3 Ways to Delete Users from Google Workspace
Old or duplicate accounts aren’t just visual clutter in Google Workspace, they can trigger license costs, security gaps, and compliance red flags.
This quick guide breaks down three no-nonsense ways to remove users, whether you’re in the Admin console every day or only when something goes wrong. You’ll see when each method makes sense and the exact clicks or API calls involved, so you can shrink your directory while keeping data, shared files, and groups intact.
Table of Contents
Use Google Workspace’s UI
You can delete an account directly within the Google Admin console. The whole job takes about a minute; take a moment to hand off the user’s files so collaboration doesn’t grind to a halt.
Step 1: Open the Admin console
- Sign in at admin.google.com with your super-admin credentials.
- On the Home page, choose Directory and then Users.
Step 2: Find the user
- Type the person’s name or email in the search bar at the top.
- Click the matching result to open the account page.
Step 3: Start the delete flow
- In the upper-right corner, click More actions.
- Select Delete user.
Step 4: Decide what happens to the data
Google shows a screen where you can flip switches for three items:
- Gmail
- Drive and Docs
- Google Workspace groups
For each item, pick a new owner from the drop-down. Leave a switch off, and that data disappears when the account goes away.
Step 5: Confirm
- Review the summary Google displays.
- If everything looks right, click Delete user.
That’s it. Google blocks access immediately, and you have 20 days to restore the account from Users > Recently deleted users if needed.
Use Torii
Managing user accounts directly in Google Workspace isn’t the only option. Torii, a SaaS Management Platform, pulls every subscription into one dashboard so admins can handle onboarding, offboarding, integrations, and usage reports. All of it happens programmatically, no extra clicks inside Google Workspace.
Torii lets you automate the entire offboarding flow from start to finish. Define a trigger such as an employee departure, new hire, or contract renewal, and Torii handles the account deletion, freeing hours of admin time when the task repeats.
Here’s how to delete a user in Google Workspace from within Torii:
1. Sign up for Torii
Contact Torii to request a complimentary two-week proof-of-concept.
2. Connect your Google Workspace account to Torii
After your Torii environment is ready, link Google Workspace to it (assuming you already have a Workspace tenant). Follow these step-by-step instructions for the Google Workspace integration.
3. Create a Torii workflow for Google Workspace
Inside Torii, navigate to the Workflows tab, set up the appropriate trigger, and add an action to delete the user in Google Workspace. Whenever the trigger conditions are satisfied, the workflow will run and automatically remove the user from your Workspace domain.
Use Google Workspace’s API
Below you’ll walk through the exact API calls needed to remove a user from your Google Workspace domain.
Step 1: Confirm you have the right scopes
- The service account or OAuth client must include the
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.userscope. - If you’re using a service account, be sure domain-wide delegation is turned on and the Admin role “User Management Admin” (or higher) is assigned.
Step 2: Get an access token
exchange your credentials for an OAuth 2.0 access token. You can lean on the Google OAuth client library, but the raw HTTP flow below shows what happens under the hood:
curl -X POST \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-D "client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID" \
-D "client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET" \
-D "redeem_code=YOUR_AUTH_CODE" \
-D "grant_type=authorization_code" \
https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token
Save the returned access_token.
Step 3: Call the DELETE endpoint
Replace USER_KEY with the user’s primary email address or unique user ID, and double-check you’re pointing at the correct domain so nothing important disappears by accident.
curl -X DELETE \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/USER_KEY
A successful call returns HTTP 200 with an empty body, meaning the account is gone.
Step 4: Double-check the deletion
To verify, request the same user record; if the API answers with a 404, the account is definitely gone.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" \
https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/USER_KEY
With that single call, the account disappears from Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and every other Google Workspace service.
Torii for SaaS Management
If you’re ready to dig deeper into SaaS management, our team would love to talk. Torii’s SaaS Management Platform helps you:
- Uncover shadow IT: AI-driven discovery scans your environment in real time and flags unapproved apps as soon as they appear.
- Reduce spend: Cut waste by removing idle licenses and overlapping subscriptions.
- Automate employee lifecycle workflows: Hands-free onboarding and offboarding save hours and prevent mistakes.
- Stay ahead of renewals: Get timely reminders well before any contract comes up for renewal.
Torii is the first complete SaaS Management Platform, giving Finance, IT, and Security a single, reliable source of truth.
You can explore the full platform capabilities by heading to Torii.
Frequently Asked Questions
You have three options to delete a Google Workspace user. Use the Admin console’s "Delete user" flow with built-in data handoff, run a Torii offboarding workflow triggered by departures, or call the Directory API’s DELETE /users/{userKey} endpoint after obtaining an OAuth token.
Dormant or duplicate accounts waste license dollars, widen the attack surface, and create audit headaches. Cleaning them out tightens security, reduces spend, and keeps your directory compliant by ensuring only active, properly owned identities retain access to corporate data.
Yes. In the Admin console deletion wizard, toggle Gmail, Drive & Docs, and Groups, then choose a new owner from the drop-down. Google migrates the selected content so projects keep moving even after the original account disappears.
After deletion through the Admin console, Google keeps the account in "Recently deleted users" for 20 days. During that window a super-admin can restore the profile, data, and licenses with a single click; after 20 days, recovery is impossible.
Torii connects to your Workspace tenant, lets you define a trigger such as an employee exit, and runs a no-code workflow that transfers data, revokes access, and deletes the user automatically, saving admins hours whenever the scenario repeats.
The calling service must request the "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user" scope. When using a service account, enable domain-wide delegation and assign at least the "User Management Admin" role so the DELETE call succeeds without manual consent.
