How to delete your LinkedIn account permanently

Steps last checked 15 August 2026

Cancel Premium first. Closing the account does not reliably stop a Premium subscription, particularly when it was purchased through Apple or Google. Cancel the subscription, confirm it has ended, then close the account.

You get 14 days to reopen — but reopening does not restore everything. LinkedIn states that endorsements and recommendations, pending invitations, the pages and people you followed, and your group memberships are gone for good, even if you reopen inside the 14 days. After 14 days the account cannot be reopened at all.

Close your LinkedIn account

1. Go to the LinkedIn close-account page and sign in.
2. Select a reason for closing, then click Next.
3. Enter your password and click Close account.

The long way round: Me → Settings & Privacy → Account management → Change next to Close account.

To reopen inside the window, log in normally or use the link in the closure email LinkedIn sends you.

Download your data first

LinkedIn holds things that exist nowhere else — your connection list, recommendations you have received, and years of messages. Request the export from Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → Get a copy of your data and wait for the email before closing anything.

The connection list is the part people miss. It is often the only record of professional contacts built over a decade, and it is not recoverable afterwards.

What closing actually removes

• Your profile: stops being visible and drops out of LinkedIn search. Search engines may cache it for a while longer.
• Recommendations you wrote: removed from other people's profiles.
• Your messages: removed from your side; recipients keep their copies.
• Group memberships and followers: gone.
• Recommendations you received: gone, and they cannot be re-issued if you return.

If it is Premium you want gone, not the account

LinkedIn lets you cancel Premium and keep a free Basic account. You stay reachable and your connections, profile and message history survive — you simply stop paying. If the bill is what prompted this, do that rather than closing the account and losing a decade of professional contacts.

Cancel Premium before closing either way. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, billing is handled by Apple or Google rather than LinkedIn, so cancel it in your phone's subscription settings and confirm it has stopped.