How long deletion actually takes on each platform
How long do you have to cancel deleting an account?
It is not 30 days everywhere, despite what most guides say. Pinterest gives 7 days, LinkedIn and Udemy 14, Discord 15, and Microsoft lets you pick 30 or 60. Reddit, Telegram, PayPal, Medium, GitHub, Strava and ChatGPT give you nothing at all — deletion is immediate and irreversible.
Nearly every deletion guide on the internet says you get 30 days to change your mind. We checked each platform against its own help documentation, and the number was different almost every time — when there was a number at all.
The table below is built directly from the individual guides on this site, so a figure here and the figure on the platform's own page cannot disagree. Every row links to the guide it came from, and the date that guide was last checked is at the top of it. Platforms appear here once their guide has been verified against the platform's own documentation, which is why the list is shorter than the full set of guides.
Your window to change your mind
| Platform | Reversible for | Fully gone after |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb | Nothing — a deleted account cannot be reactivated. Deactivation is the reversible option, and undoing it needs a phone call | Immediate once the request is processed, apart from data Airbnb is legally required to retain |
| Binance | Nothing — Binance states account closure is irreversible | Access ends immediately; personal data is kept for as long as anti-money-laundering law requires |
| ChatGPT | Nothing | Data within 30 days; account cannot be reactivated |
| Coinbase | Nothing — Coinbase states closing your account is permanent and irreversible | Access ends immediately; Coinbase keeps some personal information for at least five years |
| Dropbox | Nothing | Immediate — Dropbox states content is non-recoverable as soon as the account is deleted |
| Etsy | Nothing for permanent deletion — Etsy states it cannot be undone. Closing the account instead is reversible and reopens from an emailed link | Immediate on permanent deletion |
| GitHub | Nothing | Immediate; username released after 90 days |
| Grindr | Nothing | Immediate, no recovery |
| Medium | Nothing | Immediate and permanent |
| PayPal | Nothing | Immediate; cannot be reopened |
| Nothing | Immediate, no restoration | |
| Strava | Nothing | Immediate; public segments and routes stay forever |
| Telegram | Nothing | Immediate |
| Nothing | Immediate; up to 90 days to purge | |
| YouTube | Nothing | Immediate (hiding is the reversible option) |
| Zoom | Nothing — Zoom states the account is permanently deleted | Immediate. Paid plans must be cancelled and the billing cycle finished before the account can be terminated at all |
| Duolingo | 7 days, via a cancel link in the confirmation email | Up to 30 days to complete |
| 7 days | 7 days | |
| Spotify | 7 days, via an emailed reactivation link | Deletion begins after 7 days; the same email is reusable after 14 |
| eBay | 14 days while closure is processing, by asking eBay to reopen it | Generally 14 days, up to 60 if you had transactions, payments or disputes in the previous 30 |
| Epic Games | 14 days | 30 days by Epic’s own article, though access ends at 14 |
| 14 days | 14 days | |
| Udemy | 14 days, by notifying Udemy | 14 days |
| Discord | 15 days | 15 days |
| 30 days, varies by region | Up to 90 days | |
| ~30 days, varies by region | Up to 90 days | |
| Microsoft account | 30 or 60 days — you choose | End of the window you picked |
| Nintendo | 30 days | 30 days |
| PlayStation | 30 days, via Support only | 30 days |
| Snapchat | 30 days | 60 days (India: 210) |
| Steam | 30 days, cancelled from the red notification banner in your account | 30 days — game licences, wallet funds and inventory are unrecoverable |
| Threads | ~30 days | Up to 90 days, plus a 90-day wait before you may rejoin |
| TikTok | ~30 days | ~30 days |
| Uber | 30 days — sign back in at Uber.com to restore it | 30 days; unused credits, promotions and rewards go with it |
| X (Twitter) | 30 days | 30 days |
| Apple ID | Not stated publicly — the window is shown only inside the privacy.apple.com flow | Not stated |
| Cash App | Not stated — the closure article names no window | Not stated; Cash App says it keeps transaction records for legal compliance and fraud prevention |
| Google account | Not stated — Google says only "a certain amount of time" | Not stated |
| Robinhood | Reversible for individual accounts only | Joint and managed accounts cannot be reactivated |
| Slack | Reversible — an owner or admin can reactivate you | Profile deletion is a separate request to the primary owner |
| Upwork | Reversible — log in and request a reactivation link by email; no deadline is stated | No fixed window; after five years inactive you must contact support |
| Wise | Reversible — log back in to reactivate | No fixed window; regulated data retained |
Three traps in that table
- Pinterest: logging in during the 7 days silently cancels the deletion. Checking whether it worked by signing in undoes it.
- Snapchat: deletion completes at 60 days, but your window to download your data shuts at 30. Pacing yourself against the longer number loses your Memories.
- Threads: after deletion you cannot sign up again with the same Instagram account for 90 days.
What survives after you are gone
Deleting an account is not the same as deleting what you wrote. On several platforms your content stays up permanently.
| Platform | Your posts and messages | Your username |
|---|---|---|
| Stay up under [deleted] | Retired, nobody gets it | |
| Discord | Stay up under Deleted User | Freed |
| Telegram | Recipients keep their copies | Tied to your number |
| Recipients keep their copies | Tied to your number | |
| X (Twitter) | Removed, but mentions of you stay | Released to anyone |
| Removed; sent DMs stay with recipients | Released to anyone | |
| Removed; repins stay on other boards | Released | |
| TikTok * | Removed; duets of your videos stay | Released |
| Snapchat | Removed; saved chats stay with friends | Retired, nobody gets it |
| YouTube | Removed, including your comments | Freed |
| Removed; recommendations you wrote vanish | Freed |
If your goal is removing what you wrote, deletion alone will not do it. On Reddit and Discord especially, you must delete the content by hand before closing the account — afterwards you can never log back in to reach it.
What keeps charging you after deletion
Subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play are billed by Apple or Google, not the platform. Deleting the account does not stop them.
- Snapchat+, X Premium, Discord Nitro, Reddit Premium, LinkedIn Premium — cancel each separately, and confirm it has stopped, before you delete.
- Creator earnings on TikTok and YouTube are forfeited if you delete with a pending balance. Withdraw first.
Which is hardest to leave?
By friction rather than by clock:
- Facebook — not the wait, but the "Log in with Facebook" accounts it can lock you out of permanently.
- Discord — blocks deletion entirely until you hand over every server you own.
- YouTube — one wrong click deletes the entire Google account, Gmail included.
- Snapchat — Memories are unrecoverable and the export window closes early.
How these numbers were checked
Each figure comes from that platform's own help documentation, not from other guides — which is precisely why they disagree with the "30 days everywhere" answer you will find elsewhere. Each guide on this site records the date its steps were last checked.
* TikTok is the one guide not yet checked against its own documentation — its help centre blocks automated access, and the 30-day figure widely quoted elsewhere refers to how long deleted posts persist, not accounts. Treat that row as less certain than the rest of this table. We would rather mark it than quietly present it as verified.
Common questions
Do all platforms give you 30 days to change your mind?
No, and this is the most repeated error in deletion guides. Pinterest gives 7 days, LinkedIn 14, Discord 15, and Reddit, WhatsApp and Telegram give none at all. Meta also states its window varies by region.
Which platform is fastest to delete permanently?
Reddit, WhatsApp and Telegram are effectively instant with no restoration period. Pinterest is the fastest of those that offer a grace period, at 7 days.
Does deleting my account delete everything I posted?
Not always. Reddit and Discord keep your messages online under a deleted username, and on Telegram and WhatsApp recipients keep their copies. Delete content manually first if that matters.