Sample - Plaid API
POST/user/identity/remove

Remove user identity data

Removes identity and personally identifiable information stored for a user. Supply user_id to identify the user whose identity data you want to purge; this operation is available only when enabled for your integration.

  • RetriesRetries up to 2×, 500ms backoff, 30s timeout.

1 parameter · 3 body fields
Plaid-New-User-API-Enabledbooleanoptional
Selects the legacy or new User API version. Defaults to false when omitted.
Default:false

Request to purge identity and personally identifiable information for a user. user_id is required.

client_idstringoptional
Your Plaid API `client_id`. The `client_id` is required and may be provided either in the `PLAID-CLIENT-ID` header or as part of a request body.
secretstringoptional
Your Plaid API `secret`. The `secret` is required and may be provided either in the `PLAID-SECRET` header or as part of a request body.
user_idstringrequired
A unique user identifier, created by `/user/create`. Integrations that began using `/user/create` after December 10, 2025 use this field to identify a user instead of the `user_token`. For more details, see [New User APIs](https://plaid.com/docs/api/users/user-apis).

2 status codes
200Returns a response containing the unique `request_id` for the identity removal.
request_idstringrequired
A unique identifier for the request, which can be used for troubleshooting. This identifier, like all Plaid identifiers, is case sensitive.
defaultReturned when the request cannot be processed; inspect the error response's `error_type`, `error_code`, and `error_message` fields.
error_typestringrequired
A broad categorization of the error. Safe for programmatic use.
Allowed:INVALID_REQUESTINVALID_RESULTINVALID_INPUTINSTITUTION_ERRORRATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDEDAPI_ERRORITEM_ERRORASSET_REPORT_ERRORBASE_REPORT_ERRORRECAPTCHA_ERROROAUTH_ERRORPAYMENT_ERROR
error_codestringrequired
The particular error code. Safe for programmatic use.
error_code_reasonstringoptional
The specific reason for the error code. Currently, reasons are only supported for OAuth-based item errors; `null` will be returned otherwise. Safe for programmatic use. Possible values: `OAUTH_INVALID_TOKEN`: The user's OAuth connection to this institution has been invalidated. `OAUTH_CONSENT_EXPIRED`: The user's access consent for this OAuth connection to this institution has expired. `OAUTH_USER_REVOKED`: The user's OAuth connection to this institution is invalid because the user revoked their connection.
error_messagestringrequired
A developer-friendly representation of the error code. This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
display_messagestringrequired
A user-friendly representation of the error code. `null` if the error is not related to user action. This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
request_idstringoptional
A unique ID identifying the request, to be used for troubleshooting purposes. This field will be omitted in errors provided by webhooks.
causesarrayoptional
In this product, a request can pertain to more than one Item. If an error is returned for such a request, `causes` will return an array of errors containing a breakdown of these errors on the individual Item level, if any can be identified. `causes` will be provided for the `error_type` `ASSET_REPORT_ERROR` or `CHECK_REPORT_ERROR`. `causes` will also not be populated inside an error nested within a `warning` object.
statusintegeroptional
The HTTP status code associated with the error. This will only be returned in the response body when the error information is provided via a webhook.
documentation_urlstringoptional
The URL of a Plaid documentation page with more information about the error
suggested_actionstringoptional
Suggested steps for resolving the error
required_account_subtypesarray<string>optional
A list of the account subtypes that were requested via the `account_filters` parameter in `/link/token/create`. Currently only populated for `NO_ACCOUNTS` errors from Items with `investments_auth` as an enabled product.
provided_account_subtypesarray<string>optional
A list of the account subtypes that were extracted but did not match the requested subtypes via the `account_filters` parameter in `/link/token/create`. Currently only populated for `NO_ACCOUNTS` errors from Items with `investments_auth` as an enabled product.

Error handling

user_id is required and must identify the user whose identity data you want to remove. Treat the removal as irreversible for the stored identity data and verify the identifier before submitting the request.