How to delete your X (Twitter) account permanently

By Otabek Mamadaliev · Sources last reviewed 23 August 2026 · What this means

There is no separate delete button on X. Deactivation is the deletion process — the account is erased automatically once 30 days pass without a login. Logging in even once resets the clock and restores the account.

Download your archive first

X archives take time to generate — often 24 hours or more, sometimes several days. Start it before deactivating.

1. Settings and privacy → Your account → Download an archive of your data.
2. Confirm your password, verify by SMS or email, then request the archive.
3. Wait for the notification, then download the ZIP. It contains every post, DM and like as browsable HTML.

Deactivate (and thereby delete) your X account

1. Click the More icon, then Settings and privacy.
2. From the Your account tab, click Deactivate your account.
3. Read the notice, then click Deactivate.
4. Enter your password when prompted, then confirm with the Deactivate account button.
5. Do not log in again for 30 days.

Revoke your connected apps, not just your logins. Logging in reactivates the account automatically, and X points out that a third-party app you authorised can log in on your behalf — so the account quietly comes back with nobody having touched it. Their own answer to "why does my account keep getting reactivated?" is to revoke third-party app access. Do that as well as signing out on your phone, tablet and other browsers.

What happens to your handle and your posts

• Your @handle: released back to the pool after deletion and can be claimed by anyone.
• Your posts: removed from X, but replies quoting you, screenshots and third-party archives persist.
• Mentions of you in other people's posts: these stay up. They simply stop linking to a profile.
• Search engines: X does not control Google or Bing, so cached copies can outlast the account. Removing those means approaching the search engine directly.
• Your direct messages: they survive the 30 days. X only deletes the messages you sent once the deactivation window ends and the account actually goes. Until then they stay in the conversation.
• Paid subscriptions: where you bought it decides what happens. X Premium or Super Follows bought on x.com cancels automatically once you deactivate. Bought through the iOS or Android app, it keeps billing — deactivating does nothing to it, and you have to cancel through Apple or Google yourself.

X also states it may retain some information from a deactivated account for platform safety and security purposes.

You may not need to delete at all

Changing your username or email does not require deleting the account. Both are editable at any time under Account information. If you are deleting to escape a handle you have outgrown, or to cut an old email loose, change them instead and keep the account age.

Cancel X Premium before you deactivate. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, cancel it there; billing continues otherwise.

Get your archive first, and expect it to be slow

X's data archive is the only complete copy of your posts you will ever get, and it is not produced on demand. Requesting it can take a day or more, and the download link is delivered to the account you are about to close.

So the sequence has to be: request the archive, wait for it, download it, check it opens, and only then deactivate. Starting the 30-day clock while an archive request is still pending is how people lose a decade of posts they meant to keep.

The archive arrives as an HTML file with a folder of data alongside it. Open it before you rely on it — an incomplete download looks identical to a good one until you try to browse it.

Handles are released, and taken quickly

Unlike Snapchat or Reddit, which retire usernames rather than recycling them, X puts the handle back in the pool once deletion completes. A short or memorable one will not sit unclaimed for long.

If the handle is worth anything to you, do not delete the account. There is no way to reserve it, no way to reclaim it, and no support route once someone else is using it. Deactivating and then deliberately reactivating before the 30 days elapse is how people keep a name they are not currently using — although X has historically also removed genuinely dormant accounts, so this is not a permanent guarantee either.

The cheaper move, if the account has any history worth keeping, is to change the handle to something you do not care about, strip the profile, make the account private, and leave it. You keep the account age and the name goes back into circulation on your terms rather than theirs.

Steps checked against X's own “How to deactivate your account” article.