On really old servers (you can skip this part if mysql version is > 5.0.2): first drop all privileges associated with the account to be deleted: show grants for 'user'@'localhost'; show grants for 'user'@'%'; revoke all privileges, grant option from 'user'@'localhost'; show grants for 'user'@'localhost'; show grants for 'user'@'%'; After that, or on newer servers, all you need to do is: drop user 'user'@'localhost';