Execute Delete in Entity Framework Core

TL;DR: Always use ExecuteDelete instead of RemoveRange when deleting multiple entities and you can use a LINQ expression. It’s simply better — faster and uses less memory.

The ExecuteDelete method was introduced in EF Core 7 to efficiently handle delete operations without loading data into the context first. You can also combine it with LINQ queries, making it both powerful and convenient.

How did it work before with RemoveRange + SaveChanges?

• A SELECT was executed using the LINQ expression
• All entities were materialized (loaded into the context)
• You called RemoveRange to mark them as Deleted
• You called SaveChanges to persist the deletes

var q = Context.TestEntities.Where(x => !x.IsActive);
Context.TestEntities.RemoveRange(q);
Context.SaveChanges();

This approach works, but it comes with a cost — every entity must be loaded and tracked in memory before being deleted, which can quickly slow things down and use more resources when dealing with many records.

How does it work now with ExecuteDelete?

• A single DELETE statement is executed directly using the LINQ expression
• That’s it — no entities are loaded, no tracking, no extra steps!

Context.TestEntities.Where(x => !x.IsActive).ExecuteDelete();

The code is cleaner, easier to use, and much more efficient since the delete operation runs directly in the database without going through the change tracker.

Performance

Is it really that much faster? Yes! The more rows you need to delete, the greater the performance gain. Even better — memory usage stays low since only a single SQL statement needs to be generated, and entities are never loaded into memory.

You can see the difference in both performance and memory consumption in the following benchmark. The improvement is dramatic:

Conclusion

The ExecuteDelete method is a simple but powerful improvement in EF Core. It lets you delete large sets of data directly in the database — without the overhead of loading and tracking entities.

Compared to the old RemoveRange approach, it’s cleaner, faster, and far more memory-efficient. If you’re deleting multiple records and can express your condition with LINQ, there’s no reason not to use it.

In short: less code, less memory, and much better performance.