How To Delete a Gravatar Account

Lee Stanton September 22, 2022

If you realize that you don’t use your Gravatar account as much as you thought you would, or if you simply don’t want to have an account anymore, you might wonder how to delete it. Unlike other apps and platforms, Gravatar doesn’t make it easy for users to delete their accounts. Gravatar lets you hide your account and eventually disable it, but deleting it is a slightly more complicated process.

Deleting a Gravatar Account (or Attempting To)

While creating your own Gravatar is simple, deleting your Gravatar account is quite the opposite. A direct method to delete your Gravatar account doesn’t exist. Even though you can’t delete your Gravatar account directly, you can hide it through your WordPress account. Follow these steps to see how it’s done:

Go to WordPress using your preferred browser.
Sign in to your account.
Click on the “Settings” option on the left sidebar.
Proceed to the “Discussion” tab underneath.
Click on the “Show Avatars” box at the top of the page.
Go to the “Save Changes” button.

Doing this simply hides your Gravatar from WordPress web pages. However, it doesn’t permanently remove it. It’s also possible to choose a default avatar, which can be the “Mystery Person” avatar you’ve probably seen before or other types of generated avatars. You also have the option to hide your Gravatar profile, which is the next best thing to disabling it. To disable your Gravatar, follow these instructions:

Open your preferred browser and go to Gravatar.
Click on the “Sign in” button in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Go to the “My Profile” option.
Proceed to “View Profile” on your profile page.
Select the “Hide My Profile” option at the bottom of the page.

That’s about it. There is another way to disable your Gravatar. Follow the steps below to see how it’s done:

Go to Gravatar and sign in to your account. Make sure you’re also logged in to your WordPress account.
Proceed to the “Disable My Gravatar” page.
Select the “Disable my Gravatar” option.
Confirm that you want to disable your Gravatar account.

Although this will temporarily disable your Gravatar account, it won’t be permanently deleted. You’ll be able to restore your account any time you want. Not only that, but if 30 days have passed since you disabled your account, it will be automatically restored. In other words, Gravatar doesn’t allow your account to be disabled for more than a month.

According to Gravatar, if you want to permanently delete your account, you will also have to close your WordPress account. Deleting your WordPress account is permanent, and you will lose all your data and the content for good. So, this option doesn’t pay off if you just want to delete your Gravatar account.

The final method you can try to delete your Gravatar account is to contact Gravatar’s support team and request they permanently delete your account. If you can’t reach them, or if you’re prevented in some other way, the only other option you have is to delete your WordPress account.

Understanding Your Options With Gravatar

While Gravatar is a useful website that lets you use the same profile photo for all WordPress web pages, you may no longer need it. If you want to delete your Gravatar account, you have two options. You can either hide your profile or temporarily disable it. Unfortunately, there is no direct way to delete your Gravatar account permanently.

Have you ever tried to delete your Gravatar account before? What did you do that was successful? Tell us about your experience with trying to delete your Gravatar in the comments.