How to delete your Microsoft Account account

Yes, but only inside the window you chose. Go to account.microsoft.com and sign in; you'll be asked to receive and enter a security code, and the account reopens. Microsoft says "Subscriptions, profiles, and content that were on the account prior to closing will be available to you, including rewards points, Xbox profile gamertag, Gamerscore, and purchased content." Two catches, both in Microsoft's own wording: you "won't get back the time that passed while your account was pending closure", and "if you cancelled any subscriptions outright, or if your subscription time has run out, you'll need to repurchase the subscription." Once the 30 or 60 days pass, Microsoft cannot retrieve a deleted account — there is no appeal.

This is an anti-hijack measure, not a bug. Microsoft's support article states that if you have reset all your sign-in verification details (security info such as phone numbers and backup emails), you must "wait 60 days" before closing your account. The logic is that an attacker who just seized an account by resetting its recovery info shouldn't be able to immediately destroy it. Microsoft documents no way to shorten this wait, and separately notes that to protect accounts its support agents are not allowed to send password reset links or access and change account details.

Mostly no, so spend it first. Microsoft's gift card terms say "If we close your Microsoft account, we will refund to you any remaining balance to the extent required by law" — and add "However, we won't refund any promotional balance." So refunds depend entirely on whether your local law compels one, promotional balance is never returned, and Microsoft reserves the right to withhold funds where it suspects fraud or misuse. This is exactly why the pre-closure checklist tells you to spend your balance before you start.

No — and this is the most expensive mistake people make. Cancel every subscription before you mark the account for closure. Microsoft's own guidance for the retired Skype service spelled out the mechanism: "If you have Auto-recharge enabled and cancel your account without first cancelling your subscription, you will continue to be charged until your account has been permanently closed in 60 days." The same principle applies to any recurring Microsoft billing — marking the account for closure does not stop the charges during the re-open window. Subscriptions bought through a third-party store must be cancelled where you originally purchased them.

They go with the account. The Microsoft Services Agreement states that on closure "your right to use the Microsoft account to access the Services stops immediately", that you may lose access to products you've acquired, and that closure "may result in forfeiture of content licenses, associated content, memberships, and Microsoft account balances associated with the account." Your gamertag, Gamerscore, achievements and cloud saves are part of the profile being deleted. Microsoft confirms they are all restored if you reopen inside the 30/60-day window — but after that the purchases are gone, and Microsoft provides no mechanism to transfer a digital library to another account.

No. Microsoft's article is blunt: to close an account, you need to be able to sign in. If you can't, you must go through the Sign-in helper at support.microsoft.com to recover access first, and Microsoft notes that to protect accounts its support agents are not allowed to send password reset links or access and change account details. If you genuinely cannot recover it, one fallback is Microsoft's account activity policy: an account you don't sign in to within a two-year period (or one locked for more than two years) is considered inactive and will be closed. But that is unreliable — an unspent gift-card or credit balance, an active subscription, a Microsoft certification, apps or games published to the Microsoft Store, money Microsoft owes you, or having given parental consent for a minor's account all keep the account alive.

You can, in two ways. If you sign in to Windows with this Microsoft account, convert that PC to a local account before closing, or you may be locked out at the login screen. More seriously, Microsoft's own Outlook.com closure notice warns "You will also lose access to any saved BitLocker recovery keys" — if your drive is BitLocker-encrypted and the recovery key is only escrowed to the Microsoft account, losing that key can make the drive permanently unreadable. Print or save the key from your account before you start.

Skype no longer exists as a separate consumer service. Microsoft states "As of May 5th, 2025, Skype is retired", and skype.com now redirects to Teams Free. Existing Skype credentials became Teams Free logins, and remaining Skype Credit and calling subscriptions could be used through the Dial Pad in Teams Free. The separate Skype data export route has also closed: Microsoft's deadline for submitting requests through the Skype Export Portal was June 2026, and deletion of Skype data began 1 April 2026. There is nothing Skype-specific left to cancel or export before closing your Microsoft account — check "Services & subscriptions" for any calling subscription that still bills you.