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

---

# get_usermeta( int $user_id, string $meta_key ): mixed

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#changelog)
 * [User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)

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

This function has been deprecated since 3.0.0. Use [get_user_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_user_meta/)
instead.

Retrieve user metadata.

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

If $user_id is not a number, then the function will fail over with a ‘false’ boolean
return value. Other returned values depend on whether there is only one item to 
be returned, which be that single item type. If there is more than one metadata 
value, then it will be list of metadata values.

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [get_user_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_user_meta/)

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

 `$user_id`intrequired

User ID

`$meta_key`stringoptional

Metadata key. Default empty.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 mixed

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

    ```php
    function get_usermeta( $user_id, $meta_key = '' ) {
    	_deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.0.0', 'get_user_meta()' );
    	global $wpdb;
    	$user_id = (int) $user_id;

    	if ( !$user_id )
    		return false;

    	if ( !empty($meta_key) ) {
    		$meta_key = preg_replace('|[^a-z0-9_]|i', '', $meta_key);
    		$user = wp_cache_get($user_id, 'users');
    		// Check the cached user object.
    		if ( false !== $user && isset($user->$meta_key) )
    			$metas = array($user->$meta_key);
    		else
    			$metas = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT meta_value FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = %d AND meta_key = %s", $user_id, $meta_key) );
    	} else {
    		$metas = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT meta_value FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = %d", $user_id) );
    	}

    	if ( empty($metas) ) {
    		if ( empty($meta_key) )
    			return array();
    		else
    			return '';
    	}

    	$metas = array_map('maybe_unserialize', $metas);

    	if ( count($metas) === 1 )
    		return $metas[0];
    	else
    		return $metas;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/deprecated.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/deprecated.php#L2277)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/deprecated.php#L2277-L2310)

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

| Uses | Description | 
| [wpdb::get_col()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/get_col/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Retrieves one column from the database.

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

Retrieves the cache contents from the cache by key and group.

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

Marks a function as deprecated and inform when it has been used.

  | 
| [wpdb::prepare()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/prepare/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Prepares a SQL query for safe execution.

  |

[Show 2 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#)
[Show less](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [3.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.0/) | Deprecated. Use [get_user_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_user_meta/)  | 
| [2.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.0.0/) | Introduced. |

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

 1.  [Skip to note 2 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/?output_format=md#comment-content-7157)
 2.   [Jeff Cohan](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdcohan/)  [  2 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/#comment-7157)
 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%2Ffunctions%2Fget_usermeta%2F%23comment-7157)
    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%2Ffunctions%2Fget_usermeta%2F%23comment-7157)
 4. [get_usermeta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_usermeta/)
    will not find usermeta rows whose meta_keys include **hyphens**. The function in
    wp-includes/deprecated.php doesn’t solve this problem.
 5.  [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fget_usermeta%2F%3Freplytocom%3D7157%23feedback-editor-7157)

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