How to delete your Gravatar account
Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) is a service operated by Automattic (parent of WordPress.com and Tumblr) that maps email addresses to avatars and public profile pages. If you've ever signed up for a WordPress.com account, posted to many tech blogs, or used a service that integrates Gravatar, you may have a Gravatar profile tied to your email — even ones you don't remember creating. Gravatar profiles expose your email hash, avatar, name, bio, and any connected social profiles publicly to anyone who knows your email.
Delete your Gravatar account, step by step
- 1Go to gravatar.com and sign in with the WordPress.com account that owns the Gravatar
- 2Or sign up at gravatar.com if you only need to claim and then delete a Gravatar tied to an email you control
- 3Open 'My Profile' / Profile Editor
- 4Edit each email to remove the avatar image (Manage Gravatars > select email > Delete)
- 5To remove the profile entirely, also delete the WordPress.com account at wordpress.com/me/account/close — Gravatar is part of WordPress.com
What actually happens when you delete
Gets removed
- ✓Your Gravatar avatar image for each verified email
- ✓Public Gravatar profile (bio, name, location, photos, social links)
- ✓Verified email list under your Gravatar account
- ✓If you delete WordPress.com: also WordPress.com sites, Jetpack, and Akismet keys
- ✓Gravatar Hovercards and connected app integrations
Stays behind
- ✗Cached avatar images on blogs and forums for some time (Gravatar HTTP cache TTL applies)
- ✗The email hash (MD5/SHA256) is technically still derivable from your email even after profile deletion
- ✗Comments you made on third-party blogs persist with whatever avatar was shown at posting time
- ✗Records Automattic retains for billing, fraud, and abuse prevention
- ✗WordPress.com sites and Tumblr account are separate (Tumblr stays unless explicitly deleted)
Before you delete
Gravatar is tied to your WordPress.com account. Deleting WordPress.com deletes Gravatar (and Jetpack, Akismet, Tumblr is separate). If you just want to remove the IMAGE so it stops appearing on blog comments, you can delete the avatar without deleting the WordPress.com account. To verify what's exposed, search for your email at en.gravatar.com/site/check.
Download your data from Gravatar first
Most platforms only honor a data-export request while the account is still active. Do this before you delete.
- 1WordPress.com (which owns Gravatar) supports data export under privacy settings
- 2Go to wordpress.com > Account > 'Privacy' > 'Download my data'
- 3The archive includes Gravatar profile data, WordPress.com sites, and account info
Want to take a break instead? Deactivate
Deactivation hides your profile without permanently destroying it. Logging back in restores everything.
- 1To make Gravatar stop showing your image without deleting: open My Gravatars > select the email > 'Delete this image'
- 2Future comments using that email will fall back to the default avatar (typically a Mystery Person or whatever the site sets)
If deletion fails — or you live in the EU, UK, or California
You have a legal right to request erasure of your personal data under GDPR (EU/UK) and CCPA (California). Use these official channels if the self-service flow doesn't work.
Gravatar deletion FAQs
I never signed up for Gravatar but my picture shows up everywhere — why?+
You probably signed up for WordPress.com, Jetpack, or used a service that integrated Gravatar at some point. Gravatar is part of WordPress.com — log in at gravatar.com using your WordPress.com credentials (or sign up there) to claim and manage the Gravatar profile for your email.
How do I check what Gravatar exposes about an email I own?+
Go to gravatar.com and enter the email — or look up the email's MD5 hash via en.gravatar.com/site/check. If there's a profile, the image, name, and bio are publicly fetchable by anyone who knows the email address.
Can I remove just my Gravatar without deleting WordPress.com?+
Yes. Sign in, open My Gravatars, select the email, and delete the image. Your WordPress.com account stays intact; only the avatar binding to that email is removed.
Does deleting Gravatar remove old avatars from blog comments?+
Mostly. Blogs that use Gravatar look up the avatar at render time, so future page loads will use the default image. Some blogs use aggressive caching and may show the old image for hours or days until their cache expires.
What's the relationship between Gravatar, WordPress.com, and Tumblr?+
All three are owned by Automattic. Gravatar is part of WordPress.com (same login). Tumblr was acquired separately and has its own account system. Deleting WordPress.com (and therefore Gravatar) does NOT delete Tumblr — handle Tumblr deletion separately.
Can someone still tie my email to a profile after I delete Gravatar?+
Gravatar uses an email hash (MD5 + SHA256 in newer versions). The hash itself is derivable from any known email. After deletion, the hash no longer resolves to a profile on Gravatar's API, but if your old profile was indexed by Google or archive.org, cached copies may persist.
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