Efficiently and securely delete multiple users from the Atlassian Cloud in 3 steps

In fast-growing companies, outdated, duplicate or inactive user accounts quickly accumulate in the Atlassian Cloud. This not only affects test users or former employees, but also service accounts, temporary external users or incompletely migrated accounts.

These can lead to the following:

• Unnessecary license costs cause
• Security risks through forgotten accesses
• The More difficult administration,especially during audits or reorganizations

Especially after migrations, reorganizations or in test environments, it makes sense to specifically remove unused accounts. In this article, you will learn how to delete multiple users from your Atlassian Cloud in an efficient and controlled manner.

Typical use cases

This guide requires that your instance includes Jira Cloud and is particularly suitable:

• After a tested user migration, the environment needs to be prepared for another run.
• Following a company merger or a systematic clean-up in which obsolete accounts are to be removed.

Important note: If your users and groups are managed via Atlassian Guard with SCIM provisioning, this guide will not work. These accounts will simply be resynchronized the next time your IdP is updated.

Instead, contact your identity provider's administrator to manage SCIM provisioned users directly through your IdP.

Step-by-step guide: Removing multiple users from Atlassian Cloud

Step 1: Check your user management setup

• Go to admin.atlassian.com
• If you manage more than one organization, select the one you’re working with.
• Navigate to the Users list:
  • If you are a site admin look under the Product site
  • If you are an organization admin go to the tab Directory

Step 2: Preparing the user data

• Go to admin.atlassian.com and select your organization.
• Depending on your setup:
  • Original view: Select the name/URL of the site and then go to Users.
  • Centralized view: Go to Directory > Users.
• Now export the user list:
  • Original view: Click on Export users.
  • Centralized view: Click on the menu at the top and select Export users.
• Select which users you want to include:
  • All users - Includes everyone (active, suspended, deactivated).
  • Specific groups - Only includes users in selected groups.
• Optional, but helpful:
  • Group membership - Shows which groups each user belongs to.
  • Product access - Shows which products and roles each user has.
• Click on Export users. You will receive an email when the CSV file is ready. Check your spam folder if it takes a while.
• Open the email and download the file (you may be asked to log in first).

Step 3: Cleaning up the data

Open the CSV file in Excel, Google Sheets, or a text editor:

• Remove all users that you do not want to delete,e.g. organization administrators.
• Remove your own line;you don’t want to delete yourself!
• Keep the column User ID with - this is important for the deletion process.

Save the cleaned CSV file. As soon as it's ready and you send it to us, we'll take care of the rest.

The advantages of user cleansing at a glance

A cleansed user list has numerous advantages - from an IT, economic and security perspective:

• Reduce license costs: Only active users need a license - that saves money
• Minimize security risks: Old or forgotten accounts can be potential attack surfaces
• Better overview for IT admins: Fewer users mean less complexity with roles, groups and authorizations
• Simplify compliance: Clear data for audits or external reviews
• Improve the end user experience: Fewer name conflicts, duplicates or outdated data
• Faster onboarding: New employees can be assigned to groups and projects in a more targeted manner

Conclusion: Lean user lists = Secure & efficient Atlassian Cloud

The more users you have in your system, the more complex and risky the administration becomes. With a well thought-out clean-up strategy, you can support the following business values:

• Transparency and control
• Cost savings through license optimization
• Security in the sense of zero trust and access restriction
• Ease of maintenance for admins and IT teams

If you actively maintain your Atlassian Cloud, you will have fewer problems and more control in the long term, and you will also save money.

For those interested in technology:

Want to go deeper or use APIs yourself? These Atlassian guides explain how to work with Postman and REST endpoints:

Delete groups from Atlassian Cloud

Bulk disable users from Atlassian Cloud