current_user_can() │ WP 2.0.0

Whether the current user has a specific capability.

No Hooks.

Return

true|false. Whether the current user has the given capability. If $capability is a meta cap and $object_id is passed, whether the current user has the given meta capability for the given object.

Usage

current_user_can( $capability, ...$args );

$capability(string) (required)

Capability name. See here for the list of roles and capabilities.

$object_id(int) (required)

ID of the specific object to check against if $capability is a "meta" cap.

"Meta" capabilities, e.g. 'edit_post', 'edit_user', etc., are capabilities used by map_meta_cap() to map to other "primitive" capabilities, e.g. 'edit_posts', 'edit_others_posts', etc. Accessed via func_get_args() and passed to WP_User::has_cap(), then map_meta_cap().

Basic List of Capabilities

There are 6 roles in WordPress by default:

Super Admin	Super Administrator. Has rights to manage the network sites. This role appears only in multisite installation.
administrator	The administrator of the site (a separate site in the network multisite).
editor	Editor. Has access to all posts, pages, comments, categories, tags, and links.
author	Author. Can create, upload photos, edit and publish his posts.
contributor	Contributor. Can create posts, which are then published by an editor or administrator.
subscriber	Subscriber. Can't do anything except edit profile.

Which role the new user gets is specified in Settings > General. The data is saved in an options: users_can_register and default_role:

List of Capabilities by Roles

A list of primitive (fundamental) user caps. These are capabilities that the specified roles (users) have by default. This list of caps is set once, when you install WordPress - it is stored in the database wp_options table in the wp_user_roles option.

• ¹ — when one site (not a multisite).
• ² — when one site (not a multisite). Or enabled in the network settings.
• ³ — this right must be included separately, more below.

Meta Capabilities

Above is a list of primitive (fundamental) rights. But there are also so-called meta-rights. They are not saved anywhere, but are computed "on the fly" and eventually turn into a primitive right.

List of meta-rights:

activate_plugin
activate_plugins
add_comment_meta
add_post_meta
add_term_meta
add_user_meta
add_users
assign_categories
assign_post_tags
assign_term
create_app_password
create_sites
create_users
customize
deactivate_plugin
deactivate_plugins
delete_app_password
delete_app_passwords
delete_categories
delete_comment_meta
delete_page
delete_page
delete_plugins
delete_post
delete_post
delete_post_meta
delete_post_tags
delete_site
delete_sites
delete_term
delete_term_meta
delete_themes
delete_user
delete_user
delete_user_meta
delete_users
edit_app_password
edit_categories
edit_comment
edit_comment
edit_comment_meta
edit_css
edit_files
edit_page
edit_page
edit_plugins
edit_post
edit_post
edit_post_meta
edit_post_tags
edit_term
edit_term_meta
edit_themes
edit_user
edit_user
edit_user_meta
edit_users
erase_others_personal_data
export_others_personal_data
install_languages
install_plugins
install_themes
list_app_passwords
manage_links
manage_network
manage_network_options
manage_network_plugins
manage_network_themes
manage_network_users
manage_post_tags
manage_privacy_options
manage_sites
promote_user
promote_user
publish_post
read_app_password
read_page
read_page
read_post
read_post
remove_user
remove_user
resume_plugin
resume_theme
setup_network
unfiltered_html
unfiltered_upload
update_core
update_https
update_languages
update_php
update_plugins
update_themes
upgrade_network
upload_plugins
upload_themes

edit_term                   — WP 4.7 — It does not check who created the term - it only checks if the specified term and taxonomy exist.
delete_term                 — WP 4.7 —
assign_term                 — WP 4.7 —
activate_plugin             — WP 4.9 — current_user_can( 'activate_plugin', 'my-plugin/my-plugin.php' )
deactivate_plugin           — WP 4.9 — current_user_can( 'deactivate_plugin', 'my-plugin/my-plugin.php' )

export_others_personal_data — WP 4.9.6 — is_multisite() ? 'manage_network' : 'manage_options'
erase_others_personal_data  — WP 4.9.6 — is_multisite() ? 'manage_network' : 'manage_options'
manage_privacy_options      — WP 4.9.6 — is_multisite() ? 'manage_network' : 'manage_options'

update_php                  — WP 5.0 — is_multisite() ? is_super_admin() : update_core
update_https                — WP 5.7 — is_multisite() ? is_super_admin() : manage_options | update_core

create_app_password         — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )
list_app_passwords          — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )
read_app_password           — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )
edit_app_password           — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )
delete_app_passwords        — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )
delete_app_password         — WP 5.7 — map_meta_cap( 'edit_user', $user_id )

To check such rights, you need to pass additional parameters, such as the ID of the post for which you want to check whether the user can edit it. For example:

if( current_user_can( 'edit_post', 123 ) ){
	 echo 'The current user can edit post 123';
}

In this case, WP checks on the fly whether the user is the author of that post, or has the primitive right to edit all posts. As a result, if the check is passed, this meta right turns into a similar primitive right edit_posts that allows the action to be performed.

