Delete your account

Closing your WordPress.com account deletes every site you own and retires your username permanently. Before you can close it, you must remove—not only cancel—every active purchase on the account, including any domain you registered.

You cannot close an account that still has active purchases on it. Canceling a purchase is not enough: canceling turns off auto-renewal, but the purchase stays on your account until its expiry date. You must remove each purchase, which ends it immediately and takes it off your account.

Complete these three steps in order, then close the account:

1. Export the content of any site you want to keep a copy of, or download a backup. Closing your account deletes every site you own.
2. Cancel and remove every subscription listed in your Active Upgrades, including plans, email, and add-ons. Removing a subscription refunds the eligible amount if it is still inside its refund period.
3. Remove or transfer every domain you registered. Canceling a domain turns off auto-renewal but keeps it registered to you until its expiry date, so the domain stays on your account and therefore your account must remain open. Transfer the domain to another registrar if you want to keep the domain name, or cancel and remove it to give it up.

Once all purchases are removed, your Active Upgrades list will be empty, and you can proceed to close your account:

Once you have removed every active purchase, follow these steps to close your WordPress.com account:

1. Hover over your name at the top right corner of any screen while logged into WordPress.com.
2. Select the “My WordPress.com account” button:

3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the “Delete your account permanently” option:

4. You will receive an email with instructions to restore your account. Keep this email in case you want to restore your account within 30 days.

Our support team cannot delete your account on your behalf. If you’ve lost access to your account, see our account recovery guide.

When you close your account, the following changes occur:

• All your sites and content will be deleted.
• You will not be billed for any further charges (you must remove your subscriptions before you can delete your account).
• You will not be able to reuse your email address for a new account for 30 days.
• After 30 days, all data associated with your account will be purged from our servers and cannot be reversed.
• Your account username will be unavailable forever to prevent impersonation.
• You will not be able to log in to any other Automattic services that use your WordPress.com account as a login, including WooCommerce.com, Crowdsignal.com, IntenseDebate.com, and Gravatar.com.
• Comments you’ve left on other WordPress.com sites will not be deleted when you close your account. To request removal of those comments, contact the site owner directly.

Note: Closing your WordPress.com account also affects other Automattic services. Before proceeding, consider your use of the following services:

• WooCommerce.com: Check your WooCommerce dashboard for purchases and support history you want to keep.
• Gravatar: Your profile images will be removed from all sites.
• Akismet: Your Akismet account will be closed as well.
• Jetpack: Self-hosted sites will disconnect from Jetpack. Approximately 30 days after Jetpack disconnects, your data will be removed from our servers. For some features like Jetpack’s Site Accelerator feature, your images and static files may be removed from our CDN sooner. Download backups if you have a backup plan.

Before closing your account permanently, review these alternatives:

• Cancel your purchases to ensure no future charges from WordPress.com. Your site stays online as a free site, and you keep your account and username.

• Delete a site in your account, but keep your account.
• Reset your site for a fresh start and continue using the same address.
• Transfer your site to another WordPress.com account.

• Change your username if you are unhappy with it.
• Change your email address.
• Reuse an existing email address.
• Create a new site in your existing account.
• Unsubscribe from WordPress.com email notifications.

If you closed your WordPress.com account in error, you can restore the account within 30 days. After 30 days, the account and all of its associated data are purged from our system and cannot be recovered.

To restore a closed account:

1. Locate the email you received when you closed your account (subject: “Your account [username] has been deleted”).
2. Open this email and click the “Restore account” button in the email.
3. On the confirmation screen, click the “I made a mistake! Restore my account” link.
4. On the next screen, log into your restored account.
5. Optionally, visit your Hosting Dashboard to restore any sites that were deleted when you closed your account.

If you are unable to locate the email or restore your account, please contact us immediately. We will assist you in reopening your account during this 30-day window. However, once the 30 days have passed, all your sites and account data are purged and cannot be restored.

I canceled my plan but I still can’t close my account. What’s left?

A canceled subscription still counts as active until its expiry date, so canceling does not clear the way to close your account. Open your Active Upgrades and remove everything still listed there. A domain is the most common leftover.

Can I close my account if I still own a domain?

You cannot close your account while the domain is still on your account. Canceling the domain is not enough, because a canceled domain stays registered to you until its expiry date. Transfer the domain to another registrar if you want to keep the name, or remove it to give it up. If transferring the domain, you must wait until the transfer completes before you can close your account.

I see “This plan was purchased by a different WordPress.com account.” How do I cancel it?

Only the account that bought a subscription can cancel it. Log in to the account that made the purchase and cancel it there. If you do not know which account that is, or you no longer have access to it, recover your account. See cancellation errors for the other causes of this message.

I deleted my site. Is my account closed too?

No. Deleting a site removes that site only. Your account still exists, your username is still taken, and any domain you registered is still registered to you and may still renew. To remove the account as well, follow the steps on this page.