How to Close an Amazon Business Account

Most people arriving at this page do not actually want to close the account. They want to stop paying for something. Those are different actions with very different consequences, so we will separate them before anything else.

You probably want one of these instead

Cancellation is covered on how to cancel Business Prime and the plan-switch route on renewal and refunds.

What closure actually does

Amazon is clear about the outcome, and it is worth reading carefully because two of the three points are irreversible:

• The business account is no longer active and converts to a personal account. You can continue making personal purchases with the same email address.
• Order history for purchases made by users on individual payment methods transfers to those users' personal Amazon accounts.
• All order history associated with shared payment methods is deleted.

That third point is the one to plan around. For an organization that ran everything on a shared company card — which is the tidy way to run an account — the entire purchase record disappears. Amazon anticipates this and recommends running a Business Analytics report first as a record of your orders.

Take that advice literally. Export before you touch anything else, and keep the CSV with your accounting records. See Spend Visibility and reporting for the export route.

The two blockers

Too many users

Amazon states you may only close a business account with 5 or fewer users. A larger account has to be shrunk first:

1. Business Settings.
2. Users, within User Management.
3. Actions beside the person, then Remove from group.
4. Repeat for each group they belong to — Amazon notes that a person in more than one group must be removed from each individually.

Amazon also notes a spreadsheet can be used to remove multiple users at once, which is the sane route above a dozen people. See how to add users to Amazon Business for the same interface from the other direction.

Outstanding credit balances

Amazon states that before closing you should ensure any open Business Credit Account balances are resolved and that there are no funds available for disbursement. Settle the invoices and confirm nothing is pending back to you — see invoices and receipts.

The full sequence

1. Confirm you actually want to close, not downgrade. If the problem is the membership fee, cancel Business Prime instead — that keeps the free account, its users, addresses, approval workflows, reporting and tax exemption enrollment. Closing the account throws all of that away.
2. Export your records first. Amazon recommends running a report using Amazon Business Analytics and saving it as a record of your orders. Do this before anything else, because order history tied to shared payment methods is deleted on closure.
3. Resolve Business Credit Account balances. Amazon states you should ensure any open Business Credit Account balances are resolved and that there are no funds available for disbursement before closing.
4. Reduce the account to five users or fewer. Amazon states you may only close a business account with five or fewer users. Go to Business Settings, then Users within User Management, then Actions beside the person and Remove from group.
5. Remove people from every group they belong to. Amazon notes that if a person is a member of more than one group, you must remove them from each group individually. A spreadsheet can be used to remove multiple users at once.
6. Open Business Settings as the administrator. Closure is an administrator action. If you cannot see Business Settings, you do not hold the role that can complete it.
7. Find the Business Profile section. Within Business Settings, locate the Business Profile section.
8. Select close business account. The account stops being active and converts to a personal account on the same email address.
9. If you also want the data deleted, make a separate request. Amazon states that deleting your personal account and data permanently after closing the business account is a separate process — requesting the closure of your account and the deletion of your personal information.

Deleting the data as well

Closing the business account converts it to a personal account rather than erasing it. Amazon states that to delete your personal account and data permanently after closing the business account, you should follow its separate process for requesting the closure of your account and the deletion of your personal information.

Two different requests, in sequence. If data deletion is your actual goal — a wound-up entity, a data-protection obligation — plan for both.

A note for anyone who inherited the account

A common situation: the person who set the account up has left, nobody knows who the administrator is, and the renewal is charging a card that no longer exists.

Before reaching for closure, note that the Prime Business terms describe renewals charging the original payment method used to purchase the membership, which Amazon says may be an individual payment method. If payments are failing, Amazon states the membership will be canceled unless a new eligible method is provided — so the fee problem may resolve itself while the account, and its records, survive.

Sort the administrator and payment method first. Closing an account you have not exported is the one mistake on this page you cannot undo.