How to Delete Your Amazon Account (and What Goes With It)

To delete your Amazon account, sign in, open Amazon’s help pages and find the request to close your account, choose a reason and submit it. Amazon then asks you to confirm by email or text, and the account isn’t closed until you do. Before you start, finish any open orders, returns and refunds, spend your gift card balance, cancel Prime and other subscriptions, and request a copy of your data, because closing is permanent and takes your digital purchases with it.

This guide covers the order of operations that protects your money, what closing actually removes, what Amazon keeps, and how to check the account is gone.

Why close an Amazon account at all

An Amazon account holds a detailed picture of your life: every address you’ve shipped to, payment cards, years of purchases, what you’ve browsed, what you’ve asked Alexa, and sometimes what your doorbell camera recorded. For most people that’s a convenience. For someone leaving an abusive relationship, moving to protect their privacy, or cleaning up after a hacked account, it’s a lot of personal data in one place.

There’s a public side too. Reviews, questions and answers, lists you made public and a public profile can carry your name. If an old account has reviews you’d rather not have attached to you, closing it is one way to remove them at once.

If your real concern is a hacked account, close nothing yet. Secure it first with our Amazon hacked guide, then decide whether you still want to leave.

Close or just clean up?

Closing isn’t the only option. Depending on your goal, a smaller step may do the job.

Goal	Lighter option	When to close instead
Stop spending or cancel Prime	Cancel Prime and remove saved cards	You don’t plan to shop there again
Hide an embarrassing review	Edit or delete that review	Many reviews or questions you want gone
Hide order history from family	Archive orders, leave a shared Household	You need a clean break from shared devices
Reduce data collection	Clear browsing history, Alexa recordings and ad settings	You want the whole record gone

What you lose when you close your Amazon account

Amazon shows what’s affected before you confirm. Expect it to include:

• Order history and returns. You lose access to past orders, invoices and the ability to start returns or warranty claims through the account.
• Digital purchases. Kindle books, Prime Video purchases, Amazon Music downloads and apps bought through Amazon become inaccessible.
• Balances. Gift card and promotional balances tied to the account are lost.
• Subscriptions. Prime and other Amazon memberships end.
• Stored content. Amazon Photos libraries and similar storage go with the account.
• Your contributions. Reviews, questions and answers, and customer images are typically removed along with the account.
• Devices. Echo, Kindle, Fire and Ring devices registered to the account stop working as they did, or need a new account.
• Linked logins. Other services that use your Amazon login, such as Amazon Pay at other stores or partner sites, stop working.

Amazon also runs sites in other countries and several sister services. Closing may affect accounts that share the same login, so read Amazon’s summary carefully. If you sell on Amazon, run an Amazon Web Services account or publish through Amazon, check how those are tied to your login before you close anything. A seller account in particular needs to be wound down on its own terms.

Money matters first

1. Finish orders, returns and refunds. Wait until every package has arrived and every refund has landed on your card. Amazon may not process a closure while orders are pending.
2. Spend your gift card balance. Any balance left on the account when it closes is lost. Buy something you need or accept the loss knowingly.
3. Cancel Prime and other subscriptions. Cancel Prime, Kindle Unlimited, Audible if linked, Prime Video channels and Subscribe and Save deliveries. Note the date each one ends.
4. Check Amazon store cards. A store credit card is a separate financial account with its bank. Closing your Amazon account doesn’t close the card or clear its balance. Contact the card issuer directly.
5. Remove or record payment methods. Note which cards were saved so you can watch for unexpected charges later.

Download your data first

Amazon lets you request a copy of your personal information through its privacy pages. You pick the categories, such as orders, Alexa voice recordings and Kindle data, and Amazon sends a download link once it’s ready. It can take a while.

While you wait, save anything you’ll need later: invoices for expensive items still under warranty, receipts for tax or insurance, and any messages with sellers about a dispute. Kindle books you bought generally can’t be exported as normal files, so treat those as lost.

How to close your Amazon account

Amazon moves its menus around, so these steps describe the route in general terms.

1. Sign in to the Amazon account you want to close, ideally on a computer.
2. Go to Amazon’s help pages and search for closing your account, or look for the close-account request in your account’s data and privacy settings.
3. Read the list of what will be affected. Choose a reason and confirm that you understand the closure is permanent.
4. Submit the request. Amazon sends a confirmation email or text.
5. Respond to that confirmation. The account isn’t closed until you do, and the confirmation link may expire if you wait too long.

If you can’t sign in, use Amazon’s official password reset and account recovery options first. Nobody outside Amazon can close the account for you, and people who contact you offering to “handle” an Amazon account are usually running a scam.

What Amazon may keep

Retailers have legal reasons to keep some records after an account closes. Expect Amazon to hold on to things like transaction records, tax and accounting information, and data needed to prevent fraud or resolve disputes. It doesn’t mean your shopping history stays visible to anyone. It means the company keeps what it’s required or permitted to keep.

If you’re in a state or country with privacy laws that give you access and deletion rights, you can ask what’s held. Our guide to making a data subject access request explains how.

How to check it worked

1. Look for Amazon’s email confirming the account is closed. Keep it.
2. Try signing in with the old email and password. You should not reach the account.
3. Check your bank and card statements over the next couple of billing cycles for Prime or subscription charges.
4. Look up a product you reviewed. Your review should no longer show under your name, though pages can take time to update.
5. Reset or re-register any Echo, Kindle or Ring devices you still own, or wipe them before giving them away.

A worked example

This scenario is illustrative, not a real client. Marcus shared an Amazon account with an ex-partner who still knows the password and can see the delivery address of his new apartment.

1. He changes the password and signs out of all devices first, so his ex can’t see anything new.
2. He waits for two pending returns to be refunded, spends the gift card balance on household basics and cancels Prime.
3. He requests his data and saves invoices for a laptop still under warranty.
4. He opens a fresh Amazon account under a new email, with a different address and no shared Household.
5. He submits the close request on the old account and confirms it from the email. The confirmation email arrives, and his old login no longer works.

If you’re leaving a situation where someone may be tracking you, our help resources page lists organizations that can help with safety planning.

Common mistakes

• Closing with a balance. Gift card money on a closed account is gone.
• Closing before refunds land. You lose the easy way to follow up on a missing refund.
• Forgetting the confirmation step. Submitting the request isn’t enough; you have to confirm it.
• Assuming a store card closes too. It’s a separate account with the bank.
• Forgetting Kindle books. Years of purchases can’t simply be moved elsewhere.

Closing an account is one piece of a wider cleanup. Our guide to cleaning up your digital footprint covers the rest, and our personal reputation management service helps when the problem is content about you that you don’t control.

Frequently asked questions

Can I reopen a closed Amazon account?

Treat closure as permanent. Amazon describes account closure as permanent, and your digital purchases and balances don’t come back. You can open a new account, but it starts empty.

Does deleting my Amazon account delete my reviews?

Closing the account typically removes your reviews, questions and answers, and customer images. If you only want a few reviews gone, you can delete them individually and keep the account.

Will closing my Amazon account cancel Prime?

Prime ends when the account closes, but cancel it yourself first so you know exactly when billing stops and whether any refund applies.

Does closing my Amazon account close my Amazon credit card?

No. A store or co-branded card is a separate account with the issuing bank. Contact the card issuer to close it or pay it off.