How to Delete Your Reddit Account: Works on Mobile and Desktop

Thinking about leaving Reddit for good? Whether you’re cutting back on screen time, tired of the noise, or just want more control over your data, deleting your account is a simple process — but it’s also permanent.

Here we’ll cover how the deletion process works, what you ought to do before deleting, and what happens after. We also discuss some potential alternatives if you’re on the fence about permanently deleting your account.

Why You Might Want to Delete Your Reddit Account

• • Screen time management: Reddit feeds are engineered to capture your attention, so a quick five-minute check can easily turn into hours of scrolling. 
  • Doomscrolling: Some users might find themselves trapped in a loop of consuming negative and anxiety-inducing news updates. This can take a toll on your mental well-being.
  • Toxicity: Particular subreddits might have really unpleasant communities — constantly dealing with aggressive commenters or unfair moderators can wear you down.
  • Privacy concerns: Data collection is difficult to avoid, so some users might choose to delete their accounts to enhance their privacy on Reddit.

Before You Delete Your Reddit Account

Once you’ve finally decided to step away from Reddit, don’t rush to the Delete buttons just yet. You should consider a few important things first:

• • If you have a Reddit Premium subscription, deleting your account doesn’t automatically cancel it. Make sure to cancel the subscription before going through with the deletion.
  • Deleting your account doesn’t remove any of your posts and comments, but your deleted account name isn’t visible on them. If you want to remove any of your posts or comments, you have to delete each one manually or use a third-party mass deletion tool.
  • Once you delete your account, it’s permanently gone. If you’re taking a break from Reddit, decide whether you want to keep your account or not.
  • You can request a copy of your data, including your post and comment history, before deleting, but it takes up to 30 days to process.

How to Delete Your Reddit Account

Deleting your Reddit account usually takes around a few minutes. The process is very similar on your desktop, mobile browser, and Reddit’s mobile apps.

On Desktop or Mobile via Browser

1. Open your browser and go to Reddit’s website.
2. Click your profile icon in the upper right corner and open Settings.

3. In the Account tab, select Delete account.

4. In the opened prompt, confirm your username and password. Then, tick the confirmation box.

5. Tick the confirmation box.
6. Click Delete.

On Android or iOS Mobile App

1. Open the Reddit app.
2. Tap the profile icon in the lower right corner.

3. Open Settings and go to Account settings for [your username].

4. Scroll down and tap Delete account.

5. Tap the Yes, delete button, confirm your password, and click Delete.

What Happens After You Delete Your Reddit Account

Once you delete your Reddit account, you can’t reactivate it or otherwise recover your account’s history. Your current username becomes unavailable to prevent impersonation — if you make a new Reddit account later on, you can’t reuse your old username.

Reddit anonymizes your deleted account’s posts and comments by replacing your username with a tag that says “[deleted].” This makes it harder to determine your posting history after deleting your account. The deletion process can take up to 90 days, so your username might still be visible on some posts or comments before that time.

Alternatives to Deleting Your Reddit Account

• • Take a break: Reddit doesn’t let you temporarily deactivate or pause your account, but you can simply uninstall the Reddit app from your phone — it could be enough to break your scrolling habit.
  • Use screen time management tools: Android and iOS both have built-in tools to set time limits for apps like Reddit. Once the time is up, the app locks, helping you reduce scrolling time.
  • Curate your feed: The platform can feel draining if it constantly swamps you with content you’re not interested in. Go through your list and unsubscribe from anything that feels negative, stressful, or just not useful. 
  • Adjust your Reddit privacy settings: Reddit lets you disable personalized ads and limit discoverability. This is a good start to boosting your privacy on Reddit.

Use a VPN to Enhance Your Privacy on Reddit

Reddit collects a lot of data about its users, including your IP address, browser information, operating system, device settings, activity data, location information, and more. It also shares this data with third parties like advertisers, who can build detailed profiles on you using that data.

When you use Reddit while connected to a VPN, Reddit logs the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours. The platform also deletes logged IP addresses after 100 days, except for the one you used to create your account. Combined with a VPN, this makes it harder to link your Reddit activity back to you, even before you delete your account. However, keep in mind that anything you do while logged in to your account can still be tracked and monitored — a VPN helps protect data in transit only.

Is Deleting Your Reddit Account the Way to Go?

Whether you’re leaving because of privacy concerns, screen time regulation, or just want to step away from the platform, deleting your Reddit account is a very simple process. Just remember to cancel your subscription and request a copy of your Reddit data, if necessary — wrapping up loose ends before committing to deletion will save you a headache once it’s done.

If you’re having a dilemma on whether you want to permanently delete your account, you can take a temporary break instead. You can also take some extra steps, such as tweaking your account settings or getting a VPN to enhance your privacy on Reddit. 

FAQ