wppaste
WordPress

get_user_count( int|null $network_id = null ): int

Since
MU (3.0.0), 4.8.0, 6.0.0
Source
wp-includes/user.php:1477
Returns the number of active users in your installation.

Description

Note that on a large site the count may be cached and only updated twice daily.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 6.0.0
PHP
7.4–8.6-dev
  • 6.7.7
  • 6.8.8
  • 6.9.7
  • 7.0.4
  • 7.1.0

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$network_idint|nulloptional
ID of the network. Defaults to the current network.Default: null

Return value

int
Number of active users on the network.

Performance profile

How much work a call to get_user_count() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class
Moderate

Reads stored settings via get_network_option(), cached per request but not free on a cold cache.

Scaling
Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions
11–25

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 25.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
7

7 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

  • optionnetwork optionget_network_option()called directly
  • hookthird-party callbacksdo_action()one call below get_user_count()
  • cacheobject cachewp_cache_get()one call below get_user_count()
  • serializeserialisationmaybe_unserialize()one call below get_user_count()

Further down the call graph this can also reach query and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 2 distinct outcomes

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost get_user_count() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always11–13is_multisite(), get_network_option()
!is_multisite() && $network_id !== null25is_multisite(), __(), sprintf(), _doing_it_wrong(), get_network_option()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 25 instructions, 11–25 executed per call, 2 branches. The work does not change between versions.

An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.

Uses · 4

Used by · 7

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function get_user_count( $network_id = null ) {	if ( ! is_multisite() && null !== $network_id ) {		_doing_it_wrong(			__FUNCTION__,			sprintf(				/* translators: %s: $network_id */				__( 'Unable to pass %s if not using multisite.' ),				'<code>$network_id</code>'			),			'6.0.0'		);	} 	return (int) get_network_option( $network_id, 'user_count', -1 );}

Changelog

Introduced in 6.0.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.

  1. 6.7.7
  2. 6.8.8
  3. 6.9.7
  4. 7.0.4
  5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

6.0.0
Moved to wp-includes/user.php.from the docblock
4.8.0
The $network_id parameter has been added.from the docblock
MU (3.0.0)
MU (3.0.0)from the docblock

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.1.0 tag, from src/wp-includes/user.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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