Read more about meta rights in map_meta_cap().

unfiltered_upload

By default, the unfiltered_upload capability is available to the administrator. However, this right is locked by default, i.e. roles will not pass the if( current_user_can('unfiltered_upload') ) despite having this right.

To make the unfiltered_upload capability start working as expected, you need to add following constant in wp-config.php:

define( 'ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS', true );

With the definition of this constant, roles with unfiltered_upload permission will be able to upload files with any extension (without checking the file type).

For multisite, only the Super Administrator has the unfiltered_upload right. If another role has the unfiltered_upload right, it will simply be ignored. See checking the meta-right in map_meta_cap() for details:

case 'unfiltered_upload':
	if ( defined( 'ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS' ) && ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS && ( ! is_multisite() || is_super_admin( $user_id ) ) ) {
		$caps[] = $cap;
	} else {
		$caps[] = 'do_not_allow';
	}
	break;

Examples

#1 Whether a user is an administrator

if( current_user_can('manage_options') ){
	echo "The user can manage options!";
}

#2 Use user_can() to check the capabilities of the current user

global $user;
if( user_can($user->ID, 'manage_options') ){
	// do something
};

manage_options - administrator's capibility

#3 Using $object_id

if( current_user_can('edit_post', 123) ) {
	 echo 'Current user can edit post 123'.
}

#4 Check the capability for specific taxonomy item

Since 4.7 you can check the capabilities for specific terms using edit_term, delete_term, assign_term.

This example displays a link for editing term item only if the user has specific capability:

if( current_user_can('edit_term', $term_id) ){
	echo '<a href="'. get_edit_term_link( $term_id ) .'">Edit.</a>';
}

#5. Check more than two roles

If you want to check more than two roles, you can check if the roles of the current user is inside an array of roles, something like:

$user = wp_get_current_user();
$allowed_roles = array( 'editor', 'administrator', 'author' );

if ( array_intersect( $allowed_roles, $user->roles ) ) {
   // Stuff here for allowed roles
}

Verify the role of the current user

Don't pass the name of the role to this function because the verification may work incorrectly. An example of how not to do it:

// if the current user is editor, the function returns:
current_user_can('administrator') // false
current_user_can('editor') // true
current_user_can('contributor') // false
current_user_can('subscriber') // false

Instead, you can use:

#1 First function

/**
 * Checks the role of a specific user.
 *
 * @param string $role     Name of the role.
 * @param bool   $user_id  (optional) User ID to check the role against.
 *
 * @return bool
 */
function is_user_role( $role, $user_id = null ) {
	$user = is_numeric( $user_id ) ? get_userdata( $user_id ) : wp_get_current_user();

	if( ! $user ){
		return false;
	}

	return in_array( $role, (array) $user->roles, true );
}

// Using for the current user
if( is_user_role( 'customer' ) ){
	echo "Yeap";
}
else{
	echo "Nope";
}

// Using for the specific user.
$user_id = 23;

if( is_user_role( 'customer', $user_id ) ){
	echo "Yeap";
}
else{
	echo "Nope";
}

#2 Second function

I wrote this function in the process of working on one of the projects, now I use it periodically:

/**
 * Checks if the specified role is in the roles of the current (or specified) user.
 *
 * @param array|string $roles Name of the role to check the user against.
 * @param int|WP_User  $user
 *
 * @return bool
 */
function is_user_role_in( $roles, $user = null ) {

	if( ! $user ){
		$user = wp_get_current_user();
	}

	if( is_numeric( $user ) ){
		$user = get_userdata( $user );
	}

	if( empty( $user->ID ) ){
		return false;
	}

	foreach( (array) $roles as $role ){
		if( isset( $user->caps[ $role ] ) || in_array( $role, $user->roles, true ) ){
			return true;
		}
	}

	return false;
}

// Examples of usage
if( is_user_role_in( [ 'new_role', 'new_role2' ] ) ){
	echo 'The current user has role "new_role" or "new_role2"';
}

if( is_user_role_in( [ 'new_role', 'new_role2' ], 5 ) ){
	echo 'User 5 has role "new_role" or "new_role2"';
}

function current_user_can( $capability, ...$args ) {
	return user_can( wp_get_current_user(), $capability, ...$args );
}