All About Excerpt on WordPress

Sometimes the default excerpt length isn’t good for you and you need to lengthen it or shorten it. To change it, add this function to your theme’s functions.php file:

function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) {
  return 35	;
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 999 );

Change the number 35 to however many words you want. The priority value (999) ensures your function overrides any default set by the theme.

A few practical notes:

• Shorter excerpts (20-35 words) work well on grid-style blog layouts where you have limited card height.
• Longer excerpts (50-75 words) are better for list-style layouts where you want to give more context before the Read More link.
• This filter only affects auto-generated excerpts. If a post has a manual excerpt written in the Excerpt field in the WordPress editor, that manual excerpt is displayed instead, regardless of this setting.

To use the manual excerpt field: When editing a post, look for the Excerpt panel below the content editor. If you don’t see it, click Screen Options (top right of the edit screen) and enable the Excerpt checkbox. Write your custom excerpt there — it can be any length you want.

Have you seen themes that at the end of the excerpt you see this: […]? or a link saying read more?

By default, WordPress shows […] at the end of auto-generated excerpts. To change this, add a filter to your functions.php file.

Simple option — replace […] with custom text:

function wpdocs_excerpt_more( $more ) {
    return '...';
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'wpdocs_excerpt_more' );

Advanced option — replace […] with a linked Read More button:

function wpdocs_excerpt_more( $more ) {
    return sprintf( '<a class="read-more" href="%1$s">%2$s</a>',
        get_permalink( get_the_ID() ),
        __( 'Read More', 'textdomain' )
    );
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'wpdocs_excerpt_more' );

This adds a linked “Read More” to the end of every excerpt, pointing to the full post. Style it with CSS using the read-more class.

Other ways to control the Read More display:

• Using the More block/tag: In the WordPress block editor, insert a More block inside your post at the point where you want the excerpt to end. On archive pages, only the content before the More block shows, with a Read More link automatically generated.
• Theme settings: Many themes include options under Appearance > Customize to control excerpt length and the Read More text without touching code — check there before editing functions.php.

You can read more about excerpt here.