How to delete your Imgur account
Imgur is one of the internet's largest image and GIF hosts, launched in 2009 as the de facto place Reddit and forum users parked screenshots and memes, and since 2021 owned by MediaLab AI, Inc. (its help centre runs on MediaLab's Zendesk, though the privacy policy still gives the legal entity as Imgur, Inc. of Santa Monica, CA). An Imgur account ties together your username and profile, your contact email, a one-way hash of the cell phone number used for account verification, every image and album you uploaded while logged in plus the metadata Imgur logs for each one, your public gallery posts, comments, favorites, private messages and chats, and your reputation points. On the server side Imgur also logs IP addresses, device IDs, browser and OS details, and the date and time of every login and page/image view.
Delete your Imgur account, step by step
- 1Before you start, download anything you want to keep: go to https://imgur.com/account/settings and click the "download account images" button at the bottom to get a single .ZIP of all your uploads (Imgur warns this can take a while to prepare on large accounts)
- 2If you pay for Imgur Emerald, cancel it first in Google Play or the Apple App Store — Imgur says Emerald cannot be managed on desktop because it is only purchasable on Android/iOS, so the subscription lives with the store and deleting your Imgur account will not stop store billing
- 3Sign in to imgur.com on a desktop browser
- 4Click your username in the upper right-hand corner, then click "settings"
- 5On the settings page, choose the "delete my account" option in the bottom right-hand of the window
- 6IMPORTANT: tick the checkbox to delete your images. Imgur's help centre states "If you decide NOT to delete your images during this process, we will not be able to accomplish this later" — this is your only chance
- 7Confirm your password if prompted, then confirm the deletion
- 8On Android instead: navigate to your profile in the lower right of the app, select the settings gear in the top right, select "Edit Profile", select "Delete Account", confirm your password, tick the delete-images checkbox, then select "delete account"
- 9On iOS instead: tap the profile button on the bottom tab bar, tap the settings gear in the top right, tap "Profile", tap "Delete Account", confirm your password, choose to delete your images, then tap "delete account"
- 10If you registered via Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or Apple you have no password — Imgur changed its password reset tool so third-party sign-ups can assign themselves a password, which then works for deletion. If reset errors with a message telling you to log in via the third-party service, your account has no valid email attached and you must contact Imgur Support to have a password assigned
- 11If you cannot reach Imgur at all (for example you are in the UK, where Imgur ended all access on 30 September 2025), submit the "I want to delete my account" request at https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=30166123245211 — no login required
What actually happens when you delete
Gets removed
- ✓Your public posts
- ✓All of your comments
- ✓Your reputation points
- ✓Your private messages
- ✓Your username — Imgur says it will be available for registration by another user
- ✓Your uploaded images and their direct i.imgur.com links — but ONLY if you tick the delete-images checkbox during the deletion flow
Stays behind
- ✗Every image you uploaded if you did not tick the delete-images box: Imgur's help centre says that if you decline at that step, "we will not be able to accomplish this later"
- ✗Anything you uploaded anonymously while logged out — it was never attached to the account and is unaffected; each item has to be removed individually via https://imgur.com/removalrequest
- ✗Backup and archival copies: the privacy policy states "For legal reasons we may retain backup and/or archival copies of information prior to your corrections, amendments, or deletions"
- ✗Server logs Imgur classifies as anonymous data — IP addresses, device IDs, browser/OS, dates and times of each login, page and image viewing statistics, and the metadata logged for uploaded images
- ✗The one-way hash of the phone number you used for account verification: the policy says Imgur does not save the number itself but keeps the hash so banned users cannot re-register with the same number
- ✗Copies of your images that were re-uploaded, embedded or hot-linked on Reddit, Discord, forums and other sites, plus search-engine and third-party caches
- ✗Records held outside Imgur's account system — your Zendesk support tickets, and any Imgur Emerald billing records held by Apple or Google
Before you delete
The single biggest gotcha is the delete-images checkbox. Deleting an Imgur account does NOT delete your uploads by default — Imgur offers the option exactly once, mid-flow, and its help centre states outright that if you decline, "we will not be able to accomplish this later." Second: Imgur's privacy policy is blunt that "every image uploaded to Imgur is public — whether uploaded directly without going through a user account, or uploaded via a user account — and has its own URL. No matter what your privacy settings are, every image can always be accessed and viewed by anyone who types in that exact URL." Marking a post "Hidden" keeps it out of the gallery but not off the web. Third: anything you uploaded while logged out was never linked to your account and survives deletion entirely; those must be killed individually at imgur.com/removalrequest. Fourth: Imgur Emerald is billed by Google Play or the App Store and cannot be managed from desktop, so cancel in the store before deleting. Fifth: there is no deactivation and no reactivation, and Imgur says the username becomes available for registration by another user. Sixth: bulk image deletion is unavailable on Imgur's mobile web — use desktop or the apps. Imgur's legal position is that it collects no "personal information" under CCPA and that GDPR Art.4(1) personal data does not apply to it, but it still operates deletion and data-access request forms and maintains Article 27 representatives (DP-Dock GmbH, Ballindamm 39, Hamburg for the EU; DP Data Protection Services UK Ltd, 16 Great Queen Street, London for the UK; [email protected]). Since 30 September 2025 Imgur is inaccessible from the United Kingdom, so UK users must use the Help Center forms rather than the in-product flow. All URLs in this entry were fetched and returned HTTP 200 on their canonical addresses; imgur.com/account/settings redirects to the sign-in page when logged out, which is expected.
