter there.

## Purging all content

To instantly purge all content under your service, follow the steps below:

1.   Log in to the [Fastly control panel](https://manage.fastly.com).

2.   From the [**Home**](https://manage.fastly.com/home) page, select the appropriate service. You can use the search box to search by ID, name, or domain.

3. From the **Purge** menu, select **Purge all**. The Purge all window appears and displays the service name you'll be purging.

   ![a purge all](/img/purge-all-example.png)

4. In the field of the **Purge all** window, confirm you want to purge all cached content on a service by entering the exact name of the service that appears (e.g., `An Example Service`).

5. Click **Purge all**.

## What's next

Explore the other purging methods available with Fastly such as [purging with surrogate keys](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/purging/purging-with-surrogate-keys) and [purging a URL](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/full-site-delivery/purging/purging-a-url).

## Related content

- [Image Optimizer purging reference](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/io/#purging-images-from-the-fastly-cache)
- [Purging API documentation](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/api/purging/)