No — you cannot delete standard profiles. Profiles like System Administrator, Standard User, Read Only, Marketing User, and Contract Manager ship with every Salesforce org and are protected. There’s no Delete button on the profile detail page, and the metadata API will reject a delete request for them too. You can rename custom profiles, but standard ones also can’t be renamed.
Why Salesforce protects them
A few reasons:
- System Administrator is referenced by Salesforce internally — many setup-time checks assume at least one user has it. Deleting it would brick the org.
- Standard profiles are tied to license types. The platform uses them as a known starting point when provisioning new users from various license SKUs.
- Sandboxes, packaging, and managed-package install paths all assume standard profiles exist. Allowing deletion would break refreshes and installs.
What you can do instead
If a standard profile isn’t useful for your org:
- Leave it alone — having unused standard profiles costs you nothing.
- Don’t assign users to it — if no user has Marketing User, it’s effectively inert.
- Clone it once to create a custom profile, then assign users to the clone. The clone can be edited and deleted (when no users are assigned).
Custom profiles — different rules
Custom profiles created by cloning standard profiles can be deleted — but only when:
- No users are currently assigned to the profile.
- The profile isn’t referenced by any active integration (Connected App default profile, default for community sign-up, etc.).
If users are assigned, reassign them first, then delete.
Common interview follow-up
“What if I want a profile not to be usable — can I deactivate it?”
There’s no “active/inactive” flag on profiles the way there is on users. The equivalent is to ensure no users are assigned to it. For custom profiles you’d then delete; for standard profiles you’d just leave it empty.
Quick reference
| Action | Standard Profile | Custom Profile |
|---|---|---|
| Delete | No | Yes (if unassigned) |
| Rename | No | Yes |
| Edit permissions | Mostly yes | Yes |
| Clone | Yes | Yes |
Verified against: Salesforce Help — Standard Profiles and Delete Custom Profiles. Last reviewed 2026-05-17.