Download your data from Imgur first
Most platforms only honor a data-export request while the account is still active. Do this before you delete.
- 1For your media: sign in at https://imgur.com/account/settings and click the "download account images" button at the bottom of the page
- 2A download of a single .ZIP containing all of your uploads will begin — Imgur warns that depending on how many images you have, this may take a while to prepare
- 3For your account record: open the "I want a copy of my data" form at https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=40875106377627
- 4Submit the form using the exact email address linked to your Imgur account — Imgur states requests from other addresses cannot be processed, because that is how it verifies ownership
- 5Imgur returns basic account details (username, email, account creation date, last login, reputation) and information about your uploads. Imgur states Support is unable to provide downloads of uploaded content, so complete step 1 yourself before deleting
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.
Imgur deletion FAQs
Why are my Imgur images still online after I deleted my account?+
Because deleting the account and deleting the uploads are two separate things. During the deletion flow Imgur shows a checkbox to also delete your images; if you don't tick it, the files stay hosted and every i.imgur.com link keeps working. Imgur's help article states plainly that if you decline at that step, "we will not be able to accomplish this later" — Support cannot go back and remove them once the account is gone. The only fix is prevention: delete your images in bulk from your account images page (click your username while logged in, hover a thumbnail to reveal the trash can, and click-and-drag to select large batches) before you delete the account. Note that Imgur's mobile web version no longer supports deleting images at all — use desktop or the apps.
I signed up with Google or Facebook and Imgur is demanding a password I never created — how do I delete?+
Third-party (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Apple) sign-ups have no password on file, but the delete flow requires one. Imgur says it changed its password reset tool so third-party users can assign themselves a password, which can then be used for account deletion. If reset throws an error telling you to log in with the third-party service instead, it means your account has no valid email attached — you have to contact Imgur Support. Support asks for your username, the registered email address (even if you can't access it), the IP address you most recently used, and another identifying detail such as the description of a private uploaded image or the title of a private album; they then issue a temporary password you can change.
Can I get my Imgur account or username back after deleting it?+
No. Imgur's help centre says deleting an account is irreversible and that if you miss having an account you'll need to make a new one. There is no reactivation window and no deactivate-instead option. Imgur also states your username "will be available for registration by another user" once the account is deleted, and separately that it is not currently accepting requests for usernames held by seemingly inactive accounts — so you can't reclaim a handle that way either.
How do I get a copy of my Imgur images and data before I delete?+
Two separate steps. For your files: go to https://imgur.com/account/settings and click "download account images" at the bottom — you get a single .ZIP of all uploads, which Imgur warns may take a while to prepare on large accounts. For your account record: submit the "I want a copy of my data" form at https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=40875106377627 using the exact email address linked to your Imgur account, because that is how Imgur verifies ownership — requests from other addresses cannot be processed. That request returns basic account details (username, email, account creation date, last login, reputation) plus information about your uploads. Imgur states Support is unable to provide downloads of uploaded content, so do the ZIP yourself first.
Does deleting my Imgur account cancel my Imgur Emerald subscription?+
No. Imgur says Emerald settings cannot be managed on desktop because Emerald can only be purchased on Android/iOS devices — the subscription lives with Google Play or the App Store, so deleting your Imgur account does not touch it. Cancel it first: on Android open the Google Play app, tap the profile icon at top right, go to "Payments and subscriptions" then "Subscriptions", select the subscription and tap "Cancel subscription". On iOS open the Settings app, tap your name, select "Subscriptions", select the subscription and use the "..." menu to choose "Cancel Subscription".
I'm in the UK and Imgur won't let me log in — how can I delete my account?+
Imgur ended access from the United Kingdom on 30 September 2025; UK users cannot log in, view content or upload, and Imgur content embedded on third-party sites will not display. Imgur's notice says you can still exercise your data protection rights without logging in via the Help Center request forms: use https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=30166123245211 to request account deletion, or ticket_form_id=40875106377627 for a copy of your data. Imgur says it may request information to verify your identity and will respond within the time limits set by UK data protection law, and that it may continue to process limited personal data to comply with legal obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Will Imgur delete my account on its own if I stop using it?+
Possibly. Imgur's Inactive Account Policy asks users to log in at least once per year and states that "accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity." Inactivity is based on a combination of uploading, logging in, public sharing and the date the account was created, and Imgur notes you may not be able to tell whether an account counts as inactive because not all activity is publicly visible. Waiting it out is not a reliable deletion strategy — you have no control over what is removed or when, and nothing guarantees your uploaded images come down.
Related guides
Not sure where else you have accounts?
Scrub scans 150+ platforms with your email and username to find every account tied to you — then gives you removal guides like this one.
Run a free scanNo credit card required · How Scrub works →