> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.clickatell.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.clickatell.com/developers-api-reference/developers-archive/sms-rest-api-overview/stop-message.md).

# Stop message

This command will attempt to stop the delivery of a particular message. This command can only stop messages that have been scheduled for delivery in the future or may be queued within our router. It cannot stop messages that have already been delivered to an SMSC.

```
DELETE https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message/[message ID]
```

{% hint style="info" %}
The REST API may respond with various HTTP status codes. See the full list [here](broken://pages/g4LnbcQA4XA3TRKvmBGV).
{% endhint %}

### **JSON**

#### **Request**

```
DELETE /rest/message/360586640fe9846954897dffe6c13dfc HTTP/1.1
HOST: api.clickatell.com
X-Version: 1
Authorization: Bearer [Your Authorization Token]
Accept: application/json
```

#### **Response**

```
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
 
{
   "data" : {
       "messageStatus" : "006",
       "description" : "User cancelled message delivery",
        "apiMessageId" : "360586640fe9846954897dffe6c13dfc"
    }
}
```

### **XML**

#### **Request**

{% code lineNumbers="true" %}

```
DELETE /rest/message/360586640fe9846954897dffe6c13dfc HTTP/1.1
HOST: api.clickatell.com
X-Version: 1
Authorization: Bearer [Your Authorization Token]
Accept: application/xml
```

{% endcode %}

#### **Response**

{% code lineNumbers="true" %}

```
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/xml
 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<response>
    <data>
    <messageStatus>006</messageStatus>
    <description>User cancelled message delivery</description>
    <apiMessageId>b09e1b1bdb5a070c978f03b6836b955c</apiMessageId>
    </data>
</response>
```

{% endcode %}

### **Sample code**

#### **cURL**

```
msgId=""
 
authToken=""
 
curl -X DELETE \
-H "X-Version: 1" \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $authToken" \
 
https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message/$msgId
```

#### **Python**

{% code lineNumbers="true" %}

```
import httplib2, json
 
msgId = ""
 
authToken = ""
 
resp, content = httplib2.Http().request(
    "https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message/" + msgId,
    "DELETE",
    headers={
        "X-Version" : "1",
        "Accept" : "application/json",
        "Authorization" : "Bearer " + authToken
    }
)
```

{% endcode %}

#### **PHP**

{% code overflow="wrap" lineNumbers="true" %}

```
<?php
 
$msgId = "<api message ID>";
 
$authToken = "<place auth token here>";
 
$ch = curl_init();
 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,            "https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message/$msgId");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST,  "DELETE");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,     array(
    "X-Version: 1",
    "Accept: application/json",
    "Authorization: Bearer $authToken"
));
  
$result = curl_exec ($ch);
 
?>
```

{% endcode %}


---

# Agent Instructions
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## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter:

```
GET https://help.clickatell.com/developers-api-reference/developers-archive/sms-rest-api-overview/stop-message.md?ask=<question>&goal=<endgoal>
```

`ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
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