3 Ways to Delete Users from Microsoft 365

Old accounts eat up licenses, clutter your admin center, and even raise security risk. When someone leaves, cleaning up fast keeps your tenant tidy and your budget in check.

Below you’ll see three quick ways to remove users, right from the web portal, with Microsoft 365 admin tools, or through PowerShell, so you can pick the approach that fits your day.

Table of Contents

• Use Microsoft 365's UI
• Use Torii
• Use Microsoft 365's API

Use Microsoft 365’s UI

Here, you’ll use the Microsoft 365 admin center to remove an employee’s account when they leave.

1. Open the Admin center

• Sign in at https</b>://admin.microsoft.com using a Global admin or User management admin account.
• The main menu appears in the left-hand navigation pane.

2. Go to Active users

• Select Users, then Active users.
• Search or scroll to locate the person you intend to remove.

3. Select the user

• Click the user’s name.
• A details panel opens on the right.

4. Delete the user

• Pick Delete user in the panel.
• A confirmation window pops up.

5. Handle the user’s data

In the confirmation window you can:

• Forward any new mail to someone else (Transfer email).
• Provide temporary OneDrive access to another person (Grant access to OneDrive).
• Choose whether to release the license immediately or later.

6. Confirm

• Click Delete user again to finish.
• Microsoft 365 displays a success message.

7. Know what happens next

• The account stays in Deleted users for 30 days, and you can restore it at any point during that window.
• After 30 days, Microsoft removes the account and mailbox permanently.

8. Final cleanup (optional)

• Remove the user from shared mailboxes or distribution lists they belonged to.
• Delete local Outlook profiles on shared devices to stop sign-in prompts.

Use Torii

Rather than working inside Microsoft 365, teams can let Torii, a SaaS Management Platform, handle user deletions. The platform pulls every subscription and integration into one dashboard, so admins can programmatically onboard or offboard employees, check license data, and more.

Out of the box, Microsoft 365’s native method for removing users is manual and time-consuming. Torii adds automation that runs whenever a chosen trigger fires. Common triggers include a new hire, a departure, or an upcoming contract anniversary, which saves time when the same action comes up again and again.

To delete users in Microsoft 365 directly from Torii, follow these instructions:

1. Sign up for Torii

Contact Torii and request your complimentary two-week proof of concept.

2. Connect your Microsoft 365 account to Torii

Once your Torii environment is active, hook up Microsoft 365 to Torii (assuming you already have an M365 tenant) to start pulling data.

Here are the instructions for the Microsoft 365 integration.

3. Create a Torii workflow for Microsoft 365

Inside Torii, build an automated workflow to delete user in Microsoft 365. Navigate to the Workflows tab, specify a trigger, and then add the action that removes the user in Microsoft 365. From that point on, every time the trigger fires, Microsoft 365 will update automatically.

Use Microsoft 365’s API

Below is a quick way to wipe a Microsoft 365 user with Microsoft Graph. It’s pure API, no admin center clicks.

Step 1. Get an access token

Start by grabbing an access token that includes User.ReadWrite.All plus Directory.AccessAsUser.All if you intend to remove the account for good.

POST https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant-id}/oauth2/v2.0/token
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID
&scope=https%3A%2F%2Fgraph.microsoft.com%2F.default
&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET
&grant_type=client_credentials

Copy the access_token value from the response.

Step 2. Soft-delete the user

Soft-deleting shifts the account into the Deleted Users container for 30 days. Swap {user-id} for the object ID or UPN before you send the request.

DELETE https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{user-id}
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

A 204 No Content response confirms the call worked.

Step 3. Confirm the user is in the recycle bin

Run a quick GET on deletedItems to confirm the account moved into the recycle bin.

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.user
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Look for the same {user-id} in the output.

Step 4. Hard-delete (optional)

If you need the account gone immediately, send another DELETE against the item inside deletedItems.

DELETE https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/{user-id}
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

204 No Content tells you the object is permanently removed.

Step 5. Clean up stale licenses (optional)

After the hard delete, rerun any license automation you use. The license tied to this user is now free to reassign.

Torii for SaaS Management

If managing an ever-growing stack of subscriptions feels messy, Torii brings order.

With Torii’s SaaS Management Platform, you can finally see everything, trim spend, and free your team’s time:

• Uncover shadow IT: Continuous AI monitoring spots unauthorized apps the moment they surface, so nothing slips past your security or budget teams.
• Trim your budget: Identify unused seats and redundant services, then act on clear savings insights before the next invoice hits.
• Automate joiner-mover-leaver tasks: Let onboarding and offboarding run hands-free, keep permissions accurate, and quickly reclaim licenses as roles change.
• Stay ahead of renewals: Get timely alerts before contracts come up for renewal and negotiate with data instead of guesswork.

Torii is the industry’s first end-to-end SaaS Management Platform, uniting Finance, IT, and Security around a single source of truth.

Discover more at Torii and see how quickly you can streamline every app in your stack.