diff --git a/backend/app/rest/api/admin.go b/backend/app/rest/api/admin.go
index c1fd52e8..f979aec3 100644
--- a/backend/app/rest/api/admin.go
+++ b/backend/app/rest/api/admin.go
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"log"
 	"net/http"
+	"path"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/go-chi/chi"
 	"github.com/go-chi/render"
 	"github.com/umputun/remark/backend/app/rest/auth"
+	"github.com/umputun/remark/backend/app/rest/proxy"
 
 	"github.com/umputun/remark/backend/app/migrator"
 	"github.com/umputun/remark/backend/app/rest"
@@ -27,6 +29,7 @@ type admin struct {
 	cache         cache.LoadingCache
 	authenticator auth.Authenticator
 	readOnlyAge   int
+	avatarProxy   *proxy.Avatar
 }
 
 func (a *admin) routes(middlewares ...func(http.Handler) http.Handler) chi.Router {
@@ -118,6 +121,14 @@ func (a *admin) deleteMeRequestCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "can't delete user")
 		return
 	}
+
+	if claims.User.Picture != "" {
+		if err := a.avatarProxy.Store.Remove(path.Base(claims.User.Picture)); err != nil {
+			rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "can't delete user's avatar")
+			return
+		}
+	}
+
 	a.cache.Flush(cache.Flusher(claims.SiteID).Scopes(claims.SiteID, claims.User.ID, "last"))
 	render.Status(r, http.StatusOK)
 	render.JSON(w, r, JSON{"user_id": claims.User.ID, "site_id": claims.SiteID})
diff --git a/backend/app/rest/api/rest.go b/backend/app/rest/api/rest.go
index 8d27e2a5..8b6bd5a1 100644
--- a/backend/app/rest/api/rest.go
+++ b/backend/app/rest/api/rest.go
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ func (s *Rest) routes() chi.Router {
 		cache:         s.Cache,
 		authenticator: s.Authenticator,
 		readOnlyAge:   s.ReadOnlyAge,
+		avatarProxy:   s.AvatarProxy,
 	}
 
 	ipFn := func(ip string) string { return store.HashValue(ip, s.DataService.Secret)[:12] } // logger uses it for anonymization
diff --git a/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs.go b/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs.go
index 33106f5d..f6103f1c 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs.go
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ func (gf *GridFS) ID(avatar string) (id string) {
 			return errors.Wrapf(e, "can't open avatar %s", avatar)
 		}
 		id = fh.MD5()
-		return nil
+		return errors.Wrapf(fh.Close(), "can't close avatar")
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("[DEBUG] can't get file info '%s', %s", avatar, err)
@@ -81,3 +81,15 @@ func (gf *GridFS) ID(avatar string) (id string) {
 	}
 	return id
 }
+
+// Remove avatar from gridfs
+func (gf *GridFS) Remove(avatar string) error {
+	return gf.Connection.WithDB(func(dbase *mgo.Database) error {
+		fh, e := dbase.GridFS("fs").Open(avatar)
+		if e != nil {
+			return errors.Wrapf(e, "can't get avatar %s", avatar)
+		}
+		_ = fh.Close()
+		return dbase.GridFS("fs").Remove(avatar)
+	})
+}
diff --git a/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs_test.go b/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs_test.go
index bcc6baad..0ba335f0 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs_test.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/avatar/gridfs_test.go
@@ -34,6 +34,21 @@ func TestGridFS_PutAndGet(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "70c881d4a26984ddce795f6f71817c9cf4480e79", p.ID("aaaa"), "no data, encode avatar id")
 }
 
+func TestGridFS_Remove(t *testing.T) {
+	p, skip := prepGFStore(t)
+	if skip {
+		return
+	}
+
+	assert.NotNil(t, p.Remove("no-such-thing.image"))
+
+	avatar, err := p.Put("user1", strings.NewReader("some picture bin data"))
+	require.Nil(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t, "b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image", avatar)
+	assert.NoError(t, p.Remove("b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image"), "remove real one")
+	assert.NotNil(t, p.Remove("b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image"), "already removed")
+}
+
 func prepGFStore(t *testing.T) (Store, bool) {
 	conn, err := mongo.MakeTestConnection(t)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs.go b/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs.go
index 735fa1bf..1c077b0f 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs.go
@@ -88,6 +88,13 @@ func (fs *LocalFS) ID(avatar string) (id string) {
 	return store.EncodeID(avatar + strconv.FormatInt(fi.ModTime().Unix(), 10))
 }
 
+// Remove avatar file
+func (fs *LocalFS) Remove(avatar string) error {
+	location := fs.location(strings.TrimSuffix(avatar, imgSfx))
+	avFile := path.Join(location, avatar)
+	return os.Remove(avFile)
+}
+
 // get location (directory) for user id by adding partition to final path in order to keep files
 // in different subdirectories and avoid too many files in a single place.
 // the end result is a full path like this - /tmp/avatars.test/92
diff --git a/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs_test.go b/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs_test.go
index f60bd9ed..51833f30 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs_test.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/avatar/localfs_test.go
@@ -110,6 +110,22 @@ func TestAvatarStoreFS_ID(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "325d5b451f32c2f8e7f30a9fd65bff6a42954d9a", id) // store.EncodeID("b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image1500000000")
 }
 
+func TestAvatarStoreFS_Remove(t *testing.T) {
+	p := NewLocalFS("/tmp/avatars.test", 300)
+	err := os.MkdirAll("/tmp/avatars.test/30", 0700)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	defer os.RemoveAll("/tmp/avatars.test")
+
+	assert.NotNil(t, p.Remove("no-such-avatar"), "remove non-existing avatar")
+	err = ioutil.WriteFile("/tmp/avatars.test/30/b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image", []byte("something"), 0666)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	assert.NoError(t, p.Remove("b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image"))
+	_, err = os.Stat("/tmp/avatars.test/30/b3daa77b4c04a9551b8781d03191fe098f325e67.image")
+	assert.NotNil(t, err, "removed for real")
+	t.Log(err)
+}
+
 func BenchmarkAvatarStoreFS_ID(b *testing.B) {
 	p := NewLocalFS("/tmp/avatars.test", 300)
 	os.MkdirAll("/tmp/avatars.test/30", 0700)
diff --git a/backend/app/store/avatar/store.go b/backend/app/store/avatar/store.go
index 1b612bcf..94392405 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/avatar/store.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/avatar/store.go
@@ -22,9 +22,11 @@ const imgSfx = ".image"
 
 // Store defines interface to store and and load avatars
 type Store interface {
-	Put(userID string, reader io.Reader) (avatarID string, err error) // save avatar data from the given reader and return base name
+	Put(userID string, reader io.Reader) (avatarID string, err error) // save avatar data from the reader and return base name
 	Get(avatarID string) (reader io.ReadCloser, size int, err error)  // load avatar via reader
 	ID(avatarID string) (id string)                                   // unique id of stored avatar's data
+	Remove(avatarID string) error                                     // remove avatar data
+
 }
 
 // resize an image of supported format (PNG, JPG, GIF) to the size of "limit" px of the biggest side