How to Delete Google Analytics Account

Cleaning up a Google Analytics setup after a website redesign, a company rebrand, or just years of accumulated clutter is a common task. Whether you need to remove an old testing account or simply want to streamline your analytics, deleting a Google Analytics account is a straightforward process. This guide will walk you through exactly how to do it, along with essential details on deleting properties and data streams without accidentally wiping out the wrong data.

First, Understand the Google Analytics Hierarchy

Before you click any delete buttons, it's critical to understand how Google Analytics is organized. People often use "account," "property," and "data stream" interchangeably, but they mean very different things. Deleting the wrong one can have serious consequences.

Think of your entire GA structure as a large filing cabinet:

• The Account is the entire filing cabinet. It's the highest level, usually representing your entire business or organization. An account can hold multiple properties within it. Deleting the account deletes the entire cabinet and everything inside.
• A Property is like a single drawer in the cabinet. Each property represents a specific website or app that you want to track. For instance, you might have one property for your main website and another for your mobile app, all within the same account. Your actual data reports live at the property level.
• A Data Stream is a specific folder inside one of those drawers. It's the source of data flowing into a property. You could have a data stream for your website (web), another for your iOS app, and a third for your Android app, all sending data to the same property for unified analysis.

Knowing this difference is crucial. You might only want to throw away one folder (a data stream) or one drawer (a property), not the entire filing cabinet (the account).

Important Considerations Before You Delete Anything

Once something is permanently gone from Google Analytics, it’s gone forever. Here are a few things to check off your list before you proceed.

1. Confirm You Have Administrator Access

You can't delete anything unless you have the "Administrator" role for the account or property. Users with "Editor," "Marketer," or "Viewer" roles will not even see the deletion options.

How to check your permissions:

1. Navigate to the Admin section (the gear icon ⚙️,️ in the bottom-left corner).
2. In the Account column, click on Account Access Management.
3. Find your own email address in the user list. The column on the right will show your role. It must say "Administrator."

If you don’t have administrator access, you’ll need to ask someone who does to either grant you that permission or perform the deletion for you.

2. Back Up Your Historical Data

Deleting an account or property in GA4 is permanent. While there is a short grace period (more on that below), once it's officially gone, you can never get that historical data back. If this data might be useful for future year-over-year comparisons or deep-dive analysis, you should back it up first.

You can export your Universal Analytics or GA4 reports in several formats:

• Google Sheets
• Microsoft Excel (via CSV)
• PDFs

For more comprehensive backups, consider linking your GA4 property to BigQuery, Google's data warehouse. This will preserve your raw event data even after the property is deleted from the GA interface.

3. Understand the "Trash Can" Feature

Google provides a small safety net for accidental deletions. When you delete an Account or a Property, it isn't erased immediately. Instead, it’s moved to a "Trash Can" where it sits for 35 days before being permanently deleted. During this 35-day window, you can restore it.

IMPORTANT: This safety net only applies to Accounts and Properties. Data streams are deleted immediately and permanently. They cannot be restored.

How to Delete a Google Analytics Account (The Whole Cabinet)

Deleting an account will remove all properties and associated data within it. Use this option only if you are absolutely certain you want to get rid of everything associated with that top-level account.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Sign into your Google Analytics account.
2. Click the Admin gear icon (⚙️) in the bottom-left corner of the page.
3. In the first column labeled Account, use the dropdown selector to choose the account you want to delete. Triple-check that you've selected the correct one.
4. With the correct account selected, click on Account Settings.
5. In the top-right corner of the Account Settings screen, you'll see a button that says Move to Trash Can. Click it.
6. A final warning screen will appear, explaining what is about to happen. You will be reminded that all properties within this account will be moved to the trash and permanently deleted after 35 days. Read the information carefully, then click the blue Move to trash button to confirm.

The account will now be scheduled for permanent deletion in 35 days.

How to Delete a Google Analytics Property (Just One Drawer)

This is a more common task. You might want to delete a single property for an old website or a test setup without affecting other properties within the same account.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to the Admin section using the gear icon.
2. In the middle column labeled Property, use the dropdown to select the specific property you wish to delete.
3. In that same Property column, click on Property Details.
4. In the top-right corner of the Property Details page, click the Move to Trash Can button.
5. Just like with accounts, you’ll get a confirmation screen explaining that the property and its associated data streams will be permanently deleted after 35 days. Click Move to trash to finalize the process.

Your property is now in the Trash Can, with a 35-day window for restoration.

How to Delete a Data Stream (Just One Folder)

Sometimes you only need to remove a single data source from a property - for example, if you created a duplicate stream by mistake or are rebuilding your tracking.

A strong word of caution: Data stream deletion is instant and irreversible. There is no 35-day grace period or Trash Can feature for data streams. As soon as you click delete, it's gone for good. The historical data it collected will remain in the property, but the stream configuration itself is permanently erased.

Follow these steps carefully:

1. Go to the Admin section.
2. In the Property column, ensure you've selected the correct property where the stream is located.
3. Click on Data Streams.
4. You'll see a list of streams feeding data into this property. Click on the one you want to delete.
5. On the next screen, click the three-dot icon (⋮) in the top-right corner.
6. From the dropdown menu, select Delete stream.
7. A final, serious warning box will appear, letting you know that the action is permanent and cannot be undone. You must check a box to acknowledge this before the delete button becomes active. Click Delete stream to confirm.

Oops, I Made a Mistake! How to Restore an Account or Property

If you deleted an account or property by mistake, you can recover it as long as it's within the 35-day window.

1. Navigate to the Admin section.
2. In the Account column, click on Trash Can.
3. You will see a list of all accounts and properties that have been set for deletion. Find the item you want to restore and check the box next to it.
4. Click the Restore button at the top-right of the list.

Your account or property will be immediately restored with all its settings and data intact. And once more for emphasis: this process does not work for data streams.

Final Thoughts

Deleting a Google Analytics account, property, or data stream is not complicated, but requires careful attention. The key is to understand the hierarchy - Account > Property > Stream - so you only remove exactly what you intend to. By following these steps and creating backups, you can manage your analytics setup cleanly and confidently, without fear of losing essential data.

Of course, managing your Google Analytics data is one thing, but making sense of it across all your other marketing platforms is a whole different challenge. That’s where we've built Graphed to simplify your entire reporting workflow. Instead of getting tangled in different interfaces, we let you connect data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook Ads, and Salesforce in one place. From there, you just ask questions in plain English, and Graphed instantly builds the real-time dashboards and reports you need, helping you get from data to decision in seconds.