How Do You Remove Connections on LinkedIn?
Silent, immediate, and since late 2024 it usually takes the follow with it. Usually.
How do you remove connections on LinkedIn? Open the person's profile, click More under their headline, choose Remove connection and confirm. It takes effect immediately and LinkedIn does not notify them. You can also do it from My Network, then Connections, through the menu on each row. There is no option to remove several at once.
Since late 2024, removing a connection normally ends the follow in both directions as well, so they stop seeing your posts in their feed. The reported exception is someone who already followed you before you connected, who can stay a follower afterwards.
If you only want their posts out of your feed, unfollow instead. The connection stays, and they are not told.
Every removal also lowers the connection count on your profile, which visitors see exactly up to 500. LinkedIn connections add to that public number, so a large clear-out of strangers is worth weighing against it.
Removing a connection used to leave a loose end, and a lot of advice online still describes it.
LinkedIn has two relationships and treats them as separate records. A connection is mutual and gives both sides each other's network and contact details. A follow is one-directional and gives the follower your posts. Connecting creates both at once.
For a stretch from around 2023, removing the connection removed only the connection, and the follows stayed. A former connection kept seeing everything you published, which defeated the usual reason for removing them. Around the end of September 2024 LinkedIn changed it back: according to the LinkedIn tool vendors who track this behavior, removing a connection now also unfollows in both directions. LinkedIn's own help page for the action does not spell this out.
The exception those same sources report is a person who followed you before you ever connected. Their follow predates the connection, and it can survive the removal. Check your followers list afterwards if it matters.
And if it does, there is no remove-follower button to finish the job. LinkedIn gives you two blunt tools instead: blocking the person, or limiting who can follow you to your connections, which removing followers on LinkedIn covers in detail.
Removing from the profile
Open the person's profile. Under their name and headline there is a row of buttons, with More at the end.
Click More and choose Remove connection. LinkedIn asks for confirmation because the action cannot be undone from your side.
On mobile the layout differs by version but the More menu is in the same place, beneath the headline.
The change takes effect immediately. Their degree indicator on your screen goes from first to second or third.
Removing several at once
Go to My Network, then Connections, which lists everybody with a search box and filters.
Each row has a three-dot menu containing Remove connection. There is no multi-select, so a large clear-out is one at a time.
The list can be sorted by recently added, which is useful when the connections you want gone all arrived in one burst from a campaign you accepted carelessly.
LinkedIn caps total connections at 30,000, and people who hit it have to remove before they can add. The LinkedIn connection limit explains that ceiling and the weekly invitation cap that usually bites first.
Unfollow, which is usually the right action
Unfollowing keeps the connection and stops their posts reaching your feed.
It is on the same More menu, and it can also be done from any of their posts in your feed through the post's own menu — which is the fastest route, because that is usually where you remembered you wanted to.
They are not notified, and your connection and their access to you are unchanged.
For colleagues, clients and anybody you may need later, this is the proportionate tool. Removing a connection to escape a noisy feed is throwing away the relationship to solve a display problem.
When the follow survives the removal
Most removals now end everything: the connection and the follows in both directions. If you want to be sure, open your followers list a day later and search for the name.
If they are still there, they followed you before you connected, or the change has not applied to your account. Either way, LinkedIn offers no button to remove a single follower.
The two options are blunt. Blocking the person, from More, then Report or block, ends the follow and everything else, and they are not told. Or, in Settings under Visibility, you can limit who can follow you to your connections, which removes every follower outside your network at once.
If your reason for removing a connection was that you do not want that person watching your activity, one of those two is the step that guarantees it. The difference between the two relationships is laid out in LinkedIn connections versus followers.
What the other person can still see
LinkedIn sends no notification, so they find out only by noticing: your degree indicator changes on their screen, you disappear from their connections list, and a Message button may become a request to connect.
Your public profile stays visible to them as it is to any other member, according to your profile visibility settings. Removing a connection is not a block and hides nothing that was public.
Posts you have already made remain where they were. Comments you left on their posts, and theirs on yours, stay in place.
If they look you up and want to reconnect, they can send a new invitation like anyone else, and you can ignore it without them being told.
Reconnecting, and why it is awkward
A removed connection can be re-sent as an invitation, and LinkedIn does not block it.
If they accepted an invitation from you previously, the second invitation looks exactly like the first from their side.
There is also a limit on withdrawals: an invitation you withdraw cannot be sent to the same person again for up to three weeks, and LinkedIn restricts accounts that invite aggressively.
That makes removing connections slightly riskier than it feels for anybody who is also growing their network, because the account-level limits do not distinguish between a clear-out and a campaign. The connection count is the visible result of all of it, and LinkedIn connections add to that public number without sending a single invitation from your account. Every LinkedIn guide and service on this site is on the LinkedIn page.
Questions people ask about removing LinkedIn connections
Does LinkedIn tell someone I removed them?
No. The removal is silent and immediate. They can only notice that your degree indicator changed or that you left their connections list.
Can they still see my posts after I remove them?
Usually not in their feed. Since late 2024 removing a connection normally ends the follow both ways. Someone who followed you before connecting can stay a follower; blocking or a connections-only follow setting removes them.
What is the difference between removing and unfollowing?
Unfollowing keeps the connection and stops their posts in your feed. Removing ends the connection, and normally the follows with it.
Can I remove many connections at once?
No. There is no multi-select in My Network, so a clear-out is one at a time through each row's menu.
Can I reconnect afterwards?
Yes, by sending a new invitation. Invitations you withdraw cannot be re-sent to the same person for up to three weeks, and aggressive inviting is restricted at the account level.
Is there a connection limit?
Yes, 30,000. People who reach it have to remove connections before they can accept any more.
Keep reading
- connections on a LinkedIn profile — Network size is one of the first things recruiters and buyers read on a profile, and connections on a LinkedIn profile add to that public count.
- the difference between the two relationships — Almost everything confusing here comes from LinkedIn having two, and the difference between the two relationships sets them apart.
- removing someone as a follower — When a follow survives the removal, the fix is a different tool, and removing someone as a follower covers the two that exist.