How to schedule a post or page
Learn how to schedule WordPress content to publish automatically at a future date and time — without having to be at your computer.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- You’ll need
- A page or post ready to publish · An Editor or Administrator role
WordPress lets you write content now and publish it later, automatically, at the date and time you choose. This is called scheduling. It's perfect for planning a content calendar, publishing at peak times, or preparing announcements in advance.
Quick summary
Write your post or page. In the right-hand settings panel, click the value next to Publish (it says Immediately on a new post). Pick a future date and time, click Schedule, and WordPress publishes it automatically. You don't need to be logged in when it goes live.
What you'll need
- A page or post ready to schedule (fully written and ready to go live). See how to write & publish a blog post or how to create a new page.
- An Editor or Administrator role. Authors can also schedule their own posts.
Schedule the finished version
Only schedule content when it's completely ready. Once it's scheduled, it will go live automatically at the set time. If you need to make changes afterward, see the section below on editing a scheduled post.
Schedule a post or page
Open the post or page for editing. Make sure the content is complete and you've added a featured image, categories, and anything else needed.
Open the right-hand panel. Click the settings icon in the top-right corner if the panel isn't visible. Click the Post tab (or Page).
Find the Publish setting. Near the top of the panel, you'll see Publish followed by Immediately (or a date, if one is already set). Click it.
Set your desired date and time. A calendar and time picker appear. Click the date you want, then adjust the hour and minute fields. WordPress uses your site's configured timezone — see below if the time zone seems wrong.
Click the Schedule button in the top-right corner. Once you pick a future date, this button says Schedule instead of Publish. A panel opens asking "Are you ready to schedule?"
Click Schedule in that panel to confirm. (If you've turned off pre-publish checks in your editor, the first click schedules it straight away.) WordPress confirms the post "is now scheduled" and shows when it will go live. The Status in the sidebar now reads Scheduled, and the top button changes to Save.
Post scheduled!
Your content is queued and will publish automatically at the date and time you set. (On a very quiet site it can go live late; see the questions below.) You can close WordPress entirely. It goes live without any action from you.
Check and manage scheduled posts
To see all your upcoming scheduled content:
Go to Posts → All Posts (or Pages → All Pages) in the dashboard.
Look for the "Scheduled" filter link near the top of the list. Click it to view only scheduled items.
In the Date column, each scheduled post shows Scheduled and the date and time it will publish. If that time has passed and the post still isn't live, the column says Missed schedule instead.
Edit a scheduled post before it publishes
You can make changes to a scheduled post at any time before it goes live.
Go to Posts → All Posts and open the scheduled post.
Make your edits.
Click Save (Schedule on older versions of WordPress) to save the changes. The scheduled publish date stays the same unless you change it.
To change the date or time, go back to the Post panel, click the publish date, adjust it, and click Save.
Unschedule a post (turn it back into a draft)
If you want to cancel the scheduled publish and return the post to draft status:
Open the scheduled post for editing.
In the right-hand panel, click Scheduled next to Status. A Status & visibility pop-over opens.
Choose Draft, then click Save. The post is now a draft again and will not publish automatically.
Backdating a post
You can also set a publish date in the past. When you publish a post with a past date, WordPress will publish it immediately but show the older date. This is useful for importing older content or backdating a post so it appears in the right place in your blog's chronological order.
What time zone does WordPress use?
WordPress uses the timezone configured in your site settings. Go to Settings → General in the dashboard and look for the Timezone field. If your scheduled posts are going live at the wrong time, check that this is set to your local timezone.
Check the timezone before scheduling
If you schedule posts infrequently, it's worth double-checking your timezone setting once before using the scheduler. A wrong timezone can mean your post goes live at the wrong hour.
Common questions
My scheduled post didn't go live at the right time — what happened?
First, check the timezone: go to Settings → General and make sure it's right. If the post went live late rather than at the wrong hour, a likely cause is WordPress's built-in scheduler, which only runs when someone visits your site (see the next question). Contact us if posts are consistently publishing at the wrong time.
Can I schedule a page, not just a post?
Yes. Pages support the same scheduling feature. The steps are identical — open the page for editing and set the publish date in the right-hand panel.
Will scheduled posts go live if I'm not logged in?
Yes. WordPress publishes scheduled posts with its built-in scheduler, called WP-Cron. Your post goes live whether or not you're logged in. WP-Cron only runs when someone loads a page on your site, so if nobody visits around the scheduled time, the post goes live on the next visit instead. If your posts keep going live late, let us know.
Can I schedule a post to unpublish itself?
WordPress doesn't natively support auto-unpublishing (auto-expiring) posts without a plugin. If you need content to go offline automatically on a certain date — for example, a limited-time offer — ask your project lead to help.
Can I see all my upcoming scheduled posts in a calendar view?
WordPress doesn't have a built-in calendar view for scheduled content. An editorial calendar plugin can provide this. Ask your project lead if you'd like one added to your site.
Related guides
- Drafts, previews, and publishing
- How to write & publish a blog post
- How to create a new page
- Undo mistakes with revisions
- WordPress general settings explained
- My changes aren't showing up
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