Archive a wallet

Privy allows your app to archive wallets that are no longer needed. Archiving performs a reversible soft-delete: Privy retains the wallet’s keys, history, and address, but hides the wallet from read endpoints and blocks all write and signing operations.

When to archive

Archive a wallet when:

The wallet’s purpose is complete (e.g., a one-time payment wallet)
Your app is rotating to a new wallet and decommissioning the old one
A compliance or security event requires deactivating a wallet without destroying its audit trail

Archiving a wallet

To archive a wallet, make a POST request to:

https://api.privy.io/v1/wallets/<wallet_id>/archive

If the wallet has an external ID, your app can use ext_wal_<external_id> in place of the wallet ID.

curl --request POST https://api.privy.io/v1/wallets/rbokq6mmq5f8j1cgyr6a5g4n/archive \
    -u "<your-privy-app-id>:<your-privy-app-secret>" \
    -H "privy-app-id: <your-privy-app-id>" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{}'

The response returns the wallet with archived_at populated (Unix timestamp in milliseconds).

What happens when your app archives a wallet

Behavior	Detail
Hidden from reads	`GET /v1/wallets`, `GET /v1/wallets/{id}`, and `POST /v1/wallets/address` return 404 by default.
Blocked from writes	RPC, signing, and transfer endpoints return 400.
Address preserved	The on-chain address remains unchanged and can still receive funds. Your app cannot reuse it.
External ID reserved	The `external_id` remains assigned. Your app cannot assign it to a new wallet.
Webhook dispatched	Privy sends a `wallet.archived` event to your configured webhook endpoint.

Custodial wallets (wallets managed by a third-party custodian) cannot be archived. Attempting to archive a custodial wallet returns a 400 error.

Reading archived wallets

To include archived wallets in read operations, pass the include_archived=true query parameter:

# Get a specific archived wallet
curl --request GET "https://api.privy.io/v1/wallets/rbokq6mmq5f8j1cgyr6a5g4n?include_archived=true" \
    -u "<your-privy-app-id>:<your-privy-app-secret>" \
    -H "privy-app-id: <your-privy-app-id>"

# List all wallets including archived ones
curl --request GET "https://api.privy.io/v1/wallets?include_archived=true" \
    -u "<your-privy-app-id>:<your-privy-app-secret>" \
    -H "privy-app-id: <your-privy-app-id>"

Archived wallets include an archived_at field in the response, allowing your app to distinguish them from active wallets.

Restoring an archived wallet

Wallet restoration is available to Privy administrators. If your app needs to restore an accidentally archived wallet, contact Privy support. When Privy restores a wallet:

The wallet becomes visible in all read endpoints again
Write and signing operations resume
Privy sends a wallet.restored webhook event
The wallet counts toward your app’s active wallet total

API reference

Archive wallet

POST /v1/wallets/{wallet_id}/archive

wallet.archived webhook

Fired when a wallet is archived.

Embedded wallets

Management

Usage

UI components

Custodial wallets

Global wallets

EVM smart wallets

When to archive

Archiving a wallet

What happens when your app archives a wallet

Reading archived wallets

Restoring an archived wallet

API reference

Archive wallet

wallet.archived webhook

​When to archive

​Archiving a wallet

​What happens when your app archives a wallet

​Reading archived wallets

​Restoring an archived wallet

​API reference

Archive wallet

wallet.archived webhook

When to archive

Archiving a wallet

What happens when your app archives a wallet

Reading archived wallets

Restoring an archived wallet

API reference