How to Determine the WordPress Version

This article describes how to determine the current WordPress version of an installation.Table of Contents

• Method #1: Use the Administration Interface
• Method #2: Check the version.php File
• More Information

Method #1: Use the Administration Interface

The easiest way to determine the version of a WordPress installation is from the administration interface:

• At the bottom of every page in the administration interface, WordPress displays the version number.
• By default, newer WordPress versions also display the version number in the At a Glance box on the main dashboard page, as well as the current theme.

Method #2: Check the version.php File

If the administration interface is unavailable or you cannot log in, you can still determine the WordPress version by checking the version.php file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the wp-includes directory in the directory where you installed WordPress. You can do this several ways:
   • From the command line using SSH.
   • From cPanel using the File Manager.
   • From an FTP client.
2. In the wp-includes directory, open the version.php file in a text editor or viewer.
3. Locate the $wp_version variable. This variable’s value contains the current WordPress version. For example, the following value indicates WordPress version 3.8.1 is installed:
   $wp_version = ‘3.8.1’;

If you have installed and configured the WP-CLI tool, you can use it to determine the WordPress version also. For information about how to do this, please see this article.

More Information

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