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Delete a Website

This guide explains how to shut down your WordPress.com site and erase all of its contents permanently.

How to Delete Your Site

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Deleting a site permanently removes it and you’ll never be able to re-use its WordPress.com address (such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com).

To permanently delete your WordPress.com website, follow these steps:

  1. Consider if you need to delete your site by reviewing these alternatives first.
  2. Visit your site’s dashboard and navigate to SettingsGeneral:
Settings General page selected
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select “Delete your site permanently“:
The Delete your site permanently option is marked with an orange arrow.
  1. If you have any active subscriptions associated with your site (such as a plan or domain), you will be prompted to remove those first. Once you have canceled and removed all purchases for the site, you can proceed to the next step.
  2. You will be presented with the option to export your content. Once you delete your site, your content won’t be recoverable, so we advise exporting the content for safekeeping by clicking the Export Content button. See the Export Your WordPress.com Site guide for more.
image of export content button
  1. Once you have exported your content, scroll down and click the Delete Site button. If you have multiple sites on your account, be sure to confirm that the correct site address is listed in the alert bar:
image of delete site button
  1. To confirm the deletion, type the address of the site (shown in red just above the text box) into the provided field. This is a final check to make sure you are deleting the correct site (you’d be surprised how many people delete the wrong site!)
Delete site final confirmation screen.
  1. After typing the full site address, click the Delete this Site button. This is the final step – once you click Delete this Site, your site will be permanently deleted within a few seconds.

At this point, anyone who attempts to visit your site will see a message stating that your site is no longer available and has been deleted by the author.

Alternative Options

Consider that you may wish to access this site in the future. Instead of deleting your website, consider these less drastic steps that may suit your situation:

Remove Upgrades First

If you attempt to delete a website that has paid upgrades associated with it (such as a plan or domain), you will be prompted to remove those first:

Pop up that says "You have active paid upgrades on your site. Please cancel your upgrades prior to deleting your site."

Click on the Manage Purchases button to visit your Purchases page. Once there, use the links provided on that page to cancel your upgrades. If you are unable to cancel any of the upgrades, you can also contact support for help.

Once your upgrades have been fully removed from the site, you can start the process to delete your site.

Restore a Deleted Site

It is possible to reverse a site deletion during the first 30 days after a site is closed. If you realize you closed your website in error, please contact us immediately. We will be able to assist you in restoring your site during this 30 day window. Once the 30 days have passed, all of your site data is purged and cannot be restored, and the site address is deleted and cannot be reused.

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