How to Delete Your YouTube Account in 90 Seconds

Updated November 9, 2023

Using your Google account, it’s actually super easy to remove your brand account from YouTube.

While YouTube is one of the bigger Google products out there, it‘s not for everyone. In fact, only 6% of small businesses have found video marketing successful in achieving marketing goals. With the rise of AI creation with video content, the drive for video marketing might be on the rise, but some companies might feel the need to delete their YouTube channel to start new and hide content.

This resource will walk you through taking down your channel.

Delete Channel vs. Delete Account

It’s important to specify that this tutorial will show you how to hide or permanently remove Youtube channels. A channel is where your content lives.

Removing “my channel” will simply take your content off of the YouTube app. If you had a channel name that accompanied your videos and playlists, that will no longer appear on your account.

However, deleting your account does not prohibit you from watching and interacting with content on the YouTube platform. That‘s because your account will still exist — just without your video content.

Your Youtube account is directly tied to your Google account, so deleting that is a bit trickier. As a Google service, YouTube is connected to other Google products such as Gmail.

Deleting your account will require you to delete your entire Google account. That means removing content across Google services under your designated account name.

7 Steps to Delete a YouTube Channel

Now that we know the basics, here’s how to remove YouTube content by deleting your channel.

1. Open YouTube and log in
2. Use drop-down menu to access settings page
3. Navigate to advanced account settings
4. Click “Delete channel”
5. Determine whether to hide or permanently delete
6. Confirm your decision
7. Sit back while YouTube removes your content

Follow these steps with screenshots below to take down your content.

Step 1. Open YouTube Homepage and Log In

Start off by opening YouTube. You should see trending videos and a square “Sign In“ button at the top right corner of the screen.

Click that button and enter your username and password to log in. Once you’re logged into your account, you should see a content button and your profile picture in the top right corner.

Step 2. Access the Settings Page

Now we’re going into your settings. Click on your profile icon in the top right corner of the page. This will activate a drop-down menu with options like “YouTube Studio“ and “Sign Out“.

Select “Settings“ about midway through the menu options. This will bring you to your general Google account settings.

Step 3. Navigate to Advanced Account Settings

Deleting your account is under advanced settings, so we’ll need to navigate there from your settings page.

There will be three hyperlinked paged under “Your Channel” information. Select the third option that reads “View advanced settings.”

Step 4. Click “Delete Channel”

Next, you‘ll be given the option to either move your channel to a different account or delete your channel permanently. 

Select the “Delete channel“ link to move forward with this process. Note that deleting your YouTube channel will not close or remove the rest of your Google account.

Step 5. Hide My Channel vs. Permanently Delete

Next, you will be given two options. You can either hide your channel content or completely delete it forever. 

Click on the drop-down icons for each option to learn more.

Option One: I want to hide my channel

Hiding your channel makes your content and activity private to you. No one else can access your activity information.

Selecting this will privatize likes and subscriptions, which you can recover by re-enabling your channel. It also completely eliminates comments made on your videos and those you made using your channel. These cannot be recovered.

To agree to hide content, click the checkboxes to indicate your understanding of your decision.

Option Two: I want to delete my content permanently

This option will delete all YouTube data associated with your channel forever. You cannot recover this content.

Comments, reactions to videos, YouTube gift settings, and watch history will all be permanently removed.

Additionally, paid subscriptions will be automatically canceled.

To totally remove your channel, select each checkbox to confirm your choice.

6. Confirm Your Decision

If you select “I want to permanently delete my content,“ you will be asked one more time to confirm your decision to delete your YouTube channel.

To confirm, type your email address into the text box provided. Then, click “Delete my content.”

7. Await YouTube to Delete Content

Finally, you’ll be brought to a page that confirms that your content is being removed from YouTube.

Note that this is a process and doesn’t happen immediately, so don’t be concerned if your content still appears on a web browser for a few minutes (or up to a day or more for larger channels).

Then, your channel is officially deleted off of the YouTube website. 

Is This Process Different on an iPhone or Android?

Not really. The layout of the YouTube app is a bit different on mobile devices than it is using Chrome on a desktop. It’s just as easy to delete a channel from the mobile app on iOS or Android.

Note that accessing your account settings requires you to click a gear icon on the bottom left side of the homepage rather than the top right. The rest of the process, however, remains the same.

Want a step-by-step walkthrough anyway? Here’s a great resource: 
 

Deleting a YouTube Channel Takes 90 Seconds

YouTube has a ton of features and settings, so it can be confusing to know where to look to delete a channel.

However, once you know where to go, deleting your channel should take well under 5 minutes. Then, you’re free to browse YouTube on your account or start fresh with a new channel.

Additional Reading:

• 10 Steps to Improve YouTube Search Rankings
• How to Use YouTube Marketing For Businesses