Code Snippet: Get WordPress Version

You can’t assume everyone is running the latest version of WordPress. If your plugin or theme code relies on specific WordPress features (especially newer ones), you may need to check the which version of WordPress the site is running on.

Simple Version Check

There are two ways to get the WordPress version:

get_bloginfo( 'version' );

Or, with the global variable $wp_version:

global $wp_version;


For instance, to check if the site has WordPress 4.3 or later installed, you could use this:

[gist id=”a3e916d5efddad1091c9c5e9edd4255f” file=”wordpress-version-compare.php” lines=”5-8″]

More reference is here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_bloginfo

Use a function

If you’re needing to compare WordPress versions multiple times in your plugin, you may want to consider using a small function:

[gist id=”a3e916d5efddad1091c9c5e9edd4255f” file=”wordpress-version-compare.php” lines=”14-24″]

Use function_exists

Another easy way to find the version is to check for a function that was introduced after a certain release. For instance, post formats were introduced in 3.1. So to see if it 3.1 or higher you could use something like:

[gist id=”a3e916d5efddad1091c9c5e9edd4255f” file=”wordpress-version-compare.php” lines=”10-12″]

More notes about this in the codex.

About Devin

I am a developer based in Austin, Texas. I run a little theme shop called DevPress and help manage a WooCommerce shop with Universal Yums. Find me on twitter @devinsays.

8 Responses

  1. I actually use this function:

    if ( ! function_exists( ‘is_version’ ) ) {
    function is_version( $version = ‘3.0’ ) {
    global $wp_version;

    if ( version_compare( $wp_version, $version, ‘<' ) ) {
    return false;
    }
    return true;
    }
    }

  2. littleguy

    Thanks for this. Here is my function that checks if WP is at least at a specific version ($version). Useful if you want to enable some features only for newer versions of WP.


    /**
    * Checks if WordPress is at least at version $version
    * @param $version
    * @return bool
    */
    function wordpress_is_at_least_version($version)
    {
    if (version_compare($version, get_bloginfo('version'), '>=' ))
    return true;
    else
    return false;
    }

    Usage:
    if(wordpress_is_at_least_version(‘3.8’)) { //do something };

  3. I’ve come back to this page quite a few times in the past few years. I think I’ll update you with my latest function.

    public static function is_version( $operator = ‘<', $version = '4.0' ) {
    global $wp_version;

    return version_compare( $wp_version, $version, $operator );
    }

    Note the use of static, this should be within a class

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