How to delete your LinkedIn account

LinkedIn's help page lists a few things to sort out first:

• Download a copy of your data. Once the account is closed, you can't get to it.
• Cancel Premium, and close or hand over any LinkedIn group you own. LinkedIn says you have to resolve Premium, group ownership and Premium licences before the free account can close.
• If you only want fewer emails, change the frequency under Notifications in Settings & Privacy instead.
• If you signed up with Google, Apple or Microsoft, unlink LinkedIn on that provider's site too.
• If you manage a company Page, add another admin first. LinkedIn's close-account page doesn't say what happens to Pages you look after.

Sources: LinkedIn Help: Close and delete your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Download your data, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Add admins on your LinkedIn Page, checked 15 October 2026

On desktop:

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

• In the app: tap your profile picture, then Settings, then Account preferences. Tap Close account under Account management, tap Continue, choose a reason, tap Next, enter your password and tap Done.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Close and delete your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026

Closing deletes your profile and your access to everything on it:

• You lose your connections, messages, recommendations and endorsements, and your purchase history.
• Your profile is no longer visible on LinkedIn. LinkedIn says the public profile can take up to 72 hours to go, and search engines may show it for longer.
• Your custom profile URL becomes available to others 180 days after the account closes.
• In most cases you can reopen the account within 14 days. Endorsements, recommendations, ignored or pending invitations, followings and group memberships aren't restored.

Sources: LinkedIn Help: Close and delete your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Profile displays incorrectly in search tool results, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Manage your public profile URL, checked 15 October 2026

Hibernation hides your account without deleting it. To turn it on:

1. Click your profile photo and select Settings & Privacy.
2. Select Hibernate account under Account management.
3. Choose why you're hibernating.
4. Enter your password and click Hibernate account.

• Nobody can see your profile, not even connections, and it doesn't appear in LinkedIn searches, including Recruiter.
• Your posts, comments, messages and recommendations stay, shown as from "A LinkedIn member".
• An active Premium subscription is cancelled straight away. If you paid through Apple, cancel with Apple as well.
• To come back, sign in again at least 24 hours later. Connection and follower counts can look wrong for up to 48 hours.
• You may first need to pay balances, hand over group admin roles, or deactivate a LinkedIn Learning or Recruiter licence.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Hibernate your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026

Search for your name on LinkedIn. A profile with your details but without the You label is a duplicate:

• To merge two accounts, you need to sign in to both, know both public profile URLs and have both primary emails confirmed. Then contact LinkedIn.
• A merge only moves the connections and email address of the account you close. Profile content, endorsements, recommendations, saved articles, group memberships and pending invitations don't move.
• Accounts with no connections, or more than 30,000, can't be merged, and InMail credits are lost. Cancel Premium, job posts, ad campaigns and upcoming events, and close or transfer groups, first.
• If the duplicate has no connections, just close it, wait 48 hours, then add its email address to the account you're keeping.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Merge or close duplicate accounts, checked 15 October 2026

Common problems:

Sources: LinkedIn Help: Close and delete your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Hibernate your LinkedIn account, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Merge or close duplicate accounts, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is our own product, so weigh this section with that in mind. If the profile you're closing is connected to Zolyp, connect the account you're keeping, or a company Page you manage, under Connections. LinkedIn is one of the 9 platforms it publishes to (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads), and you approve the week before anything goes live. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial.