How to Delete a Reddit Account (and Your Posts With It)

To delete a Reddit account, open your settings on the Reddit website or app, go to the account section, choose the option to delete your account, give your username and password, and confirm. But deleting the account on its own doesn’t delete your posts and comments. They usually stay up, with the author shown as deleted instead of your username. If you want your history gone, delete your posts and comments first, then delete the account.

That order matters more on Reddit than on almost any other platform, because Reddit threads are public, heavily indexed by search engines, and widely copied. This guide covers how to delete a Reddit account properly, from saving your data to dealing with old threads that turn up in Google. If you also answered questions on Quora, our guide to deleting a Quora account covers that site.

What deleting your Reddit account does and doesn’t do

	After account deletion
Your username	Removed from your profile and replaced on your old content; you can’t reuse or recover it
Your profile page	No longer available
Posts and comments you didn’t delete	Usually remain visible, without your username attached
Private messages and chats	May remain in the other person’s inbox
Communities you moderate	You’re removed as a moderator
Copies on other sites	Unaffected

The practical point: if a comment could identify you from its content, such as your city, employer, a photo or a story only you would tell, deleting the account won’t hide it. Only deleting the comment itself does that. Our guide on how to delete Reddit comments walks through the options.

Reddit also doesn’t offer a temporary deactivation in the way Facebook or LinkedIn do. Account deletion is permanent. If you just want a break, log out, uninstall the app and turn off email notifications.

Before you delete your Reddit account

Request a copy of your data

Reddit lets you request a copy of the data it holds about you, through its settings or its official data request process. The export can include your post and comment history, votes, messages and account details. It’s useful for two reasons: you keep a record, and it gives you a complete list of everything you posted, which makes the clean-up step much easier. Request it early, since it can take a while to arrive.

Cancel Premium and step down as a moderator

• If you pay for Reddit Premium, cancel it through the store or payment method you used, so billing stops.
• If you moderate a community, hand it over to another moderator before you leave. Communities without active moderators can be restricted or taken over by others.
• Check for apps or websites where you use “Sign in with Reddit” and move them to another login. If you’re leaving because someone got into the account, secure it first with our Reddit account hacked guide.

Decide what to delete

Not every post needs to go. Helpful answers and harmless hobby threads are fine to leave without your name on them. Focus on anything that could identify you or that you’d struggle to explain: arguments, personal stories, posts about your employer, and anything in communities you wouldn’t want linked to your name.

How to delete your Reddit posts and comments

1. Go to your profile and open the posts tab.
2. Open the menu on each post and choose delete. Confirm when asked.
3. Switch to the comments tab and delete comments the same way.
4. Check your saved and hidden items and any images you uploaded to your profile.
5. Refresh your profile after a while to confirm deletions have gone through.

Reddit doesn’t offer a built-in bulk delete. If you have years of history, this can take a long time by hand. Profile pages may only show recent history, which is another reason the data export helps: it lists older items so you can find them by searching Reddit for the thread directly.

Some people edit a comment to blank text before deleting it, on the theory that it replaces any cached version. Deleting is what matters on Reddit itself. Editing first doesn’t hurt, but it won’t reach copies that were already made.

How to delete your Reddit account

Reddit keeps the delete option in the account section of its settings, on both the website and the app. Labels change, so treat these steps as a general route and check Reddit’s help center if something looks different.

1. Sign in to the account you want to delete.
2. Open Settings from your profile menu.
3. Go to the account section and scroll to the option to delete your account.
4. Enter your username and password, and optionally a reason.
5. Confirm the deletion. Reddit explains that it can’t be undone.

Reddit states that deleted accounts can’t be recovered, and the username can’t be registered again by you or anyone else. Like most platforms, Reddit may retain some data for legal, safety or business reasons, as its privacy policy describes.

Old Reddit threads in Google and on archive sites

Reddit threads rank well in Google, so a thread can keep appearing after you’ve deleted your comment. Once your deletions have gone through, search for your username and any distinctive phrases in a private browser window.

• Deleted content still in Google: if the result now shows your comment as deleted, Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool can ask Google to update the snippet. Our guide to removing outdated content from Google shows how.
• Archive and mirror sites: some sites copy Reddit content. Each has its own removal process, and results vary. Contact them directly through the site’s own contact or removal page.
• Screenshots: a screenshot posted elsewhere is someone else’s content on another platform. You can report it if it breaks that platform’s rules, for example if it shares your private information.

If the problem is a thread someone else wrote about you, deleting your own account won’t help. Our guide on how to remove a Reddit post covers reporting, moderators and Reddit’s own removal channels.

If you can’t log in

You need access to delete an account. If you’ve forgotten your password, reset it from Reddit’s login page using the email on the account. If you don’t remember the username, Reddit’s login page also has a “forgot username” route that sends it to your email.

If you never added an email and can’t remember the password, recovery is difficult, and Reddit’s help center is the only official route to ask. In that case, focus on what you can control: request removal of specific content that identifies you through Reddit’s help center, particularly if it includes personal information. If your account was hacked, use Reddit’s official help center to report it; don’t respond to anyone offering paid “recovery” in messages.

A worked example

This scenario is illustrative, not a real client. Jordan used the same Reddit username for eight years, including in communities about their workplace and their health. A new colleague mentioned recognizing the username from a thread, and Jordan decided to leave Reddit.

1. Jordan requests their data from Reddit and uses the export to list about three hundred posts and comments.
2. They sort the list into three groups: harmless hobby comments, anything mentioning work or health, and anything else identifying. They delete the second and third groups by hand over a week.
3. They hand moderation of a small community to another moderator and cancel Premium.
4. They delete the account from Reddit’s settings.
5. Searching the old username a month later, they find two Google results showing deleted comments in snippets and one archive site copy. They use the outdated content tool for the first two and contact the archive site for the third.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the account first. Once the account is gone, you can’t delete the posts and comments it left behind.
• Assuming anonymity. A username with no real name can still be linked to you through what you wrote.
• Reusing the same username elsewhere. If the Reddit username matches your gaming or social accounts, search engines connect them. Our guide to cleaning up your digital footprint covers this.
• Handing account access to unknown tools. A bulk deleter with your password can do more than delete.
• Forgetting old accounts. Many people have more than one Reddit account. Check old email inboxes for Reddit sign-up messages.

If a Reddit thread about you, or copies of your old posts, keeps showing up for your name, our content removal service can review what’s removable and what’s better handled by pushing it down.

Frequently asked questions

Does deleting my Reddit account delete my posts and comments?

No. Posts and comments usually stay visible, with the author shown as deleted instead of your username. Delete the content you want gone before you delete the account.

Can I recover a deleted Reddit account?

No. Reddit states that account deletion is permanent, and the username can’t be reused or recovered.

Can I deactivate Reddit temporarily?

Reddit doesn’t offer a temporary deactivation. If you want a break, log out and turn off notifications instead of deleting the account.

How do I get my Reddit posts out of Google?

Delete the post or comment on Reddit first, then use Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool if an old snippet lingers after the page has changed.