How to delete your LinkedIn account
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform with more than 1 billion members, owned by Microsoft since 2016. LinkedIn stores your full work history, education, skills, endorsements, connections, every InMail and message, search history, who viewed your profile, and (for Premium users) analytics on prospects. Closing the account is one of the cleaner deletion flows among major platforms — most data is fully removed within 30 days.
Delete your LinkedIn account, step by step
- 1Log in to linkedin.com (closure is hidden on the mobile app)
- 2Click your profile photo in the top nav > 'Settings & Privacy'
- 3Go to 'Account preferences' > 'Account management' > 'Close account'
- 4Choose a reason and click 'Next'
- 5Re-enter your password
- 6Click 'Close account'
- 7Your profile is removed from search within 24 hours and fully deleted after 30 days
What actually happens when you delete
Gets removed
- ✓Your profile, headline, work history, skills, and endorsements
- ✓All connections, followers, and connection requests
- ✓Sent and received messages (recipients keep their copy)
- ✓Recommendations you wrote and received
- ✓Saved jobs, job alerts, and applications
Stays behind
- ✗Messages you sent persist in the recipients' inboxes
- ✗Recommendations you wrote may stay on the receiver's profile (as 'LinkedIn Member')
- ✗Posts you authored may persist as cached content on Google and the Internet Archive for weeks
- ✗Group posts re-attributed to 'LinkedIn Member'
- ✗Data LinkedIn retains for legal, billing, and fraud-prevention purposes (up to several years)
Before you delete
Cancel LinkedIn Premium, Learning, or Recruiter subscriptions FIRST — closing the account doesn't stop the billing on third-party subscriptions like ones managed through iOS or Android. If you run a Company Page, transfer ownership to another admin first or the page risks being orphaned. Connections aren't notified when you close, but they will see you disappear from their network.
Download your data from LinkedIn first
Most platforms only honor a data-export request while the account is still active. Do this before you delete.
- 1Go to Settings & Privacy > 'Data privacy' > 'Get a copy of your data'
- 2Select 'Want something in particular?' for specific files or 'The works' for everything
- 3Click 'Request archive'
- 4Re-enter your password
- 5A fast archive (basic profile info) is ready in about 10 minutes; the full archive arrives within 24 hours
- 6You'll get an email with the download link
Want to take a break instead? Deactivate
Deactivation hides your profile without permanently destroying it. Logging back in restores everything.
- 1Go to Settings & Privacy > 'Account preferences' > 'Account management' > 'Hibernate account'
- 2Pick a reason and confirm with your password
- 3Your profile is hidden from search and connections, recoverable any time within ~20 days by logging back in
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.
LinkedIn deletion FAQs
How long does it take to fully delete a LinkedIn account?+
Your profile is removed from LinkedIn search within about 24 hours and from most LinkedIn systems within 30 days. Some data is kept longer for legal and fraud-prevention reasons but isn't accessible to you or other users.
Can I recover my LinkedIn account after closing it?+
Within 20 days of closure you can email LinkedIn support and they can usually restore the account. After 20 days the restoration is no longer possible and you'd have to start a new account from scratch.
Will my recommendations disappear from other people's profiles?+
Recommendations you wrote stay on the recipient's profile but lose your name — they're re-attributed to 'LinkedIn Member'. Recommendations written about you are deleted with your profile.
What's the difference between hibernating and closing my LinkedIn account?+
Hibernation hides your profile but keeps all data intact — log back in within about 20 days to restore it. Closure starts permanent deletion. If you're not sure, hibernate first.
Will deleting LinkedIn cancel my Premium or LinkedIn Learning subscription?+
Only if you bought it directly through LinkedIn. Premium subscriptions purchased through iOS or Android, or LinkedIn Learning licenses provided by your employer or a college, will keep billing or persist separately.
Will my old LinkedIn URL still show up in Google?+
Cached copies can stay in Google search results for weeks. After closure, you can submit a removal request through Google Search Console once linkedin.com returns a 404 for your old profile path.
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