Title: WP_User::add_role
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# WP_User::add_role( string $role )

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Hooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#hooks)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#changelog)
 * [User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Adds role to user.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

Updates the user’s meta data option with capabilities and roles.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$role`stringrequired

Role name.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function add_role( $role ) {
    	if ( empty( $role ) ) {
    		return;
    	}

    	if ( in_array( $role, $this->roles, true ) ) {
    		return;
    	}

    	$this->caps[ $role ] = true;
    	update_user_meta( $this->ID, $this->cap_key, $this->caps );
    	$this->get_role_caps();
    	$this->update_user_level_from_caps();

    	/**
    	 * Fires immediately after the user has been given a new role.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.3.0
    	 *
    	 * @param int    $user_id The user ID.
    	 * @param string $role    The new role.
    	 */
    	do_action( 'add_user_role', $this->ID, $role );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php#L553)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-user.php#L553-L576)

## 󠀁[Hooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#hooks)󠁿

 [do_action( ‘add_user_role’, int $user_id, string $role )](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/add_user_role/)

Fires immediately after the user has been given a new role.

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_User::update_user_level_from_caps()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/update_user_level_from_caps/)`wp-includes/class-wp-user.php` |

Updates the maximum user level for the user.

  | 
| [WP_User::get_role_caps()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/get_role_caps/)`wp-includes/class-wp-user.php` |

Retrieves all of the capabilities of the user’s roles, and merges them with individual user capabilities.

  | 
| [update_user_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/update_user_meta/)`wp-includes/user.php` |

Updates user meta field based on user ID.

  | 
| [do_action()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/do_action/)`wp-includes/plugin.php` |

Calls the callback functions that have been added to an action hook.

  |

[Show 1 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#)
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## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.0.0/) | Introduced. |

## 󠀁[User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)󠁿

 1.  [Skip to note 2 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/?output_format=md#comment-content-6866)
 2.   [flymike](https://profiles.wordpress.org/flymike/)  [  2 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/add_role/#comment-6866)
 3. [You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_user%2Fadd_role%2F%23comment-6866)
    Vote results for this note: 0[You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_user%2Fadd_role%2F%23comment-6866)
 4. Despite that [add_role()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_role/)
    is a method of the [WP_User](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_user/)
    object, the action is persistent. That is, the user’s database record is updated
    to include the added role.
 5.  [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_user%2Fadd_role%2F%3Freplytocom%3D6866%23feedback-editor-6866)

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