How to Delete a LinkedIn Account

Closing is LinkedIn's word for deleting, and it permanently deletes your profile and removes your access to your LinkedIn information. This guide on how to delete a LinkedIn account covers the desktop and mobile click paths, the jobs to finish first and the 14 day window for changing your mind. Every fact comes from three Help articles, which we read on 29 October 2026.

How to Delete a LinkedIn Account on Desktop

LinkedIn Help puts the setting under Account preferences. Six clicks on a computer finish the job.

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click Settings & Privacy.
3. Under Account management in Account preferences, click Change next to Close account.
4. Choose the reason you are leaving.
5. Click Next and enter your password.
6. Click Close account.

Your 14 day reopen window starts when the account closes. Read the next two sections before you click the last button.

How to Delete a LinkedIn Account on the Mobile App

Mobile starts from your profile picture. LinkedIn Help lists seven taps for the mobile tabs.

1. Tap your profile picture.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Account preferences.
4. Under Account management, tap Close account.
5. Tap Continue.
6. Tap the reason you are leaving, then tap Next.
7. Enter your password and tap Done.

What You Lose When You Close a LinkedIn Account

LinkedIn Help names five losses from closing, and it handles your data under section 4.3 of the Privacy Policy.

• Your profile stops showing on LinkedIn.
• You lose access to your connections and the information you added.
• Recommendations and endorsements you gave and received are deleted.
• Your messages are deleted.
• Your purchase history is no longer accessible.

Help suggests downloading a copy of your data before you close. Do that while you can still log in, because the closed account gives you nothing to download.

What to Settle Before You Close Your Account

LinkedIn Help names five items to deal with first. The first three block the close until you resolve them.

• A Premium membership. You can cancel Premium and keep the free Basic account, and our Premium worth it guide helps you decide.
• A LinkedIn group you own.
• A premium account license.
• A duplicate account. If you created more than one account, delete or merge the extra one, which our guide to managing multiple LinkedIn accounts covers.
• A sign in through Google, Apple or Microsoft. Unlink that email account from LinkedIn on the third party's site.

If you only want fewer emails, Notifications settings is the smaller fix. Closing is the way to delete a LinkedIn account when you want the profile gone.

How Long can You Reopen a Deleted LinkedIn Account?

LinkedIn Help says it can reopen an account closed less than 14 days ago in most cases. After 14 days it cannot. Both the close article and the reopen article give the same 14 days.

To reopen, try to log in with your registered email and password and click Reactivate, then confirm by email. You can also use the link in the closure email. A reopen is partial, as this table shows.

Recommendations and endorsements are the sharpest loss. They are deleted when you close and they stay gone when you reopen.

Hibernate Instead of Deleting

Hibernating is the alternative LinkedIn offers when you want out of sight but not out for good. Your profile turns invisible to everyone including your connections, and it drops out of searches including Recruiter. Recommendations, messages, posts and comments remain and show A LinkedIn member in place of your name.

You can reactivate 24 hours after hibernating by logging in. Connection and follower counts can show wrong numbers for up to 48 hours after that. The table sets the two routes side by side.

Premium ends the moment you hibernate and promo pricing is not always honored on return. If you bought Premium through Apple, cancel with Apple too. These five steps hibernate an account.

1. Click your profile photo.
2. Click Settings & Privacy.
3. Click Hibernate account under Account management.
4. Choose a reason.
5. Enter your password and click Hibernate account.

Will Google Still Show Your LinkedIn Profile?

Yahoo, Bing and Google can still show your information for a while after you close. LinkedIn Help calls it temporary and gives no number of days, and search engines update on their own schedule.

How to Delete a LinkedIn Account You Cannot Access

Closing needs your password, and LinkedIn Help gives no way to close without signing in. For a locked account it points to its email access and password reset help. Regain the login first and then use the desktop or mobile steps above.

If you joined with Google, Apple or Microsoft, remember to unlink the email account on that company's site after you close.

Starting Over After You Delete a LinkedIn Account

Starting over means a fresh account, and nothing returns from the closed one. Our account creation guide covers sign-up, and the beginner plan for LinkedIn helps you rebuild connections and a profile.

What is Still Unconfirmed

No live account was closed for this guide, which sets the label at Checked. LinkedIn updated the close article a year before we read it. A button name on your screen can differ.

Help gives no figure for final deletion after the 14 days end or for search engines dropping your profile. We also did not read LinkedIn's separate article on deleting your data. This guide says nothing about it.

Where This Guide Fits

Closing, hibernating and merging accounts sit together in LinkedIn Premium and Multiple Accounts in the LinkedIn section.

The editorial policy explains how we label what we checked.

Sources

• LinkedIn Help: Close and delete your LinkedIn account, read 29 October 2026, the desktop and mobile steps and what to settle before closing.
• LinkedIn Help: Reopen your account, read 29 October 2026, the 14 day window and what does not come back.
• LinkedIn Help: Hibernate your LinkedIn account, read 29 October 2026, the hibernate steps and the 24 hour wait.

This guide is labelled Checked. We compared every step and number with the three Help articles above and did not close a live account. How we label guides explains the three labels.