Close My Account

Closing your account deletes all of the sites you own and all their contents. After a few weeks, the data will be entirely purged from our system and at this point the process cannot be reversed.

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How to Delete Your Account

You can permanently close your WordPress.com account from the bottom of your Account Settings screen:

This not only shuts down your username, it deletes all the WordPress.com sites you own and all their contents. After a few weeks, this data will be entirely purged from our servers and the process cannot be reversed. Therefore, please be certain you want to cancel your entire WordPress.com presence before proceeding.

If you do not see the “Close your account permanently” option, this means you have an active plan or domain on your account. You can cancel/delete these through the Purchases section of your account.

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Alternatives to Closing an Account

You may also consider less drastic steps:

• Change your username if you are unhappy with it. Deleting an account will not release the username for use later.
• Empty a site of its posts, pages, and media.
• Delete an individual site.
• Unsubscribe from WordPress.com email notifications, by going to your subscription settings and checking the box that says Block all email updates from blogs you’re following on WordPress.com.

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Cancel Purchases First

If you have a WordPress.com plan or other upgrade, you will need to cancel active purchases before you can close your account. This can be done on the Purchases of your account. Some sites on our Business plan may need to contact support to complete an account closure.

Learn more about managing purchases as well as cancelling and removing subscriptions from your account here.

WooCommerce.com Purchases

WordPress.com accounts are also used to manage WooCommerce.com purchases, tickets and subscriptions. Therefore, closing your account may close off your access to WooCommerce assets. You can check the information in your WooCommerce.com dashboard for your account, before you close, to ensure you are not unintentionally deleting something you want to keep.

Gravatar.com

WordPress.com accounts are also used to manage your Gravatar at Gravatar.com. Closing your WordPress.com account will also result in the removal of your Gravatar.com account. As a result, any Gravatar images currently displayed with your profile or comments you have made in the past will be removed.

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Usernames Cannot be Re-used After Closure

While all data associated with an account is removed during a closure, the username is blocked from being registered again, in order to prevent impersonation.

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Re-using an Email Address

When you delete your account, your email address remains in our system for 30 days. This means that you cannot use your account’s email address to sign up for a new WordPress.com account. Once the 30 days have passed and your account is purged, your email will be free to use with a new account.

Each WordPress.com account must have a unique email address. If you change the email address on your account to something else, it will free up the email address for you to use with a new account.

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Account Restoration

It is possible to reverse an account closure during the first 30 days after an account is closed. If you realize you closed your account in error, please contact us immediately. We will be able to assist you in reopening your account during this 30-day window. Once the 30 days have passed, all of your sites and account data are purged and cannot be restored.