How to Disable Gravatars in WordPress (Step by Step Tutorial)

We once had a blog post go viral, and while the traffic was exciting, our site’s speed suddenly dropped. We discovered the culprit was the hundreds of comments loading, with each one making an external request for a Gravatar image.

Those small, gray default profile pictures might seem harmless, but they can significantly slow down your pages. Learning to disable them gave our site an instant and noticeable performance boost, especially on posts with lots of reader engagement.

In this guide, I’ll share the exact, simple methods we use to turn off Gravatars in WordPress. Let’s get your site running faster! 🚀

Why Disable Gravatars in WordPress?

Gravatar is a third-party service that allows users to add a profile photo to their WordPress website and use it across the internet.

Basically, you create an account and then upload your profile photo.

After that, whenever you use that particular email address on a website that supports Gravatar, it will automatically show your profile photo from the Gravatar website.

To learn more, you can see our explainer on what Gravatar is and why you should use it.

However, some website owners may not want to use Gravatars for several reasons.

For instance, they may want to turn it off to improve website performance and speed. Other site owners disable Gravatars due to privacy concerns, since every comment with a Gravatar sends a request to a third-party server.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily disable Gravatars in WordPress. We’ll show you how to disable Gravatars completely using two different methods, as well as how to replace them with local avatars:

• Method 1: How to Completely Disable Gravatars Using WordPress Settings
• Method 2: How to Completely Disable Gravatars in WordPress Using a Plugin
• How to Replace Gravatar With Local Avatars in WordPress
• Frequently Asked Questions About Disabling Gravatars

Method 1: How to Completely Disable Gravatars Using WordPress Settings

This is the quickest and easiest way to turn off Gravatars and is perfect if you don’t want to install another plugin. WordPress makes it super easy to do this right from your settings.

First, you need to log in to the admin area of your website and then go to the Settings » Discussion page.

From here, you need to scroll down to the Avatars section and uncheck the box next to the ‘Show Avatars’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

WordPress will now disable Gravatars across your website. You will now see a generic user icon in the admin toolbar instead of your Gravatar image.

Similarly, Gravatars will no longer be shown alongside comments.

If you go to the Comments page in your WordPress admin area, then you won’t see the Gravatars anymore.

The same is true on your website’s front end.

WordPress will stop showing Gravatar images in the comments area under the posts and pages on your WordPress blog.

Method 2: How to Completely Disable Gravatars in WordPress Using a Plugin

Another way to disable Gravatars in WordPress is by using the WPCode plugin. This option is ideal if you’re already using WPCode for other customizations and want to keep everything organized in one safe place, separate from your theme’s files.

WPCode makes it easy to add custom code in WordPress, without editing your theme’s functions.php file, so you don’t have to worry about breaking your site.

At WPBeginner, we use WPCode to manage all our code snippets. It lets our team add new functionality safely without ever having to risk theme file errors.

First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. If you need help, you can see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for instructions.

Upon activation, go to Code Snippets » Library from the WordPress admin dashboard.

From there, search for the ‘Disable Gravatar Avatars’ snippet and click the ‘Use snippet’ button underneath it.

WPCode will then automatically add the code and set the proper insertion method.

After that, all you need to do is toggle the switch from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ and click the ‘Update’ button.

That’s it. Now Gravatar avatars will be completely disabled in WordPress.

How to Replace Gravatar With Local Avatars in WordPress

Some users may want to disable Gravatar but still display profile photos under author bios and other places.

This method lets you replace Gravatars with your own locally hosted profile photos instead of removing them entirely. This stops your website from making requests to the Gravatar website while still allowing users to upload their own profile pictures directly to your site.

To do this, you will need to install and activate the Simple Local Avatars plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Discussion page and check the box next to the ‘Local Avatars Only’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

The plugin will now block any requests to Gravatar.com while allowing you to keep avatar functionality.

To upload profile photos, your users will need to add their own images on their user profiles.

They will simply go to the Users » Profile page. From here, they can use an image from the WordPress Media Library or add a new image by uploading it to the Media Library.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update Profile’ button to save your changes.

Now, WordPress will use the local avatars you’ve enabled. Registered users who have uploaded a profile picture will see their custom image.

For any unregistered commenters or registered users who haven’t uploaded an avatar, WordPress will simply show the default avatar you selected in your settings.

For all registered users, WordPress will use the custom avatar image that the user uploaded. If a user hasn’t uploaded their custom avatar image, then the plugin will use the default avatar image.

Once a user has chosen a local avatar, their Profile page will offer buttons to select a different image from the Media Library or remove the local avatar.

Frequently Asked Questions About Disabling Gravatars

Here are some of the most common questions we receive about turning off Gravatars in WordPress.

1. Why should I disable Gravatars in WordPress?

The main reason is to improve your website’s speed and performance. Each Gravatar loads as a separate external request, which can slow down your pages, especially those with many comments.

2. Will disabling Gravatars delete any comments on my site?

No, absolutely not. Disabling Gravatars only removes the profile images. All of your existing and new comments will remain completely untouched.

3. What image shows up after I disable Gravatars?

WordPress will display the default avatar you have selected under Settings » Discussion. This is typically the generic ‘Mystery Person’ icon unless you’ve chosen a different one.

4. Is it better to disable Gravatars or lazy load them?

For the biggest speed boost, disabling them is best as it eliminates all external requests. However, if you want to keep the profile images, lazy loading is a great alternative that still helps with initial page load times. You can see our guide on how to lazy load Gravatars for more details.

Our Best Guides for Using WordPress Gravatars

We hope this article helped you learn how to disable Gravatars in WordPress. You may also want to see some other tutorials on using Gravatars and avatars in WordPress:

• What is Gravatar and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away
• How to Display Gravatar from User Email in WordPress
• How to Change the Gravatar Image Size in WordPress
• How to Change the Default Gravatar on WordPress (Easy Tutorial)
• How to Lazy Load Gravatars in WordPress Comments
• How to Add an Author Info Box in WordPress Posts

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.