A WordPress site's RSS feed is the site's address with /feed/ at the end, like https://wordpress.org/news/feed/. WordPress makes this feed on its own, together with feeds for comments, categories, tags, authors and searches, so you don't need a plugin. To change what your feed shows, go to Settings > Reading in your dashboard.
What is the RSS feed URL of a WordPress site?
Add the part in the middle column to the site's address. Each example answered with a working feed when we checked on September 29, 2026.
| Feed | Add to the address | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The newest posts | /feed/ | WordPress Newshttps://wordpress.org/news/feed/ |
| The newest posts, as Atom | /feed/atom/ | WordPress News (Atom)https://wordpress.org/news/feed/atom/ |
| All new comments | /comments/feed/ | Terence Tao: commentshttps://terrytao.wordpress.com/comments/feed/ |
| One category | /category/name/feed/ | TechCrunch: Startupshttps://techcrunch.com/category/startups/feed/ |
| One tag | /tag/name/feed/ | TechCrunch: OpenAIhttps://techcrunch.com/tag/openai/feed/ |
| One author | /author/name/feed/ | TechCrunch: Sarah Perezhttps://techcrunch.com/author/sarah-perez/feed/ |
| A search | /?s=word&feed=rss2 | Terence Tao: posts about primeshttps://terrytao.wordpress.com/?s=prime&feed=rss2 |
| Comments on one post | The post's address, then feed/ | Terence Tao: comments on one posthttps://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/joint-statement-about-mathathon/feed/ |
| One post type | /feed/?post_type=name | The Nation: articleshttps://www.thenation.com/feed/?post_type=article |
The name in a category, tag or author feed is the one in that page's address, such as startups in techcrunch.com/category/startups/. /feed/ is RSS 2.0, which every reader can read. WordPress also serves an RDF version at /feed/rdf/.
A search feed lists new posts that match your word. On most sites, the newest match comes first. A few large sites change how search works and put the best match first instead: TechCrunch and WordPress News did when we checked. Add &orderby=date to the address to get the newest matches first.
What if the site uses plain permalinks?
Some WordPress sites have post addresses like example.com/?p=123. These sites use plain permalinks, and their feeds use ?feed= instead of /feed/. On Shtetl-Optimizedhttps://scottaaronson.blog/?feed=rss2, Scott Aaronson's blog, /feed/ opens a web page, and /?feed=rss2 is the feed.
| Feed | Add to the address |
|---|---|
| The newest posts | /?feed=rss2 |
| The newest posts, as Atom | /?feed=atom |
| All new comments | /?feed=comments-rss2 |
| One category | /?feed=rss2&cat= and the category's ID |
| One tag | /?feed=rss2&tag= and the tag's name |
| One author | /?feed=rss2&author= and the author's ID |
| Comments on one post | /?feed=rss2&p= and the post's ID |
The ?feed=rss2 form works on other WordPress sites too: WordPress sends you on to /feed/.
How do I find the RSS feed of any WordPress site?
- Paste the site's address into your RSS reader. In Feeder, select Add feed, paste the address and select Follow next to the feed you want. How to add a feed to Feeder has the details.
- Add /feed/ yourself. Type
/feed/after the site's address, or after the address of a category, tag or author page. If you see a page of code, that is the feed. - Look in the page source. When the theme supports it, WordPress lists the page's feeds in its
<head>. Block themes always do. A category page lists the category's feed as well. This is from TechCrunch's Startups page:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="TechCrunch » Feed" href="https://techcrunch.com/feed/" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="TechCrunch » Startups Category Feed" href="https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/feed/" />Feeder reads these links for you, so a category page's address gets you the category feed too. When a page lists no feeds, Feeder tries the usual addresses, including /feed and /?feed=rss2, so it also finds the feed of a site with plain permalinks.
Which WordPress feeds do Feeder users follow?
On September 29, 2026, Feeder users followed 312,120 feeds that had posted in the last 30 days. 59,138 of them, 19%, have an address that ends in /feed/, the WordPress pattern. When we fetched a random 60 of those, 51 were WordPress feeds.
| The feed's address | Feeds that Feeder users follow |
|---|---|
Ends in /feed/ | 59,138 |
/category/name/feed/ | 3,701 |
A wordpress.com address | 1,379 |
?feed=rss2 | 860 |
/comments/feed/ | 593 |
/tag/name/feed/ | 483 |
?post_type= | 290 |
/author/name/feed/ | 203 |
| A search feed | 187 |
Most people follow a whole site. Category feeds are the most popular way to follow only part of one, and a good fit for a busy site where you care about one topic.
Do I need to create an RSS feed in WordPress?
No. WordPress starts the feed with your first post and adds each new post to it. There is nothing to turn on. The main feed lists posts, not pages.
How do I change what my WordPress feed shows?
Go to Settings > Reading. Two settings control the feed:
- Number of recent items shown in syndication feeds sets how many posts the feed holds. The default is 10. Older versions call it Syndication feeds show the most recent.
- For each post in a feed, include lets you choose Full text or Excerpt. Full text is the default. Excerpt sends the excerpt you wrote for the post, or else its first 55 words.
