How to delete your Facebook account
The official route, in the right order: export what you’ll miss, unhook whatever depends on the account, then delete it. Below the steps we’re also straight with you about the part most guides skip — what carries on existing after the account is gone.
To delete a Facebook account, sign in and open the official deletion page at www.facebook.com, after downloading a copy of your data, then confirm. You get a window to undo it — 30 days to cancel; Meta says copies can take up to 90 days to clear its systems — and logging back in during that time cancels the deletion. Deleting the account closes the account. It does not remove your name, address, phone number or relatives from the data-broker and people-search sites that already copied them — those need a separate opt-out.
Delete your Facebook account, step by step
These steps follow Facebook’s own documented process. Official links only: account deletion · data download · deactivate instead.
Download your information first (Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information). Photos, messages and the friend list are gone for good once deletion completes.
Check what else signs in with Facebook: Settings → Apps and websites. Anything using Facebook Login — Spotify, Airbnb, older games — needs an email-and-password login set up before you delete, or you lose those accounts too.
If you run a Page or an ad account, transfer admin rights to someone else. Deleting a personal profile can orphan every Page it solely administers.
Open the official deletion page, choose Delete account, re-enter your password and confirm.
Do not log back in for 30 days. Any login — including a stray Facebook Login on another app — cancels the deletion and you start over.
How long you have to change your mind
30 days to cancel; Meta says copies can take up to 90 days to clear its systems. Worth knowing: a phone or tablet with the app still installed can log itself back in and quietly cancel the deletion. Sign out everywhere, or remove the app, and check your email at the end of the window.
What trips people up with Facebook
- The single biggest trap is Facebook Login: apps you signed into with your Facebook account can become permanently unreachable once the profile is gone, so set an email password on each of them first.
- Messages you sent still sit in other people's inboxes after deletion. Your copy disappears, but their copy of the conversation stays exactly where it was.
- Deleting Facebook does not delete Instagram or WhatsApp, even though Meta owns all three — each has its own separate deletion flow.
Maybe you don’t want to delete it
Deactivating hides your profile, photos and timeline from everyone but keeps Messenger working — it is the reversible option most people actually want.
What still exists after the account is gone
- Messages you sent, in the recipients' inboxes
- Posts and comments other people shared or screenshotted
- Whatever the data brokers already scraped from your public profile — name, age, city, relatives
And the bigger one, which has nothing to do with Facebook: data brokers and people-search sites keep their own profile of you, assembled from public records, marketing lists and scraped social profiles. Your name, age, address history, phone number and relatives sit on those sites whether or not you still have a Facebook account — that’s why people delete everything, search their own name, and find themselves still listed on the first page.
See where I’m listed — free →After deleting: three things worth doing
- Opt out of the broker sites. This is the step that actually shrinks what a stranger can find about you. Our free opt-out guide walks through 190 of them, one by one.
- Check what already leaked. The email and password behind the account may sit in known breach data regardless of whether the account still exists. A free breach check tells you which dumps include it.
- Clean up the search results. Cached pages and old profiles can outlive the account by weeks — see how to clean up your Google results.
Deleting a Facebook account, answered
How do I delete my Facebook account?
Start at Facebook's official deletion page (www.facebook.com) while signed in to the account you want gone. Download a copy of your data first — it stops being available once the account goes. Work through the confirmation steps, then stay logged out: 30 days to cancel; Meta says copies can take up to 90 days to clear its systems.
Can I get my Facebook account back after deleting it?
There is a window: 30 days to cancel; Meta says copies can take up to 90 days to clear its systems. Inside it, signing back in usually restores everything and cancels the deletion — which is also why an app left installed on an old phone can undo a deletion you thought was done. After the window closes, it is gone.
What still exists after I delete my Facebook account?
More than most people expect. Messages you sent, in the recipients' inboxes; Posts and comments other people shared or screenshotted; Whatever the data brokers already scraped from your public profile — name, age, city, relatives. Deletion removes your account and the copy of the data held under it — it does not reach into other people's devices, third-party archives or the databases that already copied your details.
Should I deactivate my Facebook account instead of deleting it?
Deactivating hides your profile, photos and timeline from everyone but keeps Messenger working — it is the reversible option most people actually want. Deleting makes sense when you want the data gone; pausing makes sense when you want the noise gone. It's worth being honest with yourself about which one you're after before you press anything irreversible.
Does deleting my Facebook account remove my personal information from the internet?
No, and this is the part that surprises people. Data brokers and people-search sites built their profiles of you from public records, marketing lists and scraped social profiles — they hold their own copy, and closing an account on Facebook does nothing to it. Your name, age, address history, phone number and relatives stay listed and searchable until you opt out of those sites one by one, or have it done for you.