Find WordPress Category IDs

Instructions

1. Enter the website domain — type the URL of the WordPress site you're interested in into the field above. A bare domain like example.com is enough; https://example.com and a trailing slash both work too.
2. Click "Find Category IDs" — the tool reads the site's categories straight from its WordPress REST API.
3. See the results — you get a count and a table of every category returned, with its ID, name, and slug.

This is the easiest way to find category IDs for a given WordPress site. There's no login, no API key, and no plugin to install — the request goes from your browser directly to the site's public API, so nothing passes through a server here.

What you get back

The results table lists three columns for each category:

Categories come back in the API's default order, and the tool requests up to 100 in a single call. Sites with more categories than that will show the first 100. Child categories appear in the list alongside their parents — the table is flat, so nesting isn't drawn, but every category in the hierarchy is there.

Where the IDs come from

The tool calls the site's core REST endpoint:

https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?per_page=100

That endpoint is part of WordPress core and is open to anonymous, cross-origin requests by default, which is why this works from your browser without a proxy. You can open that URL yourself and read the raw JSON — the tool just normalizes the domain you type, requests the list, and renders the fields worth reading.

When it doesn't work

The tool requires a functioning WordPress REST API. If it can't get a usable list, it tells you which of these it hit:

• The site blocks its REST API. Some hosts, security plugins, and firewalls return a 401 or 403 for anonymous API requests. Nothing to be done from the outside.
• No REST API was found at that address. Either the URL isn't a WordPress site, or the address is wrong. A site that serves an HTML page where JSON should be lands here too.
• The response wasn't readable. The site responded, but not with the JSON list a standard WordPress API returns.
• The site couldn't be reached. Usually a typo in the domain, or a connection problem.

Take the magic out of category management

Categories are essential functionality for WordPress development and content management. If you're a developer, you've surely found yourself needing to know which category ID is which to create custom queries to display posts from specific categories. This is particularly useful when developing custom themes or plugins where you need to filter content dynamically — cat, category__in, and category__not_in in a WP_Query all take IDs, not names. Category IDs are also needed when editing the functions.php file to add custom features, or to conditionally apply styles and scripts to certain categories.

For non-developers, understanding category IDs can simplify various aspects of WordPress management. Many plugins, such as SEO tools or content display widgets, require category IDs to configure settings accurately. By knowing the category IDs, non-technical users can easily set up plugins to include or exclude specific categories without needing to delve into complex code. The ID is also the stable handle: a category can be renamed and re-slugged without breaking anything keyed to its ID, which is why exports, redirect maps, and plugin settings reference the number rather than the name.

Happy categorizing!

You also might find the WordPress Tag ID finder and WordPress User ID finder useful.