# Delete a contact

> Remove a contact from your audience, or erase their personal data entirely for a GDPR request. These are different operations.

Source: https://getlaunchlist.com/help/docs/api/contacts-delete

---

Requires the `contacts:write` scope.

Two different operations behind one endpoint, and the difference matters. Both answer with the same
shape, and `erased` tells you which one ran:

```json
{
    "object": "contact",
    "id": "con_4mKp9Wq2Rx",
    "deleted": true,
    "erased": false
}
```

## Remove

```bash
curl -X DELETE https://api.getlaunchlist.com/v1/contacts/con_4mKp9Wq2Rx \\
  -H "Authorization: Bearer llk_live_8xKq3Rp9Wm2Nz7Vt6yL1cG5dH0jA4sE8uNqB2fXk"
```

Removes the contact from your audience. Their **billable count is freed immediately**, not at the
end of the period.

## Erase

```bash
curl -X DELETE "https://api.getlaunchlist.com/v1/contacts/con_4mKp9Wq2Rx?erase=true" \\
  -H "Authorization: Bearer llk_live_8xKq3Rp9Wm2Nz7Vt6yL1cG5dH0jA4sE8uNqB2fXk"
```

For a GDPR Article 17 request. Destroys the personal data while keeping the aggregate counts your
reporting depends on, so your historical signup numbers do not silently change because somebody
exercised a right.

> [!WARNING] Erase cannot be undone
> Remove is recoverable. Erase is not: the personal data is gone. Use erase only for an actual
> erasure request.

## The referral graph survives, with one deliberate exception

Deleting someone in the middle of a referral chain does not orphan the people they referred. Their
referees keep their attribution and their positions. Punishing everybody standing behind a removed
person is exactly the failure this graph is built to avoid.

The one edge that does change is the deleted contact's **inbound** one: whoever was credited for
bringing this person in loses that credit, because the person is no longer in your audience and
there is no signup left to credit. So expect the referrer's `referral_count` and queue position to
move when you delete somebody they referred. A remove is reinstatable; an erase is not.

## Next

- [Importing and exporting](/help/docs/audience/importing) for bulk cleanup without the API
- [Plans and billing](/help/docs/account/billing) for how the count is freed