How to delete your Bluesky account permanently

By Otabek Mamadaliev · Sources last reviewed 21 August 2026 · What this means

Bluesky is not a closed platform, and that changes what deletion means. It runs on the AT Protocol, where posts are relayed to independent servers and third-party clients. Bluesky's terms say they will use “reasonable efforts” to remove your content and will notify other services on the protocol that you deleted — but that they “cannot control or force other services” to follow suit, and that “complete deletion across the network may not always be possible.”

That is an unusually honest thing for a platform to write down, and it is worth taking literally. Deleting Bluesky is closer to leaving email than to leaving Instagram.

Before you delete

• Export your data from settings if you want your posts. AT Protocol keeps your data in a content-addressed archive, so the export is a real, portable copy — it can be used to move your account to another server instead of deleting.
• Consider deactivating instead. Deactivating hides your profile and posts and keeps your handle reserved, and you can reactivate on your own schedule from Settings, then Account.
• Note your handle is released on deletion and can be claimed by someone else. Deactivation is the option that protects it.
• Using a custom domain handle? Point it elsewhere first if you want to reuse it.

Delete your account

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll to Delete Account.
3. Bluesky emails you a confirmation code — enter it.
4. Enter your password and confirm.

Getting copies off other servers

Bluesky says it is not responsible for content you shared on other services using the AT Protocol, and that to request removal from those you have to contact them directly. There is no central switch — each service that mirrored your posts is its own operator with its own policy.

In practice that means:

• Relays and third-party clients may hold copies of posts they ingested while your account was live.
• Search and archive services built on the firehose are separate operators entirely, and some are run by individuals rather than companies.
• Each one is its own request, sent to whoever runs it, with no obligation on them to act.

Treat anything you posted publicly on Bluesky as published rather than as stored. That is the correct mental model for an open protocol, and it is why deleting your account is a weaker action here than on a closed platform. It is also, to Bluesky's credit, exactly what their terms say.

You can move instead of leaving

This is the option that does not exist anywhere else on this site, and it is worth knowing before you delete anything. On the AT Protocol your identity and your posts are portable: the export from settings is a real, self-contained archive, and it can be used to migrate your account to a different server rather than destroying it.

So if the reason you are leaving is Bluesky the company — its moderation, its direction, its ownership — leaving the company does not have to mean leaving your posts or your followers behind. Migrating keeps the identity and takes it elsewhere.

If the reason you are leaving is the whole network rather than one operator, migration does not help and deletion is the honest answer. Just go in understanding that it is a request for removal rather than a guarantee of it.

Deactivating protects the handle

Deletion releases your handle for anyone to claim; deactivation reserves it. For anyone recognisable, that difference matters more than the data question — an abandoned handle taken by someone else is an impersonation risk that no amount of deleting fixes.

Deactivation hides your profile and posts, is reversible from Settings on your own schedule, and costs nothing to leave in place indefinitely.

Using a custom domain as your handle? Point the domain somewhere else before you delete, so a future Bluesky account cannot be created on it by whoever controls that DNS record next — and so the handle stays available to you.