How to Delete a Personal Yelp Account

September 18, 2026

How to close a personal Yelp account and delete your data.

If you're trying to remove a business page, that's not this article — see Yelp Owns Your Listing.

Before You Close Your Account

Download your data first. Your reviews and photos are the record of years on Yelp, and once your account is closed they're removed and you can't get back in to copy them. If you want to keep a copy, use Yelp's data download tool before you close anything — you can reach it through Yelp's data rights page. Yelp says closed accounts “cannot typically be restored.” Yelp close-account page

Decide what you want gone. If you only want individual reviews or photos removed, you don't need to close your account — every contribution has a “remove” icon. Yelp data rights page Closing the account takes down everything you posted as a consumer. If you also own a business, your business page is separate from your personal account and closing the account will not remove it — that's covered in Yelp Owns Your Listing.

How to Close Your Personal Yelp Account

Yelp makes it easy to join and unnecessarily difficult to leave. There is no delete button in the app and no simple account-closure option in your website settings. Instead, you have to fill out a form and submit a request.

Yelp could make this a one-click process. It didn't. Making people jump through an extra hoop just to leave is a pathetic way for a company to cling to users who have already decided they're done with it.

1. Log in at yelp.com.
2. Go to Yelp's account closure request page.
3. Submit the form and wait for Yelp's confirmation email.

Yelp says closing your user account removes the content you've posted as a consumer — reviews, photos, and your public profile — and that once the account is closed, it cannot typically be restored. Yelp close-account page Yelp doesn't promise this happens instantly, so give it a few days before checking.

One more thing: closure alone does not delete the personal information Yelp keeps behind the scenes. If you want that gone, you also have to submit a data rights request for deletion — see below.

Closing the Account Is Not Deleting Your Data

Yelp's privacy policy says it plainly: when you close your account, Yelp removes “certain public posts from view” and detaches them from your profile, “but may retain information about you for the purposes authorized under this Privacy Policy.”

In other words, closure makes you invisible to the public. It does not delete what Yelp keeps behind the scenes. If you want the non-public personal information gone too, you have to ask for it separately.

Your data rights options

Yelp handles all of these through its data rights page or by email to dataprotection@yelp.com:

• Access — download your personal information with Yelp's data download tool.
• Correct — update or fix personal information in your account settings, or by request.
• Delete — request deletion of personal information, including anything beyond what account closure already removes.
• Opt out of targeted advertising — stop Yelp from using your activity to show you ads on other sites. Yelp says it does not sell your personal information, so there is no separate “do not sell” opt-out.

Does Yelp Actually Delete?

In 2025, Yelp received 8,312 requests to delete personal information and reports complying with 8,035 of them in whole or in part — denying 277. Average response time was about three days. Yelp CCPA request report

That's Yelp's own report, and it's better than the denial headline suggests: when ordinary consumers ask Yelp to delete their data, Yelp completes the requests almost every time. The denials skew toward business users with active Yelp contracts or balances due, which Yelp says California's privacy law permits (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.105(d)).

If that's your situation — an active contract or a balance you dispute — the File a Complaint Against Yelp guide is built for exactly this fight.

Common Questions

Why is there no delete button in the app?
Because Yelp wants to make leaving inconvenient. The separate web form creates friction where none is necessary. Yelp wants you to keep your account forever, and making deletion a hassle is one way to discourage you from closing it.

How long does Yelp take?
Yelp doesn't publish a closure timeline. Its 2025 CCPA report shows an average substantive response time of about three days for deletion requests, but that is not a guarantee for account closure. Yelp CCPA request report

Can I reopen a closed account?
Not normally. Yelp says closed accounts “cannot typically be restored.” If you come back, you'll likely be starting over with a new account. But if you're deleting Yelp, why would you want to go back? There are better ways to find local businesses without feeding another visit, review, or click to Yelp. Read our Yelp Alternatives guide and leave Yelp behind for good.

What's the difference between closing my account and deleting my data?
Closing removes your public content and profile. Deleting is a separate request that targets the personal information Yelp retains after closure. Yelp Privacy Policy

Note for readers outside the United States: privacy laws such as the GDPR may give you additional deletion rights. Yelp's data rights process is the same entry point either way.

Petition to Dissolve Yelp

If you think businesses should have more control over how they are represented online, sign the petition to dissolve Yelp.