How to disable WP-Cron (wp-cron.php)

Today I will show you how to disable WP-Cron for faster performance and use system CRON instead. CRON jobs are used to schedule tasks at periodic fixed times or intervals. In Wordpress this is handled by WP-Cron which fires on every page load and interfere with any visitors page-request. Depending on the amount of traffic to your site using the built-in cron handler can actually start to impact page load times.

How to disable WP-Cron

To disable WP-Cron, add the following line to your wp-config.php file in your root directory right before the line which says /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

Schedule system CRON

You will need to schedule wp-cron.php from your server. The URL which needs to be scheduled is

https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron

Replace example.com with your domain.

Command line

If you are familiar with the command line (ssh), add the following line to your crontab file (command: crontab -e):

*/10 * * * * curl http://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron > /dev/null 2>&1

This will run wp-cron.php every 10 minutes.

cPanel

If your hosting provider has cPanel, Log in, find the section named Advanced and open Cron Jobs.

Under the Add New Cron Job you can choose from predefined schedules. Add the following command (replace example.com to your domain):

wget -q -O - https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1

Then click “Add New Cron Job” and you are good to go.