diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_nodegroup.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_nodegroup.go
index 8d0cf6d8c529..ff0a93641a00 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_nodegroup.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_nodegroup.go
@@ -91,6 +91,13 @@ func (ng *nodegroup) IncreaseSize(delta int) error {
 // group. This function should wait until node group size is updated.
 // Implementation required.
 func (ng *nodegroup) DeleteNodes(nodes []*corev1.Node) error {
+	replicas := ng.scalableResource.Replicas()
+
+	// fail early if we are at minSize already.
+	if replicas <= int32(ng.MinSize()) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete %d machines in %q, machine replicas are <= %d", len(nodes), ng.Id(), ng.MinSize())
+	}
+
 	// Step 1: Verify all nodes belong to this node group.
 	for _, node := range nodes {
 		actualNodeGroup, err := ng.machineController.nodeGroupForNode(node)
@@ -108,14 +115,10 @@ func (ng *nodegroup) DeleteNodes(nodes []*corev1.Node) error {
 	}
 
 	// Step 2: if deleting len(nodes) would make the replica count
-	// <= 0, then the request to delete that many nodes is bogus
+	// < MinSize, then the request to delete that many nodes is bogus
 	// and we fail fast.
-	replicas := ng.scalableResource.Replicas()
-
-	if replicas-int32(len(nodes)) < 0 {
-		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete %d machines in %q, machine replicas are < 0 ", len(nodes), ng.Id())
-	} else if replicas-int32(len(nodes)) == 0 && !ng.scalableResource.CanScaleFromZero() {
-		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete %d machines in %q, machine replicas are 0", len(nodes), ng.Id())
+	if replicas-int32(len(nodes)) < int32(ng.MinSize()) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("unable to delete %d machines in %q, machine replicas are %d, minSize is %d", len(nodes), ng.Id(), replicas, ng.MinSize())
 	}
 
 	// Step 3: annotate the corresponding machine that it is a