Deactivate a member's account
Over time, people may come and go from Slack. Some may leave on their own, but as an Owner or Admin, you have the ability to deactivate members' accounts.
Keep in mind
- Your role in Slack will determine your deactivation permissions.
- Some apps may be disabled when certain accounts are deactivated.
- You can reactivate an account if you change your mind.
- People won't be notified when their accounts are deactivated. Their messages or files won't be deleted, but they will be removed from channels, signed out of your workspace(s) on all devices, and unable to sign back in.
- The option to deactivate accounts is only available on desktop.
Tip: See our Fair Billing Policy to learn how deactivated member accounts affect billing.
Who can deactivate accounts
Your role in Slack will determine your deactivation permissions. Use the table below to review your permissions, and read more about roles in Slack.
Free, Standard, and Plus plans
Enterprise Grid plan
| Workspace Admins | Workspace Owners | Workspace Primary Owner | |
| Deactivate members and guests | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deactivate Workspace Admins | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Deactivate Workspace Owners | ✓ | ||
| Deactivate a Workspace Primary Owner* |
*No one can deactivate the Workspace Primary Owner. To deactivate this person, the Primary Owner must transfer ownership to someone else.
Org-level permissions
| Org Admins | Org Owners | Org Primary Owner | |
| Deactivate members and guests | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deactivate Workspace Admins and Owners | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Deactivate a Workspace Primary Owner* | |||
| Deactivate Org Owners and Admins | ✓ | ||
| Deactivate a Primary Org Owner* |
*No one can deactivate the Org Primary Owner or a Workspace Primary Owner. To deactivate these accounts, they must transfer ownership to someone else.
Workspace-level permissions
| Workspace Admins | Workspace Owners | Workspace Primary Owner | |
| Deactivate members and guests | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deactivate Workspace Admins | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Deactivate Workspace Owners | ✓ | ||
| Deactivate a Workspace Primary Owner** |
**No one can deactivate the Workspace Primary Owner. To deactivate this person, the Primary Owner must transfer ownership to someone else.
Deactivate an account
Free, Standard, and Plus plans
Enterprise Grid plan
Review the permissions above, then use the steps below to deactivate someone's account.
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Settings & administration from the menu, then click Manage members.
- Click the three dots icon to the right of the member you’d like to deactivate.
- Select Deactivate account.
Review the permissions above, then use the steps below to remove someone from a workspace or deactivate an account.
Remove someone from a workspace
On the Enterprise Grid plan, accounts can’t be deactivated at the workspace level, but people can be removed from workspaces. Keep in mind that anyone you remove from your workspace will remain part of the Enterprise Grid org.
Here’s how to remove someone:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Settings & administration from the menu, then click Manage members.
- Click the three dots icon to the right of the member you’d like to remove.
-
Select Remove from workspace.
Deactivate an account
On the Enterprise Grid plan, you can only deactivate an account at the org level. Anyone you deactivate will be removed from channels, signed out of all workspaces, and removed from your org. Use the steps below to deactivate an account:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Settings & administration from the menu, then click Organization settings.
- Click People in the left sidebar, then select Members.
- Click the three dots icon to the right of the member you’d like to deactivate.
- Select Deactivate.
Note: You can still access your direct message (DM) history with a member who has been deactivated. Click CmdK (Mac) or CtrlK (Windows/Linux) and search for the deactivated member's name to view your DM history.
- Workspace Owners/Admins or Org Owners/Admins
- Free, Standard, Plus, and Enterprise Grid plans