Click your profile picture, then Settings, then Account, and at the bottom under 'Delete account' click 'Delete your account', then type your username or email and the prompt phrase to confirm. Back up first, because once the account is deleted GitHub cannot restore your content.
Deleting a GitHub account is quick. Undoing it can't be done. GitHub's documentation says it in one line: once your personal account has been deleted, GitHub cannot restore your content. So this page spends more time on what to sort out beforehand than on the clicks themselves. It's all drawn from GitHub's own docs, the deletion how-to and the personal account reference, as of Nov 2026.
Underneath, GitHub uses Git to provide distributed version control, as GitHub's Wikipedia entry explains. That's worth keeping in mind when you back up, because it's your repositories that hold the work you'd lose.
Before you click: what to sort out first
First, back up. GitHub tells you to copy all repositories, private forks, wikis, issues and pull requests owned by the account before you delete it. That's broader than most people expect. Cloning your repositories covers the code, but issues and pull requests are where a lot of the thinking lives, and they go with the account.
Second, deal with any organisations. If you're the sole owner of an organization, you must transfer ownership to someone else or delete the organization before you can go. If it has other owners, you remove yourself from it. Either way, it's worth telling the people involved before you vanish from their member list. A sole owner can't simply walk away, so this has to come first, and because it involves other people, I'd start it days before you plan to delete rather than on the day.
Third, think about your username. GitHub says your username will be available for anyone to use after 90 days. If people know you by that handle, someone else could end up holding it.
Fourth, check your packages. Packages and container images in GitHub Packages are deleted with the account, and public container images with more than 5,000 downloads have their full name permanently retired. GitHub warns this may break projects that depend on them, so if anyone uses what you've published, warn them first.
The three steps in Settings
- In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile picture, then click Settings.
- In the left sidebar, click Account.
- At the bottom of the Account Settings page, under 'Delete account', click 'Delete your account'.
You're not done yet. A dialog titled 'Make sure you want to do this' appears, and it asks for two separate things. In the first field, type your username or email. In the second field, type the phrase from the prompt. Read the phrase it gives you and copy it exactly.
What disappears with the account
| What | What happens to it |
|---|---|
| Repositories, forks of private repositories, wikis, issues, pull requests | Deleted |
| GitHub Pages sites owned by the account | Deleted |
| Packages and container images in GitHub Packages | Deleted; public images with more than 5,000 downloads have their full name permanently retired |
| Billing | Ends immediately |
| Your username | Available for anyone to use after 90 days |
| Your content, once deleted | GitHub cannot restore it |
That 'billing ends immediately' line is the only part that works in your favour. Everything else is a loss, and GitHub won't hand any of it back.
When the Delete button won't work
If your account has been flagged, suspended or restricted, GitHub says 'Delete your account' may be unavailable, may be disabled, or may send you to GitHub Support instead. Even then, don't expect Support to do it for you: GitHub's docs say plainly that GitHub Support does not delete your personal account on your behalf. What you can do is contact GitHub Support and ask for access to the normal self-service deletion flow. Once that's restored, you complete the steps yourself.
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A softer option: turn it into an organisation
The same reference describes an alternative. You can convert a personal account into an organization rather than deleting it. Your collaborators keep access to your projects in the new organization, and your commits and comments stay intact, though they're no longer linked to your account. The trade-off is permanent too: you can't sign in to the converted account any more, forks of private repositories made with it are deleted, and an organization cannot be converted back to a user. If your real aim is to hand a project over rather than wipe it, this is worth weighing before you reach for Delete.
I'd frame the choice like this. Delete when you want the account and everything in it gone. Convert when the work still matters to other people but you no longer want a personal account attached to it. Both are one-way doors, so pick the one that matches what you want the world to see in a year's time.
My view
If you've moved on, deleting is fine, but do it in the right order: back up, sort out your organisations, warn anyone using your packages, then delete. The 90-day username gap is the part I'd think hardest about, because your old handle can end up in someone else's hands. If you're leaving because you prefer another host, my roundup of where else to keep your code is a good place to land, and if it's Copilot you'll miss, here are AI coding assistants worth trying instead.
Quick answers
Can GitHub restore a deleted account?
No. GitHub's docs say that once your personal account has been deleted, GitHub cannot restore your content.
What do I type to confirm deleting my GitHub account?
In the first field, type your username or email. In the second field, type the phrase from the prompt.
Will someone else get my GitHub username?
GitHub says your username will be available for anyone to use after 90 days.
Will GitHub Support delete my account for me?
No. GitHub says Support does not delete your personal account on your behalf.
