How to Remove a Contact from LinkedIn

LinkedIn connections are valuable — but not every connection you've made over the years still belongs in your network. Whether you're cleaning up your list, removing someone after a job change, or simply decluttering, LinkedIn gives you a straightforward way to remove contacts. Here's exactly how it works, and what you should know before you do it.

What "Removing a Connection" Actually Means on LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, your contacts are called connections. When you remove someone, you're ending that first-degree connection. This means:

• They will no longer appear in your connections list
• You will no longer appear in theirs
• They won't receive a notification that you've removed them
• Any messages you've exchanged will remain in both inboxes
• They may still be able to view your public profile, depending on your privacy settings

This is different from blocking someone, which prevents them from seeing your profile or interacting with you at all. Removing a connection is the quieter option — it simply resets the relationship to "not connected."

How to Remove a Contact on LinkedIn 🖥️

On Desktop (Browser)

1. Go to linkedin.com and sign in
2. Click My Network in the top navigation bar
3. Select Connections from the left-hand sidebar
4. Use the search bar to find the contact you want to remove
5. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to their name
6. Select Remove connection
7. Confirm when prompted

Alternatively, you can visit the person's profile page directly, click the More button (next to the Message button), and select Remove connection from the dropdown.

On Mobile (iOS and Android)

1. Open the LinkedIn app
2. Tap your profile photo or the Me icon
3. Tap Connections
4. Search for or scroll to the contact you want to remove
5. Tap the three-dot menu next to their name
6. Tap Remove connection
7. Confirm the action

The process is nearly identical on both platforms — LinkedIn keeps this consistent across devices.

Can They Tell You Removed Them?

LinkedIn does not send a notification when you remove a connection. However, a few indirect signals exist that a savvy user might notice:

• If they search for you, you'll appear as a 2nd or 3rd-degree connection rather than 1st
• Their connection count will drop by one (though most people don't track this)
• They'll lose access to any profile sections you've restricted to connections only

In practice, the vast majority of removed contacts never notice.

Removing vs. Blocking vs. Unfollowing — Key Differences

These three actions are often confused but work very differently:

Unfollowing is worth highlighting: it lets you stay connected while removing their posts from your feed. This is useful when you want to keep the professional relationship intact but don't want their content showing up constantly. You can unfollow from their profile by clicking More → Unfollow.

Blocking is the most restrictive option. Use it when you want to prevent someone from contacting you or viewing your profile entirely.

What Happens to Recommendations and Endorsements?

This is a detail many people miss. If the person you're removing has endorsed your skills or written you a recommendation, those remain on your profile after you remove them — and vice versa. The connection status and the endorsements/recommendations are handled separately on LinkedIn's backend.

If you want to remove a recommendation they've written for you, you'll need to do that separately through your profile settings under Received Recommendations.

Can You Re-Add Someone After Removing Them? 🔄

Yes. Removing a connection is not permanent. Either party can send a new connection request afterward. LinkedIn doesn't penalize or flag accounts for reconnecting. If you remove someone and later want to reconnect, simply visit their profile and send a new invite — the same as any other connection request.

Bulk Removing Connections

LinkedIn doesn't currently offer a one-click "bulk remove" feature through its standard interface. If you need to clean up a large number of connections, you'll need to do it one at a time through the Connections page. Some third-party tools and browser extensions claim to automate this, but using them carries risk — LinkedIn's terms of service restrict automated actions on the platform, and accounts have been temporarily restricted for excessive automated behavior.

For a large-scale cleanup, working through the Connections page systematically — sorted by Recently Added or filtered by company or location — is the safest approach.

Variables That Affect Your Situation

How straightforward this process feels depends on a few personal factors:

• How many connections you have — cleaning up a 50-person network is trivial; 3,000+ connections is a project
• Your privacy settings — what removed contacts can still see about you varies based on whether your profile is public or restricted
• Whether you use LinkedIn Premium — Premium doesn't change the removal process, but it does affect how your profile appears to others afterward
• Your purpose for removing — decluttering, managing a job search, or handling a sensitive professional situation each call for a slightly different approach (remove vs. block vs. unfollow)

The mechanics are the same for everyone. What changes is how those mechanics interact with your specific network size, privacy configuration, and what you're actually trying to accomplish.