How to delete your Reddit 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 Reddit account, sign in and open the official deletion page at support.reddithelp.com, after downloading a copy of your data, then confirm. It is not reversible: immediate and permanent — the username can never be reused. 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 Reddit account, step by step
These steps follow Reddit’s own documented process. Official links only: account deletion · data download.
Request your data export (Settings → Privacy → Request your data) and wait for the email — it's the only archive of your comment history you'll get.
Delete the posts and comments you care about BEFORE deleting the account: account deletion removes your username from them but leaves the text visible.
Hand over moderator roles in any subreddit you run, or the community is left without a mod.
Cancel Reddit Premium if you have it, then go to Settings → Account → Delete account.
Enter your username and password, tick the confirmation box and submit — there is no undo.
This one does not come back
Immediate and permanent — the username can never be reused. Export everything you might want before you confirm, because support cannot restore the account afterwards even if you ask the same day.
What trips people up with Reddit
- Your posts and comments do not vanish: they stay up, re-attributed to "[deleted]", so anything identifying you in the text itself remains publicly readable.
- The username is retired permanently — you cannot recreate it later, and nobody else can take it either.
- Third-party mirrors and archive sites keep copies of Reddit threads with the original usernames attached, well after deletion.
Maybe you don’t want to delete it
If the goal is scrubbing your history rather than leaving, edit or delete individual posts and comments first — that is the only way to actually remove the text.
What still exists after the account is gone
- The full text of your posts and comments, shown as "[deleted]" author
- Copies on third-party Reddit archives and mirrors
- Anything you wrote that names you, your job or your city
And the bigger one, which has nothing to do with Reddit: 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 Reddit 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 Reddit account, answered
How do I delete my Reddit account?
Start at Reddit's official deletion page (support.reddithelp.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 expect it to be final — immediate and permanent — the username can never be reused.
Can I get my Reddit account back after deleting it?
No. Immediate and permanent — the username can never be reused. Neither you nor Reddit support can restore the account or its contents, so make sure you have exported anything you care about before confirming.
What still exists after I delete my Reddit account?
More than most people expect. The full text of your posts and comments, shown as "[deleted]" author; Copies on third-party Reddit archives and mirrors; Anything you wrote that names you, your job or your city. 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 Reddit account instead of deleting it?
If the goal is scrubbing your history rather than leaving, edit or delete individual posts and comments first — that is the only way to actually remove the text. 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 Reddit 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 Reddit 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.