How to Close (Delete) Your LinkedIn Account, and What You Lose

Does this match what you see?

• You want to delete your LinkedIn account permanently.
• LinkedIn won’t let you close your Basic account.
• You closed your account by mistake.
• Your profile still shows on Google after closing.

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Based on LinkedIn Help “Close and delete your LinkedIn account”, supplied by the site owner.

Why this happens: the possible causes

Things that can stop you closing your account.

• Premium, a group or a license still activePossible

  LinkedIn says you have to resolve a premium membership, a group you own, or a premium account license before you can close your Basic account.

How to fix it, step by step

Work through these in order. They start with the quickest, safest checks and only move to steps that sign you out or remove data later.

What you lose when you close your account

• Your connections and everything you added to your account.
• Your messages, plus all recommendations and endorsements you’ve given or received.
• Your profile stops being visible on LinkedIn.
• Your purchase history.
• LinkedIn says your data is deleted as described in section 4.3 of its Privacy Policy.

Reopening a closed account

LinkedIn says you can reopen your account in most cases if it’s been closed for less than 14 days. Even then, these can’t be recovered:

• Endorsements and recommendations
• Ignored or pending invitations
• Followings (Top Voices, companies and so on)
• Group memberships

Can’t close your account?

• LinkedIn says if you have a premium membership, own a LinkedIn group, or have a premium account license, you must resolve those before closing your Basic account. See cancel LinkedIn Premium.
• Enterprise or Recruiter users: LinkedIn says cancelling loses access to your Online Jobs and Recruiter postings, but the Recruiter data stays and the license can be reassigned to someone else.
• “Your LinkedIn account is currently associated with a LinkedIn enterprise account”: LinkedIn says this happens if you’ve bought or used an enterprise product such as Recruiter, Learning or Sales Navigator, often through a current or former employer. Ask that account’s administrator to remove you, then try closing again from your close account settings (external site, opens in a new tab). If you still can’t, or don’t know who the admin is, LinkedIn says to contact support. For a work LinkedIn Learning license, LinkedIn also explains how to disconnect your profile from it (external site, opens in a new tab).
• More than one account? LinkedIn has steps to delete or merge a duplicate account.
• Can’t get into the account? LinkedIn says to regain access to your email or reset your password first.

Hibernate instead: hide your account without deleting it

LinkedIn lets you hibernate your account as an alternative to closing it. You can come back by signing in 24 hours or more later.

What others see while you’re hibernated

• Your profile is hidden from everyone, even your connections, and doesn’t appear in searches, including LinkedIn Recruiter.
• Your posts, comments, messages, and the recommendations and endorsements you gave stay, but show you as “A LinkedIn member”, with a generic icon instead of your photo.

Hibernate your account

1. Click your profile photo at the top of LinkedIn and select Settings & Privacy (or open the hibernate page (external site, opens in a new tab) directly).
2. Under Account management, select Hibernate account.
3. Choose why you’re hibernating.
4. Enter your password and click Hibernate account.

If it says you have actions to complete

LinkedIn says you may first need to pay a balance, hand over group admin roles, or deactivate a LinkedIn Learning or Recruiter license. Do those, click Refresh, then Hibernate. Still stuck? Use the Contact Support button. If your Learning license comes from an employer, LinkedIn shows a Disconnect Learning account option in that list: select it, then Disconnect account next to your company’s name.

Coming back

Sign in with your usual details at least 24 hours after hibernating; you can’t sign in before then. LinkedIn says your connection and follower counts may look off at first, which should settle within 48 hours. Sales Navigator and other LinkedIn Sales Solutions licenses stay active unless your admin removes them, so LinkedIn suggests telling your admins.

Don’t need to delete? Lighter options

• Stop paying but keep your profile: LinkedIn says you can cancel Premium and keep your free Basic account, with your profile and connections. See cancel LinkedIn Premium.
• Fewer emails: LinkedIn says to change how often you get emails and notifications in the Notifications section of Settings & Privacy (in the app, Settings is at the top right of your profile page).

How to know it worked

• Your profile no longer appears on LinkedIn.

Still not working? Your next steps

1. Restricted instead of closed? See LinkedIn account restricted.

Frequently asked questions