Sites choose differently. On September 29, WordPress News sent its 10 newest posts in full, TechCrunch sent 20 excerpts, and The Nation's article feed sent 50 excerpts. With excerpts, readers see a summary and visit your site for the rest. Keyword filters in a reader also see only the summary, as How to filter an RSS feed by keyword explains.
How do I create a custom RSS feed in WordPress?
Start with the address. WordPress reads a few options straight from a feed's address, so you can build a custom feed without code. We tested each of these on TechCrunch:
| To get | Use an address like |
|---|---|
| Posts in either of two categories | https://techcrunch.com/feed/?category_name=startups,apps |
| Every post except one category | https://techcrunch.com/feed/?cat=-20429 (a minus sign, then the category's ID) |
| Posts with either of two tags | https://techcrunch.com/feed/?tag=openai,anthropic |
| Posts with both tags | https://techcrunch.com/feed/?tag=openai+anthropic |
| The newest search matches first | https://techcrunch.com/?s=anthropic&feed=rss2&orderby=date |
To find a category's ID, edit the category in your dashboard: the number after tag_ID= in the address is the ID.
For more control, use a plugin. These three are on wordpress.org, have a free version and were updated in August or September 2026:
- Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More adds each post's featured image to the feed, for e-mail tools and readers that show images.
- RSS Includes Pages adds your pages to the feed.
- GN Publisher makes feeds that meet the requirements of the Google News Publisher Center.
With code, a developer can go further. add_feed() adds a feed at a new address, like /feed/podcast/, and the pre_get_posts hook changes which posts a feed lists. After you add a feed, open Settings > Permalinks once, so WordPress picks up the new address. WordPress's guide to feeds covers the template tags that print feed links in a theme.
Why is my WordPress RSS feed not working?
- The feed shows a 404 error. Open Settings > Permalinks. Visiting that screen makes WordPress rebuild its address rules. Try this when
/?feed=rss2works and/feed/doesn't. - A plugin turned the feed off. Some plugins remove feeds on purpose. Disable Feeds sends every feed request to the matching web page, and Yoast SEO can remove each kind of feed under Yoast SEO > Settings > Advanced > Crawl optimization (Yoast's guide). Sites also switch off feeds they don't use: TechCrunch's
/comments/feed/answered 404 when we checked, while its other feeds worked. - New posts show up late. A caching plugin or a CDN may be serving an old copy of the feed. Clear the cache, or give feed addresses a short cache time. WordPress itself sends Last-Modified and ETag headers with its feeds, so readers can skip the download when nothing changed.
- Readers say the feed isn't valid. On WordPress, the usual cause is a blank line or other text before the
<?xmlline at the top of the feed. It comes from a theme or plugin file. Switch plugins off one at a time, and try a default theme, to find the one that adds it. - Readers can't reach the feed. A security plugin, a firewall or Cloudflare can turn feed readers away while the feed opens fine in your browser. What to do if Feeder's crawlers are blocked by Cloudflare explains how to let them through.
To check your feed, paste its address into Feeder's free RSS feed validator. It checks the server's answer, the XML and every item, and shows each error with its line and how to fix it. If you paste a web page instead, it lists the feeds that the page links to.
Is the RSS feed different on WordPress.com?
Only a little. WordPress.com uses the same feed addresses and the same Settings > Reading options as self-hosted WordPress. Its guides point out two differences:
- The site must be public. Find your RSS feed says the feed needs the site's privacy set to public, not private.
- Plugins need a paid plan. You can install plugins on any paid WordPress.com plan, but not on a free site. The address options above need no plugin.
How do I show other sites' RSS feeds on WordPress?
That is the other direction: you bring feeds into your site instead of sending your posts out. WordPress's RSS block shows one feed as a list, and aggregator plugins combine several or import them as posts. Best WordPress RSS aggregator plugins, compared covers your options.
Common questions
Does WordPress have a built-in RSS feed?
Yes. WordPress makes feeds for the posts, comments, categories, tags, authors and searches of every site, self-hosted or on WordPress.com. The main one is the site's address plus /feed/.
How do I get the RSS feed for one WordPress category?
Add /feed/ to the category page's address, like https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/feed/. On a site with plain permalinks, use /?feed=rss2&cat= and the category's ID.
Why does a WordPress feed show only a summary?
Because the site sends excerpts: its For each post in a feed, include setting is set to Excerpt. On your own site, choose Full text. On someone else's, open the post to read the rest.
Can I use FeedBurner with WordPress?
Yes, but you don't need it: your /feed/ address works in every reader. Google's FeedBurner Help says existing feeds keep working and you can still add new ones, but FeedBurner's e-mail subscriptions ended in July 2021. Feeder users still follow 5,062 FeedBurner feeds that have posted in the last 30 days.
Try Feeder
Feeder is an RSS reader for the web, iOS and Android, with extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. The free plan follows up to 200 feeds with no ads, and feeds update as often as every 30 minutes. Plus follows 2,500 feeds, updates them as often as every 5 minutes and adds e-mail summaries.
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