3 Ways to Delete Users from Your Zendesk Account

Cleaning up old profiles in Zendesk can feel like busywork, yet it matters. Dormant agent or end-user accounts clutter searches, slow reporting, and widen the window for accidental data leaks.

You don’t need to guess your way through the dashboard. Below, you’ll learn three quick methods for deleting users, directly in Support, in bulk with an export/import loop, and through the API, so you can pick the one that matches your workload and comfort level.

Table of Contents

• Use Zendesk's UI
• Use Torii
• Use Zendesk's API

Use Zendesk’s UI

Here, you’ll use the Zendesk Support interface to permanently remove a user profile.

1. Sign in with the right role

• Confirm you’re logged in as an administrator. Agents may suspend users, but only admins can delete them for good.

2. Find the user profile

• In the Support workspace, click the Search icon on the left sidebar.
• Enter the user’s name, email, or phone number, then select the matching result to open their profile.

3. Review what you’ll lose

• Look at the profile header for open tickets or linked organizations.
• Reassign or close any tickets first because deleted users will never see those updates.

4. Open the actions menu

• In the upper-right corner of the profile, click the three-dot (⋯) menu.
• Select Delete user, which Zendesk labels clearly to avoid confusion with Suspend.

5. Confirm the deletion

• A popup reminds you the action is permanent; verify the user name one more time.
• Click Delete to complete the removal.

6. Double-check your work

• Run the same search again to ensure the profile no longer appears. Any related tickets will now show the requester as “Deleted user.”

That’s it, the user is removed and you didn’t need APIs or extra tools.

Use Torii

Rather than logging into Zendesk and handling the task by hand, you can rely on Torii, a SaaS management platform, to remove a user in Zendesk. The platform gives you one place to see every SaaS subscription, handle onboarding or offboarding, check licenses, and more.

Because Torii automates the process, removal happens automatically when a trigger is met, such as a new hire, an employee departure, or a contract renewal. The hands-off process saves time whenever the task comes up again.

To delete a user in Zendesk directly from Torii, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for Torii

Reach out to the sales team today and ask for a complimentary two-week proof-of-concept trial straight from the website.

2. Connect your Zendesk account to Torii

Once your Torii workspace is live, open the integrations page, select Zendesk, and connect the existing instance. Follow these step-by-step instructions for the Zendesk integration.

3. Create a Torii workflow for Zendesk

Open the Workflows tab in Torii, set up a suitable trigger, and add an action that deletes the user in Zendesk. Once saved, every time the trigger fires, Torii will update Zendesk automatically.

Use Zendesk’s API

Here you’ll call two Zendesk endpoints: one that soft deletes the user and another that wipes the record for good.

1. Gather what you need

• Your Zendesk subdomain.
• An admin’s email and an API token or a bearer token.
• The ID of the user you want gone. If you only have an email, grab the ID first:

curl https://your_subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/users/search.json?query=email:[email protected] \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ZENDESK_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Copy the “id” value from the response.

2. Soft-delete the user

A soft delete leaves the record in Zendesk’s recycle bin for 30 days, giving you time to change your mind. Most teams stop here.

curl -X DELETE https://your_subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/users/USER_ID.json \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ZENDESK_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN"

If the call succeeds, the response shows “deleted”: true.

3. (Optional) Permanently delete the user

If you need the record erased right away, call the deleted_users endpoint instead for immediate removal:

curl -X DELETE https://your_subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/deleted_users/USER_ID.json \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ZENDESK_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN"

The API returns 204 No Content when the wipe is complete.

4. Confirm they’re gone

Run a quick check to be sure the user no longer exists; this request should fail with a 404:

curl https://your_subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/users/USER_ID.json \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ZENDESK_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN"

You should see an error like 404 User Not Found. That’s it, the user is out of your Zendesk.

Torii for SaaS Management

Looking to tighten up the way you manage your SaaS stack? Torii offers a SaaS Management Platform that can help you reclaim control and reduce waste along the way:

• Unearth shadow apps: AI-powered discovery continuously scans your organization and flags unapproved software in real time.
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Learn more at Torii.