How to Remove the WordPress Version From the Admin Footer

Updated October 2026 by Marius: rewritten for current WordPress and tested on WordPress 7.1. Originally published by Hardeep Asrani in 2014.

The “Version 7.1.3” text in the bottom-right corner of every wp-admin screen comes from the update_footer filter. To remove it, return an empty string from that filter. To keep it for administrators only, check the update_core capability first.

Remove the WordPress version for everyone

add_filter( 'update_footer', '__return_empty_string', 11 );Code language: PHP (php)

WordPress adds the version with its own core_update_footer() function at priority 10. Priority 11 runs after it and replaces whatever it returned.

Hide the version from everyone except administrators

Most people want clients and editors not to see the version but still want to see it themselves. For administrators the same spot also turns into a “Get Version 7.2” link when a WordPress update is available, which is worth keeping.

add_filter( 'update_footer', function ( $content ) {
	return current_user_can( 'update_core' ) ? $content : '';
}, 11 );Code language: PHP (php)

update_core is a better check than manage_options because it is the capability WordPress itself uses in core_update_footer() to decide who gets the update link. On a multisite network only super admins have it, so site administrators who cannot update WordPress don’t see the version either.

One catch: if your wp-config.php sets DISALLOW_FILE_MODS to true, which some managed hosts do, nobody has update_core and the version disappears for administrators too. Use 'manage_options' instead on those sites.

Remove “Thank you for creating with WordPress” too

The text on the left side of the footer has its own filter, admin_footer_text. This removes it:

add_filter( 'admin_footer_text', '__return_empty_string' );Code language: PHP (php)

Or replace it with your own text, for example a link back to you on a client site.

add_filter( 'admin_footer_text', function () {
	return sprintf(
		'Site built by <a href="%s">Example Studio</a>.',
		esc_url( 'https://example.com/' )
	);
} );Code language: PHP (php)

Why the old snippets from this post did not work

Older tutorials, including the first version of this one, used remove_filter( 'update_footer', 'core_update_footer' ) inside an admin_menu hook. The “everyone except admins” version also had a typo: an if without an opening brace, followed by an extra closing brace. On PHP 8.3, pasting it stops PHP with Parse error: Unmatched '}', and WordPress shows “There has been a critical error on this website.” instead of your site.

The remove_filter() approach also depends on timing. WordPress only adds core_update_footer when it loads the admin, so calling remove_filter() directly from a snippets plugin does nothing because there is nothing to remove yet. Filtering the output at priority 11, as above, works no matter when your code loads.

This only hides the version in the admin

The admin footer is only visible to logged-in users, so hiding it is cosmetic. It does not hide your WordPress version from visitors or bots. A default WordPress 7.1 site still shows it in a generator meta tag in every page’s <head> (<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 7.1.3" />), in the <generator> tag of its RSS feed, and as ?ver=7.1.3 on some core scripts. One filter removes the first two:

add_filter( 'the_generator', '__return_empty_string' );Code language: PHP (php)

The remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_generator' ) line you will see in many tutorials only removes the meta tag; the feed keeps its version. For the ?ver= query strings, see how to remove the WordPress version number. Hiding the version is no substitute for updating: an outdated site is still outdated when it stops saying so.

Where to add this code

Add the snippet with a code snippets plugin instead of your theme’s functions.php, so it survives theme updates and you can switch it off without FTP. This guide shows how with the free Code Snippets plugin. On my own sites I use WPCodeBox, which keeps snippets in a cloud library so the same snippet can go on several sites. (Marius)

Disclosure: the WPCodeBox link is an affiliate link. If you buy through it, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.