How to delete an Instagram account

First choose: delete or deactivate

Instagram offers two separate actions, and half of all regret comes from picking the wrong one.

How to deactivate

1. Open your profile and go to Edit profile.
2. At the bottom of the page find the temporary deactivation option.
3. Give a reason, enter your password and confirm.

The profile, posts, likes and comments become invisible to everyone. The data stays in place. Logging back in restores all of it at any time.

Deactivation cannot be repeated more than once a week: a second attempt returns an error asking you to wait.

How to delete permanently

1. Open settings and find the accounts centre.
2. Locate the account deletion option and choose deletion rather than deactivation.
3. Confirm with your password.

Once confirmed the profile disappears from search immediately and becomes unavailable to others. The data is held for roughly 30 days, and during that window deletion can be cancelled by logging in.

After the window closes, posts, followers, follows and saved items are gone for good. The username is released and anyone can take it.

The app does not always offer it

In some app versions the deletion option is buried or missing. A browser works instead: open Instagram on a computer or in a mobile browser and repeat the steps in settings there.

When you want to delete but should not

The decision to delete an account is often made in a moment of frustration and regretted a week later. Three cases where a gentler fix works.

The feed has become tiresome

Then the problem is the following list, not the account. Clearing it is faster than deleting everything and starting over: a mutual breakdown shows who you read without a reply.

One particular person is the problem

Blocking, removing them from followers, or the Restrict feature all handle that. Deleting your own account over one person is out of proportion.

You need a break

That is exactly what deactivation is for. The profile vanishes for everyone, the data stays, and you can return any day with a single login.

What disappears and what remains

• Gone: posts, stories, Highlights, following and follower lists, saved items, comments under your own posts.
• Remaining: your comments under other people’s posts sometimes survive, and messages stay visible on the other side.
• Released: the username. Anyone can claim it, and you cannot take it back.

Lists go first and cannot be recovered

This is the most common regret. Posts usually sit in the phone gallery anyway, while a list of several hundred follows exists nowhere else.

The official data download solves it but takes days to prepare and arrives in a form that is awkward to read. If the decision is made right now, capturing the lists separately and saving a file is simpler.

Common questions