Delete a Sub-user
What deleting a sub-user removes, what happens to its credentials and its traffic allocation, and how to retire a sub-user cleanly.
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Deleting a sub-user removes a proxy identity from the account. It is the right move for a job that has finished, a client that has left, or a credential you no longer want to exist.
How to delete
- Open the Users tab on a product page, or
/dashboard/subusers. - Find the sub-user.
- Select Delete user.
- Confirm.
What happens
| Aspect | Effect |
|---|---|
| Credentials | Stop working immediately for new requests |
| Endpoints | Any endpoint authenticating as that sub-user stops authenticating |
| Services | Access is removed for every service the sub-user held |
| Allocation | The sub-user's share is released back to the account |
| The name | Freed immediately, so the name can be reused right away |
| Seats | One seat is returned to the available pool |
Two of those deserve emphasis.
The name frees immediately. Delete client-north and you can create client-north again in the same minute. There is no archived record holding the name.
Allocation returns to the account. Any traffic that was reserved for the sub-user becomes assignable again. If a reservation was holding a large balance, deleting the sub-user is what makes it available for others to use.
Retiring cleanly
Deleting the sub-user is the last step, not the first. Before you delete:
- Stop the jobs using that credential, or point them at another sub-user.
- Note what the sub-user was for, if the account has several, so you do not recreate it later by mistake.
- Delete exports containing its password, per Proxy Formats and Exports.
- Check the allocation you are about to release is genuinely spare, following Traffic Allocation.
- Then delete.
Recovering a deleted sub-user
There is nothing to restore, because the credential no longer exists. The remedy is to create a new sub-user with the same name and reissue the credentials to the tools that need them. Because the name is freed immediately, the recreation is straightforward.
The default user cannot be deleted
The system-managed default sub-user has no delete action, by design. It exists so the account always has a working credential. See Sub-users.