Remove Someone From a Channel in Slack and Teams
Someone changed teams, a project ended, or a guest's contract wrapped up. Now you need them out of one conversation without touching the rest. Slack and Microsoft Teams both handle this, but Slack thinks in channels while Teams mostly thinks in whole teams, and that difference decides which button you are looking for. Here is how removal works in each, according to their help pages.
Miles Crawford
The quick version
In Slack you remove a person from one specific channel, on any plan, and Slack notifies them. In Teams, standard channels belong to the whole team, so removal happens at the team level; the exception is a private channel, where the channel owner can remove someone from just that channel.
Slack: remove from a channel
On desktop, open the channel, click the cluster of profile pictures in the top right, hover over the person, click the three dots icon next to their name, select Remove from channel, and click Remove to confirm. On mobile, open the channel, type /remove @member in the message field and send it. One thing to know before you click: Slack notifies the person that they were removed.
Slack: who is allowed, and what happens after
By default, Workspace Owners and Admins can remove people from public channels, and members can remove people from private channels. Owners can restrict that permission, so if the option is missing, an owner changed the default. Nobody can be removed from the #general channel (or #all-companyname). Rejoining has its own rules: anyone removed from a private channel must be added back, guests must be added back even to public channels, and Slack's help notes only that members and guests need to be added back to private channels, while guests must be added back to public ones too. The feature is available on all Slack plans, including the free one.
Teams: remove from the team
Because standard channels include every team member, Teams removal starts at the team. A team owner selects More options next to the team name, then Manage team, opens Members, finds the person under Members and guests, and selects Remove on the far right of their name. Removing another owner takes one extra step: change their role from owner to member first. You can add the person back later with More options, then Add member. And note the ceiling on this power: team owners remove people from a team, but only an admin can remove someone from the organization entirely.
Teams: the private channel exception
Private channels keep their own membership list inside a team. Per Microsoft Learn, only the private channel owner can directly add or remove people from one, using Manage channel and the Members tab. The rules cascade in both directions: if someone leaves or is removed from the team, they drop out of all its private channels automatically, and if they rejoin the team later, they must be added back to each private channel. Two edge cases from the same page: the last owner of a private channel cannot be removed through the Teams client, and if a private channel owner leaves the organization, a member of that channel is promoted to owner automatically.
Removing one person or winding down the space?
Our rule of thumb: if one person is leaving one project, remove them from that channel (Slack) or private channel or team (Teams) and you are done. If the whole project is over, removing people one by one is the wrong tool; archive or delete the channel instead, which our channel creation guide touches on when picking channel types. And when the person leaving was a guest, the cleanest exit is the one you set up on day one: Slack's automatic deactivation date or a Teams admin removing the directory account, both covered in our guest access guide.
What to be careful about
- Slack tells the person. Removal sends a notification, so expect the question.
- #general is untouchable in Slack. Nobody can be removed from it or from #all-companyname.
- Private channels do not refill in Teams. Rejoining the team does not restore private channel membership; add them back one by one.
- Owners first, then removal. In Teams you must demote an owner to member before removing them.
- Removed from the team means removed everywhere in Teams. Losing team membership also pulls the person out of every private channel in it.
Sources
Checked October 19, 2026. The steps and permission rules follow each product's own help articles. The removal-versus-archive advice is ours.