How to Display Today’s Date in WordPress (2 Easy Methods)

Learning how to display today’s date in WordPress is a small touch that can make your website look more professional and current.

Just look at major news sites – they all display the current date prominently because it helps establish content freshness and relevance.

The good news is that you don’t need any advanced coding skills or expensive plugins to add today’s date to your site. In fact, there are two reliable methods that work perfectly for beginners and experienced users alike.

In this guide, we’ll share these two easy ways to add today’s date to your WordPress site. These methods are tested, reliable, and can be implemented in just a few minutes.

Why Display Today’s Date in WordPress?

Displaying today’s date in WordPress can help visitors see that your website is active, updated, and relevant. It can also provide useful real-time information for your audience.

Here are some common reasons to show the current date or time on your WordPress site:

• Show Content Freshness: Displaying the current date can reassure visitors that your website is regularly updated.
• Build Trust and Credibility: Many news websites, magazines, and professional blogs display dates to make content feel more timely and reliable.
• Improve User Experience: Showing the current time or date can help visitors with event schedules, promotions, business hours, or live support availability.
• Create Urgency for Campaigns: Some store owners display the current date alongside countdown timers or limited-time offers to strengthen FOMO marketing campaigns.
• Display Local Time Information: This can be useful if your support team, webinars, or services operate in a specific timezone.

With that in mind, let’s look at how to easily display today’s date, day, or current time in WordPress. We’ll cover two beginner-friendly methods, and you can use the quick links below to

Method 1: Displaying Today’s Date Anywhere Using Shortcode (Recommended)

For this method, you will create a shortcode to display the date and time anywhere on your WordPress website.

The great thing about a shortcode is its flexibility—you can place it inside your posts, pages, sidebar widgets, and even your site’s footer.

While it’s possible to add code directly to your theme’s functions.php file, we strongly advise against it. A small mistake in that file can break your entire website and lock you out of your admin area.

That’s why we recommend using a custom code snippets plugin such as WPCode. It’s the safest and easiest way to add custom code to your website without risking site errors.

WPCode plugin is highly rated with 4.9/5 stars from over 2,000 reviews on WordPress.org and is trusted by more than 3 million WordPress websites.

After thorough testing, we’ve found WPCode to be incredibly beginner-friendly, thanks to its intuitive interface and built-in error prevention features that guide you. For more details, see our WPCode review.

Step 1: Install the WPCode Plugin

The first thing you need to do is install the free WPCode plugin. For detailed instructions, you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Step 2: Add a New Custom Snippet

Upon activation, you should navigate to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet in your WordPress dashboard. This will let you add a new code snippet to your website.

Once there, you need to hover your mouse over the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option and then click the ‘+ Add Custom Snippet’ button.

Next, you need to select ‘PHP Snippet’ as the code type from the list of options that appear on the screen.

Then, add a title to the snippet, such as ‘Add Today’s Date’.

Step 3: Add the PHP Code

Next, you need to copy and paste the following code snippet into the Code Preview field.

function wpb_date_today( $atts, $content = null ) {
    $atts = shortcode_atts( array(
        'format' => '',
    ), $atts );
 
    $date_time = '';
 
    if ( $atts['format'] == '' ) {
        $date_time .= wp_date( get_option( 'date_format' ) );
    } else {
        $date_time .= wp_date( $atts['format'] );
    }
 
    return $date_time;
}
 
add_shortcode( 'date-today', 'wpb_date_today' );

Step 4: Activate and Save the Snippet

Finally, you need to toggle the Active toggle to the ‘On’ position.

Now you can click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store the code snippet on your website.

Step 5: Use the Shortcode on Your Site

This code simply creates a shortcode that displays the current date. You can use it by adding this shortcode anywhere on your site:

[date-today]

By default, the shortcode will display the date in the default date format in your WordPress settings.

You can also use your own date format by modifying the shortcode like this:

[date-today format='F j, Y']

Your date will now look like this on your site:

And that’s it! You have displayed the current date successfully.

Method 2: Displaying Today’s Date by Adding Code to a Template File

WordPress doesn’t come with a default widget or block to display the current date or time.

However, you can still display the current date or time using some very simple code.

You can add this simple code to your WordPress theme’s template files. These files, like header.php or footer.php, control your site’s layout.

Once you have a child theme set up, you can add the following code to the template file where you want the current date to appear.

For example, you could paste it into your child theme’s header.php file just before the closing </header> tag to display the date near the top of your website.

You could also add it to your footer.php file right after the opening <footer> tag if you want the date to appear in the footer area instead.

After adding the code, make sure to save the file and visit your website to confirm that the current date is displaying correctly.

<?php echo wp_date(get_option('date_format')); ?>

This code prints the current date using the date format set in your WordPress settings. You can change the date format by visiting the Settings » General page.

You can also use your own formatting tags to output the date in any other format. For instance, using the following code, you can print the date in month, day, and year format.

<?php echo wp_date('F j, Y'); ?>

Here is what the date looked like on our demo website:

While editing theme files is direct, a more flexible approach for placing the date in posts or widgets is to use a shortcode.

That’s it! You now have two easy methods on how to display today’s date in WordPress.

Whether you choose to add code directly to a theme file or use the flexible shortcode method, you can add a professional touch that keeps your site looking fresh and relevant for visitors.

Frequently Asked Questions About Displaying Today’s Date in WordPress

Here are some questions that our readers have frequently asked about displaying today’s date in WordPress:

How do I show the current date in WordPress?

To display the current date anywhere in WordPress, the easiest and most flexible method is to use a shortcode. By implementing a simple PHP snippet via a plugin like WPCode, you can place a [date-today] shortcode in posts, pages, or widgets.

It will dynamically show today’s date based on your site’s timezone settings.

What is the best plugin to show date in WordPress?

While there are dedicated date display plugins available, for simply showing the current date, using a code snippets plugin like WPCode is often the most efficient and recommended.

It allows you to add custom PHP for the date shortcode without needing a fully-featured plugin solely for date display, keeping your site lightweight.

If you need advanced calendar functionalities, then a dedicated calendar plugin like Sugar Calendar might be more suitable.

Why is the date on my website showing incorrectly?

The most common reason for an incorrect date is the timezone setting. WordPress uses the timezone set in your dashboard, not your local time.

To fix this, go to Settings » General in your WordPress admin area and make sure you have selected the correct city or UTC offset.

How do I show the date on a WordPress post?

WordPress automatically shows the publication or last updated date on your posts by default. You can change the date’s appearance by going to Settings » General and choosing a new ‘Date Format’. If you want to display today’s live date instead, you can use one of the methods in this guide.

Will displaying a dynamic date affect my website’s performance?

No, it will not. The PHP function used to get the date is extremely lightweight and has a negligible impact on your site’s speed. It is a very common and efficient function that will not slow down your website.

Expert Guides on Displaying Dates in WordPress

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily display today’s date in WordPress. You may also want to see some other guides related to displaying dates in WordPress:

• How to Change Date and Time Format in WordPress
• How to Display Blog Post Meta Data in Your WordPress Themes
• How to Display Relative Dates in WordPress
• How to Display the Last Updated Date of Your Posts in WordPress
• How to Add a Dynamic Copyright Date in WordPress Footer
• How to Remove Date and Time From WordPress Comments
• How to Remove the Date From WordPress URLs
• How to Add a Google Calendar in WordPress (Step by Step)

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