Roles and Capabilities – Documentation – WordPress.org

Roles and Capabilities

Super Admin – somebody with access to the site network administration features and all other features. See the Create a Network article.
Administrator ( slug: ‘administrator’) – somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.
Editor ( slug: ‘editor’) – somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
Author ( slug: ‘author’) – somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
Contributor ( slug: ‘contributor’) – somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
Subscriber ( slug: ‘subscriber’) – somebody who can only manage their profile.

WordPress uses a concept of Roles, designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site. A site owner can manage the user access to such tasks as writing and editing posts, creating Pages, creating categories, moderating comments, managing plugins, managing themes, and managing other users, by assigning a specific role to each of the users.

Roles

A Role defines a set of tasks a user assigned the role is allowed to perform. For instance, the Super Admin role encompasses every possible task that can be performed within a Network of virtual WordPress sites. The Administrator role limits the allowed tasks only to those which affect a single site. On the other hand, the Author role allows the execution of just a small subset of tasks.

Super Admin

Multisite Super Admins have, by default, all capabilities. The following Multisite-only capabilities are therefore only available to Super Admins:

Administrator

The capabilities of Administrators differ between single site and Multisite WordPress installations. All administrators have the following capabilities:

Editor

Author

Contributor

Subscriber

read

Special Cases

The following capabilities are special cases:

unfiltered_upload – This capability is not available to any role by default (including Super Admins). The capability needs to be enabled by defining the following constant:


define( 'ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS', true );

With this constant defined, all roles on a single site install can be given the unfiltered_upload capability, but only Super Admins can be given the capability on a Multisite install.

Capability vs. Role Table

Note that the capabilities of Administrators differs between single site and Multisite WordPress installations.

Capability	Super Admin	Administrator	Editor	Author	Contributor	Subscriber
create_sites	yes	x	x	x	x	x
delete_sites	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_network	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_sites	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_network_users	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_network_plugins	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_network_themes	yes	x	x	x	x	x
manage_network_options	yes	x	x	x	x	x
upload_plugins	yes	x	x	x	x	x
upload_themes	yes	x	x	x	x	x
upload_network	yes	x	x	x	x	x
upgrade_network	yes	x	x	x	x	x
setup_network	yes	x	x	x	x	x
activate_plugins	yes	yes (single site or enabled by network setting)	x	x	x	x
create_users	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
delete_plugins	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
delete_themes	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
delete_users	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
edit_files	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
edit_plugins	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
edit_theme_options	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
edit_themes	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
edit_users	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
export	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
import	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
install_plugins	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
install_themes	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
list_users	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
manage_options	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
promote_users	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
remove_users	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
switch_themes	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
update_core	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
update_plugins	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
update_themes	yes	yes (single site)	x	x	x	x
edit_dashboard	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
customize	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
delete_site	yes	yes	x	x	x	x
moderate_comments	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
manage_categories	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
manage_links	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_others_posts	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_others_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_published_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
publish_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_others_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_published_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_others_posts	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_private_posts	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_private_posts	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
read_private_posts	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
delete_private_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
edit_private_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
read_private_pages	yes	yes	yes	x	x	x
unfiltered_html	yes	yes (single site)	yes (single site)	x	x	x

Capabilities

Side Editor Capabilities

The Site Editor is available when a block theme is active and allows users to manage site templates, template parts, styles, navigation, and content from a single editing interface.

Access to Site Editor features depends on the capabilities assigned to the current user. The following capabilities may be relevant when creating a custom role that needs access to the Site Editor:

Capability	Description
`edit_theme_options`	Grants access to the Site Editor and its navigation menu.
`edit_posts`	Allows users to edit posts, which is required for managing templates.
`edit_pages`	Allows users to edit pages, which is required for managing page templates.
`edit_others_posts`	Allows users to edit others’ posts, which is required for managing templates.
`read`	Allows users to view the site, which is required for previewing changes.
`upload_files`	Allows users to upload media, which is required for adding images and media.

edit_theme_options is the primary capability used by WordPress when determining whether a user can access and manage templates through the Site Editor. Other capabilities may be required depending on which types of content the user is expected to edit.

Creating a Custom Site Editor Role

A custom role can be created with the capabilities required for the tasks the user should be able to perform. For example:

Capabilities can also be added to an existing role by using WP_Role::add_cap():

When adding capabilities to an existing role, consider the broader permissions that each capability provides. For example, edit_theme_options is not limited exclusively to the Site Editor and may grant access to other theme-related administrative functionality.

REST API Capability Checks

The Site Editor uses the WordPress REST API to retrieve and update templates, template parts, pages, navigation data, patterns, and other information.

For template and template-part endpoints, WordPress checks whether the current user has the edit_theme_options capability. A user without this capability may receive an authorization error when the Site Editor attempts to access these endpoints.

Other REST API endpoints can perform their own capability checks. For example, endpoints dealing with posts or pages may require capabilities such as:

edit_posts
edit_pages
edit_others_posts
other object-specific capabilities depending on the requested operation

If a custom role can open the Site Editor but some sections fail to load or save, check the browser’s developer tools for REST API requests returning 401 Unauthorized or 403 Forbidden responses.

The REST API response will often include an error code and message indicating the type of permission that failed. This can help identify whether the role is missing a capability required by that particular endpoint.

Only grant the capabilities required for the tasks the role is intended to perform.

Switch Themes

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens
- Appearance
- Appearance > Themes

Edit Themes

Since 2.0
Allows access to Appearance > Theme Editor to edit theme files.

Edit Theme Options

While this capability grants access to the Site Editor, additional capabilities may be required for full functionality. For example, users may also need edit_posts, edit_pages, and edit_others_posts to fully utilize the Site Editor’s features.

Since 3.0
Allows users to edit theme options, including access to the Site Editor in Full Site Editing (FSE) environments and allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Appearance > Widgets
- Appearance > Menus
- Appearance > Customize if they are supported by the current theme
- Appearance > Header

Install Themes

Since 2.8
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Appearance > Add New Themes

Activate Plugins

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Plugins

Edit Plugins

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Plugins > Plugin Editor

Install Plugins

Since 2.7
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Plugins > Add New

Edit Users

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Users

Edit Files

Since 2.0
Note: No longer used.

Manage Options

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Settings > General
- Settings > Writing
- Settings > Reading
- Settings > Discussion
- Settings > Permalinks
- Settings > Miscellaneous

Moderate Comments

Since 2.0
Allows users to moderate comments from the Comments Screen (although a user needs the edit_posts Capability in order to access this)

Manage Categories

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Posts > Categories
- Links > Categories

Manage Links

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Links
- Links > Add New

Upload Files

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Media
- Media > Add New

Import

Since 2.0
Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Tools > Import
- Tools > Export

Unfiltered HTML

Since 2.0
Allows user to post HTML markup or even JavaScript code in pages, posts, comments and widgets.
Note: Enabling this option for untrusted users may result in their posting malicious or poorly formatted code.
Note: In WordPress Multisite, only Super Admins have the unfiltered_html capability.