Can I delete node_modules? What happens, and how to clean up

By EgeTech LTD · October 6, 2026 · 2 min read

Yes. You can delete node_modules at any time. It contains nothing you wrote. It is built from your package.json and your lockfile, and npm install makes it again. That is why almost every developer deletes it at some point to fix a strange error or to get disk space back.

What deleting it does

rm -rf node_modules

The folder disappears, and with it every installed dependency. Your source code, package.json, the lockfile and your git history are untouched. To get it back:

npm install     # or: pnpm install, yarn, bun install

The three cases where it bites

Deleting is safe, but reinstalling is not always identical. Know these before you remove the folder of a project you care about:

1. There is no lockfile. Without package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock or bun.lock, the reinstall resolves versions from scratch. You may get newer releases than before, and a project that worked last year can fail today. If you have no lockfile, think twice for old projects.
2. A dependency was removed or changed. Packages can be unpublished or deprecated. An old project may no longer install cleanly.
3. You edited files inside node_modules. Any change made directly in there is lost. Patches that live in the repository, for example from patch-package, come back when the install runs. Manual edits do not.

Also expect the reinstall to need a network connection, and to take a while for big projects, since native modules compile again.

How much space it frees

Often a lot. A single project’s node_modules is commonly hundreds of megabytes, and several gigabytes for large apps. See the size first:

du -sh node_modules

With pnpm the numbers look different. pnpm keeps one copy of each package in a shared store and links it into every project, so deleting a project’s node_modules frees much less than du suggests. To reclaim space there, prune the store instead. See the pnpm store guide.

Delete it from one project, or from all of them

For one project, run rm -rf node_modules in its folder. To find and delete them across a whole projects folder, read how to delete all node_modules folders at once.

A rule that avoids regret

Delete node_modules freely in projects you are working on: you will reinstall within minutes anyway. Be careful with old projects you may need to build again: check that they have a lockfile first, and know that you are trading disk space for a slower, riskier next start.

The caches behind npm install are a separate topic. See npm cache clean –force and the full developer checklist.