How to delete your Venmo account permanently

By Otabek Mamadaliev · Sources last reviewed 24 August 2026 · What this means

Move your balance out first. Venmo will not close an account holding funds, and a stranded balance is far harder to recover after the fact than before.

Before you close

• Transfer your balance to your bank and confirm it arrived.
• Cancel or complete pending payments and requests.
• Download your transaction history — useful for tax if you have used Venmo for anything business-related.
• Turn off automatic payments to anyone billing you through Venmo.

Moving your balance out: two options

Standard transfer is free and lands in a linked checking account in 1–3 business days. Instant transfer arrives in minutes but costs 1.75% of the amount, minimum $0.25 and maximum $25.

There is rarely a reason to pay for instant when you are closing the account anyway — start the standard transfer and wait.

Close the account

Venmo documents both routes, so use whichever you have to hand.

On a computer:

1. Sign in at venmo.com.
2. Go to your account settings.
3. Click Close my Venmo account at the bottom of the page.

In the app:

1. Go to the Me tab by tapping your picture or initials.
2. Tap the Settings gear.
3. Select Account under Preferences.
4. Tap Close Venmo Account.

If you have a business profile, read this first

Closing your personal profile closes your business profile with it. It does not work the other way round — a business profile can be closed on its own, but the personal one takes the business one down too.

And a closed business profile is unusually final, in ways Venmo spells out:

• It is permanently deleted and cannot be reactivated.
• You cannot create a second business profile tied to your personal account afterwards.
• You cannot create a new business profile for the same business entity — so the business cannot simply start again under a new profile.

Closing only the business profile is not self-service either; you have to contact Venmo Support through Me → Settings → Get Help → Chat With Us and ask for an agent.

You do get your history. Venmo emails a final transaction history to the address on your account once it closes — useful, though downloading it beforehand is still safer than relying on one email arriving.

Your payment history is semi-public

Venmo's social feed means your past transactions may have been visible to others, and closing the account does not retract what people already saw. If privacy is the reason you are leaving, set past transactions to private before closing — afterwards you cannot change them.

As a regulated payments business, Venmo retains transaction records after closure regardless.

How long is not indefinite but it is long. Anti-money-laundering rules require regulated firms to keep customer identification and transaction records for a period after the relationship ends, and five years is the standard baseline in the US. Closing your account removes your access to that history. It does not remove the history.

Make the feed private before you close, not after. This is the single thing on this page you cannot fix later. Venmo's default has historically been to publish who you paid, and once the account is closed there is no settings screen left to change. If a years-long record of your payments being semi-public is the reason you are leaving, go through the privacy settings and set past transactions to private as the first step, then close.

Closing Venmo does not close PayPal

Venmo is owned by PayPal, and people reasonably assume the accounts are joined. They are not. Closing your Venmo account leaves any PayPal account you have entirely untouched, and closing PayPal does not close Venmo.

If the goal is to stop using the group altogether, that is two separate closures on two separate sites, each with its own balance requirement and its own blockers. Do Venmo first — the balance limits are simpler and you will learn where your money is hiding.

What you cannot do afterwards

• Reopen it. Closure is final; a change of mind means a new account, not a restored one.
• Retrieve your history from the app. Venmo emails a final transaction history when the account closes — treat that email as the only copy you will be given, and save the file somewhere it will survive.
• Receive money sent to you. Payments to a closed account fail, and the sender has to be told another way. Warn anyone who pays you regularly before you close, not after.
• Chase a payment dispute. Closing while something is unresolved forfeits your position in it, which is why Venmo blocks closure until pending items clear.

Steps checked against Venmo’s “Close My Venmo Account” article.