Redis cache for speeding up your WordPress site

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: WordPress 7.1 with Redis Object Cache

WordPress runs many database queries on each page. A persistent object cache stores their results in Redis (or Valkey), so repeated queries come from memory. This helps most on busy sites, WooCommerce stores and sites with many plugins.

Requirements

• A Redis or Valkey server on your VPS or dedicated server (see "How to install Redis 4 on Centos 6 / 7, Ubuntu 16 and Debian 8 (Updated)?").
• The PHP extension phpredis (see "How to Install phpredis on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8?").

Set it up

1. In wp-config.php, above the line /* That's all, stop editing!, add a unique prefix (important when several sites share one Redis):

define( 'WP_REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1' );
define( 'WP_REDIS_PORT', 6379 );
define( 'WP_CACHE_KEY_SALT', 'example.com:' );

1. In WordPress, go to Plugins › Add Plugin, search for Redis Object Cache, install and activate it.
2. Open Settings › Redis and click Enable Object Cache. The status should show Connected.

Check that it works

Browse a few pages, then run redis-cli info stats | grep keyspace or redis-cli --scan --pattern "example.com:*" | head on the server to see cached keys.

Good to know

• An object cache is not a page cache. For full-page caching use a caching plugin or your server's cache in addition.
• If Redis stops, the plugin falls back to the database; the site stays up but is slower.
• To clear the cache, click Flush Cache in the plugin settings.

Note: On shared cPanel hosting, check with our support team whether Redis is available for your plan before installing the plugin.