How to bulk delete in Pipedrive (and get it back)

To bulk delete in Pipedrive, open the list view of leads, deals, people, organizations, activities, products or projects, tick the records and click the trash icon. Regular users with default permissions can't delete deals until an admin allows it. Deleted items come back for 30 days from Tools and apps > Restore data, and in our test a restored person kept the same ID and its links. Two things never come back from there: records absorbed in a merge, and data wiped with the start-over link.

Bulk deletes through the API, restores, cascades and permissions tested in a Pipedrive sandbox on November 2, 2026, with an admin and a regular user. Steps and limits from Pipedrive's help center. Last checked: November 2, 2026. What we couldn't verify.

How to bulk delete from the list view

Pipedrive's bulk deleting article (updated September 3, 2026) gives the steps for deals. The bulk editing article (same date) lists Delete in all seven list views: leads, deals, projects, activities, people, organizations and products.

Open the list view of what you want to delete. For deals, switch the pipeline to the list icon.
Filter it down to exactly the records you mean, and check the count at the top.
Tick the checkbox on the left of each row. Shift + click selects a range (free up space article, updated October 28, 2026). The checkbox at the top left selects everything in the list.
Click the trash icon above the list and confirm.

Pipedrive documents no limit on how many items one bulk delete can take. Projects got bulk delete in April 2026 (product updates). Notes and files have no list view, so you delete them one at a time from the record.

To delete all leads or all deals, filter for everything and use the top checkbox. If the goal is to get them out of sight or under the plan limit, archive them instead (see before you delete).

Who can delete, and who can restore

Deleting is a permission. Pipedrive's permission sets article (updated September 3, 2026) has separate switches for deleting deals, activities, people, organizations and products, and one for adding, editing and deleting projects. There's no permission for deleting leads, notes or files, and no separate "bulk delete" permission.

What we saw with a regular user on default permissions: the three-dot menu of a deal they owned showed Duplicate, Export as XLSX, Convert to a lead and Archive. No Delete. That matches the bulk deleting article, which says regular users can't delete deals until an admin turns on Delete deals in their permission set.

Restoring is looser. The same regular user opened Restore data, saw the people an admin had deleted and restored one of them. Pipedrive's Restore data article (updated September 3, 2026) says every user can open the page, and what they can restore depends on the plan; the plan rules are in our backup guide. So, at least on Lite and Growth, a user who can't delete a deal may still be able to undo someone else's cleanup. The help pages don't fully agree on this: one deal article says only admins can restore.

What gets deleted along with each record

This is where Pipedrive's help and our API test disagree, so here they are apart.

What Pipedrive's help says. Deleting an item also deletes its linked history, such as invoices, notes and attachments (how to delete items, updated September 3, 2026). A note linked to both a deal and a person stays if the person is still active. Deleting a deal deletes its activities, and restoring the deal brings them back (Restore data). The help doesn't say what happens to the people and deals of a deleted organization. In our sandbox, the app's delete window for a person said the same as the help: its notes, files, documents and invoices go with it.

What we saw when deleting through the API (November 2, 2026):

We deleted	What happened to the linked records
Two people	Their notes, activities and deals stayed active and still pointed to the deleted people
An organization	Its person and its deal stayed active, still linked to the deleted organization
A deal	Its activity and note stayed active, and listing activities or notes by that deal still returned them

We didn't measure the cascade of a delete made from the screen. If you delete in the app, expect what the help describes: notes, files and a deal's activities go too, and come back on restore. If an integration or a script deletes through the API, expect orphans: notes and activities that point at a record that's gone.

How to get deleted data back

Go to Tools and apps > Restore data, or the three-dot menu of any list view.
Open Deleted items and the tab for the type: leads, deals, people, organizations or activities.
Filter by who deleted and when. A bulk delete shows as a Bulk deletion session, so you can pick the whole batch.
Select the items and click Restore.

What we saw on November 2, 2026, after deleting two people with notes, activities and deals through the API:

They appeared in Restore data as a Bulk deletion, under the admin who ran it. Deletes made through the API show up there too.
The restore window says it also brings back the record's linked notes, activities and files.
The restored person kept the same ID, with its note, activity and deal still linked. So Zaps, links and reports that use the ID should keep working (we didn't test them).
The tab counter is broken. It said 0 while deleted people were listed, and -1 after a restore. Trust the list, not the number.

After 30 days, deleted items are deleted for good and can't be restored (Restore data). Restored activities and contacts can reappear in synced calendars and address books, depending on your sync settings.

What isn't there:

Records absorbed in a merge. In our sandbox, merged people and organizations didn't appear in Restore data, and a merged lead returned 404 at once and wasn't listed. See what a merge loses.
Anything wiped with the start-over link (next section).
Anything older than 30 days. Only an export or a backup made before the delete has it.

Bulk deleting through the API

For developers. Pipedrive v1 had bulk deletes, DELETE /v1/{deals,persons,organizations,activities}?ids=. They are among the 58 v1 endpoints that went out of support on August 1, 2026 (what's out of support). Out of support means they can change or disappear without notice.

On November 2, 2026, DELETE /v1/persons?ids= still answered 200. One call deleted two people and cost 10 tokens. Don't build on it.

The supported way is v2, one record per call: DELETE /api/v2/{deals,persons,organizations,activities,products}/{id}. Pipedrive's spec says 3 tokens per delete; deleting a person cost us 6. Leads, notes and files only have v1 single deletes, DELETE /v1/{leads,notes,files}/{id}, 6 tokens in the spec.

