Title: wp_login_failed
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# do_action( ‘wp_login_failed’, string $username, WP_Error $error )

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_login_failed/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_login_failed/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_login_failed/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_login_failed/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

Fires after a user login has failed.

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

 `$username`string

Username or email address.

`$error`[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)

A [WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/) object
with the authentication failure details.

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

    ```php
    do_action( 'wp_login_failed', $username, $error );
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/pluggable.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/pluggable.php#L731)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/pluggable.php#L731-L731)

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

| Used by | Description | 
| [wp_authenticate()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_authenticate/)`wp-includes/pluggable.php` |

Authenticates a user, confirming the login credentials are valid.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [5.4.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/5.4.0/) | The `$error` parameter was added. | 
| [4.5.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.5.0/) | The value of `$username` can now be an email address. | 
| [2.5.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.5.0/) | Introduced. |

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