3 Ways to Delete Users from Microsoft Teams

Removing people from Microsoft Teams seems simple until you factor in permissions, data access, and compliance. One wrong move can orphan files or leave licenses burning.

This guide walks through three reliable ways to delete users, via the Microsoft 365 admin center, Entra ID, and PowerShell, so you can pick the right path for each scenario, handle guests vs employees, respect retention, reclaim licenses, and keep your tenant tidy at scale.

Table of Contents

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

Use Microsoft Teams’s UI

Here, you’ll use the Microsoft Teams app to remove someone from a team, channel, or group chat. This does not delete their account, just their access in that space. Microsoft’s Teams docs like “Add or remove members of a team” and “Leave or remove someone from a group chat” follow the same flow.

Confirm you have the right permissions

You need to be a team owner to remove people from a team. For private or shared channels, you need to be that channel’s owner. For group chats, you can remove people if the chat allows it.

Remove someone from a team

• Open Teams on desktop or web.
• Select Teams in the left rail.
• Find the team, select More options ., then Manage team.
• On the Members tab, find the person you want to remove.
• Select Remove, then confirm.

What happens:

• They lose access to all channels and files in that team.
• Their past messages and file actions stay in the history.

Remove someone from a private or shared channel

• Go to the team that has the channel.
• Next to the channel name, select More options ., then Manage channel.
• On the Members or People tab, find the person and select Remove.

Notes:

• You cannot remove someone from a standard channel without removing them from the team.
• Removing someone from the team also removes them from that team’s private channels.

Remove someone from a group chat

• Open Chats, then select the group chat.
• At the top of the chat, select the chat name or View and manage group to open the participant list.
• Find the person, select Remove from chat, then confirm.

Good to know:

• You cannot remove someone from a one-on-one chat.
• Some org policies limit who can add or remove people in chats.

Verify access is gone

• For teams and channels: go back to Manage team or Manage channel and confirm the person is no longer listed.
• For group chats: open the participant list and make sure they are not there.

What removal does and does not do

• It removes their access to that team, channel, or chat.
• It keeps past messages and file contributions.
• It does not delete or suspend their work account. If you need full account removal, follow your internal process.

Use Torii

Instead of working inside Microsoft Teams itself, you can use Torii, a SaaS Management Platform, to delete user in Microsoft Teams. SMPs centralize management of SaaS apps and integrations, letting you programmatically on/offboard users, review subscription details, and more from a single dashboard.

Rather than performing the task manually in Microsoft Teams, Torii lets you automate it so it runs whenever a defined trigger occurs. Triggers might include a new hire event, an employee departure, a contract renewal, etc. This helps you save time when the action is repeated often.

To delete user in Microsoft Teams directly from Torii, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for Torii

Contact Torii, and ask for your free two-week proof-of-concept.

2. Connect your Microsoft Teams account to Torii

After your Torii account is active, connect Microsoft Teams to Torii (assuming you already have a Teams account). Here are the instructions for the Microsoft Teams integration.

3. Create a Torii workflow for Microsoft Teams

In Torii, build an automated workflow to delete user in Microsoft Teams. Go to the Workflows tab, choose your trigger, then add an action that will delete user in Microsoft Teams. Once set, every time the trigger fires, Microsoft Teams will be updated automatically.

Use Microsoft Teams’s API

Here, you’ll use the Microsoft Graph API to delete a user so they no longer appear in Microsoft Teams. The steps follow Microsoft’s Graph docs for users and directory deleted items.

Prep API permissions and scope

• You need these permissions:
  • Delegated: User.ReadWrite.All
  • Application: User.ReadWrite.All
  • Use Microsoft identity platform to get an OAuth token for Microsoft Graph. For app-only, request the .default scope on your app registration.

Example token request body for client credentials is:

client_id={APP_ID}&scope=https://graph.microsoft.com/.default&client_secret={APP_SECRET}&grant_type=client_credentials

Find the user you want to delete

• You can target by object ID or UPN:
  • Object ID example: 9c5f.-.
  • UPN example: [email protected]

Example to look up by UPN:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected]
Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}

Soft-delete the user

This calls the Microsoft Graph Users API. It moves the account to the directory’s deleted items. Teams access stops.

Example curl is:

curl -X DELETE \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected] \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Success returns 204 No Content.

Confirm the deletion

Check the deleted items container so you know the user is out of the active directory.

Example curl is:

curl -X GET \
"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/[email protected]" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

• If you used the object ID, pass that ID instead of the UPN.
• You can also confirm the user no longer resolves:

curl -X GET \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected] \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

A 404 here is expected after deletion.

Optional: permanently delete the user

If you need to hard-delete the account right away, call the directory deleted items API.

Example curl is:

curl -X DELETE \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/{deletedUserId} \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

This cannot be undone.

Handle common errors

• 403 Forbidden:
  • The token is missing User.ReadWrite.All or admin consent is not granted.
• 404 Not Found:
  • The user ID or UPN is wrong, or the user is already deleted.
• 409 Conflict:
  • Wait and retry if the directory is processing another change for this user.

What this aligns to in Microsoft docs

• Microsoft Graph v1.0 Users: Delete user
• Microsoft Graph v1.0 Directory deleted items: Get deleted item and Permanently delete deleted item