At 6 tokens, 1,000 deletes cost 6,000 tokens, 20% of the 30,000 a one-seat Lite account gets per day. How budgets work and what happens when they run out: why Claude used up your API tokens.

Records deleted through the API are permanently removed after 30 days (changelog, effective January 30, 2023). Deleted deals can still be listed with status=deleted in that window.

There's no button to delete a record for good right away. Deleted items stay restorable for 30 days.

For a data subject request, Pipedrive's GDPR article (updated September 3, 2026) says it's ready to respond to deletion requests and points you to support. It describes no self-serve way to skip the 30 days. So:

Delete the person in Pipedrive.
If it has to be gone before the 30 days, ask Pipedrive support.
Delete the person in the places Pipedrive syncs with or copies to: your mailbox, calendar, and any integration or backup app.

Whether 30 days in a recycle bin meets your obligations is a legal question; ask whoever handles your compliance.

To wipe a whole account's data, there's the start-over link (account deletion article, updated September 13, 2026). It deletes deals, leads, projects, people, organizations, products, notes, files and Campaigns, and keeps pipelines, stages, custom fields and users. Only users with account settings access can use it. Pipedrive says that after it, "you won't be able to recover it". It doesn't go through Restore data. Export everything first.

Before you delete

Export what you're about to delete, with the ID column. Filter the list view, add the ID column, then three-dot menu > Export filter results. That file is your copy after day 30. Full routine in our backup guide.
Archive deals and leads instead. Archived items leave your pipeline and lists, stay in Insights and can be unarchived (archive article, updated September 3, 2026). Archiving and deleting both free space under the 300,000 leads and deals limit (all plans except Enterprise, per the free up space article). If you wanted to "delete all leads" to clear the list, archiving is usually enough.
Merge duplicates instead of deleting them when both copies have history. Deleted in the app, the copy's notes and activities go with it, per Pipedrive's help (through the API they stay behind as orphans); a merge moves them to the record you keep, but can't be undone. Which to pick: delete or merge.
Check your automations. Pipedrive's workflow automation (updated September 3, 2026) has "deleted" triggers for deals, people, activities, leads, organizations and projects. One of them could send emails or create tasks during a big delete. We didn't test whether a list-view bulk delete fires them.

Common mistakes

Deleting an organization to clean up its people. By API, its people and deals stayed active. Delete them on purpose, or not at all.
Assuming an API delete cleans up after itself. Notes, activities and deals stayed linked to the deleted record in our test.
Reading 0 in the Restore data tab and giving up. The counter is wrong; open the tab.
Using the start-over link to clear test data. It wipes everything listed above, with no restore.
Waiting past day 30. After that, only your own export or backup has the data.

What we couldn't verify

What a delete made from the screen takes with it. We measured the cascade through the API only.
Whether deleted notes, files, products and projects appear in Restore data. The help lists tabs for leads, deals, people, organizations and activities.
Whether a restore through the API (PATCH /api/v2/persons/{id} with is_deleted: false) works on an ordinary delete. It worked on a merged person.
How many records the list view can select and delete in one go, and whether it's the whole filter or one page.
Whether a bulk delete from the list view fires automations and webhooks once per record, and what webhook, if any, a restore sends.
Whether deleted won deals leave Insights reports and come back on restore.
Who can delete people and organizations. One help article says you need admin settings; the permission sets article has its own switches for them.
Whether Lite and Growth admins can turn on Delete deals for regular users. Custom permission sets start on Premium.
Old developer forum posts mention a 1,000-ID cap per v1 bulk call and lost webhooks on deletes over about 2,000 records. Both are years old.

Where Pipehand fits

Pipehand is in development as a replacement for Pipedrive's MCP, which can't delete. It's designed to let your AI delete records only after a person approves with a click, always with a copy kept first. Within 30 days it will reactivate the original; after that it will recreate it from the copy, with a new ID and a warning. For GDPR requests, it's designed to erase a person from Pipedrive and from every copy Pipehand keeps, at once.

If you want deletes you can undo after day 30, join the waitlist on pipehand.com.

FAQ

How do I delete multiple deals in Pipedrive?

Open the deals list view, filter it, tick the deals and click the trash icon. Regular users need Delete deals turned on in their permission set first. Deleted deals can be restored for 30 days from Tools and apps > Restore data.

How do I mass delete contacts in Pipedrive?

Open the people or organizations list view, tick the rows (Shift + click for a range, the top checkbox for all) and click the trash icon. Deleting an organization doesn't delete its people, at least through the API, so delete people from their own list.

How do I restore deleted data in Pipedrive?

Within 30 days, go to Tools and apps > Restore data > Deleted items, filter by user, date or bulk deletion session, select and click Restore. In our test a restored person kept the same ID and its links.

Can I delete all leads in Pipedrive at once?

Yes: in the leads list view, the top checkbox selects them all, then the trash icon. If you only want them out of the way, archive them instead; archived leads can be unarchived.

Delete it, and it's removed for good after 30 days. To remove it sooner, ask Pipedrive support; there's no self-serve option. Also delete it from synced email, calendars and integrations.

Does the Pipedrive API have a bulk delete endpoint?

Not a supported one. The v1 bulk deletes went out of support on August 1, 2026. One still answered in our November 2026 test, but it can stop without notice. API v2 deletes one record per call; deleting a person cost 6 tokens in our test.