Closing an account

When you no longer need your IBM Cloud® account, you can close the account. If there's any way we can assist you before you decide to close your account, reach out to us.

About the account closure process

To close a Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account, a support case is required for account security and documentation purposes. Closing your account can't be undone, and your data is unrecoverable. The support case documents your acknowledgment that the account and its data cannot be recovered after closure.

After your Pay-As-You-Go account is closed, all usage is stopped across all services that are running in your account. The usage that is accrued in the current billing period is sent in one final invoice at the close of the billing period. You might receive a final invoice after you close your account due to incurred charges from the month before the account was closed.
You can request to cancel your Subscription account before the end of the term, but whether the subscription can be canceled early is at the discretion of IBM. A subscription is a contract between you and IBM that commits you to use IBM Cloud for a specific term and spending amount. For more information, see Managing subscriptions.

As a user on IBM Cloud, you can be a member of multiple accounts. If you are not the account owner, you can leave the account. For more information, see Leaving an account.

Closing a Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account

As the account owner, to request an account closure, you need to cancel all services, devices, and billing items for the account. Then, create a support case for closing the account.

Step 1: Canceling all services

To delete a service instance, use the following steps:

From the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > Resource list to view your list of resources.
Expand the sections to locate the service instance that you want to delete.
Click the Actions icon > Delete for the row.

Step 2: Canceling all devices

To cancel all devices, use the following steps::

From the IBM Cloud console,, click the menu icon > Classic Infrastructure > Device List.
For each device that you want to cancel, click the Actions icon , and select Cancel device.
Acknowledge that data loss might occur as a result of canceling, and then click Cancel device.

Step 3: Canceling all billing items

To cancel all billing items, use the following steps::

From the IBM Cloud console, select Manage > Billing and usage.
Select Billing items.
Ensure that you are viewing all billing items.
For each billing item that you want to cancel, click the Actions icon , and select Cancel billing item.

Step 4: Creating a support case for account closure

To create the support case, use the following steps::

Go to the Support Center, and click Create a case in the Contact Support center.
Click Account.
Select the Cancel/close/suspend subtopic and click Next.
Add a subject title and use the template as a guide to complete the case description.
- As noted in the template, acknowledge that you understand all services and data will be permanently removed and will not be recoverable upon account closure.

Go to the Manage cases page to track the progress or to update the support case.

Closing a Lite or Trial account

To close a Lite account or to end a Trial account before its expiration date, go to Manage > Account, select Account settings in the IBM Cloud console. From the account settings page, click Close account.

You can reactivate your account if you upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go or Subscription account. After an account is closed for 30 days, all data is deleted and all services are removed.