Cannot delete Cognitive Services (AIServices) accounts - 500 InternalServerError

Hello @Snehansh Akhaury

Based on the behavior you've described, this doesn't look like a normal Azure Portal or CLI deletion problem.

The important details are HTTP 500 InternalServerError, and x-ms-failure-cause: service

The same deletion fails through the Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and the ARM REST API. That points toward Microsoft.CognitiveServices resource provider/backend rather than a client-side issue.

There are two different operations worth distinguishing here:

1. Delete an active AI Services/Cognitive Services account

az cognitiveservices account delete \
  --name <account-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group>

This is the normal deletion operation for an existing Cognitive Services account.

2. Purge a soft-deleted account

Purge only applies after the account has successfully entered the deleted/soft-deleted state:

az cognitiveservices account list-deleted

and, if the account appears there:

az cognitiveservices account purge \
  --name <account-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --location southindia

Account purge is specifically for a soft-deleted Cognitive Services account.

Therefore, don't repeatedly run purge against these resources unless list-deleted confirms they've actually transitioned into the soft-deleted collection.

One useful diagnostic would be:

az cognitiveservices account show \
  -g <resource-group> \
  -n <account-name> \
  --query "{name:name,kind:kind,location:location,provisioningState:properties.provisioningState,id:id}"

followed by:

az cognitiveservices account list-deleted -o table

If the accounts still appear as active ARM resources but every DELETE immediately returns the same service-side HTTP 500, there's probably no customer-side hard-delete command that can bypass that backend condition.

Also check the resource and resource-group Locks and the resource group's Deployments blade, but a normal lock would generally result in an authorization/lock-related response rather than the service-side InternalServerError you're receiving.

Microsoft does expose a dedicated REST operation for permanently purging a deleted account:

DELETE .../providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/

locations/{location}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroup}/

deletedAccounts/{accountName}

But again, that's for a resource already in the deleted-account collection; it isn't a force-delete API for an active account whose normal DELETE operation is returning HTTP 500.

At this point, open an Azure Support request for Azure AI Services / Cognitive Services resource management and ask Microsoft to investigate the resource provider state for these three accounts.

Provide them privately with:

• Region: southindia
• Resource type: Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts
• Kind: AIServices
• Correlation ID: ffdcef0b-a4dd-4461-a734-f7b04dddae14
• HTTP status: 500 InternalServerError
• x-ms-failure-cause: service
• UTC timestamps of several failed DELETE attempts
• Full resource IDs of the three affected accounts

Specifically ask Microsoft to determine whether the accounts have orphaned backend dependencies/state preventing the resource provider from completing DELETE, and whether backend cleanup is required.

One security note: you've included your subscription ID and full resource IDs in the public Q&A post. Those aren't credentials, but there's generally no benefit to publishing them. Please edit the question and redact the subscription ID and full resource IDs, then provide them privately in the support case.

Also, clearly state that rg-simple-chat-app must not be touched. Support should target only the three affected Cognitive Services accounts and their specified resource groups.

References:

Azure CLI - Cognitive Services account delete/list-deleted/purge

Azure AI Services REST API - Delete account

Azure AI Services REST API — Purge deleted account

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