How to Delete Your LinkedIn Account

LinkedIn closes your account immediately, but search engines may cache your profile for weeks.

What LinkedIn keeps after deletion

  • Recommendations you gave others remain on their profiles unless removed first.
  • InMails you sent stay in recipients' inboxes.

Steps to delete your LinkedIn account

  1. Export your data. Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → Get a copy of your data.
  2. Open Close account. Settings & Privacy → Account preferences → Account management → Close account.
  3. Confirm the reason and password. Pick a reason, enter your password, and submit.

Gotchas to watch for

  • Premium subscriptions must be cancelled first or you keep getting billed.
  • Before closing, turn off data sharing: Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → How LinkedIn uses your data → 'Manage your data and activity' and disable third-party data sharing and advertising data — closing the account alone does not retroactively pull data already shared with partners.

What deleting your LinkedIn account doesn't fix

Closing the account stops the flow of new data. It does not retrieve what has already left. Anything LinkedIn shared with advertising or analytics partners before you deleted stays with those partners, and anything that reached a data broker stays in the broker's database.

That is why people who delete a dozen accounts still find their home address on people-search sites afterwards. Those sites did not get your address from LinkedIn — they compiled it from public records, marketing lists and each other. Account deletion and broker removal are separate jobs, and doing one does not do the other.

Both are free to do yourself. The opt-out guides on this site cover 45+ brokers step by step, and the deletion steps above cost nothing but time.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to delete a LinkedIn account?

5 min. Difficulty: easy. The full step-by-step process is on this page, and the official deletion page is at https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/63.

What data does LinkedIn keep after you delete your account?

Deletion is rarely total. LinkedIn retains: Recommendations you gave others remain on their profiles unless removed first.; InMails you sent stay in recipients' inboxes.. That is normal across the industry — most retention is for legal, security or fraud-prevention reasons — but it is worth knowing that "delete" does not mean every trace is gone.

Can you recover a deleted LinkedIn account?

Assume not. Some services offer a grace period before deletion finalises, and where LinkedIn does, it is noted in the steps above. Once that window closes the account is gone. Download your data before you start — every major service offers an export, and it takes minutes.

Is deleting my LinkedIn account enough to protect my privacy?

No, and this is the part most guides skip. Deleting the account stops LinkedIn from collecting more, but it does not claw back what was already shared with advertisers, analytics partners or data brokers. If your name, address and phone are published on people-search sites, that stays true after the account is gone — those listings have to be removed separately, which you can do yourself for free.

Rather not do this manually?

Every opt-out on this site is free to do yourself. The catch is that brokers re-list you within months, so it is a recurring job rather than a one-off. These services handle the repetition for you:

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