Understanding the WordPress API key
Most people develop an interest in the WordPress API key when they discover Akismet, a handy plugin that handles comment spam. Unfortunately, in order to activate this plugin (and some others), you have to have something called a WordPress API key, and the process of acquiring one can be a little confusing. Here are a few key things to know:
- There’s a difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. WordPress.com is the place you go when you want to have a blog, but you don’t want to worry about things like hosting, FTP, or setting up a MySQL database; and you also don’t mind that your blog’s URL will be something like franksblog.wordpress.com. WordPress.org is the place you go to download all the (free) files to set up your own WordPress site with your own host and your own URL (e.g., www.franksblog.com); this kind of WordPress site is also known as a “self-hosted” WordPress site.
- The only way to get a WordPress API key is to create an account at wordpress.com. If your blog is hosted at wordpress.com, you already have an API key; you got it automatically when you created your account. If you have a self-hosted blog, you may not have an API key, since there’s nothing that says you have to create a wordpress.com account in order to set up a self-hosted WordPress blog. And if you’re happy with your self-hosted blog and have no interest in further complicating your life with a wordpress.com account, or using any of the plugins that require an API key, you can stop reading here. However…
- Some WordPress plugins require you to have an API key. And this is why some WordPress bloggers, who have their own self-hosted WordPress site and would otherwise have no interest whatsoever in creating a wordpress.com account, find themselves doing just that. Because they want to install a particularly nifty plugin (like Akismet) on their WordPress site, and they have to have a WordPress API key in order to make the plugin work, and they have to have a wordpress.com account in order to get an API key.
While all of this may seem fairly straightforward, the thing that causes confusion for many self-hosting WordPress bloggers is the fact that once you acquire an API key, you now have not one, but two WordPress “accounts” (i.e., Username/Password combinations): one which you use to log in to the admin page of your self-hosted WordPress site, and one which you use to log in to your wordpress.com account. This is particularly confusing when you are already logged in to the Admin section of your self-hosted WordPress site (say, attempting to activate your new Akismet plugin) and find yourself being asked to login to your wordpress.com account (in order to get your API key). This often leads to confused exclamations such as:
But I’m already logged in to WordPress!
Why is the WordPress login screen telling me I entered the wrong password? I’ve been using that password for months!
Help! I can’t get into my site’s admin page!
Now, of course, you can understand the source of the confusion. These bloggers forgot that they now have two different WordPress “accounts”: one for their self-hosted WordPress site (which they need to access their site’s Admin pages), and one for wordpress.com (which they need to access their API key).
And this is really the main thing to remember if you have a self-hosted WordPress site and want to get an API key. Once you get the API key (and its associated wordpress.com account) you now have two WordPress “accounts,” for two separate purposes. As long as you remember which is which, and which one you’re logged into at any given time, you’ll be fine.
Note on using the same API key for more than one site: Yes, you can do this and in fact, if you have multiple self-hosted WordPress sites, this is the preferred method. Just enter your (one) API key for each different site (say when installing the Akismet plugin), and you’re all set.
10 Responses to “Understanding the WordPress API key”
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I’m a former high school math teacher, and now I coach other teachers with Constructive Learning Design. I also teach for North Carolina Virtual Public Schools, tutor math students via text at MathPerson.com, and write science and math curricula for Moving Beyond the Page. Check out my former class website for tons of free math resources. 
Thanks for the article and info. I was looking for an answer to: do I need a different akismet key for each site? and your article provided the answer.
Thanks. Looks like the key is working on both of my sites.
Cheers!
Hi Vipin,
I wrote this post over two years ago and it still gets a lot of hits. Glad it was helpful.
This is one of the best answer so far, I have read online. No crap, just useful information. Very well presented. Thanks for sharing with us. I have found another good collection of wordpress article over the internet which also explained very well.
Check out this link for more details…..
http://mindstick.com/Articles/10434708-e57e-42ae-bf7a-796ce494d0f2/?WordPress%20API%E2%80%99s
Thanks everyone for your nice post.
Hi Rick,
I’m not sure if I understand all your questions, but I’ll do my best.
1. The API (which stands for Application Programming Interface) key I’m talking about in this post is the WordPress API. It’s essentially a set of rules that allows programmers to create plugins for wordpress. Akismet is one plugin that uses the WordPress API, but there’s no such thing as an “Akismet API”.
2. Self-hosted wordpress sites as well as wordpress.com sites can both use the WordPress API.
3. I don’t know what “olivine” means.
Hope this helps,
Some olivine require an API other than akismet. Is there a separate API for akismet and other plugins? I plugin something that stated it was an akismet API and I could change if I wanted to. There was no details of my stats either. Is there a difference if I self host?
Thanks, rafa, glad it was helpful.
Thank you very much Lance!
I saw so many questions about using the same api key on several websites remaining unanswered that I was about to signup for a new wordpress.com account. I found your post right on time.
Best regards and cheers!
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Ahaa.. this is great article. very useful for WP developer. Thank you very much
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Hi jppp, and thanks for the kudos. Glad the post was helpful.
Thank you so much. I have just built a self hosted blog and wanted to have akismet. I was asked to have a wordpress.com account for it and was wondering whether I should have a different username and password for it. This article has cleared so many of my doubts. Thanks once again.